What strategy was used to survive the downturn in '08

[Mihir Bhimaraju]

I'm curious to know if there was any special tactic used to survive the '08 downturn. When the market crashed and folks were losing their jobs, I'm guessing some of the renters weren't able to make payments because of the layoffs. 

How did some of the investors survive this crash? I see most of the folks here started investing post '08.