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  • - We have been self-quarantined for almost a week now.

  • You see, I am making this video.

  • I do not have my typical camera crew with me

  • or fancy lights or fancy productions.

  • This is simply me talking to you through my iPhone,

  • and my wife, Jenny, is actually holding this camera.

  • You see, I know that I have a huge following

  • on social media, and I know for a fact,

  • a lot of my fans, a lot of my students,

  • they are being impacted by the coronavirus.

  • I also know that a lot of my friends who are entrepreneurs,

  • who are business owners, they are struggling.

  • I know that a lot of them are closing their doors.

  • A lot of them are going out of business.

  • These are very challenging times.

  • Some of the videos that you saw on my channel, my YouTube,

  • they were actually pre-recorded a few weeks ago,

  • and this video, here, is real time, what's happening.

  • Now, I am not going to give you a raw raw motivational talk

  • because that's not what's needed right now.

  • What's needed right now

  • are practical (claps hands) strategies that you can apply

  • in your life and in your business that makes a difference.

  • At times like these,

  • there's a lot of fear in the marketplace.

  • There's a lot of fear out there.

  • People are panicking.

  • It is exactly at times like these that they need leadership,

  • not from me, but from you, that they need leadership

  • from you as a father, as a mother, as a son,

  • as a daughter, as a business owner,

  • they need a leader like you, that you need to step up.

  • You need to take charge of the situation

  • because they're looking towards you.

  • They're counting on you to provide leadership,

  • to provide clarity, to provide confidence,

  • to provide that vision where we are going,

  • how are we going to overcome this.

  • Now, I'm not going to tell you that everything's going to be fine.

  • In fact, things are not going to be fine.

  • Things are about to get a lot worse.

  • You see, this is not the first time I've

  • experienced something like this.

  • Maybe not to this degree,

  • but I have experienced a few major panics like this

  • during my life and my business career.

  • The first one was back in 1997.

  • Back then, I immigrated to Canada,

  • and I was here for a couple years already.

  • In 1997, when Hong Kong returned to China,

  • that triggered the Asia financial crisis,

  • and within a very short period of time,

  • my father actually went bankrupt

  • because of the financial crisis.

  • So I know, first hand, what it's like to be a victim

  • of a financial crisis, what kind of damage

  • that it could do to a family, to your loved ones.

  • You see, because of that, I learned to be self-reliant.

  • I learned that even sometimes in life,

  • you cannot count on even your own father to provide

  • for you, that we had to be self-reliant.

  • The only person that we could count on is ourself.

  • That I needed to step up as a son to provide

  • for my mom and for my family.

  • And in 2001, 9/11, I remember it, you remember it.

  • I vividly remember, I woke up in the morning.

  • My mom was saying to me, "Dan, turn on the TV."

  • I turned on the TV, and I saw the plane crash

  • into the World Trade Center.

  • I couldn't believe it.

  • I thought it was a movie.

  • I couldn't believe.

  • I've never seen anything like that.

  • And while I was in disbelief, slowly,

  • I came to the realization, "Wow, this really happened."

  • And then, of course, as you know,

  • the stock market plummeted,

  • also triggered a financial crisis during that time.

  • And I was a business owner, young entrepreneur,

  • not knowing a whole lot, struggling in debt.

  • It was a very tough time, very very tough time.

  • But then, a few years later, 2002, SARS hit Hong Kong.

  • Now, if you know my background, my history,

  • you know I was born in Hong Kong.

  • All my family is in Hong Kong.

  • My mom was with me here at the time.

  • My father was still in Hong Kong.

  • So it was very, very difficult to see.

  • That's why my heart goes to the nurses,

  • the doctors, the food truck drivers, the policemen,

  • because I know how hard it is.

  • In fact, one of my childhood friend's mom actually worked

  • in a hospital during the time of SARS.

  • It was a very difficult time.

  • So this is not the first time I've witnessed

  • and seen something like this.

  • So if you've been impacted by the coronavirus,

  • here's some strategies for you.

  • It might not solve all your problems,

  • but my goal is to give you a little bit more clarity

  • or maybe to help you to figure out

  • where you should go from here.

