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Hopefully it will al go to “normal” in a few weeks. In the meantime, probability says you will not make any money.

So rethink your strategy. Think about th 4c’s of value creation: Contribution / Coordination / Communication / Connection

Contribution: How can you help your community by providing any service or product. If you can pivot to serve Health, Security, Logistics or Education, by all means start doing it now.

Coordination: By actively participating between the business and industries labeled as essential and those that have encountered a dead end in their operations, you might find opportunities to create new materials, designs, companies and people, eager and able to help.

Communication: Yo may be the link between the information and a particular set of people interested in how all this will impact their businesses and their lives.

Connection: Maybe you don’t have anything to supply…but how about you help connect within your community groups of people that may supply goods, services, or even time to better the conditions everybody has fallen to?

Now we are standing in an age of mandatory involvement. The times when we could coast our ways through life have ended. Isolation has pushed us to rethink the burden or the obligation to be a part of the community as the exact opposite, as the privilege of being a part of a community.

Note: All this reflection was based on the words by Seth Godin in an interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT6Kl4buA3w

I wish that was true.

At least, if people were aware of all the things in business that had just become obsolete, they would PROBABLY be ready to learn new ways of living, new ways to thrive.

The truth is, all of us will have to let go our lives as we know them right now. We sill have to stop resisting change and embrace it. We will have to unlearn almost everything we know about making a living.

The first step is to realize in what ways the recent events will impact our lives. And then, for every aspect identified, UNLEARN everything, go back to the beginning and eliminate all previous assumptions.

Then by first principles, build our way up to a new way of doing business.

If you need inspirational words (to convince yourself to start a business), don’t do it. Said Elon.

If you’re discouraged to try something by someone telling you not to do it…then probably you shouldn’t do it. If your conviction is that feeble, then stop right there and consider to save yourself money, time and tears. Actually going through it will leave you broken.

Yes, broken. But here’s something to ease the pain: failure is rarely definitive.

So there it is: the cold, harsh truth followed by the hopefully, soothing truth.

It is only fatal when you don’t learn. And we are wired for learning.

Fear is the only thing that prevents us from executing one more time, and in this new iteration, with knowledge only developed by failing. The fear will always try trick us into thinking we can’t learn and that we can’t try again and again.

So bring me the yummi crunchy glass, I’ll be staring into the abyss until it shys away.

…with whom you haven’t had any communication yet, as how you plan to maintain your service through the pandemic, leave anything you might be doing right now and go to the telephone, email or social networks and explain.

You have to give them ease. You might not be able to fulfill your service or product right now, but you have the responsibility to be there.

They have to know that you are still there and that you are going to be there when all this is over, and, knock on wood, If your business is no longer viable, then they will appreciate you even more if you help them transfer your business to any other supplier, even if it is your competitor. Your job is, also, taking care of their feelings.

The name of the game, for now on, is REPUTATION, either for a personal or corporate brand.

Remember, people will forget about everything, but they will remember, always, how did you make them feel.

So here we are. The 100th entry in this blog.

One day I decided to write. I would be like Seth Godin. I would have a lot of insights and reflections to be part of the world.

That decision connected me with you, reader. With the ripple effect, it also connected me with people that haven’t directly read me. It connected me with people that don’t even know I exist! I guess that is the artist in me: creating despite the odds of never being known or applauded. In that sense, this practice is, at least for now, a paradox created by me and for me. I am writing even though i know the probability of reaching someone is really, really tiny.

Anyway, each day I’m eager to sit in front of this empty canvas, to surrender to this blank page. Each day I try to contribute. Each day is a struggle and a bliss. Kind of like giving birth and parenting. Each day I hope the right reader is going to stumble on these words and start a dialogue that starts another dialogue and another dialogue like dominoes. Until that time comes, and then more eagerly, I will show up for myself and for any person this words may resonate with.

Cheers / Namaste / Likke / Godspeed / Abrazos a todos!

You see on the news people fighting each other when the toilet paper pallets comes allong the hall in Costco. You see them and think, damn these people are really stupid. Why would they want to hoard this particular product?

But then, it is your time to go get some groceries. And, as you pass the toilet paper aisle, you see the crowd running to get the last packages of the white gold…then you feel the urge to join them in the shopping frenzy.

After a few steps forward you hit the breaks. How isn’t possible that you was going to indulge in the collective folly. Yesterday they were stupid for you. Today they don’t look so idiotic. As you walk back to your car, they look dumber and dumber.

Well that is the depiction of an irrational behavior. One of many we humans do. Actually we are mostly irrational. And the stupid things one does, have a particular way to seem logical to that person.

So what’s your stupid? Have you ever thought what habits or behaviors are becoming, or have been a ballast in your life? In your career? In your business?

Among one of the new stuff to try to enhance your personal resources, there’s one in particular that could help more, given the context.

There is a breathing method that is supposed to enhance your immune system. This method is proposed by Wim Hof and it is inspired by ancient breathing methods from India and other milenary cultures.

I won’t explain the method here but just wanted you to know about it so you may draw your own conclusions.

For me it has been beneficial. I get less sick, feel energized after doing it, and somehow more relaxed.

Here’s the link to one of his videos.

The app and first levels of the method are free. So go study his findings and the science behind it. Then if you are curious or feel compelled, give it a try.

So you are stranded. You are home. Maybe with kids and wife. You are in a situation you didn’t ask for and you have to make the best of it.

There is a lot at stake. Your relationship with your kids, your marriage and maybe even your own sanity, but, the good thing is you can design a routine that will give structure and hopefully give some valuable outcomes.

You may become your own guinea pig to perform an experiment. Try something, anything. It could be a meditation practice, some workout routine, a new nutrition plan, or a new mind set.

My suggestion is: design a daily schedule. Fill every minute. Don´t leave any space for desperation, boredom or fear to jump in.

Your control group will be everybody else in the house.

Even if you are the only one trying things, it is better to have one less person in a feedback loop of anxiety.

Amazing what happens when you manage to meditate…really meditate for more than half an hour.

So I got this “epiphany” and…well. A few years ago I would have jumped and start the action without thinking it twice.

Now I will acid test what ever comes to my head.

I guess even in esoteric revelations we grow up wiser and less prone to react. Hopefully I will be able to pass it through first principle thinking.

Will let you know about this.

“What is your take on business books? -Give them all to your competitors”.

A tweeter exchange between somebody and Naval.

Naval is not so kind when it comes to “business skills” and how to learn business from authors, influencers and even, yes, business schools.

Coming from a guy that reads and reads a lot, my guess is he has found little, no value or no practical application for all the theories, advise and tools depicted in all the books he has read.

For me, till I saw his opinion (and a radical one for that matter), I was an avid business books reader. I’m thinking I will not change this on a short term, but for sure I will see them in a whole new perspective, more skeptic, more critic, more scientific. Who knows, maybe I will stop reading business books altogether in the future.

BTW I have an MBA…Lol.