7 Comments on “How To Succeed During Coronavirus – Video Lesson 7”

1. Hey Caleb! I’ve been watching these videos and getting some ideas and inspiration from them. I’m coming to the end of my 14 day enforced quarantine after returning from Europe to Jakarta, so my life has certainly been free from distractions.

   I must say, I have a more pessimistic view of the potential dangers of this pandemic, both in terms of impact on health and economic impact, than you expressed in your recent blog post. But regardless of that, I think your recommendations are sound. Even if the chances of getting seriously sick or dying are now greater than 2%, it doesn’t seem like dwelling on that and panicking and emoting about it serve any purpose. You do still have to do the best you can.

   Thanks for the videos!

2. Hey Caleb, are you also going to respond to comments on the videos here or do you only respond to comments on your main articles? Seems that way so far.

   What you describe here I have been doing already, though I sometimes find it hard to keep the conversation with some women. There are many women who after a day or two completely lose interest in responding to conversations or who give you a phone number to move off dating site and once on watsapp for example they completely ignore you. I have always had that but I just ignored those then but I wonder what to do with them now? Ignore? Just keep the phone numbers and hit them up when the lock down ends?

   both in terms of impact on health and economic impact

   If you can trust the numbers online then it looks like 95% who gets it is in mild condition and and out of the 5% who have it bad about a quarter needs hospital treatment. This does not include pre existing conditions in the picture. I would therefore say that if you are healthy the chance of hospitalization is 1% even if you catch it or less, and in general if youfollow higiene etc its almost zero.

   Economic wise its already a disaster and the longer this takes the worse it will be. A lot of people around the world are already starving and a lot of businesses have collapsed and people been fired. The governments promise to save people with money they do not have. There is a chance for a rebound of economy if this doesnt take too long – huge peaks in demands for travel, tourism, hospitality services etc. On the other hand as Andrew Handerson said in one of his recent videos this is one of those clensing events in economy.

3. There is a chance for a rebound of economy if this doesnt take too long – huge peaks in demands for travel, tourism, hospitality services etc

   There probably will be a rebound — you can’t spend the type of money the US, Europe and Australia are talking about without some sort of short term boom. But I have my doubts about the sectors you mention. I’m pretty sure that international travel will remain quite restricted for a couple of years. I don’t think it will be a matter of quickly back to normal, more a gradual relaxing of restrictions.

   I read an interesting article about the Spanish Flu — it came in three major waves, with the second one following a relaxation after the first wave and being far more deadly. I guess it’s interesting to watch what’s happening in China right now on that score. Let’s see if they manage to prevent a second wave.

4. If you can trust the numbers online then it looks like 95% who gets it is in mild condition and and out of the 5% who have it bad about a quarter needs hospital treatment.

   I think it breaks down that 80% get mild symptoms (not requiring hospitalization) and 20% require hospitalization.

   Of the 20%, half of them need to be put in the ICU.  Half of the people in the ICU don’t leave alive.

   I read an article yesterday that New York has (in normal times) 65 deaths a day.  Not counting COVID deaths, right now the number is about 25o a day – these people are dying at home.  Wonder why?  They aren’t swabbing them and testing post mortum because they are so overrun by the bodies, but there is little doubt what happened.

   A lot of these people aren’t getting to the ICU in time.  They aren’t even getting out of their house.

   There probably will be a rebound — you can’t spend the type of money the US, Europe and Australia are talking about without some sort of short term boom.

   You totally can miss that boom.  If you lose 10 trillion in economic activity, and the government puts back in 7 trillion, that leaves you 3 trillion in a hole and that’s a depression.  We have 20% unemployment right now and even if it clears up tomorrow (it won’t) businesses will need 18-24 months to get operations running again.

   I read an interesting article about the Spanish Flu — it came in three major waves, with the second one following a relaxation after the first wave and being far more deadly.

   That one was no big deal.  Go read up on the Plague of Justinian.  It contributed to the collapse of the Roman empire, lasted two centuries, and killed between 1/4 and 1/2 of the population of Europe.

   I want to thank Caleb for pushing me back into being self employed.  I started a business that is recession proof and requires no employees.  It is not Alpha 2.0 because it requires me to physically show up at the customers location, but I will only work 25 hours a week and clear $150K.  I have to work outside and actually do work, but I’m totally okay with that trade off because of the relative durability of the business.

