The first six months of 2020 have been a rollercoaster. The biggest twist was a global pandemic, stemming from a novel coronavirus that caused global shutdowns of businesses from the US to Italy. Anxiety and stress are naturally a byproduct of such a calamitous event that has inflated unemployment numbers and pushed small businesses to the financial brink of collapse.
Navigating the entrepreneurial world is never easy, let alone amid the uncertain backdrop of 2020. But it doesn’t have to be all negative — every challenge is an opportunity.
As lockdowns ease and life tries to return to normal, preparing for a post-COVID world requires a dose of inspiration and perseverance.
“The mindset for the remainder of 2020 needs to block out the challenges of the last six months,” says Jaiden Vu, Founder of Black Peached — a digital sales consulting firm. “If you truly want to reap the benefits of your hard work, you need to adapt to new situations and carry on with your vision through perseverance.”
Managing An Assortment of Challenges
Everyone has been affected by COVID-19 in some way or another. Whether a personal relative or friend who got sick or an adverse financial situation drawing from the millions in layoffs and furloughs — the only thing you can control is your mindset.
Two critical aspects of a mindset for entrepreneurs is ambition and inspiration. Results tend to follow an emphasis on those two. Preparing for the post-COVID world means relying on the same character that pushed people through tough times, and building on that perseverance to strengthen a company or work towards a goal in spite of the exogenous circumstances.
However, overcoming the anxiety and stress of recent months is harder than it sounds, especially for people more negatively impacted by the situation than others. That’s a notion that Vu empathizes with, who had the luxury of the events not seriously diminishing his business’ bottom line.
“I’d be honest in saying that I’ve been very fortunate to have been minimally impacted from recent events,” says Vu. “Due to the current state affairs, my view has been to ignore physical solutions entirely and just focus on our goals — ignoring the outside noise. However, I understand the situation is different for other people.”
The situation may be worse for many other entrepreneurs and small business owners right now, but the consistency of a mindset is a universal method to persevere. For Vu, that mindset takes the form of work ethic and ambition.
“Work ethic is the ability to put blinders on and hustle until your targets are met,” says Vu. “There should be absolutely no reason to ever have one foot in and one foot out in anything you do because if it means that much to you, you’d work day and night to realize it.”
Even when circumstances are tough, your work ethic can pull you out of the chaos and push you through to the other side. That other side is rapidly approaching as we put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. And translating that work ethic during COVID to the world after it has withdrawn will define how you persevere through bad times.
“How you do one thing is how you do anything, so what does your ethic say about you in these times?” asks Vu.
Preventing Burnout & Staying Inspired
Probably one of the most obvious feelings everyone is experiencing at the tail end of lockdowns is burnout. Being shuttered in your home without a job or working from home while your kids cause mayhem can be mentally taxing. Especially with social media as one of the few outlets to the real world, people are probably exhausted from watching daily Twitter fights.
When you’re burned out, it can be difficult to remain inspired. Mental exhaustion, stress from economic hardship, and a feeling of listlessness can snowball into larger problems. Your confidence can wane, and with it, drag down the motivation that led to the entrepreneurial life in the first place.
“I stop anything I do before it becomes a choir,” details Vu on the subject of burnout. “Meaning anytime I feel a sense of stress towards any tasks I dive into, I’d stop and get some fresh air. When something becomes annoying or a choir, we subconsciously view that as a negative and force ourselves to produce poor quality results.”
Poor quality results often reduce confidence and inspiration, fomenting a negative feedback loop of adverse emotions. However, Vu believes that if you remain ambitious, it can get you through some tight spots.
“Ambition is bound by our undying pursuit to see through our goals,” says Vu. “Without ambition, you lose confidence, and without confidence, any entrepreneur will fail to see success which, most of the time, is right around the corner.”
And right around the corner can be just on the other side of COVID-19. The fall of many businesses and economic turmoil created by recent events is an opportunity to capitalize on work sustained through the crisis. If you can stay inspired and build off the perseverance you arduously crafted over the last several months — possibilities abound.
Vu’s advice? Take account of what the business world will look like after COVID-19, and rely on your work ethic to accomplish your goals.
After all, his company, Black Peached, helps small businesses create and expand their digital presence — a salve for many small business owners looking to stay afloat as brick-and-mortar consumer spending plummets.
“I believe in light of COVID-19, businesses will start to adopt more of a digital presence to shed high exposure in physical means of purchasing,” says Vu.
Regardless of the business sector, your entrepreneurial life occupies, the post-COVID world welcomes those who have persevered through tough times. Inspiration and work ethic will get you there, and ambition is their fuel.