Prologue

You open any newspaper, TV Channel, or any other media publication. Phenomena like ’recession’ and ‘job cuts’ are covered at length combined with ghastly stories of ‘suicides’, which give blues to a lot of people. We also read about professionals reaching to ‘counselors’ to ease tension and stress.

There is no longer any dispute that the world is going into a recession. The only question is how long and how deep: 1970s-style or 1930s? But, just because business is bad it doesn’t mean it stops completely. A lot of ‘knee-jerk’ and over-reactions are seen in the past months. It seems that there is a 40 year cycle for the occurrence of recession, historically.
Just as plants renew themselves in a frosty winter, the economy often does a renewal during a prolonged contraction – some times, as proven in the past, it is an opportunity to innovate and try out new things. That’s the school of thought I belong to.

During the 1930s, new industries such as consumer electronics and plastics were created. In the turbulent mid-1970s, the personal computer industry was born, as companies such as Microsoft and Apple were founded.

The economy didn’t look much good then either, with soaring oil prices, rampant inflation, and tumbling stock markets. That didn’t stop a young Bill Gates or Steve Jobs from setting up new businesses. Just as we came out with flying colors in 1930s or ‘70s, I am confident that we would also come out of 2009-10 blues. No doubt there are now plenty of young entrepreneurs like me, with bright ideas and loads of determination and ready to build the corporate giants of the 2020s and 2030s (I am in the process of making one for 2020). It is just a view point worth considering.