After 29 hours of door-to-door travel, I decided I must dedicate this post to my takeaway from all the havoc.
I’m typically a third world traveler. For over a decade, I’ve focused on visiting developing or semi-developed countries. This holiday season, I took my first trip in at least 12 years to Western Europe. The plan: Chicago to London; switch planes; London to Dusseldorf. Because holiday traveling is always a ‘challenge’, I had raised my tolerence level for mishaps.
Even so, I (falsely!) took comfort in the fact that despite traveling during the craziest time of the year, at least I’d be arriving into an organized, highly efficient, sophisticated european scenario.So, compared to Dar es Salaam; Johannesburg; Quito; Lima; Havana, San Jose; San Juan, Santa Domingo; this list goes on and on…..I thought we’d be in great shape relatively speaking.
Alas, I learned quickly not to judge once the many debacles began to build upon one another—stretching what should have been about a 12 hour commute into one that lasted 29 hours!
I’ll spare my readers the gory (!) details, but between cancelled flights (NOT due to weather); missed connections; inconsistent information from the airline; lines and more lines; security checks and more security checks; human errors; a grimy bench serving as a place for the ulitmately 10-hour layover (originally intended to be 2.5)….thanks to all of those elements and more, I will now no longer consider the airports and systems of my favorite destinations(developing nations) to be sub-par.
How does this story even remotely relate to the architecture, engineering, and construction business? Well, it may not relate too terribly much. Still, I had some takeaways that underscored what I know (but sometimes forget) about our business:
1. Younger, smaller firms may not offer the depth of resources of a larger, more established firm. Yet, younger firms can often be faster and less complicated. Their decision making process may actually be more coordinated as a result. And they certainly have fewer buerocratic hangups.
2. When you’re dealing with a challenging project or client situation, then hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. This will help maintain some semblance of sanity.
3. Managing your reactions is essential. Realize what you have the power to change, and accept what you can not possibly alter.
On this note, to borrow from the french: c’est la vie.
Finally, if you happen to be celebrating Christmas tomorrow, then I hope it is joyful and abundant.