2020 and a Month of Reflection
by Christopher Levarek
“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”
- Dale Carnegie
I write this November 2020 post after spending 6 days with family and business partners in Portland Oregon for the Thanksgiving Holiday break. Coming from sunny Phoenix, AZ, the change in climate of misty cloud covered mornings and walks among massive moss-covered trees, was a welcome time away from the familiar.
The Thanksgiving holiday represents a time to reflect on the past year and be thankful for all the blessings no matter how small or big. Not only is this a great practice, In doing so, one can choose to focus on the positive and create more of the world they wish to see. Reflecting on all the positive and successes of the past year is how many successful entrepreneurs continue to amass success and create their dreams.
Just run a search for “you are what you think” in a browser and see how many well-known creators, thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders pop up in the results. Buddha has been quoted saying, “What you think you become. What you feel you attract. What you imagine you create.” and I for one think there is great value in heeding such words.
Our family and business greatly follows the principle of acknowledging successes, appreciating the journey, recognizing the partnerships needed to get there and being thankful daily.
Today I wanted to outline some amazing things to be thankful for and outline some truly outstanding achievements of our society in 2020.
World Events to Be Thankful For :
Australian Wildfires - Extinguished by 4 March 2020 after months of firefighting over 46 million acres and over $500 million donated by the Public.
United States COVID Mortality Rate as of 11/30/2020 : Still very low despite all at .01%
Covid Vaccine created as of November 09, 2020 with 90% effective rate, a remarkable feat of science as far as timeline from discovery to release.
Over $218 billion in stimulus checks sent to support American families alone by mid May 2020 and $3.4 trillion created to help boost the economy.
Unemployment has dropped since April 2020 from 14.7% at the high to now around 6%.
Remote Work Opportunity increases - Many companies have shifted to permanent or increased work at home leading to happier and higher job satisfaction from employees able to spend more quality time with family and commute less.
Online Services and Companies have seen massive growth as companies such as Amazon, Netflix, Zoom, Instacart, Doordash, Grubhub and others address the online demand of at home work and play.
United States 2020 election completed with many challenges of remote voters and online security.
Stock market Dow Jones has recovered from low of 21,237 points in March 2020 to now being above pre-Covid numbers at present 29,479 points
Drive-In concerts and movie-theaters are making a come back!
World Health Organization announced 25th of August, that no new cases of wild poliovirus have been recorded in Africa since 2016.
2nd person in the world officially cured of HIV via bone-marrow transplant.
Air Pollution is down for the year of 2020!
In Final
2020 has been an amazing year of change! Indeed, at Valkere Investment Group, we have seen massive growth in our network, partners and business for the 2020 year. We have raised our assets under management to 246 units, grown our employee base to 8, appeared on over 15 podcasts and held near 12 online virtual networking meetups!
We are thankful to all those who have supported our journey thus far and look to expand on what has been built thus far. I also look forward to writing another article of thanks in the 2021 year and having even more to be thankful for. Until then, Invest Smart!