2025 – Opportunity is what you create, not what you wait for.

It’s a cliché to say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger; I’m not sure that is always the case, but I do feel that opportunity is often disguised as difficulty. A few years ago, during the Covid-19 crisis, a friend of mine and I wrote a book called ‘Silver Linings’, about all the good things that happened only because of Covid. Initially we thought we’d find a few good ones, but in the end we had to choose from hundreds – stories of personal growth, relationships, babies born, communities banding together – and lots and lots of business success stories.

It was not hard to see a pattern emerge too – the people and companies that thrived in the stories we told had some clear things in common, and top of the list was their ability to spot opportunities others were missing, or to create them. “We’re all in the same storm”, one of them told me, “but some people are clinging to planks of wood and others are creating better boats”.

We’re not ‘over’ the covid crisis – it created a new reality, one that initially seemed very buoyant (thanks to stimulus money), but then last year got very choppy again (thanks to stimulus money!) High interest rates, rocketing inflation, a drop in demand, challenges finding staff or customers – all of this has meant that many companies enter 2025 low on reserves and still facing challenges to get back to ‘normal’.

Without downplaying the real challenges many companies face, I also think it’s time to reflect on the opportunity of opportunity. As so many examples teach us, it is possible to create opportunities in times of crisis and strife – it’s the decisions you make in those periods that define your future success.

To me, there is plenty of opportunity in New Zealand – we’re a stable, first world country with great talent, a strong set of values and beliefs, and the respect of the wider world. Yes, we have our challenges, but so too do many – it’s not having a problem that defines us, it’s what we do about it. The examples in ‘Silver Linings’ showcase that.

If you’re reading this, you’ve already shown you are invested in your own future success by connecting with the Icehouse – if you’re an alumni of an Icehouse programme or coaching, we know you’ve picked up some skills and connections you can put to work. Leverage the network and lessons you have learnt through the Icehouse and reach out to our team if you need more.

If you take the approach of asking yourself ‘what’s the opportunity here?’, and share that with others, you’ll not only envisage a future full of opportunity, but start to create it. And if you want more inspiration, come along to the Icehouse conference in May and I’ll share some examples of how others turned challenge into opportunity.

Some would accuse me of being overly optimistic, and I am, unashamedly so. But I believe you can be an optimist or a pessimist, and whichever one you practice you get good at it. So practice optimism, and put it to work finding the opportunity in adversity. After all, as Churchill told us, "the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."

David Downs

Chairman, The Icehouse
Chair, Small Business Advisory group to the Minister