The Only Way to Save Maui’s Economy

–  Chris Mentzel –

Maui faces an epochal choice between Wealth and Health. How will our leaders decide? Will they protect the health of our residents by keeping tourists out? Or will they restart tourism in order to protect the economy, which will bring back COVID?

This question is debated hotly these days, but it is the wrong choice. It is like the Woody Allen quote: “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction.”

If Maui opens up to tourists, we will have never-ending outbreaks of COVID. Even with testing and precautions, there is no way around that. Based on numbers from a recent UHERO study, a full return to tourism with the most careful screening will miss 171 actively infected people every month. If things go wrong, Maui may become known as a death trap and tourists won’t come back for years. That’s not the path to wealth.

If Maui doesn’t let tourists in, we face continuing poverty with all the side-effects of the desperation that comes with it. Tens of thousands without a job, mortgages failing, suicides, the economy in ruins. That is not healthy.

We also have to come to terms with the truth that the worldwide pandemic is far from over. The virus has not magically disappeared in April, it won’t disappear in the summer and there are no breakthrough treatments. Worldwide lockdowns have temporarily flattened the curve, but the fundamental situation has not improved. But we are lucky. Thanks to wise decisions by Mayor Victorino and Governor Ige, Maui will have eradicated COVID by July.

Having eradicated COVID is Maui’s greatest asset

New Zealand has achieved eradication and life is back to normal with parties, sports events, no masks, and no fears. Maui could be there soon and attract visitors as the only COVID-safe destination.

This is a binary thing. Either there are zero cases on Maui or we are part of the pandemic. There is no margin of error, no safe amount of cases. If only one person is infected, life stops, and the masks go back on. That means there is no way around an even stricter 14-day quarantine for all arrivals. It will get shorter, as better tests become available.

Pivot towards long-term visitors

Affluent people from the mainland want to come and ride out the pandemic here. They can enjoy the island and live in a no-mask, no-fear luxury hotel while the ICUs on the mainland fill up.

Most Knowledge Workers (employees who work only via computer and phone) are working from home now. They will soon realize that they may just as well work from a no-mask, no-fear luxury hotel in paradise.

These are just two of many target markets that can fill our hotel within months, bringing the sorely missed tourist jobs back. Switching from 8-day luxury tourism to pandemic-fleeing visitors has a huge advantage. There is no competition. There are no other locations in the United States that can control their borders, which is a necessity for eradication. Meanwhile, foreign travel is largely blocked and feels unsafe.

Eradication brings Health

Going back to a mask-free, fear-free lifestyle will be a relief for the residents. Isolation has been hard on most people and many need kind support to reconnect and once again breathe deeply. And finally, our Kupunas can get out again without any fear.

Jobs will be coming back and a positive vision for the future will already bring relief. Like in every crisis, we will continue to see a lot of neighborly help.

Eradication brings a New Economy

Maui’s efforts towards developing a high-tech economy have been hampered by a lack of expertise and funding. With tens of thousands of knowledge workers and affluent people in our hotels that may just change. As they come to love Maui, some may start their own businesses. If it’s only 1% a year, that would be 300 new ventures. With a little direction from the County, they may even choose to invent technologies that help the island or solve world problems.

It’s not hard to do…

A managed quarantine needs to be organized. Hotels should develop their offerings around the needs of the new visitors. Stylish working tables for computers including fast Internet will help. Add social support for those who miss the far-away family. Marketing may move towards direct sales, increasing profits. The County should collect fees for its services.

What seemed like the biggest disaster for our economy in May 2020 with 35% unemployment may turn into the greatest opportunity ever. The “Sanctuary Maui”, a safe place in a turbulent world.

Tips to Overcoming your Personal Financial Crisis

Would you like to know the secret to overcoming your personal financial crisis?

How would your life be different when you no longer “worry” about where your cash will come from?

DC Cordova has assembled a list of 10 distinctions she’s learned from her own personal path, distinctions that have served her well through many years of entrepreneurship and business development. From the upcoming book, Walking With the Wise: Overcoming Obstacles, this excerpt includes some of the most powerful habits of surviving difficult financial times. Read more

7 Powerful Principles Entrepreneurs Live By

by DC Cordova

In my program, Money & You®, we teach entrepreneurs, business professionals, salespeople, doctors, attorneys, alternative health care providers, engineers, scientists, writers, networking professionals, business owners, and many wealth gurus – you name them, we’ve taught them – how to live a principle-filled life based on the teachings of R. Buckminster Fuller, W. Edwards Deming, Georgi Lozanov, and many other pioneers of new thinking. Read more

Keep Saying “YES!”

Louis Lautman shares his thoughts with you in the first of our guest series of inspirations, which we call our Entrepreneurial Stimulus Plan”

If you are reading this right now you are strengthening your competitive edge, not only in your business, but in life as well.  We probably know countless people in our life who have started something only to give up when the times got tough.  What would have happened if they persisted through in the face of challenge and adversity?  We can’t control what other people do, but what you can control is what you do. Read more

The Illusion Of Money

Most people think that wealth is only a matter of money; they overlook other resources.

Money is just part of wealth. We like it because it is an objective measurement, making it easy to draw conclusions and evaluate alternatives. The most valuable resource we have is our time, not our money. It is the only limiting factor, and we never know when it will cease to exist.

Money is an illusion.

Read more

The Difference Between Being an Entrepreneur and an Employee

A cute video to illustrate what it means to be an entrepreneur… to lighten you day.

It makes the distinction between an entrepreneur or an employee. Can you spot the difference?

Peace of Mind – With Fries?

The other day I was noticing how much more I enjoyed getting a hamburger at In-N-Out Burger than I did at McDonald’s. Obviously the simple taste of the food, price and time of delivery were all important.

I noticed another even more important aspect of my visit… the young people who worked there truly enjoyed each other’s company even while they were working. The “Supersize” factor just didn’t apply. Everyone was simply EMOTIONALLY AWARE of what they needed to do and just did it. More importantly, the staff not only liked their job for the money it produced, they seemed to be in love with the idea of being in the company of each other. They were aware of their friendships as a part of the job and as a part of their own individual identities. Read more

Why I Am Optimistic About the Future

As the world continues to face monumental challenges, I thought this article would inspire you to face things a little differently…

it’s just what we need to hear today.

By: John Mauldin

I am optimistic by nature. An entrepreneur friend of mine gave me a term that I have grown to love. She calls it “psychic income.” It’s that bit of hoped-for future income that is in our minds, that drives some of us, inflicted with the entrepreneurial gene, to do the next deal, make the next big plan, scheme yet another scheme to finally hit whatever counts as the big one for each of us. How much better would our life be, how our problems would go away, if only this one thing would come about! It has not yet become real income, yet we live and act as if it is almost real. We can feel it getting ready to happen. It is still in our heads, this psychic income. Yet it is in some ways real for us. Read more

Huang Ming Shares His Dream

Huang Ming, China’s Leading Solar Entrepreneur, shares his dream…

I have a dream, a common dream of the people devoting to renewable energy source around the world, that for the blue sky and white cloud of the later generations, qualified products are used to realize renewable energy substitution.

I have a dream that one day throughout the whole world, renewable energy sources will take the dominant position.

I have a dream that one day my entire country fellows, even the global citizens, know about solar energy and make full use of it.

I have a dream that one day solar industry will be as advanced as IT industry, as mature as electric home appliances industry, and as large-scaled and automatic as automobile industry.

I have a dream that one day the sky will be much bluer, the water will be more limpid; our homeland will be full of sunshine, tranquil with no war. Read more