“It doesn’t get easier. You get stronger” – Unknown
This past Monday, August 30, the US reported 280,000 confirmed new COVID cases, falling just short from the 300,000 peak we saw in January of this year. This, following a spring and early summer that suggested we might be seeing the pandemic in our rear-view mirror. Unfortunately, the last two months have seen a dramatic reversal of that downward trend, and it seems we are right back where we started, deep in the middle of yet another COVID outbreak.
Here we go again.
The challenge we now face is a COVID mutation that is much more contagious. The random nature of evolution has resulted in a new pandemic, but one with a much stronger culprit. It has found a way to linger, to infect, and to make our lives difficult once again.
It doesn’t get easier.
But unlike before, we’ve learned from the past. The challenges we faced with the original virus taught us how to compensate, how to overcome. We developed vaccines that can defend against the virus, or at the very least, minimize the impact of infection. We’ve gained patience and understanding in the use of masks in large gatherings. Our infrastructure has evolved to test more quickly and treat more effectively.
Here’s the thing. My message today isn’t a lesson on COVID. It’s a metaphor for life. That constant cycle of facing challenges and learning to overcome them. Only to find that similar challenges will reappear, only this time even more difficult.
So much in life – and in business – follows this very same cycle. I’ve seen so many situations where we’ve successfully grown the company, only to hit an economic downturn that forces you to retrench, restructure, and rebuild. I’ve seen branches lose half their business and account managers lose almost their entire book, only to have to build back to where they were before.
It’s a painful process. But it makes you stronger. You learn from those experiences. As a business, you recognize that these challenges come back. Economic cycles happen, and they are unavoidable. But you also learn how to compensate. How to build in safeguards to weather them more effectively. Leaders learn this – painfully – but they learn it.
Same goes for us as individuals. In sales and recruiting, you work so hard to build your business only to have a client change direction, leaving you empty handed. Or you chase that huge deal, putting countless hours into the pursuit, only to lose it to a competitor.
Or maybe you are in a different role, working on several critical projects necessary to support the business. And then it happens. Something goes sideways. A system crashes. You lose all your hard work. And this project was a big one. It will take weeks, maybe months, to get back to where you were.
But you learn to compensate. The next time it happens you’ll be prepared. You won’t put all your eggs in one basket, you’ll have a more diverse client base to weather these challenges. You’ll learn how your competitor beat you, and you’ll approach the next pursuit differently. You’ll put in safeguards for that project, so lost files or system failures won’t set you back.
Life is just like that, isn’t it? The hardest of steel is cast in the hottest of fires. And the sharpest of knives come from repeated endurance of the roughest of stones.
“It doesn’t get easier. You get stronger”
leadership thoughts 
I read your post, Kip, and I remember a good saying on the topic – Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, Weak men create hard times.
First of all, it is really pity to hear that COVID counter-punches in the US now – hope that you and your closest once will stay safe and healthy!
My second thought is about how interesting it is to see the difference in the attitude to the pandemic consequences in various parts of the world and within different nations. I was born in Ukraine, and as you probably know, since the very collapse of Soviet Union in 1990 most of the CIS region countries rolled off to the 30 years of eternal economic, political and social turbulence – that was the challenges that my parent’s’ generation had to survive.
Then we had 2014 when there was Maidan……and our “Big Neighbour” who back-stabbed by invading the Crimea and Donbass – that was the challenge that my generation had to overcome, and is still dealing with now.
And now we have COVID lockdowns and increasing daily death counts. And you know what’s interesting? A lot of people lost their jobs, quite a number of businesses have closed down, but Ukrainans – are сalm. Because they have seen some s***t in their life, and another one already doesn’t have that impact. Everybody are going to the jobs each day (almost in the “splash suits” though), nurses do not quit the hospitals that are packed full with covid patients, cold-in-hand businessmen are taking loans and keep burning them to maintain closed restaurants with the believe that “this too shall pass”. Quite a lot even don’t want to get vaccinated, as “what for? we’ll die one day anyways” (this phrase is killing me when I hear it from someone in my circle).
And on the one hand, you think – well, probably these people are strong enough to survive anything, but on the other hand – how far we would have gone if we didn’t have such tempering experience in the past that have casted a pall for many people’s entire lives?
What a great perspective. Thank you so much for that. We take for granted what we have here in the states. So much pain and suffering in the world. In the end, it takes good people helping other good people get up and on their feet. Sometimes, just the words of encouragement are enough for that.
I hope my messages help you and others. That’s the only reason I do them.