the unemployment line

I was recently laid off and like millions of others joined the unemployment line. I had been in charge of marketing and sales for a food and restaurant company for many years and now I find myself looking for work and on the dole.
This is a very new experience for me having worked my entire without a real break. I supported my family with my working wife and held a variety of jobs - from cab driver to writer to publicist to salesman to marketing executive. It has been a nice and somewhat fulfilling trajectory.
What I have found as I have gone out in the marketplace is that there are plenty of jobs...if I want to pay for them. That is, I could be working for any number of people and companies, all of whom want me to go out and sell their wares while none of them pony up a penny.
This is somewhat at odds with what I have heard about today's financial state. "Jobs are dwindling and unemployment is growing," reads the newspapers, online and otherwise. That may be true, but maybe the jobs are changing.
It does seem as if no one is hiring, a line I have heard many times already. They say they don't have the money as they tighten their proverbial belts. Instead, I have approached and been approached by company executives who would like me to sell their food, advertising and services on commission. That means that I spend my time and money and goodwill to go out and try to hawk their ideas for anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of the sale. Not bad if you can get it. But, not exactly what I had in mind. Not one of them has a desire to pay for my vast experience, contacts and energy.
And, why should they? The marketplace is shrinking, prices are falling, buyers are tightening up and fear is weighing down the optimism that once buoyed our thriving economy. There are seemingly more people on the streets looking than people buying.
It is hard to say what lies in my future. I have just hit the road, gotten the word out and revamped my resume. I am on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter, and I am gmailing my hundreds of contacts. I have meetings almost every day with makers of eco-products, brownies, healthy foods and packaged desserts. I've met with the editor of an online newspaper who desperately needs sales and a newly-launched internet site directly focused on an emerging marketplace. One acquaintance even wants me to sell his swimming poolr services and write ads.
I am not waiting. I have set up a sales and marketing company to manage these new opportunities. I will tackle them individually and expect that I will succeed and instead of working for others, direct my own destiny. Like the economy, I have evolved whether I like it or not.
It is a new world and, while I may not be welcome to it, I am ready to take it on and get the heck off the unemployment line before before that first government check is deposited directly into my checking account.