The beauty of the Expat community - the global mind?
I am living abroad for almost one year now. During the past weeks and months, I had so many nice discussions within the Expat / Living abroad – community and I started to reflect on: Why does each of these conversations be so easy to me? Why do I have so much in common with people I never met before and I am only able to talk to via phone or video chat?
The feeling of being understood
One reason I love so much talking to the Expat community is that everybody has similar experiences at one point in the past. All of them have been the foreigner at the beginning not even knowing where to buy what and where to go. All of them have been struggling for a while to adapt and most of them have succeeded at one point in time and are openly sharing how in order to support others. In that way, most Expats resonate with the problems of others no matter the country the other person is living in right now. It’s more about the common understanding of how it feels like to be foreign and in the desire for some orientation and normal life.
Open - interested - non-judgmental
Another reason I love talking to people living abroad is that we all know that we are guests in another country. In that sense, most of us recognize the differences in behaviors and we occasionally grump abroad the missing of our own culture but we are most of the times interested in exploring new traits and motives.
At the moment I feel more like an explorer, recognizing the differences, finding it different and trying to be not too judgmental when I miss my familiar background. Being non-judgmental is a personal life goal for my self and living abroad is the best training for me.
The tendency for being curious
Moving to another country often means that we leave everything behind us just to conquer the unknown and to engage in a new adventure. Even if you are abroad because your partner’s company has sent you here – it is still a brave decision to leave your job, home, friends, and family to start a new life in an unfamiliar country. I love that the people I am talking to are curious enough to think outside their box and start fresh. For me, all these stories are very inspiring and remind me of what humans really want: learn, interact and support each other.
The entrepreneurial mindset
Another character trait I more and more become familiar with is the entrepreneurial mindset of people who moved abroad. Some say moving abroad is a perfect setting to start your own business as your brain start to think a lot about: What is missing here in my new surrounding, how can I bring in my own skill set, how can I learn the local customs and become familiar with the local markets and so on. I keep on stumbling across amazing business concepts and will gather them to present to you. Realizing the creative potential of living abroad is very inspirational to me and by sharing them with you I hope you will enjoy some stimulating thoughts too.
Have you started your own business abroad or know someone inspiring in that field please get in touch with me. I would love to learn more and to feature you or your friend in an interview!
The Expat community has the best pre-conditions to be open, supporting, engaging and inspirational community and my latest experiences proof me right.
If you are an Expat yourself I can highly recommend you to engage in this beautiful community and network in order to widen your horizon even more.
Have a good start into the week!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing the love!
