It’s cold out there
Come warm your hands by the fire.
There are a lot of crushed souls out there at the moment. How do I know this? Because I meet them every day in peculiar places. These are people who run small enterprises , often in rural or provincial settings and they’ve had the stuffing knocked out of them. They have been doing great work looking after international visitors or just serving the thriving communities the economy has enabled.
Not for a moment do I take away or deflect from the people whose suffering has been ongoing, no matter what the economy does. But this piece is for the ones that have been singularly hurt by COVID-29 and all the uncertainty that this has brought to us.
I have an old mate. We were best friends in high school and he was headed for great things. Talented, sensitive and very creative. We thought it was our extravagant exploration of drink and drugs that knocked him off his glittering path. Then it became apparent that he had underlying serious mental health issues which precluded him ever reaching his full potential. So, he wanders the country, sleeping under bridges, in people’s sleepouts, under the stars and has a network of people like Nicki and me who love him. We take him in, he washes his clothes, soaks in the bath and has a few days of chilling, with good conversation and love surrounding him. Then he quickly finds it hard to be in such intimate contact with people, even if he is loved and welcome and sets off for his next journey. He travels from one end of the country visiting AA meetings and communing with the people he knows in each location.
This is a life. It doesn’t look like one to me a lot of the time. I see the waste of someone who could have been a fabulous talent as an architect. He doesn’t. He sees the endless doodling in his notebook and draws inspiration and meaning from the intricacies he creates. He has an inner life with something he sometimes refers to as God, but he has a direct and immediate relationship to the things around him. He loves warmth and comfort and people being kind and recognises authenticity and generosity a mile away.
Why am I telling his story? Because I just wanted to illustrate the difference in how COVID has affected people in different worlds. My mate thinks it’s marvellous. He was able to shack up on a west coast beach untroubled by tourists and visitors for weeks. He loved that. This is what the pandemic meant to him.
I use him as contrast with others who have an entirely different experience. For me, I have been forced to be at home where I have spent some of the most life-affirming times of my existence. I’m not going on about me here because this isn’t about me, but I’ve had some dark moments despite my cocoon of love.
The people I’m talking about are those for whom Coronavirus has been an existential threat to who and what they are. They run a café or a travel agent, or a tick on the map for tourists. They may not even see themselves as being in the tourist industry but when the tourists disappear, they are forced to think differently.
What has happened this year is game changing stuff. There are no simple answers. A lot of entrepreneurial types will look for the next “main chance” and some may even be successful in finding it. But, everything comes with the baggage of history and you can hide from it but it will always find you and call you out.
If you run a bar with no customers, a restaurant with no diners or even worse, just enough for you to lose money, or a travel agency where the domestic market is hopelessly inadequate, or a funky little historical site that is rich with stories but no customers, this is for you.
Let’s start a conversation about re-imagining your business. While we’re doing it, nothing is impossible. It’s a chance for you to express every fantasy and nutcase idea you’ve ever had for your business. The beauty is, you probably have nothing to lose. Your options might be to keep going and see business dribble away into nothing. Your other option is to have the courage to dig deep, work out what you’ve always wanted and give that a bloody good shot.
All I want to say is that I have some great people around me vitally interested in helping make the unlikely come true. Whether it is accounting skill and vision, marketing and sales, production management, procurement, systems and tech overhaul or just a strong voice to help enunciate and drive your vision forward, we are here and willing to do the mahi.
You don’t know us, but meet us and you’ll understand exactly what this bunch of corporate refugees is all about. We are deadly serious about bringing our vast experience to bear to support your business dreams. If we think we can’t help, we’ll say so fast. But, if we do think we can support and nurture your dream, we will be the most dedicated, honest, uncompromising advocates and allies you will ever meet.
It’s just a thought, but if you are out there feeling cold, lonely, rejected and in despair about what’s next, call Regeneration HQ. Warm your feet around the fire and let’s see what’s possible. By the way, there is a real outdoor fire and many feet have been warmed by it. Try it, you might like it and it might just transform where you are now.