When I first moved to New York City for two years in graduate school, I was struck by how fertile it was with ideas, innovation, and creativity on every street corner—and in the buildings in between. People were selling and doing things you could never imagine, not all of them good, but so many were crazily creative and entrepreneurial. It struck me that it was like the jungle or the African savannah—full of new and magical things every place you look, but also dangerous in ways you might not anticipate.
The key to getting the
most out of a trip to the jungle—or to the city, or to life—is to be watching
and thinking at all times. You need to be fully engaged and aware of your
surroundings. Disclaimer: I saw so many wonderful, and also sad and scary
things while in New York, but was mugged annually—so I learned this lesson
through hard experience (but lived through it!!), and not as quickly as I
probably should have. A local told me that only newcomers and tourists get
mugged because they don’t know enough to avoid places, times, and situations
that are dangerous. While I expect it’s not true that New Yorkers don’t get
mugged, I found they do know some important “rules” and are always vigilant,
particularly in situations they know to be threatening.
While the “rules” are different for every environment or
situation in which you find yourself, the value of vigilance is universal if
you are going to get the most out of—and sometimes if you are to survive—the
experience. Let me share some examples.
If you’re playing with your fellow zebras out on the
savannah and get preoccupied by a flower or a butterfly and suddenly realize
the other zebras are all gone, you might just turn around to find a lion
waiting for you. If you drive by a restaurant you’ve never seen and notice that
the parking lot is completely filled, you have probably discovered a good place
to eat. If you look around the golf course on what was a busy day and you
notice that no one else is still on the course, you may be about to get hit by
the lightning. Picking up on body language and tone of voice and things left
unsaid can be important in understanding others.
Getting back to the savannah, we actually saw something I
never would have believed when we came upon a whole host of herd animals
(zebras, wildebeest, antelope, and others) and right in the middle of them, not
fifty feet away, was a pair of lions resting. It seemed inexplicable to us, but
our guide explained that the animals were not afraid of the lions because they
knew they were in mating mode, which lasts for a few days, and not interested
in eating. The herd animals were acutely aware of the details of their
surroundings—and needed to remain so, because the lions would stop mating and
be hungry at some point!
In 2007, world famous violinist, Joshua Bell, took part in
an experiment to see how much people notice their surroundings: Just before 8
AM on a Friday morning—right in the middle of peak travel—he opened up his
violin case for tips and began playing his Stradivarius at the entrance to a
major subway station in Washington DC. Over the 43 minutes he played, just over
1000 people passed him and 27 gave him money, but only seven stopped to listen.
Perhaps some were not fans of violin music, but it’s hard to think only 7 were:
it seems like most were too busy (or not yet awake enough!!) to notice him!
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