Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment that phase three of the re­open­ing of the T&T econ­o­my dur­ing the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) pan­dem­ic re­stric­tions be­gan on Mon­day was met with wel­come re­lief by many cit­i­zens but most­ly the busi­ness sec­tor.

The coro­n­avirus brought the en­tire world, not just T&T to its knees, un­prece­dent­ed and un­chart­ed. Many lives were lost. Sev­er­al Pub­lic Health sys­tems were test­ed to the point of fail­ure. So­cial and Eco­nom­ic up­heaval led to bank­rupt­cies and an un­cer­tain fu­ture for many busi­ness­es.

Sports faced unimag­ined chal­lenges and shut down. No coun­try, no sport was spared in­clud­ing the Olympic Games sched­uled for this year.

Where do we go from here? How do we re­cov­er and re­build? What as­pect of life in­clud­ing sport will be for­ev­er changed? In cer­tain as­pects, there is no go­ing back.

Re­cent­ly, I had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to give the keynote ad­dress at an In­ter­na­tion­al Vir­tu­al Event host­ed in Aus­tralia. The theme of the event cen­tred around Every Cri­sis Cre­ates Op­por­tu­ni­ty (EC­CO), a Think Tank fo­rum, by the founder of The Brand Builders and so­cial im­pact leader, Vick­ie Saun­ders (Aus­tralia).

My keynote ad­dress en­ti­tled “Op­por­tu­ni­ties with­in Cri­sis” fo­cused on my point of view on cop­ing with the COVID-19 re­stric­tions, sur­viv­ing the many changes and as­sess­ing the op­por­tu­ni­ties pre­sent­ed dur­ing the Gov­ern­ment or­dered stay at home and how do we all thrive be­yond the glob­al pan­dem­ic.

I fo­cused on the idea that re­flec­tion is im­por­tant. As­sert­ing that if we didn’t use the stay at home down­time to re­flect and change the way we look at things, we would waste the COVID-19 Pan­dem­ic cri­sis.

The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) of­fice was closed and staff were work­ing from home. How did the TTOC piv­ot and ad­just? By ac­cel­er­at­ing its dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. On­line cours­es back-to-back. Up­com­ing events will be vir­tu­al. The TTOC will not re­turn to busi­ness as usu­al or op­er­a­tional sta­tus quo. Since 2013 dig­i­tal and vir­tu­al trans­for­ma­tion has been a strate­gic ob­jec­tive but mak­ing the quan­tum leap for­ward has been in­cre­men­tal even re­luc­tant. Then came the virus and the quan­tum leap had to be made. There were no longer any cul­ture, men­tal or emo­tion­al bar­ri­ers it was a mat­ter of em­brace the new nor­mal or be con­signed to di­nosaur sta­tus.

Self-re­liance is the name of the game as eco­nom­ic dark clouds gath­er. Be­ing over­whelmed and in­tim­i­dat­ed by un­cer­tain­ty and un­known vari­ables sur­round­ing the COVID-19 be­came an ac­cel­er­a­tor rather than an in­hibitor.

As I re­flect­ed on every as­pect of life, not just sports and busi­ness, I found clar­i­ty in the dis­com­fort and chaos. The coro­n­avirus pro­vides every­one with an op­por­tu­ni­ty to make the changes that must be made to be em­pow­ered, to sur­vive and even­tu­al­ly thrive in the cur­rent COVID-19 and post COVID-19 world.

Self-re­liance, de­ter­mi­na­tion, courage, dis­ci­pline, trans­for­ma­tion and in­no­va­tion will be im­por­tant watch­words post COVID-19. It is a pe­ri­od in time for fear­less choic­es and the courage to try new things. We mustn’t be afraid to step away from an old dream and cre­ate a new one. We must not flinch in the face of ad­ver­si­ty.

Ed­i­tor’s Note:

Bri­an Lewis is the pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and the views ex­press are not those of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.