Irrelevant of a person's economic, political or social standing, recessions are much-dreaded things.
A person's relative security within these three categories will affect the extent to which the downturn has an impact on them, but ultimately an impact it will always have. And sometimes, just sometimes, this can be a positive thing.
So what of companies? Well, it's much the same - they are, after all, made up of people and it is these people that can repel the proverbial company-crusher and keep business alive.
There is perhaps no better example of this than Dave and Gail Liniger, owners of Re/Max International, who recently featured in a CNN Money article entitled 'Surviving recession no.5: The Re/Max startup story'.
As the title suggests, the pair have steered their company through an incredible five recessions and built the firm up from a two-person fledgling business to a trans-national corporation with a seemingly effortless ability to swan about the global real estate world.
It's been hard work though and the couple is the first to admit that the business certainly didn't take like a duck to water.
The pair started the company in 1973, with Dave recruiting real estate agents and Gail managing the office.
The company was revolutionary in that it allowed all recruited agents to keep 100 per cent of their commissions and pay a management fee to the organization.
As a result, initial take up was slow - people were wary of a business model that had yet to be proved profitable. By Dave's own admission, the company initially attracted "entrepreneurial mavericks".
It also attracted a number of women. The industry at that stage was male dominated, but owing to Re/Max's liberal stance on employment, females poured through the front door keen to prove themselves in jobs outside of secretarial work.
And it worked. In 1978, Re/Max was the top seller in Colorado. The business model had worked and suddenly vast quantities of people wanted to work for the firm - both men and women.
Perhaps what stood the company in particularly good stead was that it was formed in the midst of a recession. In the first two years Re/Max was $600,000 in debt, but by 1977 everything had been paid off.
Since then, the couple has gone from strength-to-strength. In 1980 they opened up offices in Canada and so started the advance of their global network.
However, despite the extraordinary rise of their business and its ability to survive five recessions over nearly 40 years, there is perhaps one thing that sums up their business drive and passion.
In 1983 Gail was paralyzed in a place crash. After six months of rehabilitation and numerous surgeries she was walking again but had no use of her left side.
During this period the two fell in love and decided to get married. For a pair who had overcome so much as a business team, there was perhaps only one place to have the ceremony. And that's where they had it - in the office.
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