Piloting Your Life: In-Flight Entertainment (Serendipity and Old Sandals) (July 3, 2018)
Welcome Back My Intrepid Passengers:
The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind between Paris, Estonia, Nice, le Gorge du Verdon, and now back in Nice for two nights before I head to Berlin and Paris and then back home to see my husband and munchkins (furry and not so furry). I’ve been posting about the trip here if you want to follow along. My French is improving but when faced with people who speak good English, I revert to English which I feel is a cop out. My best conversations are with people who I speak with in French.
As I write this, I am a bit tired after driving and exploring all day. I followed this with a meeting with the Founder/Managing Director of Allianz Accelerator and three of the startups in the most recent cohort that kicked off last week. I still need to get out and get some dinner (at 9:30 at night) and know that will require comprehending and speaking French which is a bit daunting right now.
While I’ve had specific plans for this trip, quite a bit of it has been left to serendipity. After meeting with the founders at Lift99 in Estonia, I stuck around and enjoyed happy hour with the community members and enjoyed a little too much champagne. My son’s girlfriend Alyssa searched for some places for me to visit between Nice and le Gorge du Verdon and I blindly picked some of the places she suggested resulting in an amazing lunch on Sunday and a mountain goat of a climb on Monday to a church built into the side of a rock mountain.
It would have been better if I’d worn more appropriate foot apparel for the climb as the rocks on the stairs were worn away from centuries of use. I had to hold onto the railing going up and coming down to prevent myself from falling.
I smelled the lavender before I saw it and the pictures don’t do it justice. I joined the other drivers and pulled over to the side of the road to take pictures. There were folks walking out in the fields taking samples and actually smelling the flowers. I thought that would be trespassing so I decided to just move along.
To some this trip seems quite ambitious and takes courage and I would agree. My goal was to get outside of the Silicon Valley to see what is going on to make sure that I don’t get too myopic in my work or in life. I have achieved my goal and the trip isn’t even over. I have gotten so much more than I had hoped out of it (besides a few more magnets for my office collection). I’ve already started to reflect on the changes I want to make when I get back. No firm conclusions yet…it’s all still percolating. I am more determined than ever to work towards some of my north star goals in changing the world and now I have a few more global allies to work with to achieve them.
In-Flight Entertainment: Anne Cocquyt and Serendipity:
It seems only appropriate that this week’s interview is with Anne Cocquyt, CEO/Founder of the Guild. Anne is originally from Germany and now resides in San Francisco after living, working, and traveling in quite a few countries. She’s always one to take a leap and I find that mindset truly inspirational. Jacqueline and I took the show on the road and conducted the interview at Anne’s house and followed it up with a bubbly bonus where the three of us talk about Serendipity, the Guild’s un-conference for women scheduled for the last weekend in October. To change the world you need to step outside of your comfort zone and explore new places and new challenges. Kind of like what I am doing right now.
