Week 1

This is my first “lockdown” week-end after a week of confinement. I’m not alone. Most of us are confined now. Most of the world is confined or will be very soon.

I won’t go outside this week-end and that’s fine.

I’m lucky. I share my life with my wife and my two sons in my apartment in Lille, France. Hopefully, we’re not infected. Not yet. We’re now following the rules very strictly. To protect us, but more importantly, to protect everyone else. Let’s not be selfish.

In January and February, the weather was bad. It rained every single day. Or it seemed so. Since the beginning of the week, sun made a big come back. The sun taunts me. If you know me a little, you know that I would really like to go outside. Buy a book in my local bookstore, buy some groceries, find some new cheese to taste, bike to the butcher, jog in the biggest public park of the city. I would love to do all of these activities today. Like every “regular” Saturday. But for the next few weeks, my world will look different. I need to adapt. And that’s fine. I can certainly wait.

I’m lucky. I can work from home. My sons are 12 and 15, so they can do their homework on their own. Wonderful kids. They know how to spend their time. They read books, they watch some episodes of their favorite series on TV. They draw and they are talented. Don’t ask me to draw anything.

I’m lucky. I’m the CEO of two great companies. Symfony and Blackfire. Remote first companies. All employees are working remotely, from home. They live everywhere in the world. I’m proud of them. They are confined like everyone else. Some have kids at home. Some are anxious. We are all reading the news, trying to understand what’s going on; trying to imagine the impact of this “tornado”. We are also trying to keep working. As “usual”. Let’s be honest, maybe less than usual. That’s fine. The business is impacted. Some customers have already canceled their subscription. Very little new customers this week. That makes sense. At Symfony, we’re canceling or postponing all our worldwide conferences. At Blackfire, our marketing is mostly about sponsoring conferences. All our eggs in the same basket. How ironic. Everyone is on board to imagine our future. We have many ideas to reinvent ourselves. I’m blessed.

I’m lucky. I’m young-ish and I’m in good health. I want to help but I’m not a doctor. I’m trying to support my family and my employees the best I can. There is blood shortage in France, and in some other countries. I will donate my blood next week.

This is the week-end. I won’t go outside. I will probably read fiction books and code. I will cook for sure. As usual. But I will also take some time to dream. For a change. Or perhaps thinking about what’s next.

Be strong, stay safe.