Last year at 11:59 on December 31st, I was a happy camper. I had zero reservations about leaving last year behind and moving into the future because quite honestly, 2019 had not been a great year for me. I had lost several loved ones unexpectedly and there were simply more downs than ups. So I thought surely we’re heading toward better times in the year ahead. All the preachers’ sermons were filled with clichés about having our “20/20 Visions,” the future seemed bright and I was optimistic. But then it was as if this year looked at the last one and said, “Hold my beer. You’re about to see something really special.”
I don’t think anyone can deny 2020 is off to a rocky start, and the hardest part to swallow is that no one saw this coming or really knows what to do next beyond educated guesses. It’s no one’s fault; there’s no one to blame (although some on each side of the political aisle might disagree). No one wanted this… but here we are. It’s not fair, but it’s real.
These last few days of weirdness have been especially discouraging for me. After watching my kids sit inside on a stormy Easter Sunday instead of being with family making memories, we were unexpectedly closed an additional day on Monday as Alabama Power repaired damaged lines and restored electricity to a third of Montgomery. I spoke with our company owner, and he said this was the longest we had been without power in the 28 years he’d been here. Due to our print and mailing facility, we were deemed essential and get to stay open. But now we’re in the dark and still can’t operate. I could see it on his face as he shook his head: “Pandemic, and now shut down for another reason. What’s next?”
I cannot imagine the weight on some of your shoulders as business owners having to not only make decisions for yourselves and your families, but ones that also affect so many others. Believe it or not, some contractors are doing very well in the midst of this situation, but the majority of conversations I’m having right now are more depressing. We’re mostly talking about lay-offs, cutting hours, and utter frustration. Everyone seems to be asking the same questions: “what now?”, “what’s next?”, and “when will it be over?”
I’ll be honest, I can’t confidently answer any of those questions for you, but I do know this: Difficult times strengthen us, and those who choose to fight and not fold will be rewarded in the end. We all feel like crawling up into the fetal position wishing this was just a bad dream, but sitting on our hands and having a pity party only compounds our problems. As I mentioned in my most recent contractor podcast, there will be a ton of market share won and lost during this hard time. And the ones who will be doing the taking are those who choose to fight against the hard breaks and not let setbacks defeat them easily.
One of my favorite life quotes was spoken by a famous pastor named Charles Swindoll. He said, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” We all face hard times constantly. Difficulties range from minor inconveniences like the stubbed toe that made you say a dirty word to the utterly devastating things like a job loss, major sickness, or a death. They can be personal just to you and your family or very widespread like COVID-19, but rest assured, you are not being singled out by your pain. That’s life, and no amount of money, fame or business size makes you immune. There are times of rain mixed in with the sunshine for every one of us, but what separates people is how we choose to deal with the hard times when they come.
Deep down we probably all want to say, “It’s not FAIR this is happening,” throw our hands up and quit. But we don’t have that luxury. We have people depending on us to provide for them, and they need us to be strong and brave. Your customers, employees and families need you to keep your head up and make some bold decisions. If there’s one silver lining with this particular difficulty, it’s that we’re all dealing with a lot of the same issues, and communication can help tremendously. Need ideas? They’re out there, but you won’t find them if you go into a shell.
We are in a weird time, and I won’t make the promise to anyone that I can fix what’s going on. But I have some suggestions like using our COVID-19 campaign and other resources that can help make it easier as we power through this.
If nothing else, I’m an ear that’s willing to listen and talk through some of these things. Sometimes life just isn’t fair, and we’ve all been thrown a bunch of lemons here lately. Let’s throw them back twice as hard and come through this stronger on the other side.