Healthcare chief executive Dana Allison quit one startup to begin another; restaurateur Eric Scheffer leveraged demand for outdoor dining into a new oyster restaurant with ample patio space; hotel owner Himanshu Karvir pushed ahead with a new Westin Element banking on Asheville's appeal as a smaller town with an outdoor culture; Axie Blundon pivoted his cannabis firm to add hand sanitizer under a separate brand.
That entrepreneurial drive has been hailed as a potential return of U.S. dynamism that could feed productivity, innovation, and new jobs. It could also be one reason why some big companies are havingFor organizations like the Federal Reserve, it is among the new dynamics that need to be more fully studied to understand how the economy may have changed because of the pandemic.
Brittany Hart of Jackson, Mississippi, quit her job as a hospital outpatient scheduler before the pandemic, convinced it was a dead end, and had taken a part-time position as a waitress to pay the bills as she prepared to open a salon, Halo'd Beauty and Braiding Bar. But they also agree something changed in 2020 as people, out of necessity because of a lost job or due to a desire to control their own hours and work environment, took new risks.
Follow-up surveys conducted to understand the trend found only a small number, about 12%, of respondents said they'd lost a job, while 85% said they'd identified an opportunity, many in areas like trucking or shipping that saw demand surge because of the health crisis.
brave death or stay at home (33:33)