A LOOK BACK AT 2020

By Bob Hannaford, owner Naughty Events

It’s been some year. I mean, who would have thought 2020 would turn out to be such a terrible year with this unprecedented pandemic, shutdowns, hurricanes, politics and canceled everything.

That said, I learned a lot about myself this year and who I want to be as a person. It’s also been a very steep learning curve when it comes to our business (or lack thereof). I think everyone is counting down to 2021, hoping for a new start.

We planned to buy a house in 2020; we had lots of plans that went out the window. Instead of buying a house, we have had to re-think our future and how we are going to live for the next couple of years on a very limited salary. No new house for us for a while…

There is hope on the horizon

With a vaccine being approved last week and another one coming out soon, we are optimistic that we will turn the corner on this pandemic. We know it will take many months for the vaccines to be readily available, but we have confidence that this will be carried out as fast as possible and soon millions will be vaccinated and the country can reopen again.

We have eight months before our next event and we feel pretty confident that we will finally be able to host this. We just want to be able to go to our favorite restaurants again, hang out with friends in our favorite bars and most of all, listen to live music again.

Another year around the sun

I just had my 55th birthday last week in Mexico. I cooked a Cajun shrimp boil (think crawfish boil, but with shrimp instead of crawfish). It was great introducing so many locals, Canadians and ex-pats to Louisiana cooking. I made some Jambalaya a couple of days later and that was also a nice treat while down here south of the border.

This time is always when I reflect on my past year. I never wait until the New Year, I always take a look back on my birthday to get a sense of whether or not I had a good year. While this has certainly been challenging, I feel that we accomplished a lot.

None of us are getting any younger, but all of us basically took a year off from socializing, enjoying live shows, traveling, and in many cases, self-care. It is important to take “temperature checks” from time to time in order to assess your direction and your goals. 

After looking back at 2020 I can only conclude that I did the best I could. I am OK with this assessment. It could have been a lot worse for us both personally and professionally.

Decisions, decisions…

We kept our employees employed throughout the summer. It wasn’t easy, but we needed our staff more than ever and they needed a paycheck, more than ever. They have all cut their hours back until after the new year when we hope business will pick back up.

We made some great decisions and some bad ones. We will learn from all of them. It’s easy to second guess our choices after the fact, but good leaders never stop learning. I’ve had to really try hard at removing emotions from the decision-making process, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

You see, we do not only run a business that focuses on alternative lifestyles, it’s a business that we are emotionally attached to in many ways. Decisions we make in our business are inherently personal to us, as they not only affect our clients, but also our friends and staff.  

Staying safe

Probably the biggest decisions are the ones that made for our health and we hope to continue on this path.

For now, we are going to stay in Mexico for the next couple of months until we can come back to get our vaccine. We feel safer down here for now but we have to constantly reassess the trends, infection rates, and protocols to make sure we continue to stay in the safest place possible until we can get vaccinated.

It’s always 85 degrees each day here (year-round) and while there are usually a lot of tourists coming and going from the Oaxacan coast, this year there won’t be much tourism until this “thing” is over.

Living part-time in Mexico has been a great decision for us, we feel better health-wise than we have in years. We will continue to eat better and we plan on moving more (and yes, even exercising more). It’s been a while since either of us were under 200 lbs and now we both are and it feels great.

Coming together

I have seen many people use this terrible year to be even more terrible. I have seen people take advantage of the situation to hurt others and I have seen people come together to do amazing things.

No matter how bad it gets, people always amaze me with what can be done when dedicated people work together for a common goal. In 2021, my goals are going to be simpler and my objectives are going to be easier to accomplish. This will not be my “shoot for the moon” year, I just want it to be better than 2020.

I really believe we will see an amazing effort in 2021 to eradicate this pandemic and get back to normal. I am just not sure what normal is any more.

I just want to be able to travel a little more in 2021 and see more friends and family. I hope you all have a similar goal.

We look forward to closing out this year and hitting the reset button on December 31st. I hope you all have a safe holiday and an amazing (but safe!) New Year.

- Bob Hannaford