Embrace your differences — choking them is optional

Cultural acceptance can only take you so far

Everybody is different. We should celebrate our differences, learn from them, establish ideas and embrace change as it happens.

Nothing says “different” like rainbow unicorn gender-bender Deadpool

Now, I’m new to Chicago. New to the USA in general — I only got here 3 weeks ago (it fells like a few days) for a professional fellow exchange organized by World Chicago. I have 14 fellow fellows from the Balkans — we’ve all been assigned host organizations and companies that we are working with, bringing in our own unique experiences and learning about business in the local ecosystems.

My host company is Holistic Index. It’s a startup, founded by Tom Alexander (hi, Tom!) that offers something like a credit score to other companies. Holistic basically tells these companies what they’re doing well or not so well when it comes to employee satisfaction and engagement — often, issues that pop up among the employees are an indicator of other (potentially more serious) problems elsewhere in the company.

One of the things Holistic Index promotes and stands for is inclusion. They’ve even started a blog about it — it’s called Age of Inclusion, and it’ll be out soon with cool guests and hosts.

Tom hosting the first podcast episode — with friendly expression

I’m all for inclusion. As a citizen of a diverse country where differences are often a source of tension, it’s not a foreign concept (theoretically, at least). All us fellows are here because we enjoy diversity — why else would we choose to come half-way across the world?

There are, on the other hand, some differences that we simply find difficult to deal with. Most of them pop up in everyday situations — they might seem small and insignificant, but their constant appearances can cause headaches (I’m sporting one right now).

First thing’s first: people in Chicago are nice. They are polite. They always ask you how you’re doing, and they always respond if you ask them anything. They will give you directions to a tourist attraction and life advice in the same sentence — compliments are astoundingly common.

However, none of it rings true.

While the words are there, development is rare. If everybody that told me to keep in touch actually answered their emails, I’d be knee-deep in meaningful friendships right now. Why the fake enthusiasm? Are they afraid I’ll be offended if they don’t give a fig about me?

Rascal, we shared a moment. Why won’t you call?

To me, it seems as though every encounter is a marketing pitch. Unless you aggressively follow-up and sell yourself as a concept, people lose sight of you. You’re just one commercial out of many, and your jingle is unlikely to be remembered (unless it’s massively annoying, which really shouldn’t be the point).

Secondly, things are big (as clearly stated by Miro). They are! The buildings, the cars, the streets, the expectations… It’s “go big or go home”, and it sometimes feels like going home is the same as losing.

Simon’s is bigger than Primoz’ (hair — I’m talking about hair)

It isn’t, though. Just because you’re not shooting for the moon, doesn’t mean that what you accomplish is worthless. Just because your event doesn’t have a queue around the block, doesn’t mean that it’s unpopular.

Just because you’re not a millionaire, doesn’t mean your business is a failure. Younger, prettier, richer, stronger… an endless drive to be number one, no matter where or why.

These are simple things. Facing them constantly is overwhelming, especially for somebody who’s used to an entirely different approach. We come from opposite sides of the globe, and you can’t expect everything to be smooth-sailing.

But that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it?