Recessions are tough. The last one left millions of people unemployed, and it took the economy years to recovery. It wasn’t really until the end of 2013 that we saw the green shoots emerging and life returning to normal for most people. That’s was nearly six years after the failure of Bear Stearns – the canary in the economic coal mine.
Three months into 2020, and we’re standing on yet another economic precipice, looking into the abyss. Many people will lose their jobs. Some have already. But that doesn’t mean that all is lost—quite the reverse.
A recession isn’t final. It’s just a switch. It’s a signal from economic forces that labor is misallocated. It’s a sign that people need to try new things and expand their horizons.
Try Setting Up A Business
Recessions might seem like the worst time possible to set up a business, but they’re actually the best. While everyone else is hunkering down preparing for a financial winter, you’re accumulating capital, knowledge, and customers for when the recovery arrives. Your competitors are nowhere to be seen.
As this Sell On Amazon Step By Step Guide 2020 points out, you don’t have to start from scratch.
So many of the tools that you need to set up a digital business are already publicly available, just waiting for you to exploit them. The infrastructure is out there – all you need to do is use it.
Just having a brief change from your regular day job can make a massive difference in your outlook on life.
If you’ve been furloughed, it is a chance to reflect on the path that you want your career to take.
Spending fifty hours in the office every week deprives you of the space you need to really think.
Forced time off work gives you that intellectual freedom you need – free from all the usual pressures of the workplace – to explore what it is that you want from life.
Is your current role in IT enough?
Or would you prefer to take an entirely different direction?
With everything up in the air, it’s certainly worth some consideration.
Doing Something Different Is Good For Your Soul
In many ways, COVID-19 is an excuse NOT to maximize your financial opportunities. The world is shut down, and capitalizing on circumstances right now will be a challenge for most. The pace of life has slowed down to a crawl. Businesses are shut.
But, interestingly, that almost permits you to explore other things. If crises like this can come out of the blue, who says you can’t enjoy the here and now a little more?
Why work so hard for a future that might not come?
Pandemics remind you that nothing is set in stone. Life plans rarely work out the way that you expect.
Recessions are an opportunity to do something new. The economy that emerges from the ashes of this crisis will look entirely different from the one that we had before. People will lose their jobs, but new entrepreneurs will arrive to mop up surplus labor.
© New To HR