  • Number one, and that is don't get paid

  • for your time, get paid for your skills.

  • I've been talking about this for years now.

  • In fact, I wrote a book about it last year

  • called "Unlock It," that we are transitioning

  • from the job economy to now the skill economy.

  • That the job economy, it's dead.

  • The old model of going to school, getting good grades,

  • and get a job and work that job for 30 years,

  • that model, it's outdated.

  • Now, we are in the skill economy,

  • meaning that you need to embrace the idea

  • of being more like free agent, more like a freelancer,

  • more like an independent contractor,

  • more like a remote talent so that you are not counting on,

  • and you cannot count on the government

  • to solve all these problems for you,

  • that they will rescue you, or you are relying

  • on a company to take care of you.

  • The only person that you can rely on

  • is yourself and your skillset.

  • So maybe, lets say you are a graphic designer,

  • and you've been always working for a company.

  • During a crisis like this,

  • maybe it's time to embrace a new model

  • that maybe you'll be more a freelancer,

  • more like a freelancer model

  • that you are now working with different companies.

  • You're still applying your skillsets, your expertise,

  • but now, you can work with more people

  • instead of just relying on one company.

  • That is the old model.

  • The new model is different.

  • Now, if you don't have those skillsets,

  • and maybe you are a waiter, you are a waitress.

  • Nothing wrong with that.

  • But the question you have to ask yourself is do you want

  • to be a waiter or a waitress for the rest of your life?

  • If waiting is the skillset that you have or the people skill

  • is the skill that you have, that is good.

  • But knowing that, you learn that skill.

  • It also means that you could learn other skillsets.

  • It's at times like these you have to ask yourself,

  • "Okay, what kind of new skillsets do I need to develop?"

  • That you're no longer just getting paid

  • for your time just for, by being there,

  • but actually your skillset.

  • You see, in the job economy, you get paid for your time.

  • But in skill economy, you get paid for results.

  • What kind of results can you deliver?

  • How can you deliver those results more efficiently,

  • more effectively than most other people?

  • Those are the key questions that you need to ask.

  • Number two, double down on your learning.

  • You see, most people, during time off,

  • self-isolation, what do they do?

  • They watch Netflix, they watch TV.

  • They play video games.

  • That's their choice.

  • But wouldn't it be smarter to now take these times

  • that you normally wouldn't have, go listen to that podcast.

  • Watch more educational videos.

  • Learning, take some courses online.

  • Learn from other people.

  • Read a book, read a Kindle.

  • Do something to upgrade your skills.

  • Now is the time to learn.

  • Now is not the time to waste time.

  • See, the world kind of, at the moment,

  • kind of freeze, everything kind of slows down.

  • Everybody slows down.

  • Now it's time for you to prepare yourself emotionally

  • but also mentally, as well, so that when things return

  • back to kind of normal, you're there.

  • You're prepared.

  • It's very, very critical.

  • Don't waste time.

  • The reason you want to keep learning during times like these

  • because if you want to keep your job,

  • if you want to get a new job, these skillsets will serve you.

  • You need those additional skillsets, additional knowledge,

  • if you were to survive and thrive in times like these.

  • Number three, expand, don't contract.

  • Maybe you need to change the way

  • that you sell as a business owner.

  • Maybe you need to change the way who you sell it to.

  • Maybe different target market.

  • Maybe different price point.

  • But we need to do something

  • as an entrepreneur, as a business owner.

  • Do you know that a lot of great companies today,

  • they were actually launched during recession?

  • IBM, Microsoft, General Motors, Disney, General Electrics.

  • A lot of these great companies,

  • they were launched during the recession.

  • Why?

  • Because during the recession, everybody,

  • they are hiding in their bunkers.

  • They are afraid.

  • Everybody is panicking, but as a smart entrepreneur,

  • if you're smart, you'll also see opportunities.

  • You see there's a way that you could expand

  • if you could survive, if you have the resources,

  • if you know how to allocate your resources, now is the time.

  • Because everybody else, they freeze.

  • If you are the one that's active,

  • you're proactive in the marketplace and you're expanding,

  • you're advertising, you're marketing more,

  • you would get more tension in the marketplace.

