*This blog is a break from the election, which is on pause for the foreseeable future.*
These are difficult, scary times. The spread of the coronavirus has seemed to impact every aspect of our lives. We turn on the news and we’re confronted with a red sign and the words “breaking news” on it. We look elsewhere on the screen only to see a story about nurses in New York who are making their own protective face masks. We look at the corner of the screen to see that the stock market has plummeted, millions of retirees seeing their investments vanished. We turn the TV off and we look up, only to see parents getting off the phone with their employer who just informed them that they would be laid off until the virus has passed. We get on social media and we see Instagram challenges, some of which make dealing with the virus even harder.
Then we reminisce. We think about how just a few weeks ago, life was normal. We were walking the streets of Happy Valley, worried about our next tests on weekdays and what we were doing for State Patty’s on the weekend. We were filling in everyday conversations with the standard question we have to ask every few months: “So what are your plans for break?” We knew about the coronavirus. But we also knew we were America, we have some of the best and most sophisticated medical systems in the world. “This can’t happen to us, we’re different, we’re better than a virus,” we thought.
It’s easy to go down that path, it’s easy to think about what could’ve been. Sure, we could have been interacting in-person, whatever that felt like. Sure, we could have been sitting on the HUB lawn with our friends while doing our homework. Sure, part of our college experience is gone forever. But it’s important to zoom (pun intended) out, to gain a better perspective on the situation.
A mentor of mine checked up on a few of my friends and me, texting us, “Stay positive, focus on what you can do, not what you cant. You will be asked in your job interviews what you did during this time period, great opportunity to be productive and find new things to do and new ways to do old things. Stay in touch, let me know if you need help.”
Let’s take the first part of that: focusing on what we can do. Are we going to spend our seemingly endless hours feeling stressed and powerless, or are we going to control our mindset going into each day? We most likely have more free time than we have had in a while. It’s up to us to now apply ourselves to the things that matter: our classes, our family relationships, our faith, our skills, our knowledge. We can come out of this situation the same as when we went in or we can come better than ever before – the choice is ours.
The same is true for our country. The second part of that text was to let him know if we needed help. How many employers are doing that? My hometown basketball organization, the Sixers, planned on slashing their employees’ income by 20%. General Motors did the same. So did Hyatt. It makes us question if that’s the way things should be. It makes us question whether billionaires should look the other way when their employees need them the most. When did that stop becoming the job of a leader?
Simon Sinek said that during hard times, the best run companies fall back on the belief that it is “better that we all suffer little than any of us suffer much.” The good news is that some are adopting that motto. For example, the CEO of Texas Roadhouse pledged to forgo his salary and his bonus to pay his workers. Drew and Brittany Brees pledged $5 million to the state of Louisiana. Starbucks has offered free coffee to any medical workers.
That is what leadership is. It’s not always about the bottom line. Sometimes there are causes that are of greater importance. When we look out for each other in times of crisis, it shows the best of humanity: humility, empathy, and service. Taking care of people when they most need it is going to change the world more than the few more zeroes in a bank account.
I’ve often heard it said that the day people were most proud to be Americans was 9/12. When the only label that mattered was “American” and everyone came together to help the country heal. Through this difficult time, we’ll all look ahead to the day when we get good news, to the day when we’ve begun to not only flatten the curve but see it decline. We’ll all go back to life as it used to be: we’ll hug, we’ll handshake, we’ll stop wearing pajamas all day, and maybe most importantly, we’ll understand that most of our meetings can be summed up in an email. Until that time, however, we all have an opportunity to sharpen our skills, deepen our relationships, and look out for the most vulnerable among us. We have what will, hopefully, be a unique opportunity to focus on the things that matter most – let’s not waste it.