Boom or bust, we are resilient
One thing I love about Humboldt County, is that people here are tough. Whether you are a card-carrying Republican or support Bernie Sanders, whether you’re a cannabis farmer or a lumberjack, a sales representative or an accountant, you can’t make your way in Humboldt County without a substantial amount of resiliency and durability in your DNA.
True, many of us wouldn’t necessarily fit-in in the buttondown reality offered by most of America, but there is no easy road in Humboldt. Here is a place where you make your own luck and you live by your personal and professional connections. Even in our politically polarized country, people on different sides of the aisle in Humboldt can put politics aside to share a tasty local IPA or kombucha, because we must rely on each other.
In Humboldt, almost everyone is an entrepreneur one way or another. I have been learning this in my new role as general manager of Lost Coast Communications. So many of our local businesspeople came to their calling from experiences and educations that they never would have guessed would lead them to their current challenge, myself included.
In the last few months, I have been very lucky to spend time with our local businesses, both large and small. It is endlessly fascinating to learn how someone came to Humboldt or decided to stay in Humboldt, and then how they made it work. Each story is unique and in each story the person was at a crossroads, where they either had to commit to Humboldt or leave. I have yet to meet a person who regrets staying, returning or coming to Humboldt.
Our local economy has always been rooted in the boom or bust cycle. Though our economic development groups — of which I am a member —work hard to get us off this merrygo-round, I don’t think this will happen anytime soon. Looking at most communities in the United States, we are not alone. Boom or bust is sort of the flip side of the American dream. Since we have been through many cycles over the last century, we are better positioned than a town where the 100-year-old factory just closed its doors in 2020.
We know what to do. We strengthen our connections and strengthen our communities to cushion the pain of each decade’s bubble popping or slowly deflating. All while keeping an eye to the future, because another boom is just around the corner. This is our resiliency. We know how to adapt and how to change. Humboldt’s citizens are amazingly resourceful and determined, and you see this in our entrepreneurs. As you read these words, consider that the local businesses you see in our community were all started by people who chose to make a stand in Humboldt and be a part of Humboldt, just like you. Let’s support them!