Sir Isaac Newton lived a very similar life to you and me right now. In 1663, a plague broke out in London, which forced him into quarantine in his family’s home of Woolsthorpe Manor. During his time there, he created a branch of math we know as Calculus and solved many of the complexities that drive our understanding of physics.
I don’t think any of us should be carrying the burden to redefine our understandings of the universe in our times of quarantine, but I did stumble upon this anecdote of Sir Isaac Newton when I was trying to solve some things in my own life and business.
My business, like yours probably, is in unprecedented times. Things we thought right about our clientele, their buying abilities, and experiences have all changed. We’re left having to relearn our craft, business model, and define what the future holds for ourselves. As I was thinking through this for my own business, I was overwhelmed with questions and sought clarity about how to take steps forward. That’s when I discovered how much Sir Isaac Newton was able to accomplish in his time of quarantine.
One thing Sir Isaac Newton did that helped me a lot is to track all those questions in one place. Write them out. Provide a framework for yourself to think through the problems at hand. He’d then spend days just thinking over those questions. Anything in his day became a possible answer to the questions he recorded. Therefore, a simple apple falling from the tree became an answer to gravity and the moon’s ability to stay in orbit. Our brains are curious things to be able to draw those correlations, but it requires us to organize its path to critical thinking.
Drawing these correlations also requires experimentation. During the time in isolation, Sir Isaac Newton, once stuck a needle in his eye to help figure out if the perception of color was from the eyeball or the brain. That seems like a painful experiment that we can probably avoid with the rise of Google.
I’ve seen a lot of experiments in our community already. I am greatly encouraged by what I’m seeing. Being in the technology space, I’m continually looking at what folks in San Francisco and New York are putting out. A lot of great things take a long time to reach towns like Rome due to a more limited user base. But overnight, we see demand for at-home deliveries, online shopping, remote meetings, and engaging audiences through social channels. From a global perspective, this is nothing new. I have been putting these types of solutions in place for customers of Romega Digital for years. But I’m so encouraged to start seeing it throughout my community.
As you are thinking critically about what your future holds and deciding what experiments to try next, feel free to reach out to my team at Romega Digital. These are trying times, and we want to be there for you as you bring your business online or start building your social presence. The time to experiment is now. Consider this paradigm shift in how people and businesses interact with each other. Then ask yourself how it affects you long term and how your business can pivot to match.