Be Humble. Be Human. Think Outside the "Bubble".

It’s hard to believe that only few weeks ago life was “normal” when our days were focussed on new goals, new obligations, places to be, people to see. The pace of life was, as always, fast and getting faster – before we’d know it, Christmas would again be around the corner, followed by another new set of resolutions to try and meet.

Suddenly everything changed. Unprecedently and unwillingly. 

The world, as we know it, is forever changed.

Be Humble

The outbreak of Covid-19 took the world by storm. It started with what most people saw as a remote, localised virus from a small corner of the East, to a now-global pandemic with death tolls rising ruthlessly around the world. 

I’ve been quietly observing how the world tackles this, the different approaches being taken and the profound impact these varied approaches have on learning and understanding as each day unfolds. 

Countries previously hit by SARS and MERS seemed better prepared this time in their response to Covid-19, starting from the highest government level right through to the people, thankfully guided by the painful lessons learnt previously. These countries were relatively better-equipped and have institutional acute awareness coupled with fast responding procedures at all levels. 

Take Korea, Singapore and Taiwan for example. They’ve been the first to flatten their curve, leading the way globally. It almost feels as though there was an “activate” button to move things in a synchronised pace unseen by most Western countries, tackling the Covid-19 spread by combining smart tools and mindset to keep things under control. 

Taiwan uses Artificial Intelligence to integrate its national health database with custom border control, sectors distribution combined with civil defence to quickly identify, test and track suspected and known cases. 

Korea is one of the earliest to deploy nationwide drive-through testing centres to quickly ramp up testing capability, supported by health facilities, to identify the scale and spread in the population and, in turn, lower the spread of transmission. 

So, what can the world learn from them?

One fascinating observation that has come out of this ongoing combat against Covid-19 is the use of face masks. Yes - the inconvenient, uncomfortable, unattractive and highly-unfashionable piece of lifesaving equipment, that is worn by almost every single person you see across Eastern Asia during the annual flu season. In contrast, many in Europe and the United States still refuse to even consider wearing a mask, despite the pandemic ravaging their societies. Masks have always been seen by most western cultures as only for those who are seriously sick in hospital, but not for general hygiene reasons. I get a lot of messages from friends saying they are very concerned to see so many people not wearing masks in many countries. However, there are some promising signs starting to show with some countries introducing mandatory measures to wear masks in certain places, i.e., supermarkets and other public places in parts of Germany and US. 

Of course wearing masks alone is not the only solution, but it is certainly interesting to note that they are a common denominator in countries who have so far been more successful than others in managing the spread of the virus.

Cultural modesty plays a big part in this and it is particularly at a time like this that, if we can all be humble enough to learn, to be aware, to at least try to understand what some countries are successfully doing to fight Covid-19, then maybe, just maybe, we can save hundreds of thousands of human lives.

This can be exemplified at all levels of business, family and personal life. Take a moment to pause, to see what’s around us, to be humble and to learn this new normal way of life. 

Be Human

The ‘normal’ world that we used to know is now forever changed. What we valued in the past and how we conducted our daily lives have now been completely reset. 

It’s a scary thought. The sad thing is we are now moving into a time starting with unforeseen death, potential job losses and hundreds of thousands of families being affected. 

So what should we do? We are yet to manifest the scope of this, and to comprehend what and how to deal with things. We are now filled with questions from all directions that we do not have answers for.

New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that have decided to go hard and early against Covid-19. “Stay home, break the chain and save lives”. We have just passed the second week of lock down in New Zealand and we are starting to see a number of positive signs showing that our approach in NZ is working. We take pride in how we have responded and how we lead the world.

Our Prime Minister has shown humble and clear leadership throughout this entire episode. But there are two words in particular she has used that, in my view, cannot be more important or more relevant in representing who we are in NZ and in giving us the courage to move forward during this darkest time. 

"Be kind”.

These words touch me at a deeper personal level. The two beautiful words came from our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to guide us when we needed guidance, to tell us to use what we already had – the capacity for kindness. So simple, yet so powerful. They were a reminder to us that, as we figured out our next step, one baby step at a time, we would come out of this crisis by being kind.. and through kindness, show true courage.

Think Outside the Bubble

The lockdown forces everyone to stay in our own “bubble”, to stay at least 2 metres from each other’s bubbles. I am truly grateful to have this opportunity to look closely inside ours. I’m grateful to appreciate this unexpected gift of family time together, to do things that we always wanted to do but didn’t have the time for. To understand each other and be present and live the moment. 

I also learnt that each bubble is unique in its own way. Our bubble, for example, is coloured by its cultural influences. We originate from the birthplace of the world famous “bubble tea”, and now we’re lucky enough to be able to call a place of kindness and humility home - the small island nation of Aotearoa New Zealand.

This is the time to reflect, to go deeper and unlearn a lot of our existing assumptions. To truly understand as a human being, as a business, what you are offering to the world that is needed to solve new problems and help others. ‘Crisis’ in Chinese literally means both danger and opportunity. I firmly believe it is at a time like this that we see some real geniuses emerge - the new breed of entrepreneurs with the next generation of ideas, who think not only “inside the bubble”, but extend that to “outside the bubble”. History continues to show that some of the greatest people, businesses and ideas are born during the toughest times, offering what we have never seen before.

Be humble to ‘unlearn’ what we used to know and ‘relearn’ this new normal world that we are moving into. 

By being human and being kind we will give each other enough courage to lean on one another, to do this together, to reach out and to offer our shoulders for others to lean on. We don’t know what the new world will be like, but we do know that we need to – and can - get through together collectively, to move forward. 

Be humble. 

Be human.

And let’s learn from each other’s bubble.