Covid Trauma
A few years ago, I watched Jaime Dimon, the CEO of Chase, discuss the cycles of bull and bear markets. He discussed how much we have grown over the past decade and how he believed that we are in a new place where those cycles are changing. That we would continue to go up, up, up. Then Covid happened.
In an instant, we were all in lockdown mode for way longer than anyone had envisioned. We had no choice but to navigate the new landscape. Humans are resilient. Parents with kids in school lost their minds. Zoom took off, businesses figured out how to function, and we all waited with bated breath to return to normal.
Before we knew it, we could see friends again, return to work, take off those masks, and life supposedly returned to normal. But did it? Did everyone want to return to the life they were living before? Many people began to rethink how they wanted to live and did not want to return to their pre-Covid lives.
The world is changing, especially businesses. Media is a hotbed of freelance journalists, and media is no longer a trusted voice. Retail just made a massive shift, with Saks buying Neiman Marcus. Politics seems to be only about staying in power. Unions don’t give a shit about the people. It’s only about money and power. Amazon just brought on 750000 robots to fill human jobs. Capital has become more expensive. The art world has pushed prices up to compete in the consumer world of large art shows. Real estate has rebounded with prices so high that many can’t afford a roof over their heads. Insurance has sky-rocketed. Even in the dating world, people are looking for new avenues to meet people at events, in person, vs. swiping on an app. Food costs are way up. Need I go on?
Change was inevitable. The trauma of Covid has caused rifts everywhere. People want purpose in their lives. Some have turned to making physical things their career choices. We are also buying less and being more thoughtful about their purchases and how they impact the planet. The list is long.
It feels as if every business is being forced to find new paths to be impactful and become profitable. The gig economy appears to be on the upswing, as more people are figuring out how to live, connect with their friends and family, and make enough to live the life they want.
It’s as if the system has cracked wide open for all of us to see. New paths are being formed everywhere. Futuristic technologies will be intimately involved in whatever each vertical becomes.
I predict it will be a strange decade with new roads leading to new ways of life. What they will look like is yet to be seen.