What I Learned Opening a Business at the Height of the Pandemic
I’m a heckuva lot tougher than I knew.
It was June 2020 in New York City. In the months prior, perched on my balcony in western Queens, I spent sunsets clapping a chorus of thanks to essential workers, and nights awake listening to the blare of siren after siren, wailing deep into the dawn.
My partner had lost his job working for a WeWork subsidiary. Weeks later I lost my job (on my birthday!) as a marketing director in tech. Our neighborhood, city, and country had lost much more. We were the lucky ones.
I had not considered opening a business. Before my big and emotional job loss, I had a neat and tidy 9-to-5, benefits and security, thank you very much. My career trajectory grew from intern to associate, manager to director over the years. I saw no onus to take a leap until everything fell apart.
I saw no onus to take a leap until everything fell apart.
Suddenly I faced a moment of huge reckoning — with morality, with justice, with sickness, and with my place in a world at its moment of transformation. I listed the things I cared about in my Notes app, and the idea sprung to life. Sustainability, social justice, self-sufficiency, handmade, natural, ethical, local: Earth &…
