During my years in the business, I have seen and weathered multiple downturns in our economy; though nothing has been quite like what we’ve all seen the last few weeks. The past downturns that I went through were financial related for the most part and took time to come together, this however, is a health crisis that is creating financial hardships, many of which are yet to be seen that may in turn be difficult to recover from. 

If this is your first experience with an economic downturn, I believe you are about to witness an incredible comeback. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this will happen overnight or even the next few months, this will take time and a maximum of effort. I have seen people sacrifice a lot over the last few weeks, strangers helping strangers do things they probably would have been less likely to have done before. 

Times of crisis really show you who people are, and, in this crisis, I have seen a lot of support, creativity, generosity and kindness. If we maintain this mentality, we can all continue to work together and get most everyone back on track, building our businesses and our economy once again.

I do believe that we as a country are realizing how important we are to one another. The people that we see daily on TV, social apps or movies are not the ones saving our country from devastation, it’s the people that normally run behind the scenes and just do their workday in and day out. 

I am in the real estate business so I am on calls with people daily talking about their investments and how they have been affected, which most have been, but I hear from them how they want to work with their tenants to get everyone back on track. I hear so many people talking about their favorite restaurant or local business they want to order from so they can support them, this is the attitude that we as Americans have always had and this time it really shows in how we are all ready to jump headfirst   into creating a strong and steady recovery over the next several months. 

I do believe there is a lot that we can learn from all of this, our companies should look at how their employees were affected by this and take a look at their operations and make needed adjustments, but through this all, with disruption lies opportunity. Opportunity to come back stronger and better than before.

-Joe Killinger

Investor, Entrepreneur, Founder