Every day we read in the news about the current economic crisis and the rising unemployment rate both locally and internationally. But only when we are face with great perils are true greatness born, we may well be seeing future giants born from the midst of this recession we are experiencing right now.
Think I’m crazy and out of my mind? People are thinking about how to keep their jobs and here you have a madman trying to tell you that it’s a good time to start a new business? Ha ha, I know how that sounds, sometimes I think I’m crazy myself ^^
But for those that is crazy enough like me; let me show you some interesting and shocking facts that may persuade you that we may not be as crazy as we thought!
Big companies born from recession (1954 – 2000)
Hyatt Corp. opened its first hotel’s doors at the Los Angeles International Airport during the Eisenhower recession (1957 to 1958). The chain rose to worldwide fame in the following decades and now operates more than 365 hotels in 25 countries with premium services.
LexisNexis is a research hub for the law, media and more. The company, originally a government contractor, began its LexisNexis computerized legal research service during the 1973 oil crisis that rocked the country into steep economic slump. The now Web-based service is used in 100 countries by individuals in law, government, education and business.
FedEx Corp. began operations on April 17, 1973 as Federal Express, founded by Frederick W. Smith who identified a pressing business need: important documents had to reach their destinations within one or two days. With a total investment of 95 million us dollars and 14 Falcon-20 jets, Federal Express braced the 1973 oil crisis and a subsequent stock market crash, a quadrupling of oil prices coupled with stagflation in the united states after the Vietnam war. the company delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its first night of operations and now manages more than 7.5 million shipments everyday worldwide.
Microsoft Corp. A company that needs no introduction from me, it was founded by Harvard University dropout Bill Gates together with co-founder Paul Allen in 1975, during the post-Vietnam war stagflation years in the United States. Today, the company is estimated to earn more than $60 billion in revenue per year and is probably best known to you and me as most of us are still using its OS (Operating System) Windows and Microsoft Office software.
CNN might be a news giant now, but in recession-plagued 1980, it was a little-known station called The Cable Network News. It revolutionized how people received information when it premiered as the first 24-hour all-news channel. Today, 1.5 billion people across the globe watch CNN.
MTV (Music Television) innovated the way music was delivered when it debuted in the US economic slump of 1981. Intended to be an all-music-video channel, MTV used VJs (video jockeys) to host programs and facilitate transitions between videos. Today, MTV is a global brand and I don’t know about other guys, but MTV was one of the channels that I used to watch every day while I was growing up.
GE (General Electric Co.) was established by the famous inventor Thomas Edison who decided to invest in a industrial research lab of its own, right smack in the middle of a major 6 year depression in the year of 1876. Thomas Edison is perhaps most well known for his invention of the light bulb. Today GE is worth at an estimated value of $77 billion us dollars.
hey love this article. it gives me strength to start something after i lost my current job recently. I never thought it could be this worst i mean, losing my job and i believe this recession, it is not gonna recover anytime soon. Hope that you would help me or hit me with any suggestions that could work. thanks again….