How To Make The Lockdown Period Count

I start with a minute's silence for some recently departed people known to me. Mr. Jonah Kamau - the father to my university days roommate. He was also a schoolmate of my father's and read all the books I have authored. He shared a birthday with my daughter. Second, Lorna Irungu - my yearmate at the university. And third, Antonio Letting - a friend, entrepreneur and a reader of one of my books. On the day he bought his copy, he got eight other people to buy copies too. You were all special to many of us in many ways. RIP and peace be upon their families.

Thank you.

Following the 15th presidential address on Covid-19 that has ushered in yet another lockdown, many people are at a loss after barely scraping through a difficult 2020 and some minimal recovery in the first quarter of 2021.

There is doom and gloom around us and our hearts go to all those who have been affected. At this time last year, the deaths and infections reported were simply statistics to many of us. A year on, we have lost people known to us. The lockdown is justified and all containment measures must be observed as outlined by the government.

With all sporting and social activities suspended, the inertia of finding new things to do is evident.

Let us agree with one fact. Even without Covid-19, jobs were or would still be lost. The convergence of technologies, a phenomenon now referred to as the 4th industrial revolution was steadily eating into the job market. The pandemic is just an accelerant and long after it is gone, the jobs will not return.

So if people retain the same mindset, we shall increasingly witness the build-up of a lost generation - one that is very educated but loaded with obsolete knowledge and skills - and one that has plenty of experience in the field of complaints. There is nothing worse than possessing experiences that your own children don't cherish because they have no use in their emerging world of new possibilities.

So to escape the possibility of being a museum piece, we must find some new things or some new ways of doing things. Since most jobs inevitably, by 2027 will be gig economy dependent, we must grow or modify our present personal offerings into gigs. You must now spend more time behind your computer searching and learning new things. You must commence the journey to being world-class now so that you can serve the world from home.

The lockdown has a silver lining if viewed as the time to step up our quest for new things. This is the time to break away from the crowd that is now pulling you down by constantly complaining and overwhelming you with the same old things that are unhelpful going forward.

In case you are doubting my drift, then here is some encouragement. The market today is full of youthful spenders - both independent and emergent, that prefer a virtual engagement. Those still heavily entrenched in the physical world, if not sportsmen, are in for a rude shock. Don't be one of them - a talking fossil.

We are in this lockdown phase to sharpen our saws and deepen our areas of relevance through new skills that are marketable going forward. In the old dispensation, we were educated to work for others whilst under them, but today's world yearns for those who can serve decision-makers as independent contractors.

Crunch this with me. A banker recently informed me that in 2020, they opened more accounts than those they had achieved from their inception up to 2019. This is a bank that has been here for a century. Today, as we brave the third wave of the pandemic, this bank is on a third retrenchment cycle. In the past, they hired data entry clerks but today, we are doing it for them through our phones and at no cost to the bank when we key in our details.

With jobs as we know them getting fewer and far between, there is growing pressure on living expenses. Backyard and balcony gardening are becoming new attractions. Jump into it and save money. We may not enumerate every possibility under the sun today but we advocate for a change of gears and attitudes.

It will pay handsomely if you emerged from the lockdown with a new trade.