Survival!

What would you do?

The fire alarm goes off. There is smoke and this is not a drill.

What do you do? 2 minutes - talk to your partner.

Would you:

• a) Maintain an orderly fashion, proceed outside, left at the doors. Line up by the fountain.
• b) Call emergency services then do nothing whatsoever
• c) Take the fire on. Swiping furiously, with a damp towel

or

• d) Scream and wail until someone helps you?

Chances are, many would pick C. In fact each one of these responses will ensure a certain degree of survival, but diving right in to take danger head on, although perceived as dangerous, ensures we are in control.

So get your pencils, notebooks and Swiss Army Knife ready. I am going to teach you about Survival.

Why must you survive?

1) To ensure the perpetuation of the species. To protect your investments. You each have a valuable commodity and it is your responsibility to ensure that item grows and becomes productive. For some, this is a timeshare in the Cayman Islands, while for others it could be their children, homes or families.

2) Our species depends on survival. Should our community, culture or race become extinct, no one would be able to further themselves. We cannot live on through our generations if we don't survive.

What is survival?

Merriam-Webster states this is the act or fact of living or continuing longer than another person or thing.

It comes from Middle English, meaning to outlive

Living longer than a thing and that thing right now is the aforementioned Covid-19.

It is the ability to live on. Make your mark. Tell your story. Withstand danger and be sensitive to the changing surroundings. You have to fight, take flight or freeze.

Questions

So the question is; can you outlive this?

• Can you make a bigger impact on Earth than it?
• Can your words, wisdom, art and craft, call the whole world to action?
• Can you overcome the pandemic?
• Would you be defeated by it?
• Will you become someone who no longer tries to succeed out of the fear that the virus will re-emerge?
• Can you survive?

You have to face these fears and survival means we take these fears; use them as a step ladder to reach a bit further up. Each fear is a step up, till we reach the point where we feel on top.

Feeling the Fear

Consider this story.

Abdul worked in hospitality.

Waiting tables, Serving food & Pouring wine. Cleaning, Clearing, folding Clothes & Stacking chairs.

Every night, the drink left behind was taken home in celebration as a testimony to hard work.

These shifts took him to the hours of 2.00 and 3.00 am. One summer, his work led him to Battersea Park. Upon getting there, he parked on one side where he could cut through to the venue in under 10 minutes.

When his shift finished, he found himself in a predicament. The park was closed and it was night. He either had to walk around the outside - which he attempted - but soon realised it would take over 25 minutes - or go through. Head on.

With an unstable phone, a battery life of less than 10 % and a backpack full of beer, he embarked on a journey through the valley of shadows. The streetlights cut off, one by one.

Deep-breath

He persevered. Head down. Passing statues to the left and right. Buddha peered at him, he didn't respond. He was alone. Anyone would be; feeling the emptiness of the night. Darkness enveloped the scene and the torch on his phone lacked the brightness to light his spirit. Silence spoke to him. He kept going. To him, every second lasted a minute, each minute took an hour. Walking briskly, he kept on, until he reached the gate. It was locked - so Abdul began to climb.

Scaling the spiked gates, he dismissed fears of his foot slipping. He called upon the knowledge of his childhood years and reached the top. He dropped his belongings and went over, feet touched pavement. SUCCESS!

Abdul rushed to his car and drove home. Having lived through this terrifying experience, dangerous thoughts came to mind.

I could have been consumed: Arrested, attacked, eaten, lost, drowned. But I managed to get home sooner rather than later. Sooner than the me that would still be walking. What was more fearful?

Why would he risk it?

Fight, Flight, Freeze!

Abdul's story teaches us three things: You can either:

• Fly - go the long way or take bus home
• Fight - walk through the valley
• Freeze - stay there till daylight

We have to face the harshest of battles to survive. To grow, like a plant, we have to endure. Difficult moments will come, but it is to establish you.

Survival has adapted over time. We no longer live in fear from wild animals. The predators we have to fend off can now come in the form of: illness, economic decline, career stagnancy, job security, bills and the odd physical violence.

We now find ourselves in a crisis, where we are faced with one of these predators. A sightless, soundless, scentless virus that can seemingly strike anyone down. How do we survive that?

News ALERT!!! British Airways plans to make up to 12,000 staff redundant.

An epidemic like this makes losing your job a real possibility. 1 in 4 jobs could go; is that not a threat?

This current climate depends on us using the fight response.

We can’t flee; to another country or to the wilderness. Neither can we freeze. We cannot stay in our homes forever. We have to fight and I don’t mean running to the streets to protest the virus like in the USA.

