I’ve been preparing for this

The world is changing in ways we can’t even prepare for. A month ago seems like a year ago. What next month, or next year will look like is impossible to predict.

I only control the things I have control over.

For me, in the immediate short term, is that my family and I are safe and have the things we need.

Then it’s the “What’s Next?” question.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve never made the assumption that things would just grow indefinitely. Market corrections happen, economies deflate, and shit happens. No, I never thought a pandemic would shut everything down, but I’ve had devastating things happen to me like getting myself banned from entering the US, which effectively killed my DJ career.

I’ve gone through personal bankruptcy, I’ve slept on the floor homeless, I’ve felt the shame of having difficulty providing for my family.

I’ve never managed to sell a business. I don’t know how to do that (yet). I’ve operated things until they were done, then moved on, usually with nothing to show for it other than some good stories.

So I’ve been preparing for the inevitable. I’ve been here before.

I also know that I don’t need a healthy economy to build things. Stealth Seminar was conceived of in 2009, the bottom of the Great Recession. We launched in early 2010. We operated it lean and mean until it built itself into something.

As crap as the situation is at the moment, I do know it is temporary. Just like I knew something was going to happen, I also know there will be a recovery.

I’m leaning into the question “What skills, tools and resources do you have available?”

For me, I know I have a knack with technology. So what can I do to take advantage of that?

For skills, I have a lifetime of being an innovator, a rule breaker. What form can that take this time?

In my past, I see that I also created community. How can I do that now?

I like being on stage. I’ve been away from it for a while, but have been rediscovering a new relevant stage which is as a online meeting host.

I also have been working from home for decades. There is no transition for me now.

And I have the experience that economies recover. So I’m thinking about what it is I’d like to be doing a year+ from now.

I feel confident today. I’d like to share that confidence and optimism. The world needs it.

Watch this space. In the meantime, what skills, tools and resources do you have available that you can deploy now in whole new ways?