What I learned from a really old country
"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the
way you think about it." ~Mary Engelbreit
This past week I was on vacation with my family in the Italian mountains over Lake Como. We stayed in a house that was more than 500 years old. It was fascinating to stay in a village that was built well before the United States was even thought about and at a time when most people thought the world was flat. Interestingly most Americans I speak with consider our 100 year-old, buildings to be old.
Although Italy and the rest of Europe have their share of economic problems not unlike those being dealt with in the US, it was surprising to me to see how prosperous many of the small villages well outside the city centers are.
As much as the country is seeped in tradition and over a thousand years of history, the Italians have an incredible ability to maintain their heritage while adapting and advancing with time and technology. All of the walls in our village were the original walls, but the interiors were all modernized. The people in our village continue to gather in the central square (piazza) as they did hundreds of years ago, but now with live bands with electric instruments. They maintain their small streets that were built for horse and carriages, but now drive small cars that can fit through them and get great gas mileage.
We even experienced an upgrade to the mountains of Northern Italy. These mountains saw many wars, so they have been climbed and explored out of necessity for self-defense. We had the opportunity to climb these 10,000-foot elevation mountain that without experience would have been impossible to scale. To make them accessible to vacation climbers, the local climbing clubs modified cables originally installed during the war all the way up these mountains (via ferrata). This system now allows novice climbers like myself to reach difficult peaks and has substantially increased tourism and incomes in this region. Talk about thinking outside the box!
I had the opportunity to spend some really quality time with my family, and I hope that everyone at Signature Community is able to do the same at some point during the year. Watching my young daughters
and wife Yael climb a 10,000-foot mountain was one of the highlights of my year. The sense of accomplishment that could be sensed on their faces at the summit provides inspiration to help me push myself and the entire Signature Community to reach for our own higher summits. At Signature Community I strive everyday to make sure our team members and residents have the same opportunities that I experienced with my family on this vacation. Maybe the opportunities are not mountains to climb but everyone has their own personal summits to strive for.
I cannot close without mentioning one of my other accomplishments of this vacation. I spent most of the time in areas with little to no phone service, which was only compounded after I broke my phone while climbing one day., I was pretty much out of touch for the entire two weeks, but I wasn't worried. I knew that everything would move along fine, as it did.
Thanks for making it happen at Signature Community.
-- Nickolas Jekogian
CEO
Signature Community
917-763-3500
www.ASignatureCommunity.com
Blog -http://www.nwjceommm.blogspot.com/
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