Research indicates that entrepreneurs, who don’t travel internationally, say one of the obstacles seems to be the lack of a passport when a perfect opportunity presents itself. That’s no excuse! Get your passport and start planning, but know that you don’t become a globetrotter overnight.
Immerse yourself in culture and diversity
You can easily immerse yourself in culture and diversity without traveling too far from home. Cultural and business norms, cuisine and language all take wonderful turns at home if you keep an eye out for them. But, great delights also await you once you cross borders.
International travel, even when it’s close to home, forces you into the unknown, away from the many comforts we take for granted – language, food, clothing, religion, and familiar customs to name a few. Successful entrepreneurs thrive under pressure and excel while outside of their comfort zone. Many seek the thrill of the unknown and the way it expands their horizons.
‘. . . successful entrepreneurs thrive under pressure and excel outside of their comfort zonevibrant and significant part of contemporary culinary arts. . .’
Every entrepreneurs need to know there are ways that traveling internationally can change your understanding of yourself, your life and your business.
You can do more with less
When traveling for long periods of time, you have to pack light and work with the bare essentials, buying certain items when you arrive at your destination. Living out of a few pieces of luggage requires learning to make do with what you have on hand. Many times, something you need isn’t readily available like it always is at home. Picking up too many items along the way to make up for this can easily become a burden and a collection of too much junk.
This rings true in business as well. Many new entrepreneurs lack access to all the resources they could ever want or need in their start-up. When this happens to you, it is essential to continuously evaluate whether you’re maximizing the output of the resources you have.
Naturally, you’ll tend to grab onto any additional resources that become available, possibly skipping the time to consider their value. Not assessing what value you are placing on which items or parts of your business can cause quite the burden, as those extra items add up and slow you down. A key to early success for many businesses is to review the available resources, learn to keep the ones you can manage, maximize their productivity, and leave available room to utilize new resources as your business evolves. Letting go of the excess may seem hard, but it is well worth it in the long run.
‘…leave available room to utilize new resources as your business evolves…’
Cultural Empathy
Many people happily go about their days in a state of ‘sameness’ but that quickly changes once you travel abroad. Dozens of languages and incredibly diverse backgrounds are the ‘norm’ throughout much of the world. Feeling like an outsider in the international melting pot for the first time can be overwhelming, but well worth the discomfort.
Imagine growing up in a small town where even a ‘people-person’ realizes that it’s easy to get along with people when you grow up together, watch the same TV shows and shop at the same stores. But it’s quite different when every person you meet has almost nothing in common with you, they think you are strange, and no one has more than a rudimentary understanding of the English language.
This forces you to adapt quickly, you listen more than you talk, use hand signals and do whatever it takes to find effective ways to communicate. This mode of communication, levels the playing field and is a binding between cultures, in a way you will not otherwise experience.
‘…do whatever it takes to effectively communicate…’
Putting yourself into a situation where you’re suddenly a minority requires empathy and patience from those you are working with, and an incredible amount of humility on your part.
When international travel takes you to a place where common sense isn’t so common, you’re forced to find unique ways to communicate and achieve your goals. The same applies to being an entrepreneur, when building your business, you will inevitably find yourself in foreign situations. Acknowledging and learning from the approach different cultures bring to personal and business endeavours is a valuable experience.
‘…find unique ways to communicate and achieve your goals…’
Altering Your Definition of Success
Many consider themselves successful once they’ve expanded their bank accounts and accumulated expensive material possessions. However, the definition of success is incredibly varied. The Maasai people of East Africa see lion hunting as a sign of bravery and personal achievement, while Buddhists from India say that it is better to travel well than to arrive. The real definition of success is more about your mind-set, ultimately, success is defined by each of us individually. Your success in business doesn’t have to define your success in life. A nine to five job doesn’t have to be the norm. Millennials, in particular, have embraced this thought process as they’ve taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital economy.
‘…success is defined by each of us individually…’
France has even gone so far as to ban email correspondence outside of work hours. Traveling or working abroad allows you to experience and appreciate how distinct cultures and people define and celebrate success and more importantly, how they react to failure.
The reality is that the possibility of failure is ever present. You can’t allow the fear of failure to hold you back. It is one of the top reasons that many businesses don’t succeed. Never dwell on the past or spend too much time planning the future. Concentrate on the present and stop comparing yourself to others. It may be ‘mind expanding’ to accept that failure is not an option but a certainty, and never let it define you or your success.
‘…concentrate on the present and stop comparing yourself…’
If you’re looking at entrepreneurship as your ticket to easy money and a lifestyle of flashy cars and photos of the cash you see on Instagram, think again. A tornado of skill, ability, passion, hustle, perseverance, and a lot of luck go into developing a successful business long-term.Define your own success and bring it all together. Treat failure as a stepping stone to your next achievement instead of a step backward. It won’t be easy, but treating yourself as a work in progress is the way to grow.
‘…treat yourself as a work in progress…’
Tell us in the comments, how you as an entrepreneur, thrive on international travel?
