You were planning your launch into the job market. Then coronavirus hit.

Being associated with Rider University again, originally as a student (‘64) and now as a professor and benefactor helping to send young people into their virtually unlimited futures, is one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done. But let’s be honest, as this graduation season rolls around and you step into that amazing future, you are confronted with an economy brought to a standstill by an unprecedented health crisis. It doesn't mean there aren't opportunities to be had.

What must it be like to jumpstart your career in the middle of a pandemic? I imagine it feels deeply unlucky, even unfair. All the preparations you’ve made, all the hard work you’ve done to kickstart your career, only to find yourself blocked by a virus you can’t even see.

No doubt you’ve talked to family members, mentors and teachers about what to do next. They probably recounted their own stories such as enduring 9/11, the global recession, Hurricane Sandy and others, all adding up to some version of “this, too, shall pass.” I bet, while listening, you thought something like “that’s interesting, but it doesn’t make this moment any easier.”

Here’s an exercise that might help: Think about the concerns you had when you started at Rider a few years ago. Would you find friends? Would you discover an exciting major? Would you like your instructors? If you could have a conversation with that pre-freshman version of yourself, you’d probably say something very similar to what you’re hearing from others right now, “this, too, shall pass.”

I’d like to propose an alternative. Instead of “this, too, shall pass,” how about “this is the moment I knocked it out of the park!” Let me explain.

During the course of my career, I launched two businesses in highly competitive markets during times of great financial upheaval —a delivery business and a storage business. Both of those companies went on to be very successful.

Now I have a big decision of my own to make. Read carefully because I believe some of you might recognize your own chance for your home run swing in my story.

For seven years, I’ve been working with a partner to develop a chain of restaurants around the New York metropolitan area. We were making steady progress with three restaurants in Manhattan plus outposts in Madison Square Garden, the airports and Jersey City. It wasn’t easy but the fundamentals of the business were good.

After seven years of growth, building our team, developing our menu, integrating tech for app-based food delivery and cashless transactions, it all got shuttered one day last month because of the coronavirus. To re-open will require several hundred thousand dollars — it would be like a start-up but one that already has tons of debt and other obligations.

You see, the problem with older competitors is that, as they emerge from a crisis, they are already burdened with overhead and complexity. They’re not scrappy and nimble as they were when they first opened. When I launched my delivery and storage business, I used this to my advantage. Today, with my restaurants, it’s my albatross.

What does this mean to you? Well, if I were talking to my younger self, I would probably say something like this: People still have to eat, don’t they?

As we pick ourselves up from the ashes of this awful health and financial crisis, there will be plenty of new opportunities. If you’re a hard worker with a good idea and an entrepreneurial spirit, you will be able to start businesses or find a company that shares your intentions to knock it out of the park. You may have to work twice as hard for half the pay for a while, but if you choose wisely, you will be rewarded in the long run.

Instead of looking at this June as a time of scarcity, consider creating a template for your career to carry forward for the rest of your professional lives. Always look for the opportunity, there is abundance everywhere and even more so in times of great upheaval.

Norm Brodsky '64 graduated from Rider with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce with a major in accounting. The namesake of the Norm Brodsky College of Business, he has launched many successful businesses, including CitiStorage, the largest independent, privately owned archive business in the country.