What does Global mean to you?

We have been hearing a lot in the past few years about Globalization and its pros and cons. We do not want to debate or analyze this fairly complex concept, but to explore what Global means for us, the citizens of planet Earth.

                        

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the adjective Global means worldwide, international, world, intercontinental, universal. Pretty simple, you would say. However, we invite you to explore through examples and scenarios how does this transpose in a day to day life and moreover, its impact.

●       A Swiss working for Company X going for 6 months to work for the company’s client in India;

●       A Romanian married to an American who lives and works in Germany;

●       A Hungarian planning to buy a condo in Portugal, which he can then rent out via Airbnb;

●       A Spanish going as an au-pair in Germany;

●       A French commuting to Belgium for work;

●       An undergrad going for an internship in a different country;

●       A Work & Travel participant;

●       A doctor working or volunteering for Doctors without Borders;

●       A British working in Dubai partnering with a Romanian and investing in real estate in Romania;

●       A traveler vacationing abroad;

●       A festival or conference organizer planning to bring speakers and artists from outside your country;

●       An online art gallery planning to sell its national artists’ work outside the country;

●       A trainer invited to train in the diaspora;

●       Gig worker / contractor;

●       An EU national buying shares on US stock exchange;

●       An IT geek working from his hometown but being part of a team, whose members are scattered over 2 continents. His only connection with the company from his hometown is only an administrative one.

Should you not find yourself in one of the above examples, we are positive that at least one of your family members or a friend fit in a similar description.

All right! Now, that we have a glimpse of possible scenarios of what a global person, global citizen is, let’s see what is to know and what questions to ask.

A Global citizen needs a Global mindset. Our dear world wide web is generous with books and articles on how to develop oneself a global mindset. However, the mindset is not enough. We need information, because “we don’t know what we don’t know”, right? Thus, we will explore and address topics like living as an expat, investments in different countries, visas, taxes, social security, working in a foreign country, studying abroad, how to spot opportunities within your company for an international transfer, global mobility policy, pension abroad and so on.

Do you know of a scenario that we did not identify? Just add it in the comment section below. We are eager to hear it and consequently explore those avenues. 

While for vacationing abroad we might need to worry only about visas, required vaccines, customs, places to visit, insurance and wardrobe choices, when we are working, investing and doing business outside our home country, requirements that we need to know and meet become very complex. This is what we want to discuss and analyze in the next posts and podcasts.

We’ll leave you with the question “Why would I want to know about all this?”

Check out Tim Urban’s experiment with his Genie Question https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/09/genie-question.html

In today’s world, or for that matter in any other world, information is key, it can bring and / or save you money. Sometimes, even a load of it. Thus, this can be your why.