---
title: "Who Survives a Crisis (And Why It’s Not About Money)"
author: "Lax Mariappan"
date: "2026-03-15"
categories: ["Blogging"]
excerpt: "LPG shortage. Demonetization. COVID. Different crises, same pattern. Some people sail through. Some struggle badly. And when I look closely, it’s rarely about luck. The ones with money survive almost by default. They stockpile, they wait, they absorb the shock. Their purchasing power is a buffer. The crisis becomes an inconvenience. That’s not a moral […]"
canonical_url: "http://laxmariappan.com/who-survives-a-crisis-and-why-its-not-about-money/"
---

# Who Survives a Crisis (And Why It’s Not About Money)

LPG shortage. Demonetization. COVID.
Different crises, same pattern.
Some people sail through. Some struggle badly. And when I look closely, it’s rarely about luck.
The ones with money survive almost by default. They stockpile, they wait, they absorb the shock. Their purchasing power is a buffer. The crisis becomes an inconvenience.
That’s not a moral judgment. It’s just true.
The ones with a network do something different. They don’t necessarily have money. But they know who to call. They know where to ask. They find the cylinder before it runs out, the medicine before the shortage, the job before the layoff.
Information travels through relationships. If you’re well-connected, the crisis reaches you last.
And then there’s the third group.
No buffer. No network. No one to call.
They’re not lazy. They’re not foolish. They just haven’t built the things that protect you when the ground shakes.
Most people are in this third group.
I think about this not to feel superior. I think about it because I’ve been in all three places at different points. And right now, the thing I’m most consciously building is the second one.
Money takes time. But a network? That starts with one honest conversation.
A crisis doesn’t care about your intentions. It asks: what did you build before today?