Ego Libre

Hi, it’s been a long, long time. I actually don’t even know what happened. I suppose I had so much free time that I actually did not manage to write anything?

Sounds ridiculous, well it isn’t. Last couple of weeks (or months) I have been actually for the first time in a long time not doing two schools and job at the same time, I wasn’t doing an Pan-Asian Airport marathon or anything closely that exciting. I was actually simply doing one job and enjoying life.

True I was also moving to a new apartment, finishing my MBA exams and other stuff, but all in all this period was closest to holiday I got in a long time.

This post (besides being a silly excuse) has a point though. The point is that working from home is not an easy task (which I will surely elaborate on later) and most importantly, when you are less busy, you become less productive.

You wouldn’t believe it, but I have emails back from August that I still did not reply to. Some of my friends must think that I am a total asshole, some of them already know that I am an asshole, so at least they are not surprised. So the point is this, the less you do the less you manage. So please all of you that are still waiting for a reply/phone call/visit/chat: I am not dead, I am merely not as busy as usual and I don’t know how to cope with it.

This might start to appear as a theme, unless I make a decision about it sooner than I anticipate, but I am starting to re-value why am I doing an MBA and what is it going to bring me.

Why? Well, obviously I have doubts about it.I have some prior experience with living with MBA’s in Copenhagen and many of them remain my friends and I track their progress and careers (hi guys ;-), so I already have a base on how to compare the schools and potential outcomes from different career choices.

Ever since I started doing that, I also started having doubts whether MBA is the right choice for me, but none the less, I decided to go for it and try ti find my way in.Now I did and it’s time to review this decision. Today’s though it on MBA and market value.I am a young guy, merely 24 years of age. I have some work experience in various industries and can already fit more on my cv than many people of my age. On the other hand, there are extraordinary entrepreneur’s that shame me by having running and growing mature business by now, but let’s leave that aside.The fact is, that after my Master’s I will probably hit my full-time career. And I need to find a proper job, where to get a serious experience.

Is MBA going to help me? Hardly. Maybe even on the contrary.

Interestingly, the reason why so many people are taking MBA is do just that, but they are in a different position. If you are around my age, having an MBA might impress some, but the fact is that it will artificially inflate your market value.Without a job experience, unless you are lucky or have extraordinary network, you are most likely to be looking at the same job offerings MBA or not. But having those three words on your cv might actually mean that people won’t hire you because they think you would be too expensive or too overeducated for such a position and what’s worse, you might think so as well.

So MBA for early career makers? Probably more a detriment than an advantage. Interestingly enough, I can hardly find anyone who agrees with me on this. Well, it might be because my social circle currently consists of people exactly like that.So round 1? MBA is not suited for me right now as it will increase my market value despite the fact that having this education will not justify it.

P.S: Feel absolutely free to comment on my thoughts here, especially if you disagree. You might change my mind and don’t forget, this is my career I am deciding here Thanks

Forget coke and e, there is a new substance in town.

This blog post on Lifehack.org was fairly interesting and I thought about posting it here FYI, but then I got to point 6. It defined a new term for me: Information addiction. It hit me right there and then: I am an addict. Seriously, I have to cut down. I spend up to 2 hours every day reading news, RSS feeds and designing bags. (Well, that might have been a one off thing But I am complaining that I am busy. I mean WTF?

I will try to limit my daily hit of RSS feeds and news to 1 whiff of information in the morning. That’s it.

And I will start tomorrow. Urghhh. I can feel the cold turkey already.

Can’t…..hit…..the….reload…..button. Should….not…..check….for……new…..mail. Arghhhh…..

And what about you? How many times a day do you indulge yourself in the sinful pleasure of information ecstasy? I would say that for some of you it’s time to think about it as well…

What do you see when you think of the future? What do you think will you be doing in 5, 10 years time? Or even worse, what is the next step going to be? Not the one you are making now, the next one…

I suddenly realize I stare into an abyss.

For years, there were goals in front of me. Points to get to and fairly clear paths leading to them. No more. Well, there is one. I have started new education. So once again, there is a holy grail of a diploma, but this time it’s different. This time I feel it’s my last and I do not see beyond that. Maybe it is premature t be thinking about career and future, but I can’t help it. For the first time, the weight of the darkness in front of me invaded my mind. Past experiences show that everything will work out in the end, but suddenly I am not sure whether I can rely on it. What has changed?

