I don’t know about you, but 2022 was a weird year for me. It started with pandemic controls being loosened, and I assumed it would be business back to normal and a great year. Instead, everyone started striking and laying people off. There were redundancies everywhere, friends were struggling. Then there was a crypto meltdown, seeing many losing thousands or even millions, and most tech stocks lost at least half their value or more, including fintech stocks.
TBH, 2022 was far worse than 2021 or 2020 when the pandemic hit. It was a shit year.
You may disagree, as I’m sure some of you had a wonderful time, but the start of the year saw Russia invade Ukraine and few of us would realise that this would lead to a global recession, famine in some African nations, runaway inflationary pressures across the world and more … and then Elon Musk bought Twitter and things went really downhill. The Queen died, the spare went off the rails and King Charles hasn’t got a clue what to do.
The challenges of the year hit home for me when I fell down the stairs of my hotel, and got a new scar on my eyebrow. The hotel I’d booked into was based on good VFM (Value For Money), but I did not realise that it had no elevators. Holding two heavy cases and walking downstairs to checkout, my foot caught on the carpet and, before I knew it, I was tumbling head over heels onto a marble floor. Annoying to say the least. Lying at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding heavily and feeling like a fool, it felt like I’d reached a new low. My friend said that I should sue the hotel or, at the very least, get one of those ambulance chasing no-fee no-win lawyers to take them to task. I couldn’t be bothered, as the one thing I hate more than anything else is paperwork ...
... but there were also many good moments in the year. My newest book, Digital for Good, was released in the summer alongside the five series books of Captain Cake and the Candy Crew (for kadults); there was the day my six-year-old sons started writing their names; the day I stood on Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio underneath the Jesus statue; the day when my friend retired; the day my friend was promoted; the night in Vegas seeing Adele in her first concert; seeing Argentina win the World Cup; the moments in London seeing Frozen on stage; and more.
Every year has its ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, highs and lows. The fact this year seems to have had more downs than ups is the way it goes, but 2023 is coming. It's a new dawn, it's a new day and I'm feeling good. After all, things will change. In fact, things can only get better, can’t they?
When I meet friends who are down, people give them platitudes like this but, no matter how dark the days can be, there is always light at the end of the tunnel so, I don’t know what sort of year 2022 was for you but, whether good or bad, I wish you a wonderful 2023.
See you in January, when the break is over, and wishing everyone the most wonderful time of the year.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
