Sylv

Hi! This is my first entry. I believe it's just going to be me here for a while. If you are reading this, hopefully you understand the concept of this blog already.

As this is my first entry, I thought it apt to talk about what inspired me to start it.

I am currently studying abroad in Lisbon. I hated it at first. If you've ever stayed in another country for a long time, you'd know what I'm talking about. Everyone is so different. It's not really the superficial parts that bother me, it's more so about them. People have different attitudes towards everything.

I was invited to the US embassy to watch the US elections this year. I can't say it was a jolly event but I did get to speak with this lady. She moved to Lisbon and started her own travel agency. She talked about her journey and how she fell in love with living in Lisbon. One particular story stood out to me. Part of her job running a travel agency is connecting clients with vineyards in the north. As you may know, Porto is very famous for their wines. For larger parties, it's often highly requested that the vineyard host a private event, just for their party. This makes sense to us for both sides. The vineyard owner gets a large lump sum and doesn't have to worry about visitors for a whole week, and the larger party gets a more personalized experience. She figured this out very early on and thought it was a great business model to present to the local vineyard owners. Even as she was recalling this story to me, I thought it was a great idea too. Out of roughly 15 vineyard owners she spoke to, a total of 0 agreed to her proposition. She was shocked. It's not like these vineyard wine making tours were in high demand very often. Her business model would bring in a more steady cash flow, greatly increasing their valuation and giving them more opportunities to expand.

"What makes you think we want to expand?" — a vineyard owner asked.

This seemed like a dumb question. You run a business, of course you want to expand, that's the whole game. Work for a few years, grind your business, grow it, retire rich or pass it on to your kids. Right?

"What an American way to think" was all he responded with.

The property was already his kids — they run around the field every day. Private tours will take that away from them. He was already retired — growing his business would make him work longer than he is used to.

I don't claim to know what is the right way. I'm not preaching for everyone to be mellow winemakers in Porto. But I do think it is helpful to gain some perspective. At that moment, that lady didn't know how to talk to him. She couldn't relate to his wants. All that she knew came from her experiences as a project consultant in America.

Since we all look alike, communicate in relatively the same manner, we tend to assume that most people think like us. Moments like this show us the opposite. This blog serves to give people a sneak peek into other people's lives. Hopefully, in that tiny window, you get to learn more about someone else, a different perspective to a different story.

Sylv, 2024