As the year 2009 enters its second dawn, and I enter my first day of work in this year, after having spent a decent amount of time recovering from hangovers and other sundry by products of a new year reception well conducted, some thoughts stand out …

These are not necessarily all my thoughts (unless you see the I strongly out there), and even the fact that I present them are not indicative of my subscribing to them in any way

1) That the year 2008 was a horrible, terrible one and that year 2009 is good, cuz it really can’t get more horrible and terrible than 2008

2) That businesses rocked and gawped and coalesced into nothingness to a mangnitude and degree that few could gauge or grasp earlier, cuz of the simple reason that fundamental accounting had gone for a toss when pitted against “futures”

3) That I started and shut down a biz, cuz accountability from the head of that biz was becoming a pain in the neck, and that effort was ranked higher than performance.

4) That I continue focusing on people and capability empowerment through analysis and education as a revenue model this year, perhaps in a more focused and stronger way than last year.

5) That Pakistan might be wearing a sheep’s garb, but the wolf’s predatory howl, on a consistently alarming note, is wearing that garb transparent (maybe not thin, given that they have huge sheep farms there) not only at our desi level, but at an international level too.

6) That poor Obama has his work cut out for him as far as declaring Pak a terrorist nation goes. Push too much, and they might actually take him at his word, and poof goes Afghanistan.

7) That with their poverty, and backwardness, the Afghanis are far better human beings than Pakis can ever be or hope to be.

That Human Resource Management is gonna be the industry of the future decade, and that one might do well to equip oneself with various tools, techniques, technologies, and capabilities related to this area.

9) That the year 2009 is probably going to be a wee bit more fraught with confusions and baseless connexions throwing things askew further. So we may as well learn to grow stronger with 2008 experiences, and decide to smile it out.

Cheers, and wish you all a phenomenal Y2K9