This week I am in Cascais, Portugal for an EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) conference. We call them University’s because there is a lot that we learn and share.
A few years ago, I was sent for work to Amsterdam with a coworker. She was very excited because she loved to travel, but what happened during our trip made me believe the opposite. She complained a large portion of the time about how “weird” everything was. She was appalled that the Dutch put mayo on their fries and considered breakfast food to be cold cuts and fruit. She disliked the fact that dogs were doing their business on the street with their owners not picking up after them (okay, so that was a little weird), but that is what they do.
Prior to coming to Cascais a few of us spent some time in Madrid. My concern was that if we have too many people, we would do nothing because everyone would want a say in what we do and then nothing would happen. What happened was that everyone adapted and we had a good time. What’s great about this group is how easily we all get along together, despite our different personalities. We even started using a hashtag, #BeEasy to capture our travels. I don’t believe we’re the first to use it, but the meaning of “be easy” also fits our group’s dynamic: be cool, relax, and take care of yourself.
Adaptability is becoming the norm. At the last EO University in San Francisco one of the speakers spoke about the Adaptability Quotient (AQ). He talked about how he had worked with super smart people but they accomplished very little because they were stuck in their ways. The world moves very fast today and the folks that will make the most impact are folks that are able to adapt quickly, just like the folks in Sweden.
Don’t get me wrong, you still need to be intelligent and hardworking to make an impact, but you should also be able to adapt along the way and sometimes change with the time.
“Things change. The only thing constant is change. It’s up to you to be adaptable.” Anonymous
So, this weekend #BeEasy.
Vijay