New York is a Friendly Town
I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers and one of the themes that he keeps coming back to is that the year in which you’re born has a significant influence on your likelihood of success. He says that talent and hard work are key, but when the cultural and economic factors are in your favor there is a better chance of high achievement.
This moment may well be a great time to be a young person, say in your mid-twenties. The Covid-19 pandemic has people scared, and cautious, and this could be creating an unusual opportunity for the young and the bold. The virus affects those that are older, and conversely, less so those that are young. Hence, we could see a lot of otherwise driven people in their forties and older pull back, making space for those less risk-averse.
I’ve heard a number of my middle-aged friends talk with confidence that working from home is the way of the future - and they’re very much on-board. I suspect that they are right, but in a limited way. It strikes me that companies that are determined to innovate, or perhaps grab a larger share of their industry, are not going to sit back and keep doing Zoom calls once a vaccine is available.
From the late 1960s until now there has been an ever-growing workforce, with a giant baby boomer generation, women entering a wider range of professions, and maturation of the global marketplace. But now, with this pause, and many North American’s stepping back, a unique vacuum in the job and career space is opening up. Now is the time for the driven and the daring to step forward and reach for the brass ring.
And hey, I hear that New York rents are negotiable for the first time in forty years.
Photo: Weegee, circa 1940