   Once I get that running full song (I’m actually working now) I’m going to start taking investing seriously.  I’m currently researching opportunities  in distressed debt (there’s going to be tons of it coming out of this recession), which leads me to my third business.

   I had a professional career in agriculture once that revolved around turning around operations that were upside down and on the cusp of being foreclosed on by the bank.  Problem is most of your customers were doing the wrong things (thanks Caleb) and would rather be angry and blame someone than do the right things (thanks Caleb).  So if you get them turned around, they get rid of you.  They’d rather be wrong and broke than right and flexable (thanks Caleb – what was that, video six?).

   But this time is different.  Every business in America is gonna be in special assets in 120 days.  Hardly anyone holds enough working capital to last that long and – frankly – the shareholders won’t let you.  Optimal Capital Structure models (go Google that!) work fantastic in good times, but don’t work at all if your bank financing gets snapped off.

   And these guys who go broke this time aren’t bad business people.  So I’m going back into the consulting business.

   Diversity!  (thanks Caleb)  We are never going to see eye to eye on a lot of stuff (you are a damn good saleman, but have a lot to learn about risk and risk management), but I respect you and appreciate your work which has laid the foundation for me to climb out of the ditch that was my divorce.  In fact, I’m glad it happened when it happened because I’m ready to rip right now, going into the greatest opportunity of my lifetime.

   Plus there’s gonna be horny divorced chicks everywhere coming out of this.  China already has a divorce boom, so I read.

    

5. BD, good on you for hustling.

   This is Revenge of the Nerds, bro. I can’t believe my good luck. I’m on SA, opening with “I’m not a Daddy, I’m a Good Looking Loser” on my profile with a shitty bathroom selfie, and I’m just getting flooded. Once I get a good pic up and start showcasing my apartment and lifestyle, I don’t think things will slow down.

   I haven’t consumed any of your content on this because I don’t really have to. The best advice is to set up an Alpha 2.0 lifestyle years ago. The $800 I dropped 2 years ago on an Olympic barbell and half rack is looking like the best investment of my life. Gain your Covid-19 pounds, bitches. I’ll be over here repping.

   It’s really hard to overstate how far things just turned for some of us.

   I’m not going to spend a single damned cent on SA. I am both FUN and SAFE and everything these girls are looking for. I’ve read the forums. They miss their Daddies. They all miss their Daddies, even the noobs. And I am a safe haven in a vicious storm, with a better kitchen than their moms.

   Legit single. Facebook verified. Background check verified. No downstream Boomers. Solid career with 0 chance of layoffs. Jesus. I could get a lifetime’s rotation out of this.

   I get that you write for a broad audience, and I admit that I’m one of your tough cases. Of all people, you know I’m under-performing and have been since we did our video chat 3 years ago. Understand, yes, I’ve been holding back, but….I mean, Jesus. What I’ve been hemming and hawing about just became inevitable.

   This is the opportunity of a lifetime, which you’ve noticed by now.

   I’m telling you, if my life was building towards anything, it is this summer. Right now. Wanna talk about Go Time? This is fucking Go Time. This. Right. Here.

    

6. I’m not going to spend a single damned cent on SA.

   How do you plan to not spend any money on SA since the website required around 100 bucks to be able to exchange messages? Or do you mean not spend money AFTER that?

7. I am not a man, I am a woman. So I know I don’t belong here, really, but I’ve read your blog on and off for almost a year now. I appreciate your point of view, and I find it helps me navigate a world where I interact with mostly men. It also helps a lot of my interactions with fellow women, by offering hints at strategies to downplay drama and emotion in my professional life. I also own a few businesses with several employees at each one. I have been struggling mentally with this coronavirus situation, but I am trying to be a strong leader for my teams and keep my cool to remain a reliable partner to my male business partner. I am quarantined alone, and I’ve hardly seen anyone in person for 45 days now. I have a lot of guy friends and professional contacts, but since this all started, I’ve mostly been connecting via phone with female friends and family, and they are all very doom and gloom. I needed a bit of a kick in the pants to snap out of some spiraling thoughts the past few nights, and these videos helped me tonight. Thank you for your rational thoughts and great advice. These were many of the thoughts about business and coming out ahead I was having at the beginning of this whole ordeal, but I lost sight of some of this stuff over the last week or so.