So, what are we to do now?

The world must stop, yet the world must go. There is friction. The economy is falling, but there’s little we can do. Is there little we can do? While half the world is on pause and our essential services are working away, what are the rest doing?

We are in a pivotal time. A time where those who aren’t working, who aren’t studying, who aren’t going to school, are in the best position yet. A position to get creating. This is the time we need the ideas. And, this is the time when we can get the ideas. People in their homes, keeping to themselves as they rightfully should, can be working away through different means. Everything happening right now, whether we want to fully understand the gravity of it or not, requires solutions. This is the perfect time to launch ourselves into the entrepreneurial landscape and we’re already seeing it. 

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Our very own Canterbury entrepreneur, Ben Kepes, director of Cactus Outdoor, has used the pandemic as an opportunity to spring into action. He turned one of, and is soon to open another, the Cactus factories into a factory dedicated to manufacturing reusable facemasks. These are the ideas we need. The ideas we can get.

Ideas come to people at the most interesting of times, sitting in the bathroom, lying in bed about to go to sleep. Noticed the commonality yet? Inconveniently, these ideas often come to us when we’re least expecting it, when we’re not up to much. It’s fair to say that not many New Zealanders are up to much over the next couple of weeks. What we need to be up to, is finding a pathway for after all of this. After the lockdown is lifted, once we are getting our country back on its feet. So, get thinking.

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What is something you’ve always wanted to pursue but never have? Is there somehow you can make this benefit our country as we emerge from this strange? Have you always been interested in entrepreneurship but “never had the ideas?” Now’s your time to get thinking!

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Think about pain points. What are we, and what will we be struggling with the most once we come out of this period? How can we mitigate that? How can we help those that carry on running our country while we can’t? Some people thrive when aiming towards achieving a common goal. Well, the common goal is this: solutions for afterwards, after we’re no longer on pause and we’ve pushed play again. How can we make it work?

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- Ally Callinicos, CEO