What I learned from living in the midst of a major corona virus outbreak and how we come out of this not only alive, but prospering and thriving

This is a very personal note from Anric Blatt - I hope you will read it completely - because its about what I learned from living in the midst of a major corona virus outbreak and how I am helping my friends, my clients and their clients and families come out of this not only alive, but prospering and thriving better than ever before.

I had a few emergency intervention calls with some of my clients today and they suggested I put my story in writing and send it out to you.

Dear friends, colleagues and fellow humans,

If you are alive, this coronavirus mayhem has somehow reached you, impacted you and is now affecting your psychology, thoughts and decisions. And if that didn’t get you, the pass panic in our stock markets most certainly got you, and if by some miracle you have escaped that, then the daily practicalities of operating in world that’s psychologically on fire with mass panic, irresponsible media fear mongering, cancellation of events, conferences, flights, travel bans, shortages of toilet paper is going to take its toll.

So today, I would like for you to benefit from the lessons that I have learned from

• Growing up in the midst of a country tormented by civil war and military
• Spending many years in adverse environments of risk of kidnapping, carjacking, violent burglaries and fear for the safety of my family
• Firsthand experience of working and living in regions where governments suddenly fail and mass hysteria erupts on 12 hrs notice with travel bans and martial law
• Living, building businesses and raising kids on 4 different continents
• Having travelled extensively to over 140 countries 

And if that’s not enough …. I would like to share with you the immense shift that I made from living with 3 young fragile kids in the middle of another coronavirus outbreak, SARS-CoV so that you can benefit and learn from the mistakes and triumphs of others. Not only did we survive, we prospered, thrived and went on to build several multi billion AUM businesses. 

You see, at the time of the SARS outbreak in 2002 -2003, I was living in Hong Kong and was depending on raising capital for a living and to sustain my family too as I was still in the building and accumulation phase of my net worth. My clients were financial advisors, private banks and family offices that relied on me to educate their clients about selecting investments, asset allocation, manager research and I frequently gave large room presentations, speeches and workshops on managed futures, hedge funds and manager selection.

To put it in context, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places on earth, and despite my spectacular quality of ‘expat’ life living large in a sizable home on the outskirts of the New Territories with a stunning golf club, yacht club, a beautiful Italian boat, a ski chalet in Switzerland - none of that mattered. Let me restate that …. None of that mattered one iota. 

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated on earth, with 17,000 people per square mile, as compared to my Colorado home where I am right now where there are 2 people and 3 golden retrievers per square mile around me. Everyone in Hong Kong moves every day, the MTR moves 5 million people a day, the airport handles over 60 million passengers a year, and there are 60,000 employees that work at the airport that go home each night using public transport after spending all day handling passengers and luggage. Apartments are so small, that everyone eats out and shops every day. For the sake of brevity, I have not even included stats from all the ferries, trains and buses in and out of the 12 million citizen city of Guangzhou China, not to mention the day trippers that cross the border to and from Shenzhen, a city of 13 million. 

SARS and COVID-19 - the same, better or worse ?

Even though SARS was a much much smaller pandemic, it was insanely intense in its epicenter of Guangdong Province around us with 120 million people because the death rate was hovering around 20%, yes you read that right, 20%, in some cases lower China at 6.6%, and some higher like Malaysia at 40%. China’s official statistics are a bit like Harvey Weinstein’s moral compass - highly suspect. 

It was a frightening time for everyone, our universe completely imploded with mass panic, runs on banks, supermarkets were raided empty and people dying left right and centre and amplified by the ever irresponsible media. All my meetings were cancelled, events were ‘indefinitely postponed” businesses failed all over the place and the fear and reaction mode took over every single conversation and business for me ground to a halt.

A fork in the road

My kids were freaking out because they had to go to school, wearing face masks all day and hearing about teachers and friends parents that died created mass hysteria, depression and economic hardship like most people had never known. Luckily for me, I was already an expert in re-invention and resourcefulness, so I stopped everything and spent a day with my notebook up on the peak

And got to work on designing a plan that would take this disaster this mayhem, this problem and turn it into a solution, an opportunity and a new life.

Step 1 - I focused on finding all the factors that ..

1. That actually mattered to me, my family and my business

  and

2. The Sh%$#t that I actually could control

Then I drew a Venn diagram to capture the overlap between 1. The Stuff (polite version) that Matters and the 2. Stuff that I can actually control.

I made a list, and decided then and there that this is where I am going to spend my energy, time, resources and thoughts - 

because As Tony Robbins says, energy flows where attention goes. To get what you really want in life, you need a clear goal that has purpose and meaning behind it. Once this is in place, you can focus your energy on the goal and become obsessive about it. When you learn how to focus your energy, amazing things happen. I knew this but wasn’t practicing it because I allowed everyone around me and the media and mass hysteria to color my mind.  

>> Emperor Marcus Aurelius - “Your mind is colored by the thoughts it feeds on …. Saturate your mind then with a succession of ideas like ….” (More on that later)

Ray Dalio has a great principle that is “If you worry, you don’t have to worry,and if you don’t worry, you have to worry” … ..it means that if you worry about something dangerous, you will take the necessary precautions and protect yourself so you don’t have to worry. However, if you don’t worry about something risky, you will not take those precautions, which will be more dangerous... 

What next ? Step 2

I then disciplined myself to not leave this site of a decision or breakthrough without taking action (an extraordinary habit to practice)

And drew another Venn diagram (Yes, I am an absolute flowchart and Venn nerd) 

And drew another overlapping circle of Stuff that I can schedule right now to prepare, de-risk and do that will allow me to take the necessary precautions, protect myself, my family, my neighbors and friends.

And on the way home that night, in my favorite V12 AMG, I had another breakthrough, and this time it was all about my business, my clients and their businesses and a few competitors that I knew are going to go out of business 

and how I was going to not only save the situation but actually thrive and prosper.

That’s it for today …. I need to head to Costco and Walmart now to buy dog food for these guys and prep my home ( also known as Command Centre for the next three weeks) 

But tomorrow, I want to show you how I used this awful environment, mass hysteria and gloom to make my biggest business breakthroughs and literally build a mutual billion dollar business and a whole new career on the decisions I made that day up on the Peak in Hong Kong.

If you would like to receive that, let me know by raising your hand using the link below -- or just text or call me on +1941348 6000 if there is any way I can use my experience to assist

Yes, please send it to me

Until then, my friends, I wish you and your families to be safe, healthy and prosperous. Remain vigilant but do not allow your mind and heart to be colored by bad news, panic and hysteria because it will bully you into submission, fear and withdrawing, instead of rising up and conquering fear.

Sincerely, Anric

It’s up to you - chose one F.E.A.R. or F.E.A.R.