Should #Talent be shared?

a video song of Maestro Sergio Snyder, Pianist

A tribute to a very talented man, he shared this joy with thousands in his life!

When you listen to Beethoven’s 5^th symphony it’s hard to imagine how could anyone write such a magnificent piece. And when you look at a Picasso or Monett, makes you think of the hours they spent with every single stroke of a brush trying to bring life into their pictures. The inspirational performances of actors, dancers, musicians and singers make us stand for five minutes clapping our hearts out in admiration for their craft. Enjoying a carefully crafted meal from an award-winning chef and it's delights in our taste butts and leaves us wanting more. A beautiful pair of custom made shoes, a designer dinning table, a high performance sports car, are all personal possessions people seek and desire to own because of it’s unique craftsmanship. All of these are made or produced by very talented individuals who are masters in their craft and bring joy to people through their art. Whether it is in the form of a song or a piece of clothing, all are representations of someone’s talent that have enriched our lives.

Now imagine a world without Beethoven’s 5^th symphony? I guess if he hadn’t exist we wouldn’t know any better and probably life would have gone on, but how tragic it would be not to have the joy of listening to such master piece! I guess everything around us, if it hadn’t been written, produced or invented, we wouldn’t know we were missing out on such magnificent things, and perhaps others would be available to us.

But what does it all mean to us? And why is it important to know that talents should be shared? A few months ago I wrote a blog called “talent, gift or ability” in which I debated that you cannot learn talent, it is something you cannot teach and you are born with it. We all have talents, and they range from writing a master piece to managing a team or even driving a car or cooking a meal, whatever your talents are, these are the things you are good at and makes you who you are.

But talent’s worst enemy is lack of self-confidence and fear of failure. These stop even the greatest from bringing their talent to the world. If Mozart thought his music was rubbish and he was not good at it, we would not have the pleasure of enjoying his work today. Yet he knew he had a talent and wanted to share this with others, but was there another “Mozart” out there, just as talented but with a lack of self-confidence; I guess well we will never know and perhaps we have all be deprived of the joy of enjoying his/her work.

The real debate here is - if you have someone who has a real talent and enjoys his or her gift but lacks self confidence and does not wish to share it with others because of fear of rejection or failing, is that ok?

Everything we have and enjoy today is because a talented person wanted to share their gift with the world. If Michael Jackson had decided he loved signing but would confine it to the shower, the pop world would be very different today and non of us would have made a fool of ourselves dancing to Thriller pretending to be a corps!

We all have different talents, and as long as we are aware of these, it is our duty to share these with the world.

If you know you have a talent, but doubt yourselves I implore you to go out there and don’t let fear kill your gift, and share with the world what you are good at. We all have a role to play in life and after all talent is a gift we have been given, a gift we have to share with the world.

Week Forty-six – Organised Chaos!

A few years ago, looking at the mess on my desk someone asked “how can you find anything in that mess?” and I told them it’s not a mess it’s my organised chaos!

Years later after making this comment I find myself writing about Organised Chaos and what it really means. I think we can all fool ourselves believing that statement but organisation comes from having a system that works and not a system that looks organised but it’s chaotic.

Let me tell you what got me thinking about it this week. I was travelling in Turkey visiting several cities within the country. The Turkish culture and its people have always fascinated me and I remember the first time I visited Turkey how much it reminded me of home. And by home I mean my birth home Mexico. I always tell people that Turks and Mexicans are somehow related in the way we live our lives. Spending time in Istanbul always brings back memories of the busy and exciting buzz Mexico City has. And whenever I leave Turkey to go back to the UK it also reminds me of why I never went back to Mexico! The comfort of knowing I can leave what seems a very chaotic city makes me enjoy it more than if I lived there. I can’t judge how chaotic Mexico City is nowadays as I haven’t been there for years but I am sure they have become more organised, just like the Turks, constantly look for way to improve the quality of life of people in these over populated cities.

