2020's Valuable Lessons; 2021's Limitless Opportunities

There are no words to describe the enormity of lives lost, livings lost, economic and social unrest that defined 2020. With vaccines now available, and over 1 million people already vaccinated in Israel, we are well on our way to ending the current pandemic and finding our way back to peace and prosperity in 2021. 

I have always aimed to find the balance between optimism and pragmatism, and 2020 made doing so more challenging than ever. I made a career move in May and found myself for the first time in a start-up tech company, after spending most of my life serving in military intelligence, and the last five years serving as a board member and executive of the Central Bank of Israel. A large part of what drove me to take the helm at Cloud of Things was the opportunity to make a different meaningful difference, and the coinciding of the chaos of COVID-19 and my learning about the potential of connected systems to solve problems turned out to be no accident. 

The world learned so many valuable lessons through the struggle last year, among them:

1. Human beings are both fragile and resilient, and even as millions suffered, millions more came forward to help and to heal, and these actions kept society together and made progress possible despite the chaos. 
2. Science is not only to be listened to, but to be fully supported through education, funding, and international cooperation; in a global emergency, there should be no holds barred when it comes to discoveries and breakthroughs that can save millions of lives.
3. Digital warfare is very real, and attacks on governments, institutions, businesses, and individuals will only continue, in volume and in levels of sophistication, and it is incumbent on every leader to remain aware, alert, and ready to protect and defend critical infrastructure and information - to outwit and outspend cybercriminals and adversaries, now more than ever. 
4. While investment in innovation may have slowed, it has not stopped, and in fact, accelerated when innovations addressed the health crisis, for example. Take, for example, the dramatic rise of platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which kept people connected across time and space and made it possible for work to continue in a surprisingly efficient way. These real-time communications platforms kept families and friends connected as well. 
5. The value of electronic networks, including the ever-improving high-speed broadband networks being made possible by advanced fiber optics, 5G spectrum, mesh networks at the edge, contributed to the world's ability to respond and adapt through real-time communications on a global scale. Making access to broadband a universal capability will continue to have a profound impact on how we can serve the entire world, including meeting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, which serve for me as a list of ideals worth returning to regularly. Every one of the 17 SDGs is impacted by pervasive and secure connectivity.

With these as some of the lessons I learned in 2020, why do I see limitless opportunity in 2021? 

The answer is simple: those of us who were fortunate enough to survive have a new appreciation for life and a new sense of what it means to struggle and adapt.  

Were all our goals met? Of course not. To quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans."  

Was the enthusiasm for the mission impacted? On some days, of course, yes.  

But were our ideas and ideals wrong? Or were we right all along? 

From where Cloud of Things sits, our ideas and ideals strengthened in the context of 2020, which was a challenging year - but we've survived challenging years before. Given the restrictions on travel and work-from-home mandates, we found more time to think, to study, to collaborate, to establish new partnerships and friendships, and to build on our existing foundation with innovations that are already fueling 2021. 

We were given the gift of a new perspective, and new hard problems to solve.  

We were able to co-exist with others whose "best laid plans" understandably went astray and think forward into a time when the pandemic would end, and other entrepreneurs, large enterprises, investors, and entire ecosystems would emerge with a shared view of how a well-connected world will drive productivity and prosperity in new ways.

Am I cautiously optimistic? I am, but more so, I am carefully optimistic, meaning that I'm ready to sail into 2021 and throw some caution to the winds because life and business are what we choose to make it. Let's take some risks, and a few leaps of faith, and while we will face the unanticipated in 2021, we can do so knowing that no matter what happens, we are ever able to adapt and grow.