2020 – The Year That Forced Us To Be Digital

Never have we waited for a year to end as much as we have for 2020. You all have your reasons to hate the year, and rightly so. The Covid Pandemic being the common reason for hatred. Never has a year brought so much grief. Jobs were lost, people died, the economy crashed and life came to a stand-still. For months you were forced to sit at home, seeing your plans get ruined and your hopes go up in flames. Uncertainty over the future grew more than  Global warming.

Yet I will not curse and bash the hapless year like you all. I believe 2020 taught us about life more than anyone or anything ever has. There were countless lessons to learn and innumerable opportunities crept up.

You must be thinking am crazy and still hungover after partying hard on New year’s eve. Believe me, I am not. Let me tell you why I think so, my reasons for doing so might change your mind.

We spent around 70-80 % of the year at home. But in doing so we explored many things.

Number 1.

We can work from home.

You see, we lived with the misconception that work could be brought back home, but never could be done from home. In the era of digitalization where it only takes a few clicks to order stuff from Amazon, you woke every morning and spent time and fossil fuels to travel to a place to punch in data in an office.

The pandemic showed us, that not all jobs require traveling. Many can be done from home. Which enables us to reduce our carbon footprint. That believe it or not is as important as the vaccine.

The way we are burning fossil fuels and melting polar ice caps, very soon we might not have a planet to live on. And Elon Musk hasn’t figured out how to make life habitable on Mars, yet.

Number 2.

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

Leisure, by W.H. Davies, happens to be one of my favorite poems. In the poem, the poet tells us the importance of taking a break. Now ‘a break’ is something which you are not comfortable taking. And for most of you, a break means going and partying.

Thanks to the pandemic you learned the important lesson of finding happiness in sitting idle. In a world where your brain is never free, the pandemic made you sit and think about the important things in life other than making money.

Many of you developed new skills, many of you sat down with your hobby and started a side hustle. The creativity in you flourished for you for some months had nothing else to do.

Number 3.

You finally learned the importance of digital payments.

India, my birthplace over the years has tried to make payments digital. But has never quite succeeded. The government even demonetized notes, hoping to push people to make digital payments. Of course, for various other reasons did not work much.

But the pandemic forced people to open GooglePay accounts like never before. Digital payments became as regular as breathing. I for one do not remember visiting the bank to withdraw cash the last time.  Digital payments not only make payments easier but also reduces the usage of paper, which again contributes to saving the planet.

Number 4.

You are equipped for far worse situations.

The pandemic has made you go through the worst. From zero bank balance to getting sacked, you have experienced it all. Now because of these horrible experiences, you are a wiser version of yourself. You no longer depend on one job and have created a side hustle than can be run from home, and are saving more than ever.

This pandemic has led to the creation of countless software, that allows you to work from home easily. Avifa’s Godial happens to be one of them. The mobile CRM and autodialer makes it easy to manage your prospects and boost sales. The inbuilt auto dialer transforms your phone into a call center.

So the next time (hopefully never!) you come across something like this, you are well equipped to take on it.

I hope my reasons will make you hate 2020 a little less. It was not a bad year you see, it just was misunderstood.