What I have really learned in UK
Normally, when Brazilians come to the UK, they return and say something like: “wow, London is incredible, beautiful, all the things seem clean and people are polite. I enjoyed it.” I might agree with these points about London and the UK, but I honestly want to show what I have really learned here, and I deeply believe that this content will help you to see what is behind the Queens’ Land.
First of all, I would like to break your expectations. London, Cambridge or any other place in the world, are just places. Actually, the most important things in thin context are the behavior, the habits, and the reasons that make this culture this way.
If you are paying attention, you realized that I said Queens’ Land. In London, most of the famous restaurants, pubs, parks and buildings have a theme about the Queen, King, Kingdom, Prince and Princess. The monarchy is sold as a product, possibly the most profitable product in the world.
In many parks there are statues and memorials from people who positively made the country better.
I’m writing about this because I have learned “the power of good storytelling”. The way that monarchy is sold, makes me create a connection with some places and some people. London makes you enter their History with them and I started to feel part of the history.
I fully recognize now that if I want to improve my results, any results, sales, networking or relationships I need to understand the power of good history.
The second thing that I have learned surprised me. In Brazil, over the years I have heard in various places and different people saying that to open a business it is necessary to be more courageous than anything. When I think about the Brazilian Government I agree with this point. But in London I discovered a new ciclo, to be an employer and to prepare with college degrees and MBAs before opening a business is common. Normally, at this moment the plan is to save money. The Brazilian culture that you need to be an entrepreneur is to be young and take risks, all the opposite to what I heard here.
In my English class most of the students want to do a college degree before opening a business. In the hostel, during one conversation, I realized that everyone in the room would like to be an entrepreneur at some moment. This behavior showed me a lesson in preparation. Usually the entrepreneurs fail because they don’t understand the segment, don’t know about the product and don’t have enough money. The lesson that the UK has taught me is that haste and speed are different things.
The third thing I experienced happened while I was writing a text similar to this text, I was doing a composition for the English course in the hostel. One guy asked me: what is this? I answered: a composition. He asked again: why are you doing this on the paper if you need to copy to the doc in your laptop? It Looks like a simple question, but normally if I am not paying attention I forget to ask questions about why am I doing this? Is it the best way to do it? In downtown London when I was walking on the street I realized that the public workers moving the traffic light at the place, saw these moving signs and pedestrians crossing. In the UK people are thinking how everything could be most efficient? I have understood here if I want to make something really big it will be necessary to stop, to think and to evolve with planning.
