Turmoil Or Opportunity? The Challenge Of Change

Bring it on – after a rough Spring, the next opportunity

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has hit us on a global scale and caused mayhem in the economy and panic in the streets. It may even have impacted your career personally. On the brighter side, maybe it has opened your eyes to possibility?

Maybe, just maybe, there could be the bones of an opportunity in this unfortunate series of events? Just maybe, there is an OPPORTUNITY hidden in this situation, that was created just for you.

Have you ever noticed that people often succeed by thinking differently than the majority? Why is that?

Well, the thing about the majority is that if everyone is doing something, it doesn’t make them right, it doesn’t make everyone equal, it doesn’t mean that you belong in this spot and shouldn’t try to improve your lot.

I means that you are following the crowd, instead of following your dreams, instead of plotting your own course, setting the trim of your own sails and \’going for it\’. If we’re all equal, none can actually get ahead. Doing what everyone else is doing, means you’ll get the results everyone else is getting.

It’s possible that this whole business has come along at just the right time, for you, maybe?

So, where does that leave you? Do you go with the flow or look at your situation? Or do you address your situation and look for the opportunities! The world is changing and being the eternal optimist, I tend to think that despite all, it is for the better … and apart for several blips across history, that has generally been the case … eventually.

“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity”

Rollo May

Could it be that the Covid-19 crisis just sits alongside a ‘pre-existing condition’? Could it actually be that a pre-existing mid-career, or mid-life crisis, redundancy or the threat or redundancy, war and the rumours of war, AI or the perceived threat of AI, all feed into the same paradigm? Could the problem be a sneaking, uncomfortable, little doubt or niggle has crept up on you over recent months and years?

Has career or business growth developed as you expected?

If you are on the corporate ladder, have you jumped a few rungs, run out of rungs (unlikely in the PC world of ours) or are the damaged rungs with you, hanging on by a thread? It’s not so much an event just a nagging feeling in the back of your head. An inner voice that’s questioning everything you’ve done up to this point. Should you be considering selling your business, buying another, moving up or indeed, moving on altogether?

Are the ‘buzzwords du jour’ having more of an effect on you than they should? Or are you actually worrying unduly about things over which you have absolutely no control?
• Recession / Depression
• Downsizing / Right Sizing
• Unemployment or short term government business support
• Bank foreclosures pending / Rental freeze
• Second / Third / Fourth Peak on Coronavirus

We already saw that behaving like everyone else will not get us different results

It is therefore a mindset problem that we face and must address head on – overcome a Terror Barrier and strike out!

This could be your opportunity, finding what has value in the current climate.

Throughout history values of products, services and even entire industries have both lost and gained value. I am living proof of this having spent years in oil and gas before the industry began its slide, nay collapse, in 2015.

Like the canary in the coal mine, the diploma or degree that you earned in the 1990’s or earlier, and the experience gained in the interim may not alone be of little value tomorrow, but a failure to address this and rely on the corporate paradigm, may leave you vulnerable sooner than you think.

No matter what the economic climate, people will always value something

Even with 30% unemployment, 70% are working, and therefore spending and therein lies the opportunity. And as we drag ourselves from this quagmire during the second half of the year, your job, both for yourself and your company if it still exists, is to assess and understand the value that you can deliver.

Where is the pain that people want to avoid, and where is the pleasure that they seek? Provide a solution and, there, right under your nose, is the opportunity for you.

One thing that has become apparent is people’s realisation that many don’t even need the office space that costs so much in annual rent and does little for the environment. This may also represent the first opportunity many people ever had to work from home. And, they are relishing it!

The shift in thinking will encourage people to value the concept of working from home,

The recent lockdowns have shown that the day at the office may be behind us for many as social distancing becomes the norm, schools and colleges go on line and Zoom becomes ubiquitous … and on the bright side for those who capitalise on the digital lifestyle, the gig economy and embark on freelancing careers either part-time of full time, the upside is enormous – and growing.
• No travel / commute time
• Home comforts
• Less annoying people
• A sense of freedom

More than ever before there is a great business opportunity to capitalise on people who want to work from home. You now have a world of opportunity to connect people to the resources that will enable them to work from home successfully. This can lead you to create educational resources online, giving others the skills, they need to make sure that their endeavour works.

New reality – new values

A change in perception may lead to new ways of getting product and service information to customers, of managing everything including the supply chain to manufacture, service delivery and investment management.

We see online solutions to facilitate work from home and there are gaps everywhere. Where there are gaps, people are crying out for solutions. Those solutions may be as simple as providing a ‘how to’ guide on YouTube, or preparing and circulating information about products and services that you like on social media. There is still so much opportunity out there.

You just need to learn how to align people’s new ideas on value, and their way of looking at the world, with your new business offering, or tailor the offering to the new ideas. Both of approaches require marketing insights. In this day and age, even more so since the infamous spring of 2020, that marketing solution must be digital!

If you’d like to learn about the business opportunities in online learning and digital marketing, and at the same time build your own online business, then please do yourself a favour and check out our FREE video series dedicated to the topic.

Jim Houlihan
Jim@jimhoulihan.com

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