Week has passed by, really quickly, to be honest.

I have not had time to:

• watch Netflix
• listen to audio books
• clean the carage

…or for any other thing that I thought I would be doing. Work days have been really intensive. Today I was in front of my laptop basically all day from 8.30 until 23.00. This is a funny situation, because finally my family sees what I do for living. Their perception:

”You keep on speaking on the phone and telling the same thing to everybody.”

Yes, my daughters perception is pretty right. Management is communication and it is repeating the same thing over and over again. As you get bored to the topic, then you might have a chance that others heard you.

Our work with my management team is true crisis management at the moment. Market around us changes everyday. Today we got a new law, borders will be closed, events or gatherings for more than 10 people are not allowed and more restrictions will come. Year ago we were able to predict pretty well 6-12 months ahead. Now 12 hours seems optimistic. This is crazy.

Highlight of the day was the food delivery. Now we have some good stuff for days to come. We have been eating very well during the quarantine, thanks to my 14-year old daughter, who is a true Junior Chef. I’ll post some pictures of her cooking at the end of this post. She’s great!

Today I gave only one interview, but it was a half an hour talk to a TV Show called Elixir. Should be coming out some day soon. I just came from the sauna and then the interview started on Facetime. I was red and sweating. A true corona patient.

We also got clarification for the duration of the quarantine: it’s full 14 days. Well, that’s fine, since now we have some great ingredients for cooking and kids will start school (online) also tomorrow. That’ll bring some rhythm for their days as well.

Health? Today I had some cough, but my kids said it’s because I talk 10 hours a day… Otherwise we are fine.

I had some chat about the situation ”out there” in local restaurant business and it is not looking good. It’s a full stop to many businesses right now. I promise, as soon as I am out, I’ll start to organize #coronasurvivor dinners in the local restaurants! Can’t wait to start!

Stay strong! Take care and #FightBack – as my friend Pekka Hyysalo would say…

Petri

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 –