Years ago I often wondered, during downturns with the organization I was working with at the time, if I would show up the next day to find a shuttered office.
When things were good this was never on my mind.
But during difficult times, I was surprised with the resiliency.
In retrospect, I’ve come to realize that external factors don’t control whether or not the doors to the business are open.
Businesses are run by people. Businesses don’t fail, people throw in the towel. Or they don’t, and they persevere, for better or worse.
But it’s important to realize that a downturn is a matter of perspective. Thus bad times don’t shutter a business. A person has to give up for the business to shutter.
What is the right thing to do is up to each person. Businesses don’t exist, only people do.
We all have needs to be met, and we do things to meet those needs. Having a business just means a person, or people, deciding to do something. Quitting a business is deciding it’s time to do something different.
Conversely, keeping a business open just means one isn’t going to give up doing what they likely love doing.
And thus businesses don’t fail, people give up.