Endurance: What 2020 Taught Us

by Kate Neri | Dec 15, 2020

2020

Man, if there was ever a year for reflection, it would be this one. 

As I think back on this year one word comes to mind, Endurance.

The definition of endurance is the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions.

There’s no doubt this year came with more than enough challenges and uncertainties for any business. The way we meet, the way we sell, the way we work all changed in what felt like a matter of minutes and the truth of the matter is we may never return to whatever “normal” means. Despite the stress, despite the fatigue, despite the unknown, we all endured. 

The challenges that we all faced may look different, but in the end we all learned very valuable lessons, we all stretched our limits, adapted our models, and strengthened muscles we didn’t even know we had. We are all standing here today better than we were last year with a type of wisdom that could only be gained by the experiences of 2020.

2020 taught businesses that:

Relationship matter. They matter the most.

“Innovation” isn’t just for tech companies. 

Accepting change isn’t enough, we must fully embrace and act on it.

We must stay true to our core values.

Successes, both big and small, should be celebrated.

Honesty and transparency as leaders create vulnerability and trust.

Things may never return to what we knew before 2020 so we should take the lessons learned, the strength we gained by enduring the challenges and uncertainties of this year and use them to build even stronger, more dynamic businesses to overcome whatever our future holds.