6th day in quarantine. Working remotely from home. Full speed 8.30-20.30.

We are all fine! Wife and kids are still symptom free. I had some headache in the evening, but sauna, glass of redwine and good food fixed the issue.

Easier day with interviews: one follow up story to Iltasanomat, one live interview to TV, two interviews to radio (one even in Swedish;), one to my local newspaper Kaarina-Lehti and two or three to different blogs.

I’ve answered today to about 100 questions from people around the world. Hunger for information is huge. I don’t give answers to medical issues. I always tell to contact local authorities. If the question is about my experience, I do answer.

My rough estimate is that what I wrote (or what was wrote about it) have been read more than 5-10 million times. It could be even more.

So far thousands of comments in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blog and different articles. 99,5% are positive and thankfull for giving a face and name for this disease. People are thankfull for the courage to speak. Many have said that what I wrote brings hope and clarity to them. This makes me wonder, how easy is it actually to help people. Why it should take courage?

Finland got big news today from our government. Almost full lockdown in the whole country. This is going to be a year of changes and unpredictability. It’s going to be a year of too many good, but fragile businesses to go down.

I’m an entrepreneur. Our company provides income to about 70 people and I am proud to say that due to their great work and attitude in the past, we are not forced to lay people off. We have enough resources and cash that we will survive this crisis. Instead of laying people off, we will train them, we will use our time to help our customers to survive and we will work on all those things that you never had time before. When Lyyti comes back after the crisis, we will be stronger, faster and more unified than ever.

But many companies, especially small ones, are in danger. For many companies and freelancers today’s announcement means full stop for their business and income from this day on.

One industry suffering the most is event industry. The one that usually creates unforgetable experiences, changes the way we see the world and the one that unites people.

There are a lot of initiatives around there. If you bought a concert ticket, consider not asking for your money back. How about buying gift cards to your local businesses? Or getting take away food from your local restaurant, if they can’t have people in the restaurant?

Big, global companies will survive. They will get hit as well, but they’ll be fine. Your local companies might not survive, unless we help them.

Companies and entrepreneurs keep the society running. They pay the taxes and provide income to families.

It is time to pay back.

Now.

• Petri –