These are interesting and difficult times. Completely unprecedented, in fact. As an “essential business” I have had to continue to operate 180 Solar Power through the stay-at-home orders to provide services to our existing customers, and to install new solar and storage systems for incoming customers. Doing so has required continuous interaction with the public, sometimes in-person and sometimes via phone or video conferences. When I say the public I’m not just talking about our customers. I’m referring to the countless conversations I’ve had with my employees, with people that work for our suppliers and manufacturers, with employees of the cities and counties that process our plans and permits, with Fedex and UPS drivers, office supply delivery people, the mailman, and all of the other supporting businesses and vendors that we interact with on a daily basis.
Being in this unique position has given me broad insights that many people haven’t experienced over the last few months. And one of the most interesting things that I’ve observed is that humanity seems to be falling into one of two categories, those that are frightened and paralyzed by the uncertainty of the future, and those that continue to plan their future and live life despite everything that’s happening.
The reality is we never really know what tomorrow will bring. At any time, any one of us could be killed by a drunk driver, have our life savings swindled out from under our noses by the next Bernie Madoff, have our life destroyed by a natural disaster or any number of other endless disaster scenarios. Yet we don’t live our lives cowering in fear of these things. And in fact, if throughout history we had been paralyzed by the unknown we never would have “sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety two”, or taken “one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind”.
I’m no scientist, and I don’t play one on television, but on a daily basis I have been reading the results of a wide array of studies that are being published about COVID-19 by the most respected medical and academic institutions in the world, and their conclusions are very consistent. Unless you are over sixty years of age and have some sort of comorbidity, the mortality rate for COVID-19 is lower than the flu. That is not intended to in any way minimize the ravages that it has wrought on the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, but simply to put it in some sort of perspective.
The point is that regardless of whether you are in the “frightened and paralyzed” category, or the “planning and living” category, you’re still going to have grocery bills to pay. You’re still going to have phone and cable bills to pay. You’re still going to have water, sewer, gas and electric bills to pay. And you’re still going to have to pay mortgage or rent. The bills are going to keep coming whether we like it or not; whether we are prepared for it or not. Life continues to go on. Which leads to an important lesson that I learned from a client many years ago that I’ll share with you now.
JB was a gentleman in his early eighties, and I was a young man in my late twenties working in the finance industry. Because of his age I repeatedly tried to talk him out of the investment he was interested in, telling him that he was too old, and that it was unlikely that he’d live long enough to see a worthwhile financial benefit. He repeatedly responded by telling me that he was planning to live at least another 10 years, which would be long enough to justify the investment, plus his family would benefit from it even after he died. But more importantly, he said that if he stopped planning to live, he might as well be dead, because life becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Finally, he told me that if I didn’t accept his business he’d find someone else that would. After much discussion he agreed to let me talk to his adult children to get their input.
I subsequently explained everything about it to them and to my shock they told me that they fully supported what their dad wanted to do, because they also believed that if he stopped planning on living it would be the day he’d start dying. So, in the end JB became a client of mine, and a friendship developed that lasted for over a decade before he died. I’ll always treasure the conversations we had and the abundance of wisdom that he shared with me, but one of the most important lesson that I took from him, which seems more relevant today than ever before, is that we need to always keep planning to live, planning our lives, and living life to the fullest every day. Life is a self-fulfilling prophesy, so if you believe you can or will you’ll be right, and if you believe you can’t or won’t you’ll also be right.
Despite the tragedy that some will or have suffered from COVID-19, for the vast majority of us, life will go on. So, don’t stop living. Don’t stop planning to live. Do it for you. Do it for the one’s you love. They are depending on you to do so. And as you plan and live your life each day, one of things you can do to lessen the stress of life is to reduce your revolving monthly expenses.
For most property owners their energy bill is their second largest monthly expenditure after their mortgage payment. Making matters worse, home and business owners are using more electricity than ever before, and they are paying more for their electricity than ever before as utility rates increase every year. And the bills are going to keep coming regardless of what’s happening in the world. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Let us help you reduce or eliminate one of the biggest financial burdens that you face each month, and help bring you peace-of-mind. We can install a new solar and storage system for you with no money down, and nice low fixed monthly payments. Find out how our team’s decades of experience and thousands of installations can benefit you. Contact us for a free, no pressure, no obligation quote today, because life is going to keep rolling on. 180 Solar Power is Local, Trusted, Proven.