How Leaders Respond to Pandemics
The world just sent us to our rooms to think about what we’ve done, but are we actually doing that?
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.” — Dr. Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, author.
As lady liberty sits inside her white room. She has, for the first time in her 145 years of age, time to think. As crowds disperse and the world enters a period of isolation, we are forced to sit, with ourselves, and think about what we’ve done.
“What we’ve done?” a bystander shouts at the shuttered Dead Rabbit bar sitting adjacent to Lady Liberty on Water Street. Restaurants, bars, and any shops deemed unessential, like the Dead Rabbit, have closed their doors to the world. All in an effort to fight this growing pandemic.
pan*dem*ic (pænˈdɛm ɪk) adj. (of a disease) prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area.
“We are to blame. For too many years we have flown through our unrestrained, massively globalized world, reaping the benefits of our technological innovations without stopping to look at what we’ve created. Over many decades, we have established the most magnificent world. Like never before, we can fly where-ever we want and talk to friends 5,000 miles away all while scrolling instagram and seeing what the latest influencer is eating for breakfast in Bali. We are interconnected, outerconnected, and overconnected. We are so connected we don’t know what to do with ourselves, and it is this very connection that has drawn us too far and pushed the limits too much.” — I respond in discontent.
This connection is a spectacular improvement over previous generations. We now have an economy based on sharing. Where each person can be empowered to use their car or house to make money or meet new people. We put trust in people we don’t know on a daily basis. What my dad used to tell me growing up, “don’t get into cars with strangers,” has now become my primary medium of transportation. I mean, what would I have done without Tomo, my Montenegrin Uber driver, that picked me up in the middle of the night after my friend and I missed the last train home from London. Although Tomo and I got off to a rough start, we shared stories on our 3am ride that I never would have heard otherwise. (Spoiler: he knew Lewis Hamilton)
It is experiences like these that I cherish. Without this incredible technology, or the ubiquity, safety, and low cost of air travel, I wouldn't have seen so much of the world. I wouldn’t have gained my unique perspective. I wouldn’t know what was possible. Instead, I would still be as Kunal Nayyar puts it, an infinite human trapped in a finite mentality. However, what I am now being forced to realize is too much of anything can be bad, and if we don’t put the right checks in place, we won’t be prepared if something goes awry. We’ve now reached too far. We’ve jumped too high. Because of our good intentions, we’ve almost fallen over the edge, but luckily we’re still holding on.
What is happening to the world at the moment is really sad. People are sick, hurt and dying. Misinformation is spreading like wildfires. Social media is driving our life more than ever, and the worst part is we’ve know about this for ages. In fact, we were warned just 5 years ago.
When Bill Gates gave a Ted talk in March of 2015 explaining how we weren’t ready for the next epidemic, he wasn’t predicting where we’d be today. Instead, he was using scientific lessons from his fight against Ebola to see where gaps in our system lie. As he reminisced on the nuclear fears of his childhood, he predicted a frighteningly accurate picture of the future (a.k.a. today). He actually underestimated the effects which leads me to the question: what were we doing when one of the most prominent people on the planet handed us our fate on a silver platter? I hadn’t seen this video until recently, but I wonder how, with such a clear warning, we still weren’t prepared. What are we thinking?
Over the past three weeks, I sat in the Caius boathouse, appreciating my time left in there, and pondering this idea. This was an extremely difficult task though because I was continuously being pulled into the tornado of anxiety and fear that the media and my friends were twisting up. I wasn’t just distracted. I was debilitated. I felt trapped by what was the worst way to manage the situation. People were frantic, the world was imploding, and blame was tossed back and forth. However, as time passed, I finally began to realize what was happening. It was a podcast and video by Gerard Adams that really opened my eyes up to the response of the world.
This anxiety isn’t new. It has been brewing inside us for decades. The technology that we hold near and dear to us has made us the most connected generation on the planet, but it has also made us the most disconnected, with each other, and with ourselves. We have been moving unconsciously through our day to day life because of how busy we are; beset by the minutiae of what’s happening. I understand this because I can relate. With rowing training occuring 12 times per week and coursework for my masters, I was moving non-stop. I wanted to be immersed in it because I was enjoying it so much, but what I realize, now, is how unsustainable it really was.
I became super optimized in this continuous movement. My work was done on time, and I was pulling great numbers on the ergo. This was all great, but only until I realized it was at the expense of my present self and all the incredible people in my life. I was insensitive to not only the people around me, but also, to an equally great extent, to the planet because of the horrible changes it is currently going through.