But in a way, even thought these cities constantly look for improvements on their everyday systems, there always seems to be chaos all around you. A good example of this is at Istanbul International Airport. If you’ve never been through the famous Ataturk International Airport, this is one of the busiest hubs in the eastern part of Europe. There is no time when this airport is not busy with thousands of people arriving, transferring and leaving to hundreds of destinations. I don’t think I have ever been in a plane that arrives or leaves Istanbul empty. To alleviate the large numbers of people boarding and ensure planes take off on time, the airport has devised a simple but effective queuing system to board the aircraft by row numbers. This is no a unique idea and you may be familiar with it. Many airports attempt to do this by calling people to board by row numbers through the loud speakers. This, as I am sure you will also know, never works because people don’t listen. To avoid this the airport in Istanbul has set up barriers with queuing by row numbers! Simple! This means you get into your line based on your seat number and they board people accordingly, from the back of the airplane to the front, keeping everyone moving so you can board quicker and leave on time to your destination.

Now, you would think this system should work and help speed up the boarding process right? Wrong! It doesn’t work! And in my eyes it becomes what I call “Organised Chaos”. Yes they have the lines clearly marked with who should stand where for boarding and yes they let passengers into the plane from the back to the front rows to avoid congestion in the airplane’s aisles. But when you actually get on the plane there are people blocking the aisle, people sitting in the front rows trying to fit their suitcase and slowing everyone down! How do this happen I hear you ask? Simple – if you don’t have the barriers and make an announcement instead, people don’t listen. If you have the barriers and don’t make announcements, people don’t read! So you end up with people queuing on the last rows that are in the front rows and so the organised system is out of the window and it become chaos – an organised chaos!

This is a very simple example of why when someone tells you this is my organised messed it can’t really work. I am not judging peoples systems, I think everyone is entitled to work how they best fits them, but what I am saying is that throughout they years I have learn that organisation can and will help you be better at what you do. Think about it, how many times have you been in a situation where you thought you were organised and then something went wrong? This is probably because your system, like the boarding system at Istanbul, although it may seem organised still has flaws and needs perfecting. I have been trying to find the best way to keep myself organised for years and I still feel I have a long way to go. Checklists are a good example of this.

Do you keep a checklist? Or several checklists! You may even have a checklist to check your checklists! Do you like paper or electronic? I keep on switching back and forth between these two. And if your checklist is neat and organised how does it help you to get everything done? Some people are very successful at keeping well organised checklist but aren’t always successful at delivering what is on the checklist! Just like the queuing system, you have to not just implement it but make sure it gets done!

I don’t think we will ever be perfect at organising ourselves. Even countries like Germany and the UK still have their “Organised Chaos”. But what we can do is to continue to strive for this perfection. I know for myself, I continue to look for the ultimate checklist that will help me be organised, and who knows, I may never find it. But I encourage you all to look for ways to always improve and find your best-organised chaos! Trust me, no one has an organised mess that is 100% effective and even though it may seem to works at one point or another you will have to move away form your organised chaos and fix that mess!

Week Thirty- three – #Culture

They say that Culture is at the heart of a nation and to get to that nation you have to win their heart!

You can take the boy out of Mexico but you can't take Mexico out of the boy!

This week I was talking to a group of people about culture and it is a subject that fascinates me for many reasons. And Culture is something so powerful and important in our lives that we should all pay attention to it and be aware of the implications that it has in our lives. But let’s first define what culture is. I am not going to give you the dictionary definition but rather what I have learned throughout my life.

First of all culture is at the centre of everyone’s life. It’s a set of values we live by and use to drive our actions. Culture is a passion for something we have inherited and will pass on to others and it is what makes us who we are. With this in mind, you can see why when I say culture is something very powerful I mean VERY POWERFUL! That is why often you hear people say “it’s a culture shock” essentially because when you are faced with something that doesn’t fit your culture, it throws out everything you know about values and set of norms you live by.

