The former All Blacks captain is taking a hit during the coronavirus pandemic, with his small helicopter business impacted amid travel bans and social distancing measures.
While appearing on Sky Sport’s Breakdown show, McCaw told New Zealanders who are facing challenges during lockdown to try to focus on what they can control.
“You think of businesses, and I’m involved in a business which has challenges ahead, it’s about trying to work out what you can control,” he said.
“People can’t go to work and businesses have lost revenue … some of that is out of your control, but you can control your attitude around looking after your people and your family.
“Focusing on the things that are important and what you can have an influence over – whether it was playing rugby or in the context of life – that gives you something to focus on. It may be still tough to figure out how you’re going to navigate through it…
“But the other thing is you don’t want to do it on your own. Everyone – your neighbours, people all around the world – is in the same boat so connecting with them can be helpful. I know sometimes leadership can be lonely but it doesn’t have to be if you share it with people that are going through the same thing.”
When it comes to the damage that will be done to sport as competitions are suspended, McCaw is remaining optimistic, saying there could be new opportunities once we’re through the worst of the pandemic.
“Every sport is in the same situation – you’re wondering what it’s going to look like once things turn around and what sort of damage is being done through obviously missing competitions. In some ways, rather than looking at what the problems might be now, [look at] what opportunities might open up and there might be some good things come out of it if you can deal with the financial hit.
“You hear sometimes that ‘oh, people get sick of seeing rugby or sport in general’, but it’s amazing when you haven’t got anything to watch how important it is to everyone’s lives from an entertainment point of view. I think from a rugby point of view in New Zealand, it’s shown how important it is to New Zealand.
“Once that opportunity to get back out there in whatever form it looks like, I think people will get excited to be back playing or back watching and in the long run that might be a positive for our game, remembering how important it is.”