The truth is, in all honesty, responsibility is starting to change my mind. Maybe for the first time in my life I am starting to realize that it is not only about me and my plans, but that I have a partner now, a person in my life who has the same voice baring the same weight as I do and I need to take that person’s opinion into consideration. It is a valuable lesson and hopefully one I will pass. I need to throw away this fear of an abyss and jump.

My girlfriend is coming soon to join me in Australia. She jumped. I admire her for that. Of course I encouraged her, but at the same time wanted to point out, that it is her decision as well. Her jump. But once again, she knew better than me. She saw the abyss and she jumped anyway. My choice is simpler. I do not even have a choice. I just need to keep walking knowing that somewhere in front of me will be a huge decision to make. A deep abyss to cross. I just hope I will be strong enough to face. And I also hope that somebody will be holding my hand while free-falling to unknown ends.

Yes indeed, people change. Their dreams change. And so should their fears.

Do you have anyone who will be there with you?

After excuses and whining, I finally thought about something worth talking and thinking about here.
I have had my first real experience with Australian culture and it got me thinking. Of course this experience was in a club. There is no better place where to compare behavior and culture than in a club after 2 am. And I realized something…

A typical sign of Japanese culture is attention abundance, whereas a typical Australian feature is attention scarcity. This could be expanded roughly to a western versus easter cultures in general. I usually hate these polaristic views such as Hofstede’s famous cultural dimensions, but today I caught myself thinking in their terms. But if I were to use Hofstede’s view, I would add attention scarcity as a new element.

When you talk to a Japanese person, you have 100% of their attention. When you talk to an Australian, you can hope for 10%. Now this is not criticism, this is simply a fact that I need to take into consideration when living here. I wrote a paper on criticizing Hofstede, I just wonder why haven’t I figure this out back then…

If you have some sociologic background, please prove me wrong, but I guess this is another forgotten element of cultural dimension.

I know it’s not very relevant anymore, after all I will probably be sticking to Qantas for some time (with occasional Singapore Air), but I came over this press release from SAS (via ABTN).
Sounds pretty good, eh? Too bad there is no word for improving tourist class. And also no word on retiring the grumpy old women (no offense meant here, the men are grumpy as well) for people who actually know that ’service’ is not just a word describing machine maintenance.
And speaking of service, I have to share a (suppssingly) true story that a Qantas steward told me. It was about Aeroflot (remind me that I simply NEED to fly with them once).

When a traveler asked the stewardess why they did not even bother to do the pre-flight safety demonstration, she replied with a thick Russian accent: “if we crash, we die.”

Ouch.
I just had to pay 200$ for overweight baggage. For 4 kilos. That’s 8 pounds. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I know it’s partly my fault because I miscalculated. I just thought I would get away with it. I always did. I praised Czech Airlines for letting me bring more than the “official limit”, I always played by the rule that if I keep it within 32 kg, I will be fine.
Today Qantas proved me wrong. Should I blame them? I know that I cannot blame the girl on check in. She was sweet and tried to help me. But let’s look at the situation.
My bags were 32 kg. Qantas allows 25 kg on this flight. She told me that if I can cut it down to 25 by putting stuff in my hand luggage, I will be fine. Usual practice.
But wait a minute! If this would be an issue of weight, why would help putting it in my hand luggage. It is transported by the same flight. Unfortunately my hand baggage could not take such a load and besides I have mostly clothes with me. It’s pretty hard to shave off 7 kgs on clothes.
I managed to get it down to 29 kg, hoping she would appreciate the effort and let me get away with it. She did not. But still I don’t blame her, I blame a rigid company policy.
I tried joking about the fact that 4 kg is nothing since I am quite slim now, I lost 12 kgs in Japan. It did not work. But once again, it got me thinking. Why is it that I have to pay 200$ for having 4kg overweight, when fat people do not have to pay any extra for the strain and extra fuel they burn. I think that to be completely fair, every passenger should have allocated for example 150 kg on a plane which includes their own weight, their hand and check-in luggage. Now that would be fair. I would not object paying if I would go over, but the current system insults customer’s intelligence. In fact I feel quite ripped off. I just paid 20% of my plane ticket because I could not fit 10 t-shirts on me. Have I done that, I would be fine.
Finally when I paid 20.000¥ for 4 kg I came back and the check-in girls simply asked me if I paid, I said yes and since the bags already had tags, she simple pushed them in. Damn it, I should have just lied
And while I am at it, I can complain about Qantas/BA online check-in system. Qantas did not allow me to do it because it was a BA issued ticket and BA system refused to check me in because it said it is too early, but it was within the 24 hour deadline. I assume it is a glitch due to the fact that it is Qantas operated flight. And so for the first time in a long time I sit crammed in a normal seat with no extra leg-space. I have one fantastic flight in front of me.
Qantas tagline is “Spirit of Australia”. I hope they don’t mean it

