At the end of each year, I take a moment to reflect on everything that has happened personally, professionally, and in the world around us. This year, I am sharing my reflection with my community here.?
2022 was a remarkable year with many challenges and a few head-scratchers. Amidst all this, my team moved Fable forward with creativity and hard work, and I began sharing some of the leadership lessons with all of you. Thank you for following along and sharing your insights through it all.
As we leave 2022 behind, I must say it was not a year that I expect to remember with fondness:
- A deadly war broke out in Ukraine—the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II—causing the displacement of 15.7 million Ukrainians;?
- Britain lost its familiar face of royalty—Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving British monarch—before being rocked by a political and economic crisis;
- Desperate Sri Lankans took to the streets and booted out President Gotabaya Rajapaksa following years of alleged corruption that plunged the country into a deep economic crisis;
- Iranians put their lives at stake to protest against an oppressive government after the country’s morality police allegedly tortured and killed a 22-year-old Kurdish woman for wearing her hijab improperly;
- In a controversial ruling, the US Supreme Court revoked women’s constitutional right to abortion, restoring the ability of individual states to determine a woman's reproductive rights;
- Chinese President Xi Jinping cemented his place in history as the nation’s most influential leader since Mao Zedong after being re-elected for an unprecedented third term. The world, especially India, is watching with bated breath to see how things unfold;
- There were notable deaths such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope Benedict XVI, Sidney Poitier, Olivia Newton-John, Jean-Luc Godard, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Lee Lewis and footballer Pelé;
- Climate change resulted in record-breaking temperatures around the world. Summer 2022 produced Europe’s worst drought in 500 years, with two-thirds of the continent seeing extreme heat. In China, factories shut down in August due to decreased water levels around the Yangtze river. Flooding in Pakistan killed 1,391 people and caused an estimated $30 billion in damage. Many cities in the US had some of the coldest temperatures on record this winter with heavy snow and rain.
There were some bright spots too, of course:
- Sunak became the UK’s first Prime Minister of color after being chosen to lead the Conservative Party on Diwali evening. Sunak also became the youngest PM since 1812;
- Brazil shifted to the Left in the most dramatic example of many national elections across the world, signaling that international politics, which have skewed towards the Right for several years, have started leaning Left again.??
And a few head-scratchers!
- On 15 November 2022, the world population surpassed 8 billion people! In just 200 years we grew from the first landmark of 1 billion people in 1803;
- Covid 19 and its variant cousins continue to mutate and wreak havoc in our lives;
- Pop culture had its own weird moments—starting with Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, Johnny Depp's defamation trial against Amber Heard ushering in weeks of media mayhem, and then the Swifties vs. Ticketmaster drama;
- The tech industry, which boomed in 2021, led the drastic market downturn in 2022 which may extend into 2023-24. Apple lost almost $1T market capitalization in 2022 and Meta reported its first drop in quarterly revenue since its IPO in 2012;
- And last but not least, the chaos of social media went even more haywire with Elon Musk taking over Twitter. Need I say more?
As this crazy world turned around us, we continued to make Fable a better product and company. We prioritized our team's efforts around better understanding our users and their needs, building out cool new features that make reading and discussing books more intuitive and interactive, and connecting with our audience across social media, email, and affiliates.?
I hope you had a relaxing holiday and are charged up to make 2023 a banner year for yourselves and your loved ones. Happy New Year!
My best to you and yours,
CEO CareAsOne
1 年Thanks for sharing... Really enjoyed reading your reflections on 2022 and whats in store for 2023! including success for Fable!
Editor | Digital Journalist | AI & Future of Work
1 年Bunch of lessons from 2022. What should we focus on in 2023 to make the world better?
Entrepeneur
1 年There is a lot of confusion under the sky, the situation seems excellent to me Mao Zedong
Global Marketing Access @ Merck KGaA | Marketing & Communications Expert | Brand Strategist | Digital Media | SEO | Content Marketing | Product Marketing | Masters in Expanded Media @ Hochschule Darmstadt.
1 年Really interesting
Founder of Contemplate | Improve your clarity of thought, focus and peace of mind at work and relationships through Contemplation
1 年- Most people out of the total 8bn continued to live their life largely looking outward and not inward, increasing the divide between you and yourself. This led to lack of internal clarity and hence many choices were made that seemed exciting in the short run but were not right in the long run, increasing stress and anxiety. - Many more mental wellbeing forums were added, talks were held but the mental wellbeing of people continued to deteriorate further. - Employees grew more unaligned with the values and vision of their organization as remote work became the new normal. Warmth and camaraderie amongst colleagues are on the decline as work discussions become strictly professional over Zoom. Attacking each other on these calls became more prevalent because a personal connection was missing. - Quiet quitting became a legitimate honour demonstrating a lack of alignment between the employees and the organization. - OpenAI released ChatGPT which will now enable content creators to create an unlimited amount of repackaged content within seconds instead of hours, leading to a deluge of old wines in new bottles as well as a further deterioration in their mental abilities because now they wouldn’t need to think at all.