(Cracking the Code with Greg Kozera - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

The pandemic in many ways took a year away from us. A lot has happened. When this year started vaccinations were just beginning. 2020 was a setback for our business. My friend and Hall of Fame professional speaker, Willie Jolley, wrote the book A Setback is a Setup for a Comeback. His message made a lot of sense. We decided to make 2021 the year of the comeback. Family visits, vacations and travel came back. We opened the year by driving to Florida for our first vacation in over a year with our youngest and his family. We weren’t comfortable flying last January. (We flew again for the first time in April.) Walt Disney World was a big part of the vacation with all of us wearing masks.

Since the virus wasn’t going away we found ways to safely live with it and make a comeback. Early in the year meetings and conferences were still virtual. We had extra timeshare weeks from 2020 so we decided to move our office to Florida for a few weeks in February. We left immediately after our second shot. Fortunately, no side effects. We brought our “studio” (microphone, lighting and greenscreen) with us. Because of the virtual world we are now in, being in Florida was the same as if we were in West Virginia.

Americans figured out in 2020 lockdowns weren’t the solution. They were the problem. Lockdowns didn’t just hurt the economy. They were hurting people physically and mentally. Domestic and child abuse increased in 2020. The number of students failing classes skyrocketed. My grandson in Florida went from an “A” student to failing two classes and having to attend summer school. People stopped going to the doctor for routine check-ups. Diseases like cancer didn’t go away. By the time people did go, doctors were seeing later stage cancers.

In mid 2020 we began having in-person business meetings at outdoor restaurants. Restaurants and places like theme parks adapted. In 2021 vaccinations accelerated the move to normalcy. Pent up demand for goods, services and travel lifted the economy. The biggest challenge was a lack of service workers and goods. We went to the Outer Banks with our daughter and her husband in June. She told us to bring food because of the long waits at restaurants and at check-out lines in grocery stores. Vaccinations got many people back to living again. After talking to my friends in Israel, Lynnda and I got our booster in August. Like many other Americans we traveled a lot in 2021. We went to Disney World several times. The crowds got larger with each trip.

In-person meetings, conferences and live speeches came back. The West Virginia Manufacturers Association Marcellus to Manufacturing Conference in early June was Shale Crescent USA’s first live in-person event in over a year. Virtual and hybrid meetings may be here to stay. On one day in June I did two virtual presentations from my hotel room and then did an in-person speech. Our business came back. After over a year from my soccer injury, my running legs are back. I ran two half marathons in 2021improving times close to my preinjury pace. In spite of the new variants Americans continue to strive for normal.

Today holiday traveling is almost back to pre-pandemic levels. We are back to live sporting events and holiday parties. Our high school soccer season was normal. Only one game was impacted by COVID when an opponent’s player had a test positive before we played. Our team was vaccinated, theirs wasn’t. The game was canceled. We are learning how to live with COVID.

COVID taught us valuable lessons. We learned the importance of human contact when we couldn’t see friends and relatives during lockdown. My wife and I grew closer. We did activities like working puzzles and taking walks together. New ways were found to connect to people using platforms like Zoom. Our NSA Chapter had weekly townhall meetings during lockdown where people could connect and share. People needed others to talk to.

Most important, the pandemic showed Americans how much stuff we were importing. Americans discovered 80 percent of our life saving prescription drugs were imported. We learned the U.S. wasn’t making medical gloves and most of our healthcare PPE. Ventilators were flown in from China. Hand sanitizer was imported and unavailable. America and our region responded. Individuals like my wife and her friends started making masks. DOW in South Charleston opened a shut down production line and made hand sanitizer providing a valuable product and jobs. Another local company making electrical supplies started making ventilator parts.

Shale Crescent USA was a guest on over 70 radio shows in 2020. We learned people from coast to coast regardless of politics want to see manufacturing come back to the U.S. Manufacturing is good for the economy providing essential products and jobs. Each manufacturing job creates five additional jobs.

Shale Crescent USA did a study and learned, because of our abundant natural gas and natural gas liquids we can make products cheaper in the U.S. than overseas. When we make stuff here and sell it here we avoid the cost of over 15,000 miles of ocean transportation. Eliminating transportation lowers global emissions. The real solution to emissions isn’t changing transportation fuel, it is eliminating millions of miles of ocean transportation annually by manufacturing products in the U.S. again. The Shale Crescent USA is the only place on earth where manufacturers can be on top of their energy and feed stock and in the middle of their customers.

The world has changed. We learned about ourselves and grew closer. We know the U.S. is now the most economical place to manufacture creating jobs and reducing global emissions. We can solve the supply chain problem. We might never have known this without the pandemic. We can turn our setbacks into real comebacks. Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season.

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Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the Director of Marketing and Sales for Shale Crescent USA. www.shalecrescentusa.com He is a professional engineer with a Masters in Environmental Engineering and over 40 years’ experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, soccer coach, professional speaker, author of four books and numerous published articles.