So I am leaving Japan. Again. But it feels more definite this time. After all, instead of a short trip to Europe, I am moving to Australia. Moving to another country. Once again.
I thought I would get eventually used to it. But I don’t. Can anyone really get used to it? I am sitting in a friend, passing stations that I know, that have been my world for past year, memories of my friends waving me off at Shinjuku station still fresh in my mind. I feel sad. Tokyo is a fantastic town, but more then anywhere else, it makes you realize that a place to live is only as good as the friends you make there.
And I am worried. I think I can call myself lucky to have such a fantastic friends all around the world: Canada, Denmark, Japan and of course Czech Republic as well as scattered in other places, constantly moving in a way as I do. So you could say, well big deal. Another country, another people, right? It might be so, but I am still worried. It’s getting harder and harder to keep in touch with everyone. I will really need to find a good job so I can pay for all the tickets (and one that allows me at the same time to travel so much) or a job that makes me travel to those places. I had to pass on visiting Pat’s wedding in Canada. I had to pass on visiting Lukas’ wedding in Czech and I won’t be there when his kids is born. I could not see some of my friends in Denmark because they were traveling during the short time I was staying there. Heck, I even have to plan well ahead to be at my brothers’ wedding next year. I mean I feel lucky in one way, but I just wish I could live in the same place or at least a country (or even a continent) as my friends do. At least for some time.
Maybe I am too sentimental today. I am reading Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the shore. There is an interesting passage there (excuse my crappy recollection and translation): “From the first hello when people meet, it is only eternal goodbye after that.”
I said another goodbye. To another bunch of people that I care a lot about. Another bunch of people who are so dear to me, that I would be willing to fly around the world, even just for one day to shake their hands and exchange a friendly, understanding smile. And once again it hurts me in a way that I would have never anticipated when I first met them.
Ah well. Yesterday I was talking about synthesizing happiness. I should practice what I preach. Maybe I don’t even have to synthesize too much, after all I am starting a new life, this time with my girlfriend in a whole new country. Please wish us luck. I am looking forward to it so much, but let’s be fair, of course I am a bit scared as well as excited.
However, for a moment I will pretend to be a bit more Japanese and swallow my felings inside. New horizons are approaching. And so is the Narita Airport station… See you in Australia or wherever whenever… but as we all know and hardly accept… not forever.

