We're about to change the way we do business: As we watch several industries collapse in the wake of the coronavirus, we're already seeing several new industries emerge from the ashes.

• Author: Griffin, Elle

IN 2008 we didn't have jobs and we didn't have money, but we had extra space in our homes and backseats in our car. So we started Airbnb, and we founded Uber, and we created with what remnant we had left something that would change the way we travel forever.

That's about to happen again.

THE FUTURE

As I write this, I am quarantined in my home. Our schools have moved online and our offices have sent us home. The stock markets have fallen and the layoffs have begun. And yet, if we're being honest with ourselves, haven't we always known this moment was coming? We've forecasted the next bear market with conviction, we've said "the next crash is just around the corner" more times than we can count. We just never knew it would come about like this or play out in this way. We never have. We never do.

But there is always a correction and right now we are correcting. We are reorienting our lives--not around our businesses-but around our homes. Instead of living in two places part-time, we are occupying one place full-time. Our million-dollar school buildings sit empty and our shiny office spaces remain closed as we attend classes online and work from our dining room tables.

There are trials, sure, but there are also good things that are happening as a result. Pollution around the world has plummeted. LA traffic has dissipated. And even if we hope we might be able to eat once more at a restaurant or attend the theater, we can also see clearly that there is some extra fat that can be trimmed, extra excesses we can do without.

Perhaps there's a future where we attend schools, not based on the Greek programs they offer or how aesthetically pleasing the dorm rooms are, but because of the professors we want to learn from. Perhaps we'll take classes not because they fit into our liberal arts requirements but because they teach a valuable skill we need to learn. And perhaps, that will allow students of all backgrounds the flexibility to work while they are in school and to enjoy equal opportunities when it comes to education.

And maybe we don't need to put our businesses in New York City where our employees can't afford their rent, or in San Francisco where our employees spend half their lives on the commute. Maybe we can take advantage of that extra money we are paying our employees for their rent and that extra time we are asking our employees to commute, to give our employees more time and space to do the work we want them to do.

Maybe, as a result of...