Alea Latam 家族办公室峰会回归！

Do you ever wish that life was simple and easy? Wouldn't it be nice if everything happened the way I wanted and everyone was super nice to me all the time? How marvelous a life be without stress, frustration, and rush!

Unfortunately, our life is not static. Even when we plan everything to the last detail in perfection, things don’t go exactly as planned. Countless statistics and studies show that our life is becoming ever more complex, and unpredictable. People are becoming more complicated and sophisticated. We have to accept that life is dynamic and change is constant.

So how do we manage a life well when things are constantly changing and unpredictable? How do I prepare for unknown challenges? Intelligence, skills, and experience are not enough.

There is an old Korean saying, “Keep the happiness to yourself as others might get jealous. Share your troubles as you never know who has a solution.” People intuitively know how valuable it is to have the whole world behind you. There has been a lot of studies on social resilience. When you have a deep relationship with a diverse group of people, it is the same as having extra brains and extra resources. They know things you don’t, see things differently and can help you manage difficult situations better. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” Einstein said.

Building your support network requires planning and takes time and efforts. We tend to socialize with people who are easy to meet such as our school friends, neighbors and colleagues. Among those people, we tend to spend more time with people who are similar to us. It is our nature that whenever we meet new people, we get excited and feel close when we have common factors. We both like to golf; we are the same age; we like the same music band, etc. Similar people tend to think the same. That’s why it is easy to build the relationship because you don’t need to explain everything you are saying. They understand you easily.

The downside of this kind of relationship is that they are a copy of yourself, different versions. When you are out of ideas, they are out of ideas too. It is not very helpful when you need a breakthrough solution. It does not add much value when you need to be creative and innovative. It does not broaden your perspectives.

Today, go through your phonebook. See who are the people you interact frequently. See how deep the relationship is. See how diverse they are. You will be surprised. Most people have a homogenous social network. You know 1,000 versions of you. Try to meet completely different people. Try to build a relationship with people you don’t understand well, and people who don’tunderstand you. You will be amazed at what you learn and discover from these relationships.