Every time that happens, the authorities have to shut the economy down. It matters that you can lose your job, hurt the economy, and really lose your freedom, not just by having to wear a mask, but by being ordered to shelter in place again. These developments are happening regardless of your opinions.

Sure, looking back there’s plenty of folks to blame, but that doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters now is that we increase our hospital capacity and follow the European lead – short-term pain for long term gain: Super cautious reopenings with disciplined mask wearing and social distancing. It can be done. It has been done. But not so in the USA.

It’s getting harder to face our European friends on international Zoom calls because we look like fools for our lack of resolve, our selfishness, and our lack of discipline. Our national behavior of repeatedly filling up hospitals and getting closed down is undermining our credibility on other levels. Why should others listen to us when we continue to damage our own health and economy?

Where we live in Northern California, we have seen the community pull together to fight, contain, and rebuild after huge climate-caused and out-of-control wildfires. One, in our region, was the size of the city of Sacramento driven by 90 mile-per-hour winds that destroyed more than 6000 structures.

We could have blamed the power company, the utility oversight body, or even the oil companies for raising the temperature. We could have, but it wouldn’t have mattered. What mattered was getting the fire under control – and fast.

We could have whined and belly-ached about our loss of freedom when the firefighters closed down our freeway and evacuated us, but we all knew we had to cooperate to overcome the threat. There’d be time enough for blame and politics later, but now we had to save our lives and our economy, and everybody knew it. The result? Short-term pain for long-term gain. We got the fire out and are rebuilding our communities.

That’s what we have to do now, with the same conviction and the same resolve. They say, “Only fools fight in a house on fire!” No matter what our opinions may be, let’s all at least agree that overwhelming the hospitals is something we must work together to prevent. This virus is spreading like a wildfire! Let’s not go out and set new fires by not wearing a mask or social distancing. Until we have a proven vaccine, the authorities will continue to shut down the economy and order us to shelter in place every time that red light goes off on their dashboard indicating that the hospitals are filling up.

A country’s reputation is ultimately defined by the determination of its people. If we show ourselves to be foolish while overwhelming our hospitals, we will certainly look that way to others. We can tell you from being in business for decades, “It takes many years to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute!”

Compassion should be driving our resolve to put out this “fire”! As the song say’s “…and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” Where is the brotherhood these days? But if all you think about is yourself, why foolishly lose your health, your economy, and your international reputation? Others have controlled this wildfire. We can do this!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post When The Hospitals Fill Up, The Economy Shuts Down appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Something happened this summer in the wine country north of San Francisco that we’ve never seen before. We had several heat waves that were record in temperature and duration. You don’t have to be a climatological scientist to put the pieces together. Northern California had an extremely wet, record winter which pushed up the vegetation to an all-time high. Then successive back to back, 100+ degree record heat waves baked out the moisture and left the volatile fuel.

We are used to fires, but these were fire storms generating their own weather, and they were nearly unstoppable. The town of Santa Rosa was dead in its track and the high wind driven embers blew great distances ahead of the fires, ignited more and more fires. Our firefighters were quickly overwhelmed as entire neighborhoods went up in flames. They had to concentrate on saving lives.

This was an urban fire storm, and the results look like a scene from a war-zone. Thousands of homes were destroyed within a day or two. We’ve seen the burnt landscapes of forest fires, but nothing could have prepared us for the vision of extensive urban landscapes reduced to ashes. Here is what one neighborhood looks like now https://youtu.be/PHLeMZtmJbs

Then came the ominous predictions of long-term smoke poisoning.  That was chilling!

Soon help came, but it was already too late for many. We saw firefighters from Australia, California, and all over the Western United States. We are grateful for thousands of firefighters and their equipment that moved into the fray. The Sonoma County Airport was closed except for firefighting aircraft, personnel transports, and air-lifted relief missions. That was heartening!

We were fortunate …this time. Our small, west Sonoma County town was spared, probably due to the prevailing winds off the ocean that pushed the fires to the east and away from us. At first, we wondered like so many survivors, why we were saved? But it quickly became apparent as we provided shelter to friends who were evacuated. We could provide assistance …and hope! We also knew that had the situation been reversed, our friends would have done the same for us.

And that’s now the general tone around here in the wine country. People are busy raising funds, providing shelter, and volunteering. Lists have been published of businesses that either lost their establishments or whose owners lost their homes. We hope that shoppers will patronize them.

So, was this tragedy avoidable? And, more importantly now, can we prevent future tragedies resulting from extreme weather? Former President Obama said, “This is the last generation that can do something about climate change.” So, what are we doing? Our federal government is now pushing to open up preserves in Alaska where the tundra and ice cap is melting to drill more of the very substance that scientists say is causing it.

This is happening at a time when the petroleum-based international automobile industry itself just announced that their future is electric vehicles. This decision was made after the announcement by China, the fastest growing automobile market in the world, that they would be banning gas powered vehicles. Of course, the industry will follow the buyer!

Sure, there’s the question of how the electricity will be made. Sure, there is the question of what to do with the spent toxic batteries. But those challenges will be met by new creative entrepreneurs seizing an opportunity generated by public safety and governmental regulations. First, we have to stop warming our atmosphere!

So, if you are wondering how global warming will affect you, don’t wait to find out like the folks in Puerto Rico, Houston, Florida or California. We now know! Take action now with a letter, email, or text to your elected representative. Ask them to put the brakes on more oil production, provide subsidies for solar conversions, and offer tax incentives for electric vehicles. Ask them to help us all prepare for more catastrophes with better fire prevention, flood protection, and faster and stronger disaster response.

Our hearts go out to the families who are now suffering from the various effects of, yes, man-made climate change. If you want to donate, this site has been set up by Mike McGuire (our state senator), The Press Democrat (our local newspaper) and Redwood Credit Union (a local business). Please go to www.redwoodcu.org/NorthBayFireRelief  or https://www.gofundme.com/sonomacountymusicians a site set up for local musicians who lost everything.

We remain Sonoma County strong. May God bless us all.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Did Global Warming Cause the Wine Country Fire Storms? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.