BLOG: Don't Waste This Crisis: Use This Opportunity To "Go Big"

While I'm not a huge Jordan Peterson fan, he did an hour long interview with American entrepreneur, Patrick Bet-David, for Bet-David's YouTube channel Valuetainment last summer.  At the beginning of the conversation, Bet-David brings up the following phrase to Peterson: "Tough times produce strong men; strong men produce good times; good times produce weak men and weak men produce tough times." 

Bet-David went on to ask the question, "if that it is true, where at we at today?" Now this is where the year, 2019, is paramount. We were in good times and as Peterson mentioned "there was plenty to optimistic with a healthy dose of attentive caution." If we plug the situation into the phrase, it would only be fitting that those good times were producing weak people. 

Now, let me make one thing clear the term "weak" is not to be construed as "offensive," but a way to connect the time with the personality of society. In good times, people don't have a lot to worry about things are going well - they have a well-paying job that challenges them in the right way, the economy is going well, there's no outside force such trying to harm them. There really was little to worry about a year. We were in good times. 

Flash forward 13 months later, we are in the middle of a global pandemic that has cost over 200,000 Americans their lives, social injustice and racial tension with a lack of leadership on the national stage. The concern of the highly contagious and deadly virus shutdown the economy, businesses were affected forcing them to layoff or furlough many staff. Now not only were people worried about contracting the virus, but also worrying about whether or not they would still be employed. 

Things quickly shifted from good to bad times. The times are cyclical and if are to believe in the pattern, these tough times will produce strong people. 

These times we're in right now provide us with a great opportunity and we need to take advantage of it. Last week I listened to a  Zoom talk by Ric Elias, the CEO and Co-Found of Red Ventures as well as BC and Harvard Business School grad. Other than being a collect of bad winesª he said something that stood out "luck comes dressed as a challenge" and that is exactly how he and his team are looking at these times. 

He told his leadership team many times, "we are not going to waste this crisis." What he means by it is they are not going to come out of this grateful that it passed, but grateful that it happened. Figuring out ways to re-invent the way they do business and what changes can be made. That is a tremendous outlook to have during a difficult time and will ultimately produce the strong leaders needed to produce the good times we wish to see in future years.

ª - Ric Elias is a collector of bad wines because he drinks the good ones. So in life you should collect bad wines.