William Vanderbloemen in FOXBusiness with How to Keep Your Job in Months Ahead

William Vanderbloemen, our Founder and CEO, shares his thoughts about COVID-19 and job uncertainty in a recent FOXBusiness article.

Would anyone have ever seen March 2020 coming?

Very few.

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Which businesses will live to see March 2021? Hopefully a lot, but certainly not all. 

So who will survive? How do you survive? How do you prepare for a future nobody saw coming? Here’s what I’m seeing:

The future belongs to the agile.

Yes, the future hinges on resources—whether they be from a government bailout, cash reserves or good fortune. But if there’s a single lesson I’m learning from the train wreck of this month, it’s that the landscape is changing faster than ever, agility is the key to survival, and that maintaining agility gets harder every day.

Not long ago, I came home from a run and decided to get some stretching in, since I’m moving toward an age where that’s mandatory.

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As I struggled to reach my toes, my toddler came into the room, saw me, proceeded to tie herself into a human pretzel (as only a toddler can do), laughed at me and left the room. After I got over being humiliated by a 3-year-old, it dawned on me,

“Every day I am alive, I get less flexible.”

For my own sake and the sake of my businesses, I have decided to declare war on that truth. And you should too, particularly given the new reality of a COVID-19 world.

It’s an uphill battle. Even the best entrepreneurs fall prey to losing their agility. Given the rate of change in our world, that’s a problem. Just over 40 years ago, nobody had even heard of a Sony Walkman. Now, some of those reading this article will have to Google that term to see what the forerunner to the iPod was. The irreplaceable iPhone? It’s less than 14 years old. Uber? Not even 12 years old.

I’ve long believed that the No. 1 quality that separates the very best entrepreneurs and team members from the rest is agility -- the ability to change with the times, shift at a moment’s notice, and pivot when needed.

It’s not something that can be taught. Even worse, it’s a quality that naturally atrophies over time, not just within ourselves, but also in our organizations.

Whether you’re talking about an entrepreneurial spirit or a growing business, everyone has a harder time being agile as time marches on.

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So what do we do to fight off the atrophy? I’ve had the opportunity to interview thousands of candidates for jobs, as well as sit elbow-to-elbow with some of the best leaders and smartest entrepreneurs of our day. Here are some of the lessons I’m learning from them in my fight to maintain my agility.