Video & article - Coronavirus Survival Guide
Lessons from a seasoned entrepreneur to help you manage panic, worry, and loss of income in the midst of this terrible pandemic
Corona Virus Survival Guide
How to survive the next 12-18 months while preparing for our post coronavirus world
The world is at a turning point
Scary horizon
Our world has gone from bad to terrible. We started the year with locusts, wildfires, mass migrations, earthquakes, volcanoes and political chaos. Then corona virus arrived and now all over our little planet huge numbers of people are out of work while entire industries are going bankrupt and governments find themselves unable to keep up to the massive healthcare and social upheavals around them.
At home however, while children, teachers and parents learn to home school and investors watch their portfolios shrink to 1980’s levels, house plants and pets have never had it so good. Politicians know big problems lie ahead and are doing all they can to hide the reality and minimise eventual problems. Although the first countries swamped by the Corona Virus tsunami are beginning to get local transmissions under control, the rest of the world is drowning.
if one person is sick somewhere, we all risk being sick everywhere
Can we help?
While our scientists search for a vaccine, we all need to bide time and look after each other. We need to look after ourselves first then our family and friends and finally or neighbours. We can pull through this together. The world today is so interconnected that if one person is sick somewhere, we all risk being sick everywhere.
The corona virus originated only 4 months ago in Wuhan, just over 500 miles north of where I live in Hong Kong. Like many people in Hong Kong and Singapore, I am repeatedly asked by friends and family in “The West” for advice. Since we survived SARs and have been living with the Corona Virus for several months already, people in Europe and America reason that we have valuable lessons to share.
It is true that Hong Kong and Singapore have contained local transmission better than most while dealing with imported cases as they become known. Other countries however have been slow to act and lack the SARs experience of Hong Kong and Singapore. Those countries are being swamped. Reacting effectively to this latest threat to our existence is all about leadership and experience. This series of posts is designed to facilitate dialogue on how to survive the next 12-18 months while preparing for our post corona virus world. While Trump, Xi and Putin invest in hypersonic missiles, the rest of us moved past this narrow mindset long ago and are more concerned with living successfully together in our global village.
How to handle fear
Fear
When I started my consultancy 25 years ago, I was bold, ambitious and the more I learned about all I had to accomplish, I was afraid. I was afraid of failure, afraid of the steep hill ahead of me as a new entrepreneur, afraid of bankruptcy. I learned however that fear was normal and that it could be contained. I learned lying awake at night worrying to the point of sweating was going to give me a heart attack. I learned that if I get a good night sleep, wake early, and work hard, I had the best chance of success. And for 25 years I’ve been doing exactly that. Crisis have come and gone but my behaviour has helped me succeed through it all.
The corona virus is forcing us to overcome our fear more than ever before. Fear won’t disappear, we just want to displace it from occupying too much of our attention. If it prevents you from doing what you need to do, it is destructive. If it reminds you to wash your hands, keep a safe distance from others and wear a mask when you can’t distance yourself then fear is helpful.
To overcome your fear:
1. eat healthy
2. avoid intoxication
3. exercise daily
4. get the rest your body needs to deal with the constant stress and onslaught of bad news
5. Wake early
6. work hard
7. take mental, social and physical breaks throughout the day to give your mind, body and spirit the nourishment it needs to flourish in these difficult conditions
8. keep a routine
I am reminded of two favourite expressions:
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going”
“Tough times never last, but tough people do”.
Now is the time to be tough.
How to handle worry
Worry
Another thing I learned over the years is that it is normal to get depressed. It is depressing to see people close to us get sick and die. It is depressing to lose your job, to lose your savings, to see the value of your investments fall through the floor. It is depressing to see entire industries collapse overnight. It is depressing to see change eliminate jobs. It is depressing to watch the life we loved and worked hard to build, get wiped out by this current pandemic.
As I toiled to build my business over the years, I regularly watched my efforts pushed down by crises hitting my clients. The Asian Currency Crisis, Bird Flu, MERS, Swine Flu, SARs, 9/11, the Great Recession, the Democracy Protests and now Corona Virus have all caused my best efforts to be reset to time and again. At first, I found this roller coaster to be very depressing but I worked hard each time to rebuild what I had. I studied carefully for what Chinese describe as opportunity in crisis. I marvelled at the resilience of the Hong Kong Chinese who around me had lost more and made more back than any culture in history.
I learned that suffering was not optional and that bad things will continue to happen.
When I was a boy, I wondered how old people could remain stoic in the face of dreadful news. By the time I was in my 30’s I realised I had simply lived an unusually fortunate upbringing and that actually life is suffering just like the Buddhists tell us. I learned that suffering was not optional and that bad things will continue to happen. Corona Virus is the latest and worst of these things to affect us. I learned that change in inevitable and craving is the source of much of our unhappiness. If we crave the world as it was before Corona Virus, we ignore the reality of change. If we crave the purchases, travel and investment returns we had before but which are no longer attainable, we create our own depression.
I learned I cannot avoid being hit by the first arrow, the arrow of change and misfortune, but I can choose to not allow myself to be hit by the second arrow, the arrow of depression and unhappiness caused by my own craving and ignorance of reality.
Here are some of the things I have learned to help push away depression:
1. Instead of focusing on the world we wish to have, focus instead on the world as it is.
2. Like the old question, to have or to be, forget what you have lost and instead be present and mindful to notice the little things around you like the beautiful Spring buds on the trees and flowers, the puppies and children playing in park, the kindness of others, the breath we breathe.
