You Need To Be Proactive In The Current Covid-19 Reality

byboomergp08

31.1K followers

4 years ago

I have been reflecting a lot lately on how life was like on New Years Day 2020, three years ago, and even 6+ years ago when I joined Wealthy Affiliate. I bet many of you too have been reflecting on what life was like not so long ago. Though my journey has made many unexpected turns, one thing has remained the same.

MY GOAL & HOW I HANDLED CHANGES

My unexpected turns started many years ago, 2009 to be exact. I had spent 21 straight uniterrupted years in the video game design industry working my way up from a tester to a designer and a producer. My goal at that time was to earn as much as I could, buy a house and semi-retire doing some sort of work at home job.

Then when 2009 came along, the economy had tanked, tons of people were being laid off and the world was fighting to get out of the recession, I was forced to make changes. Fortunately in 2001 I was proactive in my mindset and I started an eBay business. It was me planting the seeds of that work at home job I wanted to retire with.

At the time of being laid off in 2009 I wasn't making that much, maybe $500.00 a month in profits, certainly not enough to pay all of my monthly expenses. It was at this time that I scaled it up, but cautiously because my finances were slim. I started looking at doing both drop shipping and shipping smaller items myself.

I WANT MY... I WANT MY MTV

In two years time around May of 2011 two things happened. I was now making about $1,100.00 per month and I was hired by a small video game company doing a dating game app for Facebook called Flirt by MTV Games. Even though I landed this job, I didn't slow down on the eBay business. That was my future.

Early in 2012 the contract with MTV Games in NYC ended and I thought I was going to be doing just the eBay again. Then I got a call from my former employer during those 21 years in the video game industry. He was now the VP of Design for the West Coast division of MTV Games and he signed me to a one-year contract working on an iPhone app.

I knew when I started that it was only for one year and by end of June 2013 it would be over. Seeing how I did not have to move from New Jersey to San Francisco and could work from home, I continued to scale up my eBay business. With all the changes that had happened so far, my proactive mindset of having a work from home business remained constant.

A month and a half after that contract with MTV ended I wanted to take my eBay business to another level. I wanted to build an ecommerce website and do drop shipping from it as well as direct people to my eBay auctions. This is when I joined Wealthy Affiliate to learn how to build my own website. Then another unexpected turn happened.

I LEARNED AFFILIATE MARKETING

Though my mind was made up to build an ecommerce website, I started falling in love with the concept of making money in affiliate marketing. It certainly seemed similar to drop shipping in that I didn't have to buy, stock and ship any items, but it was different in a big way. NO direct contact with the customer to complete the sale.

All of the receiving payments, shipping of products, customer service and potential returns was handled by the retailer I was affiliated with. COOL BEANS! After making my first Amazon commission another unexpected turn happened. I put that ecommerce business on the back burner. In fact, it is still there after 6+ years here at WA.

The training and website building/hosting resources here at WA made me take another turn, though this was a planned one. In early 2016 I got rid of my eBay business and focused on doing affiliate marketing and freelance SEO content writing, utilizing the skills I learned here from the training. This was going to be my new work at home business.

I was now making money solely from home doing affiliate marketing with a couple of different companies in addition to WA and freelancing my skills. My proactive mindset remained constant. Create a work at home business you can retire with. Little did I know that another unexpected turn was coming, one I never imagined would happened.

NOT MY COMFORT ZONE

In August 2016 after a recommendation by someone I was freelancing for I got into the healthcare industry as a medical transport driver. I cannot tell you what was behind that unexpected change of events. It certainly was not a type of job I was looking for, but something was telling me this was the right thing to do.

The last time I had felt this strong about something I had no knowledge in was when I decided to give Wealthy Affiliate a try. For this new endeavor I needed to get some medical training and basic certification. The majority of the people I transport are non-emergency patients going to and from hospitals and doctor offices.

I have met some really nice people doing this and some really off-the-wall nut jobs and recovering heroine addicts. My favorite are the military veterans I transport to/from the major VA Medical Center here in New Jersey. I have mad respect for those men and women. I love hearing their war stories and about the places they have been across the globe.

Come end of January 2020 I would begin to realize what it was like to have the courage that these brave men and women had running towards and into a combat zone, knowing you could be killed. I am not saying what I was doing could kill me, but anything is possible nowadays, especially now in our current state of crisis.

CORONA WHAT?

