Why Travel Makes You A Better Entrepreneur

Being a passionate about traveling I found that this activity may stimulate your entrepreneurial thoughts,  spontaneously give you an absolutely brilliant idea, provide with the sudden solution you’ve been looking for so long,  calm your inner tornado etc.

There is something similar between unrestrained traveler and entrepreneur. Both are risk-takers anyway, both are on the search of the uncharted territories, both are adventurous enough to follow their inner compasses.

Once I stayed for a few nights in a tiny hotel in Lima, a bustling city with great eclectic of business and leisure, where the mix of citizens savor the local lifestyle.  Enjoying my morning coffee in a lovely place (La Rosa Nautica) I was suddenly interrupted by excited women who rush into the restaurant and started to write down something into her organizer. Even waiter seemed to be a little confused. As things turned out to be this extraordinary but ravishing women was the founder of one of the most famous beauty-brand. She was taking a stroll along the shore when an unexpected idea came into her hand. The first decision that was taking — to write down this satori, this aha-moment. In a moment, we’ve been talking like an old friends and this lady share few  evident examples of how traveling inspires her on new ventures, sparks new concepts and teach new skills.

After that animated, in order to to satisfy my inquisitive mind I started paying attention to what fresh feelings, impression and senses every journey gave me.

I besieged my friend and other people I admire with questions about their travel experience and all perks and benefits that this activity could give them. It turned out to be that new experiences do have a tremendous impact on us.

1) Beyond your limits.

If one morning you wake up beaten by the travel bug — you have to know it’s just a high to move all the blunderings and come out of your notorious comfort zone. Keep in mind that sometimes while traveling you may face new challenges meet with extraordinary people, find yourself in surprising situation etc. That’s the perfect way to test your ability to keep calm under pressure and assess what you can do beyond limits.

2) Creative Problem-Solving Skills.

Oh, yeah… Every trip is the best possible way to get out if interesting,  intriguing and even funny situations. You may lose your wallet, you may forget the name of the street where you settle,  you may misunderstand some words, gestures or even customs. So you have to invent absolutely new to you way how to react, what to do and how to solve it out.

3) Be broad-minded and develop flexibility.

Either you visit an exotic country, where having a guinea pig for dinner is a usual thing, or you go to an old Europe with all her gorgeous history — you will taste new feelings, you will be the witness of strange local customs, extravagant manners and other ridiculous surprises. For example, a competitive finger-pulling in Austria, ambushing unmarried 25-year-old person with cinnamon in Denmark, boot-throwing in Finland, saluting lone magpies in the UK and many other weird things.

Such experience requires from visitor to be quite an open-minded person, show tolerance toward strange customs and try at least to be discerning enough to understand why people get used to behaving in such way.

How may it help you in business? Just remember how different are all those people you get across on daily basis. They have their own point of view, their vision of how  it should be done. Instead of just pulling apart your partner’s thought it may have the sense to understand the motive, the reason why he / she thinks so. It could be a fatal flaw to let yourself be narrow-minded in business since different people generate absolutely offbeat ideas! That synergy may help you to find a distinctive solution, unexpected direction. Many business gurus claim that being flexible in business is the exact feature that help you triumph one day.

4) Plan «B» skills.

Very often life’s going its usual way, unpredictable and erratic. You never know what may happen right the next moment: your hotel reservation wasn’t confirmed, your flight was cancelled, you may lose somewhere in the rainforest or you may be robbed.

That’s why you’d better always have plan «B». Travelling is the perfect opportunity to gain this skill. If something can go wrong and not according to your arrangement –  you may be quite surprised what an outstanding suggestion your resourceful and nimble mind can provide! It’s perfectly clear that in critical or extraordinary situations we pull up all our mental strength and bring about a solving.

The ability to create plan «B» could be an indispensable feature for true leaders.

5) Expand your knowledge.

Every time you go to another place you seize the opportunity to gain  unique knowledge. You will never extend your outlook if you keep eating the same fast food, walking home the same direction, listen to only Jazz and so on.

If you travel a lot you will learn a huge amount of things, facts, legends and beliefs.

You will taste the salt ice-cream, the delicious cuisine with unbelievable ingredient and unforgettable tastes. You may visit marvelous places, find out some facts from history you may learn yachting and lots, lots of things.

By extending your knowledge, — you will be able to keep up the conversation, to impress your interlocutor and seem to be an all-round person.

6) Networking opportunities.

You’ll never know who would sit next to you on the plane, who you might meet at the local restaurant, and who is that lovely lady, swimming in the hotel pool.

Traveling is the great place to make useful acquaintance. Informal atmosphere contributes to better and easier communication since both of you feel more inner freedom than in the office. Such relaxed conversation could blossom into a long-term business relationship.

So, each travel may become your tiny discovery: you may find new ideas, get new friends, experience new revelation. It’s a great way to test yourself, to obtain new skills, to generate new concepts. Want to be a renowned entrepreneur — it’s a high time to book a flight!

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Oksana Reikina was born in the Ukraine, and is currently living in New York. She is proud to be a part of CustomerTimes LLC, an ISV and Salesforce implementation partner. Being a true bookworm she adores great web resources, classical literature and exquisite content. She is passionate about traveling, as this helps to extend her outlook and gain new knowledge and experience.