3. Turn off the news and turn up the music, loud 😊
4. Go for a walk or run in nature.
5. Laugh.
6. Smile at others.
7. Choose to rejoice.
8. Connect with family and friends
9. Be compassionate to others.
It is true there is terrible news some of which is affecting us and our loved ones directly but this is life and as long as we have life we have the choice to rejoice in the little we have or to be depressed about that which we have lost.
We are on a difficult journey but walking this road together while in dialogue about the things that matter, will make it easier for all of us.
How to handle loss of income
Poverty
I started 2020 with a relatively good month in a normally slow time of year, stuck as it is between Western and Lunar New Year’s holidays. Although Hong Kong’s democracy protests had taken a bite out of my earnings last year, the outlook for 2020 was positive. I even did a talk on Dialogue Gap as a Public Health Crisis unknowing at the time government officials in China were creating a dialogue gap about what would soon become a global pandemic.
Now, like everyone else in the gig economy, I have no work, no income, no government assistance. People who have never experienced having their income cut off are panicking and depressed. I am disappointed but I am not panicking or depressed for the reasons outlined above. Like others who are self-employed, I have been in this situation many times before and I have learned how to survive.
This recession will last longer and cut deeper than anything we have experienced but our reaction must be the same as that of self-employed entrepreneurs.
1. Cut your expenses to the barest minimum to buy time.
2. Do what you can to protect your savings and investments, if any.
3. Open your eyes to how things are changing and how you can respond to bring value to others by leveraging your assets (e.g. your knowledge, experience, resources, network).
4. Be alert to what you can do to help others as this corona virus pandemic washes over us during the coming year.
5. Things will get worse and we need to help each other regardless of payback.
If there is one thing which I have learned to be true in my years of business, it is this:
“Give and thou shalt receive”
If you find yourself a loser in this crisis, think like President Kennedy:
ask not what the world can do for you, ask what you can do for the world
It is the only way anyone has ever succeeded in the past and this is true in our current crisis. Your success is based on bringing value to others. Some companies are doing well in this crisis by finding ways to help make the situation better (e.g. infection cleaners, healthcare workers, work from home software and hardware providers, home delivery services, tutors, etc) and all in demand. You can do this too.
How to prepare for the post coronavirus world
What we need for our post corona virus world:
The corona virus reminds us, “if anyone is sick anywhere, we all risk being sick everywhere”. We live in a global village and we need to learn to live differently in our post corona virus world. As a result, based on my work in over 60 countries and 600 organisations around the world, I suggest the following:
1. Today’s world needs a political party where expats, transpats, global travelers and open-minded folk at home see the selfish and nationalistic thinking of the past is wrong for our post corona virus world,
2. I suggest we create an international political party with the international clout to change the selfish and nationalistic thinking of state leaders who still think it best to invest in borders, hypersonic missiles and environmental degradation all of which prevents us from living successfully together in our global village.
3. I suggest an international political party that recognises going to war over differences like race, borders and resources will no longer work in our post corona virus world.
4. Like the Green Party that connects environmentalists globally, I propose we launch The Potential Party to connect people who value realising our potential rather than maximise capital or strengthen the commune. I call this Potentialism, and I consider this a 21st century upgrade to the pre corona virus capitalism and socialism which got us into this mess in the first place.
Potentialism is inspired by today’s behavioural economists who proved our optimal outcome is what’s best for the individual AND other stakeholders, not on what’s best for the individual only (Capitalism) or what’s best for the state only (Communism). The world has changed, and so must our politics. Potentialism suggests:
“We have a duty to realise our potential while helping others realise theirs”
Corona virus is the pause button we have needed to correct our human misbehaviour. It is possibly our last chance to get this right. Some have said of the corona virus:
mother nature has sent us to our room to learn to behave
Optimal decision making in our post corona virus world requires an ability AND willingness to connect, dialogue and reach agreement with stakeholders globally. This goal is supported by Hong Kong based Potential Dialogue Institute, provider of online dialogue leadership skills training for a post corona virus world, and Singapore based The Potential Network, host of online leadership dialogues designed to map the future of our post corona virus global village (launching soon).
“The solution is in the dialogue”
I’m interested what should I do next?
We are in this together and this is a work in progress. We are all stuck in isolation with time on our hands. We must make best use of our time.
Here in Hong Kong The Potential Dialogue Institute is moving its training online. In Singapore the Potential Network team is preparing our online leadership dialogues. The first CEO Dialogue has been recorded and our first Zoom dialogue is being prepared. We want your help.
If you wish to join:
1. our live online dialogue leadership skills training
2. our Zoom based leadership dialogues
3. or help create and launch The International Potential Party
Click here to contact us
You can read more about Potentialism in my books, in the meantime, don’t panic, get depressed or feel impoverished.
Work hard, look on the bright side of life, and do all you can to help others
Together we will beat this pandemic.
Stay Safe,
Peter
By Peter Nixon, FCPA, is: author of Boomer to Zoomer: Hurdles to Success in our post corona virus world (due out this year); founder of the Potential Dialogue Institute, Hong Kong based provider of online dialogue leadership skills training for a post corona virus world. Peter’s other books include: Negotiation: Mastering Business in Asia (2005, Wiley), Dialogue Gap (2012, Wiley), The Business Developers Playbook (2019, Taylor Francis).
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