While everyone is in lockdown, sitting at home, one of our colleagues found herself in a moment of contemplation and wrote something we found quite uplifting. 

Quarantine Inspiration

By Rosalind Alexander

Remember when everyone told you you could be anything?

And then you grew up.

Yes of course, we’re all trying to stay positive and find the best in each moment, but what about the regrets, and the hope that you had for a future full of possibilities and excitement, before you realised the reality of working to pay the bills?

Being in social isolation is giving us more time for an introspective look at our lives and choices. It’s giving us an “out” of normal society and the opportunity to factory reset. Along with the rest of the world.

Let me tell you about a man, sitting at home in his cold London flat trying to warm up. Finding himself moving his small square hot water bottle around his body. From tummy to toe to lap to legs, his movements drove him to ask (out loud, to nobody), “why don’t they make these things longer?” At some point, haven’t we all been this man? But this particular time, this man was Richard Yu.

Fast forward 7 years, Richard is the owner of the successful and ever growing YUYU Bottle company, the world’s first long hot (and cold) water bottle. To date, YuYu has sold thousands of hot water bottles globally, warming the world by selling to renowned department and health food stores, a welcome surprise for guests of luxury hotels, and particularly popular with those with chronic pain, not forgetting the rest of us who are sitting on our own settee, wanting to warm up. Possibly most impressively, the YUYU has hit the sports market and has developed a range of branded hot and cold water bottles under license with Team GB. So all Team GB athletes competing at the, now Tokyo 2021, Olympic Games, will have a YUYU Bottle.

How is this story relevant when we are all at home contemplating our uncertain future? When all we really care about in this moment, aside from the obvious news headlines, consuming us from every direction, is essentially the return to normality. To be with our loved ones. We’ve gone from worrying about where to get toilet paper from to obsessing over washing the packaging the toilet roll comes in.

For nearly 5 years, I’ve been working for YUYU Bottle. I wasn’t there at the very beginning but I have lived through the growth and experienced the awe of building a business. Now it’s 2020 and I’m sitting here in my living room, feeling that universal sense of confinement and doing all that I can to still feel some connection with the world outside. 

Small businesses like YUYU are driven by creativity, they inspire hope, passion and excitement, and embrace human connection, which we crave, pandemic or no pandemic. So my advice is to make the best of quarantine. It may be the ideal moment to let your mind wander and go deeper. These hard times can be a blessing in disguise, some of the world’s masterpieces were created during days of difficulty. YUYU has grown from a bedroom thought to an international business, able to support its employees across more than 7 countries, and it was started by a man who was feeling the cold. In his home.

Everything is risky. Even going outside is risky now. 

During your time at home, stop to think, is any idea ever too crazy?