What Traveling Taught Me About Respect
I've been lucky to travel a lot, and people sometimes assume the best part is the places themselves. For me, the best part is what I bring home. Every trip has changed how I think about something, and the biggest one has been respect.
Growing up in Chicago, I thought I understood respect. You say please and thank you, you're polite to people, you don't make a mess. Then I went to Japan, and I realized respect could be much bigger than what I had been taught.
In Japan, respect wasn't just a word. It was everywhere. It showed up in how people treated each other, in how spotless the public spaces were, and even in how animals were cared for. The food was treated with care. Nobody seemed to be doing it for attention. It was just how things worked. Everyone was taking care of a shared space because they understood it belonged to all of them.
That stuck with me because it showed me that respect creates harmony. When everyone carries themselves with that kind of care, things just run better. It also changed how I think about success. Success isn't only about what you achieve. It's also about how you carry yourself and how you make other people feel along the way.
Dubai taught me something different. Most of the population there are foreigners, people from all over the world living and working in the same city. I expected that much difference to cause friction. Instead, I saw people coexisting peacefully. It made me rethink the idea that different perspectives are something to manage. In a city like that, different perspectives are the strength.
France added another layer. There I learned about savoir-faire, which is the craftsmanship, expertise, and pride in tradition that shapes so much of French life. You see it in fashion, but you also see it in how business is done. People take pride in doing things well and in the history behind what they make. It made me pay more attention to the cultural values behind people's choices, because culture isn't just background. It's central to how people think and act.
All of these trips taught me something about how to travel, and honestly, how to approach anything new. I think the only real way to go somewhere new is to be open-minded and accept that your way isn't the only way. If you show up comparing everything to home, you miss most of what's in front of you.
I've noticed that people often get caught up in certain things and miss what's right in front of them. They take the photo, check the box, and move on. What I try to do is walk in with an open mind and some background knowledge, and then actually reflect afterward on what I saw and why it mattered. That last part is the one most people skip, and it's the part where you actually grow and build new perspectives.
This doesn't only apply to foreign countries. It applies to daily interactions too. A new class, a new job, a group project with people I've never met. Every one of those is a small version of walking into a new culture. There are unspoken rules, different personalities, and different ways of doing things. Going in open-minded makes it easier to adapt and connect with people, and paying attention afterward makes me better the next time.
I think this matters a lot in business. Business is about people, and people come from completely different backgrounds. Being able to read a situation, respect how someone else does things, and adjust without losing who you are is a real skill. Travel didn't just give me stories. It gave me that skill.
Respect, open-mindedness, and cultural awareness are three of the biggest things I took from traveling, and they're the three things I try to bring into every room I walk into. My tagline is "I let the world shape my perspective," and this is what I mean by it. I didn't just see the world. I let it change how I see things.
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