How to Find Opportunity in Moments of Crisis

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast. We believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better— better at business, better at health, better at relationships, just better at life. So let's get into it. Today I'm going to be discussing Finding opportunities in moments of crisis. I'd like to start today by telling a story. The story is about a company called Johnson Johnson. I think we're pretty familiar with Johnson Johnson. In 1982, 7 people in Chicago, in the Chicago area, died from consuming a product known as Tylenol. We're all very familiar with Tylenol. They died consuming Tylenol capsules that happened to unfortunately be laced with cyanide. This incident, you know, what had occurred, uh, led to a complete nationwide panic, and it created all sorts of concerns, of course, about product tampering, uh, regulation, not just Johnson Johnson but other companies, like how were they regulating, their products and product tampering, or minimizing it. And there was just an entire panic. But J&J, what they did was take very swift action to immediately protect consumer safety and aim to regain trust, right? They had lost a ton of trust. And so what they did, which was frankly contrary to what many other companies would have ever considered, was they immediately recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol. These bottles were worth somewhere in excess of $100 million, which, mind you, this was 40+ years ago. So I'm not quite sure what $100 million in 40+ years ago would be considered today, but it's a heck of a lot more than $100 million in today's dollars. So they recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol. They stopped all production and advertising of the product, and they even asked people to return all the capsules that maybe they already had. This was seen as a very extraordinary step. Now, they worked very closely with law enforcement and kept the media informed, were talking about it every day. They had a hotline for consumer questions. They offered to exchange tablets that were safer. They introduced all sorts of new packaging. This was immediate. They had new sealed and tamper-resistant capsules. Bottom line, they did all of these things immediately, and they communicated daily via the media with consumers, and they chipped away at rebuilding public trust. They invested heavily in relaunching Tylenol. Focusing on all the steps that they had taken, all the dollars they had spent, all while of course apologizing, but accepting fault, not making excuses. And that effort not only helped Tylenol regain its position as the leading drug, the leading pain reliever in the US, uh, I think it Maybe, you know, strengthen Johnson Johnson's reputation. And even today, when you think Johnson Johnson, I mean, call it what it is, you think babies, you think baby powder, but you think babies, you think safety, you think family, you think good things about the company known as Johnson Johnson. See, why do I tell that story? That crisis, 31 million people dying, major, 31 million recalled, but more importantly, people dying. What a major crisis that could have literally bankrupt the company. And many companies have had experiences like that, that went a much different way than Johnson Johnson. But Johnson Johnson reacted swiftly. They were transparent, they were honest, they were direct. And as a result, Through this crisis, they actually found opportunity to strengthen their brand, the affinity people have for it, and most importantly, the trust that they stand for. The public trusts Johnson Johnson. They found opportunity in this crisis. Now, another story I wanna tell you. It's about my friend, Karen, who gave me permission to talk about this today. My friend Karen had a health crisis of her own, and it was a very scary time. I'm sure it was, given the crisis she had. You know, if I got into more details, all of us would be scared. But what Karen let me know was the health crisis that she had, she realized going through it all and afterwards, that she truly has no days off, that she can't just say she's going to push through this recovery or this pain. She has no choice. And so when you come out of it, you have no choice. You just have to start working. And you also start to realize— not that Karen didn't feel this way before, but I'm sure she feels it now— you, you realize how grateful you are for for life, for time on earth. And you come out of a crisis like Karen experienced— again, something I'm sure she wished, and we all wish, she didn't have to go through— but through that crisis came the opportunity to have a deeper appreciation for time, a deeper, uh, gratefulness for relationships. If you ask Karen today, she'll tell you she's stronger She's more focused. She is viewing the world differently as a direct result of the crisis that she's experienced. Now, Karen's a special person, but the point I'm trying to make is today, well, nobody wants to go through crisis in business or personal. If we, you know, deal with it, obviously, which is, which is not easy to do in the moment, But recognize that in front of us is a tremendous amount of opportunity. Once we get past all that we're going through, we allow time to happen, and then we can reflect and we can draw meaning from these, from these experiences, these unfortunate experiences. There's a ton of opportunity in front of us. Again, someone like Karen, she feels stronger overall. Having a body ready for crisis. I mean, she was saying like, "Now I'm working even harder. Like what an amazing opportunity for me to focus even more on my health." Now, mind you, again, she has an incredible mindset, but all of us are faced with some form of crisis or another throughout life. And when you're faced with that crisis, hey, I'm not saying like you should run through that with a smile on your face. It's tough. But when you come through it, are you going to allow yourself to focus on, you know, that past, or are you going to look to the future? Are you going to draw from what you learned, apply it to your future, and see the opportunity that it created? And even as crazy as it sounds, as Karen would say, be grateful for what you've gone through. So the focusing question for you is, what crisis Or what scenario maybe have you gone through that you can look back on and draw lessons from and see the opportunities it created and double down and take even greater advantage of those opportunities? If you haven't had crisis like I just described in your business or in your life, how could you prepare? How could you get your, your mindset right? How could you study those that have had you know, experiences like this? What could you learn from them? How can you, how can you be prepared? Because hey, if you're on this planet long enough, you're going to go through some breakups. You're going to go through losses of friends and family. You're going to go through trials and tribulations in your business. And you want to know something? A lot of people get knocked down, never to get up again. But those that do get up, they recognize that through that crisis, there's opportunity. So again, your focusing question today, where might this apply in your world? How can you set yourself up for success and take advantage of opportunities like a Johnson Johnson did? Again, wishing it never happened, but take advantage of opportunities like Johnson Johnson, or take advantage of the crisis and the opportunity that came from it like our friend Karen. That's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.