WELCOME TO 2025

2020 began with great expectation.

Then came the twilight zone. Locked in our houses, apartments and condos, life moved at a snails pace. Outside - it was like the twister in the Wizard of Oz. When the storm calmed a moment - and only for a moment - we found ourselves plopped down in a world we could have expected in 2025.

In mere weeks, changes occurred in our adaptation of technology that would have taken 10 years. There is usually a typical pace of technology or product adoption. In our culture, although this has picked up pace at an alarming rate - nothing prepared us for this warp speed.

For example, Zoom-abilities have been around for quite a while. As 2019 ended one could argue that we were stuck where early adopters were the only regular users. Today, even skeptics have adopted the use of video calls and conferences. How do I know this? Because my cousin, a hard core skeptic, that does not even have a cell phone - can “Zoom".

So if you feel like it has been more than three months… the changes you are absorbing are more like 5-years.

Welcome to 2025.

But it is more than our adaptation to video conferencing or even mere technology that has happened. It is the acceptance of remote working, it is the purchase of groceries online, it is the endless possibilities that mobility truly brings. So much has changed.

Some of it has been painful. Small businesses that depend on every dime have closed, many for good. Business closures that may have happened in the 60 months between January 2020 and the end of 2025 have happened before we are even midway through the year. This includes many that were caught in the twister.

In just a few short months national retailers, that later would have made the news announcing bankruptcy, have crowded the headlines blaming the pandemic for their demise. Their demise however, was already written in their business performance and lack of adaptation to exponential change.

Much like a cluttered river, strewn with growing debris just waiting for a hard rain to wash them downstream and clear the water again — our economy had become cluttered and the pressure of new technologies, lifestyle changes, and demographic shifts were gathering. It was the enormous log of the pandemic and a three-month closure that took out, not only the dead wood, but many green saplings of promise. It was and is brutal.

The good news is that, despite the headlines, the land is fertile. Many of the saplings can be replanted and there can be room for even more vibrant ideas.

It is up to us.