Liberated by lockdown?

I sometimes feel embarrassed at how much I have loved lockdown. I realise my slight embarrassment comes from my utilitarian upbringing and that hard work is everything. Head to the grindstone. Self-improvement through hard work etc. Time off is for slackers. Win at all costs. I was taught to believe Thatcher’s three-to-four hours of sleep a night was the pinnacle of success.

Don’t fail, bail

My childhood was about winning. It was about striving for academic brilliance. And when I failed, I lived with the hurt and the shame. I learnt to either walk away from conflict (flight) or take people on (fight).   

I have this extraordinary ability to not give up. Dog with a bone. But if you push me too far I’ll just walk away. Fifty-five years on and conflict is still difficult.   

I set up Pulse 17 years ago with the belief that business can have an extraordinarily positive impact on the world but much of that potential is locked away within each one of us who turns up to work.

Purpose at the time existed in a meaningless mission statement or was shipped out to the CSR department (now called ESG). It was the tick box exercise either run by the director of sustainability or the PR team focused on helping the business look good. How do I know? Because I did it. In 2000 I launched Jack Ma and Alibaba to the world. I was King of Spin. I’d spent 14 years at three of the world’s leading PR agencies. As my very first boss told me ‘you can’t bullshit a bullshitter!”

I then got to run my own show. How cool. Super successful in terms of clients and turnover. But who is kidding who? Working hard to keep the show on the road. Always on the go. No time to stop and reflect. That was for losers! 

Slowing down 

Four months of lockdown forced me to slow down. I think the first month I largely ignored what was going on and just got on with a whole load of Zoom calls. And then our 13-year-old gorgeous black Labrador died, and something died within me. A little bit of the ego or the image of what it means to run a cool brand agency in Covent Garden.

I quickly realised how happy I was not being in the fast lane. I realised I already have everything. I had done everything I set out to do. I was no longer the 12-year-old boy who failed his exams.

I started to stop saying yes to everything. I started to restrict the number of Zoom calls each day. I started to run every other day. I went on long cycle rides at weekends. I had breakfast out in the garden. I read a real newspaper rather than on the iPhone. I started doing projects about the planet that I deeply cared about. I started reaching out to people I deeply cared about or inspired me. I played board games (I hate board games) with my family. I slowed down. I started to look after myself.  

Pulse is about bringing purpose to people’s lives but where was my purpose? How was I looking after others if I wasn’t looking after myself?  

In this world of lockdown, I became stronger and clearer about what I really care about. What I needed to stand for and not just my clients. I started to realise who I was. My purpose.

I have everything 

The simple act of sitting in the garden with my feet touching the grass and watching the birds feed overhead in the trees you realise how gracefully in balance we all are in the world. It’s just perfect the way it is. Nature has evolved over a billion years and in a nanosecond of human history, we have gone from tending the land to accumulating useless stuff.

When we see we have everything we can truly accelerate change. We can remove the baggage of unhelpful thinking that can get in the way.  

I see COVID-19 less about having some extraordinary revelation but more a moment in time that enables us all to step back and work out what is important. There are no new facts about climate change. Healthcare still needs fixing. The education system still needs to be improved. If anything, inequality will get considerably worse. The middle classes learn to adapt or play the system.

I had learnt pre-COVID the importance of safe space in the workplace. 

How can you possibly expect people to fully turn up to work if they don’t feel safe and can’t be their true selves? How can I learn from my upbringing and ensure that for the team I manage that there is no such thing as a failure but just another opportunity to learn? How can I step into conflict rather than gloss over an issue or just walk away?  

Well, thank you lockdown for giving me the space to slow down and pay attention to what is important to me. To realise I am a lucky one and many others will have struggled. We all have moments of difficulty.

These troubled moments remind me of the words of Eleanor Roosevelt: “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

Unlocking our human potential

I want a world in which people don’t feel like I often felt when I was young. I want to build a place where everybody is given a chance. Equality is critical. Fairness. Kindness. But that also means learning to be real. To stand up when I think somebody is bang out of order and not just walk away. It’s about standing up for the feminine that also sits in men. We too have love in our hearts. 

We can all slow down. We can all stay grounded. We can all tap into our feminine. We can all be part of building a better world post-COVID-19 and anybody who tells you otherwise is lying.  

Don’t forget you can choose the narrative you want to live by. Ask Eleanor: “The beauty belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”