Hello … I’m back.
It was amazing.
OK, it was more for being with the family than the physical place … but that’s because I’m not a ‘stay-down-on-the-farm’ kind of person, though I appreciate some of you may suggest it’s more because I’m not a ‘pay-for-my-own-holidays’ kind of person.
Pah.
Anyway, I wanted to return with a post that matters a lot to me.
To be honest, all of them matter to me … but as of late, I’ve been writing stuff that matters more than most.
Things like female leadership, prejudice and when work tries to kill you
Well, while this isn’t connected to the industry I work in, it is about an issue very dear to me.
Living overseas is one of the greatest privileges you can have.
Sure, there are things you give up and miss – but what you gain more than compensates for it.
Case in point. I recently had dinner with Rodi and David in San Francisco.
The photo from the evening is at the top of this post.
None of us live here. None of us work here. None of us are from here.
In fact all of us live in totally different countries and come from different parts of the world.
Rodi is Australian/Ukrainian, David is Taiwanese and I’m British/Italian.
To make matters even more random, we all met in China.
Yet despite having all moved on from our time at Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, we remain connected … not because of the company we worked at, but because of the generosity of the country we experienced.
This dinner represents what England has voted entire generations never to have.
It’s an act of utter selfishness.
Utter, utter selfishness.
So many in society like to bestow that label on the youth of the UK, but it’s not them.
It’s the Daily Mail reading, over 55’s who have enjoyed good fortune in their life but don’t want anyone else to have it. Who don’t want anyone else to evolve and grow because they don’t want to be left behind and feel less important.
Selfish, egotistical, bigoted and blinkered pricks.
The reality is my ability to live around the World has made my life unquestionably bigger, better and fuller.
Almost everything I have and treasure is because of my life outside of England.
That is not in any way meant to say life in England is bad – far from it – but anyone who thinks there is greater value staying isolated versus expanding the possibilities of life through adventures, experiences and friends that exist beyond the borders of our shores has either never done it or is frightened of it.
May I have dinners with friends in countries none of us come from for many years to come.