Making Progress in Trying Times

Global pandemic. Inflation. Supply-chain hiccups and clogged ports. Hiring desserts.

Times are bad. That’s okay.

When LEGO began in 1932, Ole Kirk Kristiansen’s family admonished him for making toys. Go back to buildings, furniture, and furnishings they said. A mere eight years later, while LEGO was still in its infancy, the German army invaded Denmark during the second world war.

But an unexpected thing happened. LEGO’s sales expanded. The business grew in a warzone because parents wanted to provide some normalcy, like Christmas gifts.

A different set of challenges existed in the United States in the 1970s. Mortgage rates rose from seven to sixteen percent over the decade. There were three recessions. The consumer price index doubled.

But super-premium ice cream was born.

“That expensive ice creams came of age during a recession seemed counterintuitive to some. The most readily offered explanation was that the product was an affordable luxury,” wrote former Ben & Jerry’s CEO Fred Lager, “While consumers were forced to put off major purchases of cars, houses, and vacations, nearly all could afford to indulge themselves with ice cream.”

Times change challenges do not.

The weaknesses of every situation include its strengths. Denmark in the ‘30s and America in the ‘70s were both trying times. But those contexts created the need for comfort.

The pessimists say that life will always have problems. The optimists will find their solutions.

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