A side note I enjoyed on climate change: Just to put our individual impact in perspective. The late University of Cambridge professor, David J.C. MacKay, wrote in his book Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air, the average Brit produces 30kg (66lbs) of carbon dioxide every day. Can you imagine if we were forced to clean up our own pollution each day after producing it? That’s the weight equivalent of 53 pints (6.6 gallons) of milk per day! I don’t like taking out the trash once a week which weighs a fraction of that. I wouldn’t want to do this…
This is only the beginning for us. We have the greatest opportunity in the world right now to shift our focus from fear and anxiety to a place of learning, growing, and preparing a path for a better future. When we get through this, what we’ll find is that on the other side of this fear and pain is growth towards a better life and way of doing things.
For example: if you would have invested $10,000 in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) which is an index fund that tracks the S&P 500, at the bottom of the 2008–2009 financial crisis, you would have $41,144 as of this writing (9 April 2020). This same return is not guaranteed to come in the next ten years, but it is quantitative proof of the benefits that can be achieved with a level head during a crisis (and it doesn’t require any technical investing knowledge either).
This quarantine has brought me inside with you. This freedom to think and the time to do so is reminding me that I received the opportunity of a lifetime to grow when I came to Cambridge, and I’m not sure I have fully actualized it yet. I am going to take the time to really think about where I am right now and the resources and people around me and how I can use them to prepare for the next big steps in my life when I leave here.
This is bigger than any New Year’s resolution because we are forced to change. Even those that typically resist it, have had their lives disrupted and must stay inside like everyone else. When the ball drops on December 31 and we enter a new year, nothing actually changes. We stick to our goals for a couple weeks, but always end up returning to our daily lives. Once the minutiae sets in, our sworn testimony to changing is purged back to where it came.
Right now, we have, at least, 4 weeks alone with ourselves and our families. We are away from the outside world. Instead of searching for the physical dimension of being, which we have intensely embraced for so long, we must drive through our surface and go within. We can use this time to improve ourselves, build habits that will stick, learn something new, or spend the time to deepen our relationships with those we haven’t talked to in a while. The physical world we’ve been living in is only one component of our complex lives.
Besides catching up on reading the pile of books sitting on my nightstand or the articles in my inbox, I’m working to produce something in this time. From honing my videography and photography skills to curating a triathlon training plan, I am engaging the information I’ve constantly been piling in to produce something for myself (and others) to enjoy. I enjoy watching a movie or scrolling through instagram as much as the next person (in fact: I am currently rewatching the Batman Trilogy…it’s better the second time), but mindless consumption serves only a minuscule purpose in my life. Rather than consuming the media I love, I am making it and expanding my own understanding along the way.
This will require a conscious effort. Limiting news is difficult, but once you find a new hobby to occupy your time, you won’t miss those news article vying for your attention. I have taken a particularly keen interest in cycling as part of my triathlon training. With my renewed focus in the past few weeks, I have been able to increase my average speed over 30 miles from 13mph to 19mph. This huge increase was only caused because I channeled my attention and curiosity towards a new skill. I realized that utilizing positivity in this time of despair focuses a new light on the world. A light that shines on what we need to see, not on what others want us to see.
Everyone is experiencing a confusing period in their lives right now. A pandemic like this is unprecedented in everyone’s lifetime. Now, more than ever, we must lean on our neighbors and friends. This isn’t a national problem, it is a global problem effecting everyone. In these times of need, it is critical we learn from those that have found a better way of dealing. We must take the time to grow our bonds. Let’s use this overconnectedness to build on our understanding of the world and how reliant we really are on each other.
Whereever we can, we also need to give to those in need. From ordering local to donating money, supplies or expertise where it can help, we must take this opportunity to give back. Take a look at what world-renowned, Michelin starred Chef Jose Andres has been up to with his non-profit, World Central Kitchen, if you need some motivation. Once we’ve done all we can, we must work on ourselves. If we all sit in disarray until this is over, we will be in the same position as when we started. We must take the opportunity now to learn, grow, or relax (if that’s what we truly need). Everyone who is reading this will become the leaders who will make a difference now and in the future when another problem arises. We need to be ready.
This is the opportunity we have all been waiting for. We can now harmlessly exit the outside world, and for once, deeply and intimately enter our own. This can be done in a number of ways (journaling, meditating, etc.) whichever way you choose is up to you, but giving them all a try and finding what resonates the most has helped me. Going within will help us figure out what is important to us, what we’re passionate about, and where we want to go in the future.
This realignment of our values with our present selves and our actions is what we need to make real change in our lives. Once we do that, then we can look outwards. We will have a new perspective that will help us look at the world and logically separate important information from misinformation or irrelevant information.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We need to see it for what it is and take advantage of that. It may seem we are living in a chaotic time, but the reality is we are just waking up. It’s the struggle between outside chaos and striving for inner calmness that makes this change so crazy.
I’d like to end with another quote from Viktor Frankl, neurologist, psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor, and author of the book, Man’s Search for Meaning. He said:
“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times. Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it.”
Each of us is a leader in this pandemic — for ourselves and for each other. What’s your meaning in this difficult time? Let me know in the comments below.
Zach
