MY IDOLS WHEN I AM OLDER!

When I was  young, my idols were  footballers or band leaders.. why?,  they have everything, and everything means popularity,  money, photos in the newspapers, girls and fame. And of course, my main interests were music and football, and these people perfomed great there. 

When I started to become older  ( and I had my aniversary this week), I realised that: 

1) Your interests change, and you discover that there are other interesting areas in the life. 

2)  Some people, when have a talent and / or have a big position, decides to put a lot of distance with normal people as you /me.  Personally  I do not find a big merit in being better than others for having a talent given by birth,  it is only luck.

Who are my idols today? People that try to excell each day in their professions, but as well in their lives, and they do not forget that to be a great professional is important to be a balanced and happy person, because without balance, it is difficult to do a long-run race. 

Last week I went with my  friend Victor Martin to "El Celler del Can Roca". This restaurant is leaded by Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca, three brothers that got for their restaurant the  Michelin  3 starts, and not only that, the first position in the list of best world restaurants organised by the journal The Restaurant. After some excellent wines and creative tasty dishes, I had the chance to speak with the three brothers. 

These people are my idols today. Why  are they   my idols today?

1) Their results. They are clear and undeniable!.  3 Michelin Starts and  the first position in the list of best world restaurants organised by the journal The Restaurant.
2) They are the best in one of my interests today, the cuisine, because  it creates worth and makes happy the people (as the football or the music)

3)  A will to improve themselves: They try to improve their dishes each week. To do that, they create, but they read and observe from the best chefs without any envy and with a spirit of healthy competition. In their dishes there are influences from France, Spain, Peru, Catalunya, Mexique,...

4) They love what they are doing. They love speak about other chefs, about dishes and they are still in the restaurant cooking, helping to cook and speaking / having pictures with the guests

5) They are humanily focused. They told me that the first position in the list of best restaurants was not the most  important, it was doing what they love and  make the customers  happy.

6) Integrity: This means  that your phrases and your actions have coherence. They speak about food with love and they are still in the restaurant giving an example, they speak about making  happy the customers and they are there appearing in pictures with the guests.. and if you look closely the picture, you will think that they were our  friends from  a long time ago, it is not true, we met them this day, but  the photo shows how really are they. Their smiles are completely sincere.

But they are not only my idols, there are many more, but they are not so popular as these chefs..all the people that improves themselves each  day, their actions and phrases have a coherence, love what are doing and do not fear to be close to the people independently of the position that they have. But it is important that people in higher positions set example in order to do a better world.

A SPANYARD WORKING WITH FRENCHS!!

In all the trainings about the adaptation to work in other country, it is stated that you will pass for 4 phases:

1. Over-excitation: You like the culture, you appreciate all the new things and you think that they are much better than your original culture... "you prefer the new beer".

2. Dissapointment: After a while, you start to see more negative points, miss your culture  and not understand the differences. "You are tired of the new beer and  missing your native beer".

3. Adaptation: After the previous shock, you start gradually to adapt yourself, you really enjoy and practice the differences  that  are better and give less importance to the differences that you do not like. " I like this different beer"

4. Satisfaction: At the end, you start to enjoy the new langue, culture, country, people.. "This beer is excellent. It is good that I came here to discover it"

But unfortunately some people never arrives the 4th phase. 

A tale to explain the main difference between a French and a Spanyard:

"In a factory, there is a problem: An only plant pot in a building floor lacks water and there are  two people in charge of finding a solution: 

1) The Spanyard: He will try to solve the problem as quicker as possible. He will try to find the water from the closest place  to the plant, then there are two possibilities:  1.1) Best option: There is water in a very closer place and the plant recovers quickly.  1.2) Worst option:  There is a coffe machine in front of the plant, he is mistaken and throws coffe instead  of water to the plant, because he thought that it was water. The plant is dead!.

2) The French: He has to involve all the key people and all think together about the root-cause problem and design a plan, considering  not only  this plant, they have to consider what is the better solution for all the plants in the factory. 2.1) Best option: There are few people to be involved and in one meeting the decision is taken. The plant   recovers quickly. 2.2)Worst option: There are  a lot of people to be involved and after a lot of meetings, the decision   is  not  taken or  taken very late,  the plant is dead!."

The Spanyards, we are orientated to take decisions and find the solution for the problems as quickly as possible, and if necessary, the solution appears intuitively or out of the structured thinking or procedures. If we do not know what to do, our boss usually can give us a solution, because he is usually more expert than us and part of his role is to help us to solve problems. In our ADN, it is to be very flexible, intuitive and adaptable. Then I arrived to France and I started to become crazy  when in meetings to solve problems, I heard sentences as:

" Your answer to your question is other question"

"Let´s think together"

" Your question is not rightly stated"

" I do not know, what do you think?"

"Are you sure that this is really the problem?"

At the start I thought that it was a problem of langue, but after some time, I realised that some part of the French  culture is completely different to our Spanish culture. 

The Frenchs. There are some very important points:

1) The communication and agreement is key: The Frenchs involves everybody to have a decision. That makes sure that  all impacts are considered and everybody is informed and buy the product.

2) Planning, planning........The plan is critical. It is necessary to plan all steps and roles and responsabilities of each one. That gives a vision and a structure of the next steps and anticipates all risks and their solutions.

3) Honest but without personal punches: Avoid the personal conflicts but if necessary to be completely honest even blunt if necessary to find the best solution.

4) The role of the bosses is not to find the solution for the employee, it is helping the employee to find the solution. In this way, he improves himself and agrees easily with the decision that if the decision is imposed by the boss.  This part can be confusing for people that search for a clear answer.

5) In a presentation, first the solution. The Spanyard start the presentations in a cronological order, first how we arrived the solution and after the solution. For the French, it is only important the solution and then, to discuss it. No need for explanation of the logical thinking, it is taken for granted, the famous "French cartesian thinking".

6) My favorite part of the culture is the part that I less appreciated when I arrived.. hands shakes and kisses all mornings to everybody. At the start, you do not understand it and it is very tiring. I was usually  hidden behind my room to avoid all this loss of time.. but after some time I started to like it. It is a signal of respect and good relationship every morning that helps to have better deals and  I find difficult to argue  personally  with someone that  I shake hands or kiss all mornings.  It is part of the "buen rollo" in the office. 

In summary, very happy to enjoy this experience and recommending everybody to travel and work in other countries.... and out of work, it is even better.... French cheeses, wines, breads,....the paradise!!!...until someone offers you an "andouillette" ( A food made of smelling tripes) :-)