Now let us put this in perspective. I was born and raised in Mexico and spent the first 18 years of my life there. At heart and mind I am a Mexican and my routes are something I will never loose particularly because my formation years where spent living and breathing the Mexican way. They say you can take the boy out of Mexico but you can’t take Mexico out of the boy, a true statement for all of us. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away from your motherland, you will always have something that ties you back, and it is who you are. And the reason for this is that your education and character building took place there and it is embedded in you.  For me growing up in Mexico set my views and values I now carry with me and live by, I am proud to be Mexican and will always carry it in my heart. There is a Mexican Mariachi song that says “Beautiful and beloved Mexico, if I die far away from you, tell them that I’m sleeping and return me to you” and nothing could be further from the truth, you main not be buried in your home land but spiritually that’s were we all end up.

But the boy left Mexico and went to the UK and did he have a culture shock! The next set of my formation years (teens) were spent in England, where things worked very differently! But here is where I became fascinated with culture without knowing it. Most people when they leave their country they become homesick, and they miss everything about their culture. It is a natural reaction; remember what we said about culture, it rules your life, so all of the sudden everything you know is out of whack! But for me it was different. Right up to the date I left Mexico I lived and breath the culture, it’s all I knew and loved it (Mexican’s do have a lot of fun!) but within days of being in the UK I was not missing Mexico any more. It’s hard to explain as I did and still love Mexico, but I was ready to embrace a new culture, which fascinated me. Some people saw this wrong as they believed I was forgetting where I came from, trust me I never have, but I didn’t need to miss Mexico to still love it, and at the same time I was learning a new way of life, a new set of values and passions of people in my new country, my new home. Pretty soon I realised that I wanted to stay in the UK and therefore I had to embrace the culture and live like an Englishman! Here is where I began to understand that culture is at the heart of a nation and to get to people’s hearts is through their culture. Often what cause conflict in society is segregation and the struggle between who is right and who is wrong. When you are a Mexican and live in the UK, if you live like a Mexican you will never fit in or indeed be accepted into society. You can remain proud to be a Mexican and still follow your traditions, but you must also embrace the culture where you live and conform to the values of the people there, after all you have chosen to be here.

I don’t mean to say I had to become English to be accepted, not at all, I still call myself a Mexican even though I’ve not lived there for over 28 years. But I had to learn their culture, accept it and live it, this was now my home and it would become part of who I am. So I guess I could say there is Mexican and English in me, Mexinglish may be the right word for me; I learned the values of the culture and lived by those values, which often aligned with my values as a Mexican.

I have sometimes called myself “citizen of the world” because I have been fortunate enough to also be able to experience different cultures and embrace them. My mother’s family came form Spain and I married a Spaniard, so I have also learned and embraced the culture. I have lived and worked in Germany and my father side has some German, so I declared myself German! There is some Jewish blood in our family and I have been fortunate enough to spend time in Israel through my work, I have felt home every time I’ve been there. I’ve been mistaken as an Armenian, Georgian, Azeri, Egyptian, Italian, and any other Latin Middle eastern countries you can think of, and when I’ve been in those countries I have learned and embraced their culture, and some times feel part of them! In my travels I have learned that the way to be accepted anywhere you are, first you have to accept where you are. Learn about the country, the people, their traditions, passion, believes, be respectful of these and try things, nothing is going to kill you. If people see that you accept them, they will accept you and also respect your culture back.

It is very rewarding to live and learn new cultures; it only makes you stronger and a better person. There are many values that are shared by all, Family, Health, Friendship, and Respect, we all live by these. So if we accept people’s culture, soon you will see that actually it’s not that far away from yours, the difference is the rich history and traditions that make each country and culture so unique and fascinating to learn, after all, we are all citizens of this world, the world belongs to all of us.

The sooner we remove segregation and separation of land, the sooner we will enjoy sharing our cultures and planned amongst our fellow citizens of the world!