I started noticing that many of the people I was transporting were coughing a lot more than usual, some looked bad. At this point I knew that it was already a bad flu season. As of today April 6th, 2020 in the U.S. there have been 45,000,000 confirmed cases of the flu, at least 300,000 hospitalizations, and 46,000 deaths, dwarfing the Covid-19 totals.

However, even though the seasonal flu which we have a vaccine for is infecting, hospitalizing and killing far more people than the Coronavirus, we are living in a lock down quarantined way of life. Though coronaviruses are quite common, this one is a "Novel" Coronavirus, meaning it is new and it is also very quick to spread and kill.

People are scared. There is no vaccine, no approved drug treatment. People have to quarantine and social distance from each other because those showing no symptoms could still be carriers and infect others, which is why we are to wear a mask or face covering when out in public. Our once normal world has turned upside down.

I have always said that change is inevitable. If you do not adapt to the change or think that it will totally go back to the way it was, you may very well be left behind in the new normal. To help mitigate all of these changes beyond your control, having a proactive mindset will help you adapt to the characteristics of the time.

WHAT IS A PROACTIVE MINDSET?

Personally I see this as a simple and effective way to smooth the bumps in the road. A proactive mindset is to plan for the future now and not wait for the change to happen. I knew back in 2001 I needed a way to make money from home when my regular job would be over, so I was proactive and stared an eBay business.

From what I have learned here with the Wealthy Affiliate training, I was proactive and became an affiliate of more than one company and freelanced my skills. All of this will help add to my ultimate goal of having my own work at home business for when I finally decide to retire. Some of this can run itself while I do my new job.

Economists have always said that the economy will crash again and it will be huge. Is this the time it starts? I have no idea but I am not going to wait to react when it does. By that time it will be too late. By being proactive now and embracing this new way of working and earning an income from home, there is no better place to be than Wealthy Affiliate.

Even in my current job as a medical transport driver I was proactive in March and went out on my own and purchased a dozen N95 respirator masks. I knew there was a worldwide shortage and whatever masks did show up, the doctors and nurses would get them first. We drivers are the first ones to come in contact with the infected.

A PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION

Everything that we experience and do in life we can help shape the outcome by being proactive and not wait for the change to happen. If you want to be able to work from home with your own online business, it is best to start when you still have a job. This will make the successful outcome easier and more beneficial.

My personal recommendation to you is to be proactive to protect yourself from infection. Do the basics. Wash your hands, social distance, and wear a mask when going out in public. You are now to wear a mask or anything to cover your nose and mouth so that YOU do not spread your germs just in case you are asymptomatic.

Though you should not go out and get a lot of N95 respirator or the thinner and more available surgical mask see above, those of us in healthcare need them more, I do recommend you get ONE N95 mask should you need it in an emergency if someone close to you becomes infected with Covid-19. You can get them on eBay but they are expensive, like $40.00 each.

The surgical mask above will not block the inhalation of virus particles if you are close to the source. The N95 like the one below will block 95% of all virus particles. If you should go on eBay or Amazon to buy one of these masks you will see different styles, colors and shapes. That is fine as long as it is a 95 grade, but you need to know something else.

KNOW THE MODEL NUMBERS

One of the reasons there is such a shortahe of N95 masks is that the burn rate has increased 10 fold. Under normal circumstances when a nurse and doctor sees an infected patient, they change all of their PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) such as gloves, gowns, masks,... before seeing the next patient. Now there is 10 times more patients to treat.

Then there is the hoarding mentality people have. Look at what has happened to toilet paper, cleaning products, bottled water and other essentials. I think many of these hoarders are doing this to resell on eBay and Amazon for higher prices. This shortage has forced all of us in healthcare to stretch the usage life of our PPE.

The 3M company makes the majority of all N95 masks in the world. They make masks in the U.S. and in China, as do a few other smaller companies. The below image is from the 3M guide to masks. So if you see a mask with a KN95 (or any of those others) they are of the same quality of a regular N95 respirator mask.

Again, if you are going to be proactive and buy an N95 mask, get ONLY ONE! You can get a KN95 (Made in China) mask and it will be the same quality and effectiveness as the standard American N95 respirator mask and the price will be just a little cheaper. Make sure the model number is imprinted on the mask itself and on the package.

Whether you want to achieve the effective protection of your health or the success of being able to earn an income from your home, the time is NOW to have a proactive mindset. Prepare for the future now. Take the WA training seriously, stay focused on your goals and stay safe from this virus. If you have any comments, leave them below.