How to Survive - How to Fight

Start a Business

Survival through fighting requires the acquisition of adequate skills. Skills in excess of your academic ability. Rabbi Daniel Lapin says Academics (people who love to study) often don't do well in business, because many can't maintain functioning business relationships. They tend to go for roles in academia (teaching & lecturing) where they can hone their craft and progress.

But this world is based on business, on the exchange of goods and the acquiring of customers (Lapin, 2014). It's not enough to just be 'book smart'.

My lesson to you - Start a business - one you are passionate about and are able to manufacture the goods.

• Consider an artist. You have the paint and the canvass. So paint! Keep on painting, in relation to what is happening now and sell your goods on an auction website.
• A culinary enthusiast - bake cakes, pastries even - one that supports key workers and sell your goods.
• Candle makers, personal trainers, barbers, you name it - make tutorials on specific skills.

Learning how to sell and network is a key tool that can help you to outlast this virus.

Diversify your Portfolio

Simply put, acquire several avenues of income to take you further in the economy. Thus allowing yourself to become self-sufficient.

Robert Kiyosaki's book - Rich Dad, Poor Dad so eloquently made us realise you cannot solely rely on your occupation to be rich.

You could be a teacher, while singing. Become an accountant or lawyer and also an investor. Be a landlord, while working in administration. Making residual income work for you, is one of the best ways to accumulate wealth.

My lesson to you - Don't rely on your job! We have seen we can no longer rely on basic employment patterns. Anyone could be part of the 12,000 about to lose their job. There has to be a change. Survival means adapting, being sensitive to the environment around you. You have to change the pattern.

Remember our last lesson on how dolphins must learn to hunt in shallow waters. You too must learn new skills to adapt to an ever changing economy. Deer in Japan's Nara Park have learned how to bow to humans to receive treats (Gough, 2015)

Manage Yourselves

Management means being in control. One of the reasons why you may take on a fire head on and why Abdul put himself in what many would call danger, is that we feel the need to be in control. Control the problem. We cannot control the threat of this virus, but we can control how we react.

Being in control is synonymous to being in charge. A manager is in charge of a business, so you have to take charge of yourselves.

Manage your resources effectively. You each have an investment (mentioned earlier) you can profit off.

What do you have? Especially with the world in lock down for weeks.

• Friends
• Property
• Money
• Job
• Antiques
• A trade

The list is endless.

We have Time

Time to make mistakes and learn from them. Time to try new things. We are now in a mandated seclusion. For many, the time it took to make the arduous journey to and fro work is gone. The typical 8 - 9 hours is now spent at home.

The truth is you’ve always had time. But with the world in a constant rush, our time has often been mismanaged.

Manage yourselves, this is the time to get clean. Put a plan in place to get rid of waste, to grow yourself. Time to read, reflect and strategize. Jonah had time to reflect, while he was in the darkness of the whale - when he got out, his life was in order. He was a new man.

My lesson to you - Get yourself in order.

Embrace the Crisis

Malcom Gladwell pulls on a time in World War II in his book David and Goliath, where Nazis sporadically bombed London. Not looking for military bases. They expected England to surrender; for people to live in constant fear and run from the cities, leaving the economy in crisis and industries struggling.

The people in fact were emboldened. Every miss from the bombs and missiles gave people strength. German efforts to intimidate the British created the “remote miss,” a survivor’s exhilaration, in some who lived through weeks of bombardment, a remote miss promoted a willingness to take risks (Maslin, 2013).

The fact that you have not been struck down by Covid-19 should exhilarate you! Prompt you take risks.

My lesson to you - Take risks! Now that's how you survive.

Conclusion

I must teach you these things, because Survival is Life. Fight.

However, there are times when survival depends on flying or freezing.

Staying in a job which offers no room for progression, is toxic and your vision for personal growth is little - is not survival. Flee!

Being asked an impossible favour; making an important decision, which compromises you. Freezing in that moment may be the best option.

Freezing buys you time.

Survival depends on choosing one of these responses effectively at the right time. But for today - I suggest you fight.

Thank you. I wish you well and until next time! Goodbye!

From your Teacher,

Mr. Mayola

References

• Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Survival. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/survival
• Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Survive. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/survive
• Maslin, J. (2013) Finding Talking Points Among the Underdogs. The New York Times. 29.04.2020. <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/books/david-and-goliath-by-malcolm-gladwell.html>
• Gough, Z. (2015) Watch ‘sacred’ deer bow for a treat. BBC Earth. 29.04.2020. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150607-watch-sacred-japanese-sika-deer-bow-for-a-treat>
• Lapin, R.D. (2014) Business Secrets From The Bible - Spiritual Success Strategies for Financial Abundance. John Wiley & Sons Inc.: Hoboken, New Jersey.