A few hours ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa announced that the country’s 21-day COVID-19 lockdown which was due to end on 16 April 2020, will be extended for a further 14 days until 30 April 2020. At that moment, I couldn’t help but think of all the businesses that might have to shutdown or retrench some employees as a result of a lack of income due to the lockdown which has effectively brought the economy to a standstill.

Already, I know of two people close to me that have had to make the tough call of closing their businesses in anticipation that the lockdown will affect their events and tourism businesses negatively for several months. What stumped me was I literally couldn’t even offer any advice on how they could stay afloat beyond advising the one running events to suggest online events.

In my short life so far, I have experienced and observed my fair share of uncertainty in both business and career. Whether it was the DotCom boom in 1999 when I was into my second year of working or the 2008 financial crash 2 years after getting married and with a baby a few months old, the constant in all these periods is that it all passes. There is, in my humble opinion, no point trying to second guess what will happen next. Control what you can, hope for the best for the things you can't control. 📷 Me, 1998. I had just started at my first ever job at the IT department of a car manufacturer at their assembly plant in Pretoria, South Africa.

One thing I do know for certain is that uncertainty passes.

That is one big lesson I have learned so far in both career and business. It passes.

I wish I could offer you some sage advice, some silver bullet that will make it all better. Reality is I can’t, and if everyone else was intellectually honest too, neither can they. Try to stay alive and see this period through because it all passes.

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