Crises as a catalyst for humanity: Thoughts from an entrepreneur

As I flipped through the latest economic forecasts for 2025 this week — geopolitical uncertainties, trade conflicts, structural challenges — I had an idea that Carel van Schaik would probably have formulated as follows:”We live in a state of emergency, but that is not our fate.”

The familiar uncertainty

The parallels between the current global economic situation and the COVID-19 pandemic are striking. Then as now, we face complex, systemic challenges that shake our usual structures. Back then, it was interrupted supply chains, lockdowns and a historic economic slump of 4.9 percent. Today, it is US tariffs, geopolitical tensions and a German economy that is barely stagnating.

But what concerns me the most as an entrepreneur is not the crisis itself — it is the reaction of people in my company to it.

The evolutionary heritage within us

Van Schaik would say:”Cooperation was the only life insurance we had.”

This primal human capacity for cooperation — which has kept us alive as a species for over 99 percent of our history — is just in its purest form.

During the pandemic, I saw my team spontaneously develop digital solutions, share workplaces, and take care of colleagues who were in quarantine. Today, in the face of economic uncertainty, I see the same willingness to cooperate: people who go beyond their job descriptions, take on responsibility and seek solutions together.

I'm proud of the people I get to work with!

The current economic challenges will pass as the pandemic has passed. What remains is the recognition that we are only as strong as our weakest link, but together we are stronger than any crisis.

At a time when 90 percent of people feel that our society is divided, the answer does not lie in more optimization or resilience training. It lies in a conscious return to what makes us human: listening, withstanding other opinions, empathizing, negotiating bold solutions together.

That is community spirit. That is being human. And that's our biggest opportunity.

As an entrepreneur, I see it as my task to create spaces in which these primal human abilities can flourish. After all, it is not algorithms or strategies that get us through crises — it is people and their innate ability to cooperate.

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