Last week, my early morning taxi to the airport took me past the spectacular giant spaceship in red - the Allianz Arena - and I remark how much Munich has changed in the last two decades. And this week in the London underground, I hear "Mind the Gap" at a station, and I go even after a couple of generations of trains, that loudspeaker continues to be the "solution" to the distance between the platform and the train. Little has changed. But it's also good that Hyde Park stays mostly the same - an oasis of green over 300 acres of the world's most expensive real estate - except for a few more spots celebrating Princess Di. That's Europe - lots of change and lots of status quo.
I spent most of the 80s traveling the world for PwC - and I consider myself blessed for that experience and the 3-4 trips a year I have averaged overseas since (6 already this year). The travel did not help my PwC career. I remember, up for promotion one year, my home office Dallas did not show me on the promotion list (at PwC everyone was promoted to next level on same day every year) and my London partner did not even know it was promotion day in the US firm. A sulking weekend and 2 days later I was "retroactively" promoted. Was not funny back then, but showed how international assignments were more of an aberration then and it was easy to fall through the cracks.
My - how things have changed. I got my first passport when I was 20. So did my daughter. Except, my 20 was years, hers days.
To my younger readers, claw, mow down people, do whatever to go on global assignments. Today it will only help your career. And if your company will not allow you to travel, set up your own micro-multinational.
Because going to Epcot cannot come close to an outdoors dinner at Spatenhaus admiring Munchen's history and fashionable citizenry. Or a crisp, morning jog around the Serpentine in Hyde Park a mile from the busy, clogged streets of London.
