Convergence after ‘The Great Resignation’

Beginning in 2021 and taking place primarily in the United States, the Great Resignation has been an ongoing career and economic trend in which employees left their jobs en masse.

As an entrepreneur who's been in business for almost 11 years, I still remember vividly my own resignation about the corporate workplace and my own drive to do something on my own. And while the Great Resignation has definitive economic and labor force concerns, I've mostly viewed it, post-Covid, as people going inwards, re-evaluating their life decisions and re-prioritizing what's important to them.

Since late last year, Afrin and I have been talking about how the Great Resignation will result in some great convergence. In fact, at our first hybrid event two weeks ago, I spent time articulation how now, in the age of Aquarius (an age of humanity designed for collaboration and partnerships), people will have no choice but to abandon their solo efforts, abandon the need for personal glory and achievement in search of community and authentic partnerships of a new kind, and sometimes they won't know why. They just know they will have to.

In our own experience since last fall, all of a sudden ideas for projects and launches we've had for years began to come together and reach fruition after years of not knowing how to successfully utilize them. New partners – partners we've had a yearning to work with for some time, have shown up requesting to work together. Even in preparation for the event, our content began to come together and grow in a new way. The biggest demonstration of this convergence we felt coming happened both at the event and since.

This is what we're calling the Great Convergence

Since we talked about this convergence at our event (by the way, we're doing a re-mastered 1-day version of this event next week), we've been able to watch the event attendees (both in-person and virtual) get into partnerships with one another and then immediately launch those partnerships in the two weeks that have followed. We've planned partnerships and launches that weren't even ideas in our minds before the event. The best part is, without any outbound marketing, the inbound interest in doing business with us is higher than it's been since before the pandemic.

I think what's happening with us is a small representation of what could be happening in the world. This weekend, for the first time in over 3 decades, Easter, Ramadan and Passover are converging. All three of those events are in process at the same time today, Sunday, April 17, 2022. The three major Abrahamic faiths coming together is significant in what it could represent for the world but also for business.

Many Christians see the suffering of Jesus as a reminder to be mindful of and contribute to those who are suffering in the world. Muslims observe an entire month of fasting to experience what many of those who suffer experience everyday and combine it with another pillar of our faith that says we must give zakat (alms) to feed the hungry. Jesus fed the hungry and when at Passover Jews recite, “Let all who are hungry come eat,” often providing food for perfect strangers.

For me, this is all reminder of how much the same we all are and that we're all responsible for each other and have a lot to contribute to one another – at the individual level for sure, but at a global level as well. And while the three major Abrahamic religions are overlapping and serving up these reminders in their confluence, these are lessons found in every spiritual faith and the lessons are present everyday for us to heed if we should so choose (and we should).

I'm also reminded that, as business owners, we mostly tend to go it alone. We come together at certain events or socially in small groups, but for the most part, we operate our businesses ourselves – even when we work with a mentor or coach. People who aren't entrepreneurs often don't fully grok the extent to which we work alone, often incessantly, with no reprieve. There is no PTO, vacation or sick days or company retreats. If we're sick, we don't get paid so we often work through our illnesses and ailments, which push us further into isolation and more on our own.

But the call of this weekend's confluence of holidays and what at Red Elephant we're calling the Great Convergence, in general, is the call to get into partnership. To collaborate more. To find partners who can trust and work together. Here are some things you can do right away to stop going it alone:

1. Make sure you stay in touch with others. On a daily basis, you want to find at least 1 or 2 people to talk about your business with and also listen to. You don't need to do business together or advise one another – you just need to work as sounding boards for one another (this should not be a coach or mentor. It should be someone with no stake in your business).
2. Find opportunities to co-work. If you're comfortable being in-person – go to a co-working facility or even a Starbucks and set up shop. If you're not ready to be in-person with people, set up virtual co-working days with other business owners. Just being together virtually and checking in with each other periodically throughout the day can make a huge difference.
3. Anything you can do offline, don't do online. Many of us now order our groceries online and have them delivered to our car. Or we have meals delivered instead of dining. Even laundry services are door to door now. There isn't much that can't be done virtually. However, anything you don't have to do virtually, don't do virtually. If you have a business meeting scheduled and the other person lives locally, meet for lunch or coffee instead. Even with the laundry, being in conversation with the people at the laundromat can spark ideas for business that you just can't come up with alone.

It feels like there's a shift happening at every level of our existences. Our personal experiences are shifting, families are changing, organizations are restructuring, governments are changing and the world at large seems to be shifting. Covid-19, the political events of the past several years, activism, changing laws, the inability to tolerate what doesn't work or isn't just in society – all these factors are producing radical changes in the way people live their lives and make decisions about their lives. Undoubtedly it's impacting how we do business, who we do business with and who we don't. This weekend I'm reminded that we have so much more in common with one another than we do differences. Even many of our differences aren't natural to us – they're placed there by those who benefit from us having them.

Now seems to be the time to come together, work together and think and plan together so we can all live better together.