About 75 years ago, Napoleon Hill, best selling author of “Think and Grow Rich”, famously said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
I agree with Hill, and believe the current pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is no exception. Why do I say that? Because in life you will always face a series of God-ordained opportunities, brilliantly disguised as problems, adversity and challenges.
Although the lockdown is being eased around the world, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to what the new normal will look like.
People continue to question everything in their lives – from their priorities and their values to their hopes and aspirations. And rightly so!
Arianna Huffington, Thrive Global Founder & CEO put it this way in a recent article, “The Delphic admonition “Know Thyself” and Socrates’ admonition that “the unexamined life is not worth living” are not ancient philosophical platitudes, but in fact the most relevant and important guiding truths for our lives, especially now.”
The World in Coronavirus Lockdown
As challenging and uncertain as these times are, we can’t ignore the fact that certain businesses are thriving right now.
How to Unmask Hidden Opportunities During the Coronavirus Pandemic
For those willing to look beyond the surface, there are hidden opportunities within the COVID-19 crisis to transform their lives and the way they work.
This unprecedented time in history has given most people unexpected time in their schedules, as social distancing has forced us to stay home. If you haven’t resorted to binge-watching every Netflix series, then the extra few minutes each day are the perfect time to make a difference in your life.
There are opportunities to:
- Learn new skills.
- Learn a new language.
- Start businesses and side hustles.
- Work differently.
- Acquire more knowledge and grow.
- Become a better person
Examples of What You can do During the Lockdown
Here is a selection of things you can do during this period.
#1. Undertake a Free Online Course with Certification
There are many free online courses that you can avail yourself of at this time. Just search “free online courses” on Google or any other search engine.
However, to make it easier for you, I have listed some free online courses below:
Free Online Courses from Harvard
Here is a selection of over 90 free online courses from Harvard University. No matter your interest, you’re likely to have something.
Check them out.
#2. Either Grow or Start your Online Business
Millions of people are turning to the Internet for answers. For example, according to a recent report, coronavirus has sparked ‘staggering growth’ in online searches for foods with functional benefits.
Time to Step Up and Serve
If you’re an online entrepreneur who is not using this time to STEP UP and SERVE, you are missing out on the biggest opportunity for audience growth in arguably this century.
And no, this is not about taking advantage of an unfortunate situation (although undoubtedly, many out there will). This is about having an understanding that because of the coronavirus pandemic:
- People’s needs have changed
- The way we do business has changed
- There is a new “normal” which will most probably continue when the pandemic is over
Opportunity of a Life Time
And big-hearted entrepreneurs like you have the opportunity of a life time to make a bigger impact than ever before.
Just like the Spanish flu, COVID-19 will pass. As you know, the Spanish flu (also known as the 1918 flu pandemic) was an unusually deadly pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a quarter of the world’s population at the time, killing about 50 million people.
#3. Learn a New Language
Have you always wanted to learn a new language? Well, this could be your opportunity. Thanks to the internet, you can learn a new language without leaving the comfort of your own home! Just search “learn new language” online.
Research by the US State Department Foreign Service Institute, (FSI) indicates that it takes 480 hours to reach basic fluency in group 1 languages, and 720 hours for group 2-4 languages. If we are able to put in 10 hours a day to learn a language, then basic fluency in the easy languages should take 48 days, and for difficult languages 72 days.
Language Groups of Difficulty
The FSI divides languages into groups of difficulty for speakers of English:
Group 1: French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili
Group 2: Bulgarian, Burmese, Greek, Hindi, Persian, Urdu
Group 3: Amharic, Cambodian, Czech, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Lao, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese
Group 4: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
When It’s Over Will You Make it?
Here is the reality.
No matter how bad the pandemic is, and no matter how bad it gets, it will pass. Things will return to a “new normal”. Eventually!
However, it is in this time of adversity that the next generation of successful entrepreneurs are being birthed.
Will YOU be one of them?
First published on Astute Copy Blogging