I know I should focus more on external topics, but then again I am an egoist, so what do you expect? Today was one of the weirdest days in a long long time.
One of the reasons why I haven’t been posting so much lately was that I spent most of my time fighting bureaucracy on three continents and in the meantime worried myself sick. I will skip the stories of me trying to beat that machine, in the end I got my diploma and could successfully apply for visa to Australia. That actually happened yesterday and that’s where my weird day starts.
I woke up this morning with a terribly hangover and got annoyed since I slept through the hotel breakfast time. I have casually checked email just to find out that the Australian embassy wants me to undergo a medical check and submit an x-ray of my chest. Apparently Czech Republic is among high risk countries for tuberculosis. My flight is on sunday and I desperately need the visa. So I wasted no time and called a few clinics. Found one, took a quick shower and started running. I arrived just in time before the doctor went to lunch and I thought that everything is going to be fine and felt on the roll. The fact is, that I almost failed because I obviously wasn’t in the best shape after jugging down several both of shoukoshu the night before. Most notably I have learned that doing a eye-sight check with such a hangover is a true challenge. None the less I passed.
While having lunch I thought how I am going to write here that it is interesting how everything in my life tends to work out perfectly fine, albeit always at the last moment and in a hurry. Little did I know…
When I got back to office my initial enthusiasm wore off and I decided to call the Immigration Processing Centre in Perth and ask them how long would it take. So I did that. After 20 minutes of elevator music the lovely lady told me she is going to check on my case and she came back she told me that it will take between 4 and 6 weeks. Not hours, not days, weeks! You can imagine how I felt at that point. I was dumbstruck. After all this effort and planning and worrying I cannot succeed anyway. I called my school and told them this great news. They agreed the postpone my commencement date to January. Then I proceeded with further canceling. I canceled my apartment booking in Melbourne. Except that it was uncancelable, so I was thinking about calling my bank and cancel my credit card so they can’t charge me. In the end the guy on the phone budged and canceled it provided they will keep the deposit (more then 300 AUD). After that I needed to change my flight. But alas the Czech office of British Airways was closed. So I went on and called a real estate company in Tokyo and arranged an apartment for a month and convinced them to allow me to check in on sunday. Then I decided to call British Airways in UK. They told me that I cannot change my ticket since it was issued by Czech BA and they are not allowed to do it. Alas it was public holiday in Czech and my flight was on sunday. I was not going to let them screw me like that so I started convincing the woman to do it and she was about to agree when an email arrived.
My visa was granted.
Now that was a real shock! I mean wtf?! First she tells me one month and “I am sorry but we cannot do anything about it.” and “no there is nothing you can do to speed it up” and then this. I thanked that lovely woman and started redoing what I have done. I canceled my apartment in Tokyo. I called the real estate company in Melbourne and inquired into canceling the cancel. Luckily enough they agreed, but I felt like a prick. And then I started calling everyone that I called before to tell them to forget what I said and remember what I always used to say: “everything works out in the end”.
And so it does.
But what have I learned? Actually tons of things.

1. It’s useless to worry.
2. Everything works out in the end. So do your best and go back to point 1) and relax.
3. Australian government has terrible phone support staff, but obviously very effective workers.
4. Never book an uncancelable flight or hotel room if you can help it (20% premium is acceptable I think)
5. Always have a perfectly acceptable plan B and realize it.

The last point is actually the most important one. I hate plans B. I go 100% for plan A and simply KNOW in my heart that it will work out. Generally it tends to work for me, but this time it failed. Well it didn’t in the end, but this time I thought it failed and it shook me quite a bit. It never does that. My plans A are exactly that, frickin’ A. I consciously do not make plans B because I feel it would mean that I would work less hard to achieve A and that is totally silly. A bit like people (yes, I am one of them) who say that they need to study only right before the exam or deadline because the pressure makes them work harder. That is a suicidal cocktail.
So I made a mental note there, have a plan B.
But I also realized it has to be a perfectly acceptable plan. Actually when I heard the news that the visa will take a month and made the decision to stay in Tokyo I hated that idea. I felt like a loser and that my destiny failed me. And then I thought about it. About working in the Tokyo office some more, about going out with my Japanese friends and I thought that a month here is not a bad thing after all and I actually really started liking that idea. And then the email came. My first reaction was: WTF?! And my second was: “Damn it, I really feel like staying that month in Tokyo.”
Now this does not mean that I want to stay in Tokyo rather then moving to Melbourne. It means that I have internalized the idea of being in Japan and synthethized happines around it. And then puff it was gone again. So what I wanted at first was taken away from me, so I took second best option, started liking it and when my previously preferred choice was granted, I thought of it as inferior. Human mind is truly amazing.
I was writing about similar effect here, albeit applied to a different topic.
So the moral of the day. Have a plan B. It is not inferior. Actually there is no absolute hierarchy in our preferences, only temporarily perceived one.

But it is there. One thing living in Tokyo will do to you is to make you realize that homeless people are simply one of us. I have just spent about 2 hours talking to a homeless Japanese, not to men-tin speaking perfect English, about Tokyo. I have met to most intriguing homeless Japanese before. I have met an ex-reality investment guy living in a tent in Ueno wearing a Lacoste t-shirt telling me how his family left him after the stock market crash. I am telling you, if I should take one lesson out of my whole Japanese experience it would be: “easy come, easy go, but hard come, easy can go as well.” In other words: nothing is secure. We live in volatile world and unpredictable society, yet we seem to ignore it. But then again, that is the only way to survive. Except that I share so many opinions about the society we live in with the homeless people that it makes me wonder, whether I will not become once one of them…
If this blog suddenly ends and you never hear of me again, please look for me in Shinjuku station or Ueno park. I will be grateful for breakfast, but do not expect me to return to this madness of society…