HBR had a recent blog on their website that matched just what I was experiencing each day here in Eastern Europe. Constraints. Limitations. Scarcity. There is one thing every ex pat knows, if they have ever lived in a resource depleted country, you have to be creative to make do, make things stretch further, and often it just means that you have to work harder period.
It has been that kind of week. Yesterday the front door lock jammed and we could not get our keys in the door, meaning we could only lock the door if one of us were in the apartment. And the toilet continued to not work hardly at all, and the car is in the service center, etc etc. So I have to go by the locksmith shop twice to get someone over here, and then the guy who comes, isn't the guy who is actually qualified to do the repair, so I have to wait until the second guy can come, and what would take a quick trip to Home Depot in the states, is pretty much an all day kind of thing here.
Been trying to get the car repaired ever since I got back to Eastern Europe three weeks ago, and it was finally supposed to ready to pick up at 12:00 today on the dot. Of course it was not, and after waiting until 13:00 hours, I had to scoot to my next appointment on foot. I must have walked five miles today. But I got it all done. And now, the plumber is putting in a new Throne for us, and may it please work! Please pretty please, may it work. But nothing is certain.
Scarcity forces us to use our ingenuity, our creative abilities, to expect more of ourselves, and to just get moving, because there is no one to complain to here, who might actually get something done for you. You gotta make your own success man! Set your expectations high and don't let anything or anyone or any "lack" prevent you from being all that you were meant to be.
