It typically takes me a couple of weeks at the beginning of each year to stop unintentionally signing documents with the wrong year. This year, I’m confident that won’t happen. 2021 is here and I couldn’t be more ready for it. I’m tired of being scared, I’m tired of checking stats on new cases, new hospitalizations, and hearing of loss of lives and the grieving it causes. I’m tired of wondering when my kids will have a normal school experience and when they’ll be able to spend time with their grandparents again. Although we are all still living in these conditions, I’m hopeful things will return to normal this year.
I want to watch my kids play sports and participate in performing arts. I want to coach kids sports and sit in baseball bleachers with other families. I want to eat inside a restaurant and go to a high school football game with fans in the stadium. I want to take a family vacation and not have a watered-down experience. I want to take my family to a movie theater. I want my life back.
I want to reopen our offices and collaborate with our incredible team in person – from the US to Europe to India to Brazil. I want to visit clients and prospects. I want to shake hands when I meet someone. I want to give high fives, and where appropriate, a hug. Heck, I even find myself hoping to attend a conference or two just to reconnect with the many people I’ve worked with in this industry for the past couple of decades. I want to meet our new employees that we’ve hired this year in person. I want to ceremoniously burn all the masks in my home. I’m so ready for the world to return to normal and I’m eager to prove everyone wrong that says things will never be the same.
With the benefit of 2020 in hindsight, maybe some things weren’t all bad. I’ve enjoyed being at home more and traveling less. Learning how to navigate uncharted waters has been professionally invigorating although exhausting. I’ve been amazed with how well our employees adapted to working from home this year and will almost certainly continue to provide more flexibility moving forward.
I’m proud to say that despite all of the challenges we faced this past year, PureSpectrum has become better and stronger. We kept our focus on quality and we continued to invest in innovation, and our most valuable asset – our people. We rallied around the virtue of talent density as an organization and aligned our objectives throughout the organization. Investments in developing the highest quality data processes and standards for the Insights industry will remain at the forefront of our goals.
So what will 2021 bring? At PureSpectrum, 2021 will be the year of Simplicity. We all work in a highly complex industry filled with evolving challenges and difficulties. It is our mission to empower our customers, panel partners and employees to overcome these challenges through innovation. We will positively impact their lives in profound ways with easier access to the data and technology needed to efficiently conduct business and succeed. Faster, better and simpler.
Here’s to getting back to normalcy and making life simpler in 2021. With sincere gratitude to our clients, panel partners, and the PureSpectrum team.