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Embarrassing to be British
Brexit. What a disaster. Embarrassing to be British, and upsetting that the 'older generation have gambled with a future that wasn't theirs to gamble with.'
That's how I'm feeling as I wake up, post a sleepless, awful night. But here's the thing - if you're an entrepreneur and you've built up a brilliant business against the odds, then optimism is a fundamental characteristic. It's actually an essential quality to avoid depression.
I can see the positives in almost every situation:
- Your star performer resigns - it's only a day before you realise he wasn't that good anyway.
- Cash flow problem - "At least we're on top of our finances..."
- You lose a tender - "It was never a fair fight, and actually, we didn't want the business."
Look on the bright side
It's taken me a few hours to get my head around Brexit, but if you're still in mourning then try some of these for the plus side:
A second chance
Firstly, there's a chance that the result shocks the EU into fixing some of its broken institutions. The changes merit a second referendum, and next time round we get a different result. Cameron has announced he's going. You don't need to be too creative to imagine scenarios where Corbyn and Sturgeon exit gracefully as well...
Struggle and struggle alike
The next couple of years look nightmarish. Well, we're a lot leaner and more agile than our biggest competitor in business. If we struggle, they will struggle a lot more - mwahaha. And at least no one in the business can whinge about my relentless focus on costs.
Nose to the grindstone
What about Britain's standing with the rest of the world? Having announced ourselves as more bigoted and xenophobic than anyone realised, just maybe we become a bit humbler and work a bit harder to make everyone else love us. I'm already imagining all those football fans practicing their s'il vous plaits and mercis as England reach the European Championship final in a couple of weeks' time. Like I said, I'm an optimist.
School and housing
Personally, I'm actually quite excited about what it all means. All those empty spaces and smaller class sizes for my kids at the Lycée for a start. London property prices will certainly crash. That's bad news generally, but, just maybe, I'll finally be able to buy a house!
Interesting and smaller times
And even if we are permanently screwed - as some of us fear - well, at least we're living through interesting times right? OK, it's not quite World War 2, but it's up there with the Moon landing, the crumbling of Communism and 80's Pop, as being a seismic world event.
There's something to be said for that, even as we retreat into our poorer, smaller selves.
Ben Black
