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Brazil (Part 1)

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3 Life Lessons I Learned From My Time in Brazil

Lesson #1: Be flexible and look for opportunities; seize them when they come.

(This entry was actually written at 12:20 AM after the day described below.)

Today, July 20th, was supposed to be an off day with no concerts and completely to myself so I could do some catch up work. My vision for today included songwriting and sitting in front of a computer. That never happened.

Last night I was informed that I was scheduled for a newspaper interview today at 10 AM. I figured this was a minor shift in my schedule and so my plans for the day didn’t really change. When I got to the interview though, I discovered that one of the guys I am working with on music videos wanted to meet for lunch at Noon. Again, no big change, I needed to eat lunch anyway, and I could accomplish my other work in the afternoon.

Then came the moment of decision.

After the interview, an offer was made to tour the city of Manaus, Brazil with the reporter and video producer (both now friends) at 2:00 PM. I was hesitant to break the plans I had to work, but the value of this opportunity was clear: a guided tour with two great people who know this city well. I agreed to go.

Initially the plan was some basic sightseeing downtown, but when my friend and translator (since I can’t speak Portuguese) joined us we discussed the fact that hadn’t seen the "Meeting of the Waters" and made a quick decision to grab bathing suites and charter a boat up the river.

Long story short: swimming in the Amazon with dolphins, 1 hour of cruising in a small boat on the Amazon, the outboard motor breaks down, we hang out on a refueling dock in the middle of nowhere, the motor is fixed, we cruise back as the sun sets, go eat exotic local food, and then I get a call to play my first real soccer/football game with my amigos here in Brazil from 8:30 to 11 PM.

Today was awesome, but it was totally different than I had planned. I still have a late night of work to do, but it was totally worth it.

Lesson learn: be flexible, look for opportunities, seize them when they come.


(Next week: "Learning Language" and "People are People")