As we in the GCC navigate yet another political and security crisis, founders, CEOs and investors need a blunt reminder: cash is the only real buffer.

Liquidity trumps everything. It gives you the confidence to keep building without panic, without knee-jerk decisions, and without sacrificing the people and capabilities you have spent years assembling.

When you have liquidity, you stay focused on products, on clients, on execution – not on firefighting. And when you are scaling, liquidity is what allows you to keep serving customers with discipline and attention even when the world outside is shaking.

I learnt this the hard way, and many times over. During my years running Aramex, I felt most secure in a crisis when we had cash. And we went through plenty: from the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and regional shocks to the 2009 financial crisis.

Every time, the pattern was the same. When we had liquidity, we performed well; we found solutions to our clients’ challenges during the crisis, we gained market share and we emerged stronger the day after.

Clients trusted us because we stayed focused on them. Suppliers stuck with us because we were reliable. Employees were loyal because we never used a crisis as an excuse to cut at their expense.

However, I have also been an investor in companies that struggled to stay upright when the region shook. The lesson is simple: this region is volatile; build for volatility. Always make sure you have at least 12 months of cash. Keep your best people. Stay focused.

And be very careful with the “spend until you make it” formula unless you truly have the cash and a real product-market fit to justify it.

Investors also have responsibilities in these moments. Support your best companies. Start with deep dives into your top performers: market, product, cash burn and runway.

Do not panic. Do not push founders into decisions you will both regret. Remember that employee morale is already fragile. People are dealing with crises at home and in the world around them. Do not add unnecessary pressure.

Crisis reveals everything. You learn who your founders really are, whether they can hold the company steady, and whether they can lead through uncertainty. And when you find the ones who can, and they need cash, that is when you double down. That is where the best returns come from.

Some of my best investments were made exactly this way. During the pandemic, Hande Cilingir, co-founder and CEO of Insider, reached out to raise another round of funding in the middle of the global Covid-19 shutdown.

A multi-channel customer experience and marketing platform is exactly the kind of startup that needed to be strong during the toughest times. We did not hesitate. It has strong and confident founders, deep product understanding and loyal teams, and retains absolute clarity about the day after. Today, Insider is a unicorn and a global leader.

Another example close to my heart is Maktoob, the first successful internet company in the Arab world. It raised money right before the dotcom bust. When the crash came in 2000, every serious competitor disappeared. Its co-founders, Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury, stayed the course.

They preserved cash, stayed frugal, built one of the best tech teams anywhere and focused relentlessly on product-market fit. That’s exactly the discipline that led to real revenue and, eventually, a Yahoo acquisition in 2009.

From Maktoob came online auction site Souq (now Amazon.ae), and from both came the infrastructure for the region’s digital economy. All of it was built and proven during crises.

So the old adage rings true: never waste a crisis. Unfortunately, our region has plenty of them.

The bottom line is simple: everything is about the day after. Build for it. Fund for it. Lead for it. And when the dust settles, those who managed the crisis well will reap the rewards.

This article was originally published by Arabian Gulf Business Insight (AGBI).