How often have we heard that? How many times have we been told that we should be thankful we're employed--as though our employers are handing us gifts--and that we're not one of lay off casualties we read about in newspaper every week?

Don't those words make you absolutely cringe?

After all, how lucky are we, really? We get to wake up every day at insistence of our alarm clocks, not our internal clocks. We drag our bodies out of bed, sometimes carrying leftover luggage from yesterday's events at work--the looming deadline, clueless boss, tedious tasks, rumors of an uncertain future.

Even if sun greets us when we arise, we barely notice it. Besides, why bother? From our cubicles and work stations, we won't get to see it much anyway. Many of us will be lucky if we even get witness sun set each day because, if we want to remain among employed fortunates, we'd better put in some extra hours to stay on top of our work.

Oh, and let's talk about how truly lucky we are to have our ideas ignored, our skills under-utilized, our talents untapped. Or, when we do get a suggestion implemented, how little we get compensated for it, while person we shared it with gets big bucks and praise. Yippee!

One fateful trip found his cargo plane flying through a nasty storm somewhere in middle of South Pacific Ocean. The plane crashed near a tiny, deserted island. The only survivor was Hanks.

Upon awakening next day, Hanks found himself all alone. Alone with nothing except clothes on his back.

So picture this: no matches, no tools, no food, no shelter, no communications, only 1 small flashlight along with a few packages containing some useless items that had washed up on shore.

He learned to survive a meager existence sleeping in a small dark cave. His food came from coconuts and few fish he managed to catch.

Tom Hanks was captured and held prisoner on an island with seemingly no hope of ever escaping. Every day island dictated to him how he was to live.

He was trapped on that island because he saw no way of escape.

His fears of losing what small sense of security island provided, as despicable as it was, prevented him from trying to escape to a better life. A life he knew existed, but now only dreamed about.

Looking out over vast expanse of ocean, he constantly thought about that better life. But those thoughts soon returned to seeing opposition and competition that prevented him from returning to what was rightfully his.

4 long years later, Tom Hanks made a decision.

He had grown sick and tired of having a nothing life.