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The Internet boom of the late 1990s was something that I gratefully benefited from and thoroughly enjoyed. I would certainly not trade those years for anything. Traveling the world with an unlimited budget, working 20-hour days with boundless energy and enthusiasm, and receiving ample stock options -- life couldn't have been better during the Internet's gilded age!

Then, suddenly, it all came to an end. After Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, uttered the now infamous words "irrational exuberance," profitability became the only thing that mattered to dot-com companies that wanted to survive. The liberal and carefree funding of anything with a ".com" attached to it had dried up. Being forced to pull ourselves away from the money hydrant made us realize just how good it had really been. Now, if you weren't a profitable company or at least on the road to near-term profitability, you were about to become obsolete.

At the time, I had been working as the director of international business development for Lycos (www.lycos.com). It was one of the top five search engines in the world and certainly the most successful portal on the East Coast. My boss's stock options provided him with ample funds to maintain his family's standard of living, so he announced his imminent departure. Fortunately, for him, he was leaving on his own terms (when, where, and how). I, too, wanted to plan my own exit. Every two months, Lycos dismissed another 50 to 100 people. In fact, the first series of layoffs took place while I was working in Sydney planning the launch of our Australian operations. My colleagues in Boston informed me that those who were let go weren't even given the decency of being notified of their fate. Rather, they were blindsided and quickly dismissed by their managers. They had 15 minutes to place their personal belongings in boxes and were humiliatingly escorted out of the building. Apparently, it was a miserable experience for all involved.

When I returned from Australia, the downsizing continued, slowly but ever so methodically. Although I was well respected and had contributed significantly to my company's international expansion and early success, I suspected that my name was on the HR department's hit list. I felt entirely helpless, yet I refused to accept the idea that someone else could dictate my fate, economic well-being, and financial security.