  • And when this blows over,

  • you would have dominate your industry.

  • Now, easy to say, not easy to do.

  • I understand that.

  • But you have to ask yourself, and you have to have

  • that communication with your team, and say,

  • "Hey, this is what is happening.

  • "This is what's going on."

  • Right?

  • A powerful question that you could ask with your team,

  • and this is the same question that I pose

  • to my team is this, "How could we double our revenue

  • "with 50% of our resources?

  • "How could we double our revenue with 50% of resources?"

  • See, it's a thinking question, and now, it expands our mind.

  • Okay, what do we need to do?

  • When the world panics, we expand.

  • That's what a true entrepreneur does.

  • When the world panics, we expand.

  • Also, communicate, over communicate with your vendors.

  • Over communicate with your customers.

  • Over communicate with your employees.

  • Because if now, they are working remotely,

  • they are working from home,

  • you don't have that face-to-face interaction.

  • It is more important than ever to actually over communicate

  • because again, they need your leadership.

  • They need to know what is going on.

  • They need to know what you're thinking.

  • They need to know what each other is thinking.

  • Now it's time to unite as a team,

  • to work as a team together, and to move forward.

  • So expand, don't contract.

  • Number four, cut your losses.

  • There are businesses we could pivot, we could self-correct,

  • we could re-engineer, we could re-structure, yes.

  • But there are businesses that cannot be saved.

  • They are businesses that they were already slowly dying.

  • The coronavirus, simply, it is an accelerator,

  • accelerates the dying process.

  • I know how hard it is to walk away from your business,

  • but knowing that you're an entrepreneur,

  • don't let the business define who you are.

  • You are a business owner.

  • It may not be this business.

  • Maybe you've been doing it for years, maybe even decades,

  • but sometimes it may be time to turn the key.

  • But take all the skills and all the knowledge you have

  • to start the next thing.

  • Maybe do it a little bit differently.

  • Serve a different market.

  • Structure the business in a different way.

  • Hire more contractors, more remotely.

  • Maybe it's offline, now it's more online.

  • Maybe it's event driven,

  • now it's more online virtual learning, social media driven.

  • I don't know your business,

  • but I know there are things that you could do.

  • But sometimes we just hang on too long.

  • We are so emotionally attached to the business.

  • Now, we're throwing good money against bad money.

  • Now, we're wasting good resources when we could've used

  • that money for something else in the future.

  • That would be my recommendation.

  • Yes, the coronavirus will test your EQ.

  • The coronavirus will test your resourcefulness.

  • Now it's more important than ever

  • to be cool, calm, and collected.

  • Because if you're not cool, calm, and collected,

  • how could you expect your team to be?

  • Number five, take some time to reflect.

  • You see, when my father went bankrupt,

  • I was kind of living in self-pity.

  • I was asking the question, "Why does this happen to me?

  • "Why is this happening to me?

  • "What did I do?"

  • But that didn't get me anywhere.

  • So I believe sometimes we need to shift the question.

  • Yes, times are bad, but a better question to ask is,

  • "What can I learn from this?"

  • Because let's not lose perspective.

  • At the moment when we're so close to it,

  • when we're experiencing it, of course it's very hard.

  • But you take that out and you look at it

  • from this global epidemic, two years, three years,

  • five years, 10 years, 50 years, 100 years from now.

  • As challenging as it is, let's not lose perspective.

  • What can we learn from this?

  • How could you ensure that

  • if something like this happens in the future,

  • that you could protect your family, ensure their safety,

  • but also ensure their financial wellbeing.

  • What could we do to prevent this from ever happening?

  • Right, what could we do as a group, as a team, as a company,

  • as a family, what could we do to move forward?

  • What could we learn from each other?

  • Although the social distancing is kind of, it sucks.

  • But I bet afterwards, people will be more united.

  • People now will cherish those times

  • when we have with each other.

  • Human beings, sometimes we are very, very interesting.

  • It's at times like this we learn.

  • It's at times like this, if you want to, to reflect.

  • So stay safe, stay strong, and stay healthy.

- We have been self-quarantined for almost a week now.

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