Time is Too Short To Waste

Time is too short to waste. You may have heard this so many times. It seems like nothing is new “under the sun”. You may have also told a friend that you are too busy to visit him or her.

Some people prefer to say:” let’s do it tomorrow or next week.” But the question is: what have you been doing? How are you using your time?

I have visited so many countries and have noticed how different people are using their time. Did you know that people can use your time too?

I was visiting an African country and when I reached the Airport Immigration, they checked my laptop and asked me if I would be using it. My feeling was that the question had no purpose but I quickly realized how wrong I was.

So, I humbly responded “yes”. An Immigration officer told me that in that case, I needed a work permit to use my own computer for my own stuff. In other words, I was looking for a job in that country and had to line up at the Ministry Of Home Affairs (Interior Ministry) for 2 weeks in order to get a work permit.

I complied, gathered all the documents and submitted my application. This fact alone took me off the list of tourists with a 90 days visa-free stay in that country. I explained in the best terms possible that I was not looking for a job but an opportunity for understanding and helping new people, investing in that country as per their president’s own invitation to foreign investors.

The Ministry of Home Affairs kept telling me to come back the next day until two weeks were gone. In the end, they declined the application and told me to leave the country within a day and a half. The letter was showing 2 days but I received it in the afternoon, which left me just a day and a half.

That time was not enough for me to contact the airline and change my return ticket. I had to rush to the border but before that, I had to arrange a new visa for the neighboring country within 3 hours.

I did not have time to say goodbye to friends, especially to Kave, an elementary school girl I had started helping. She was presented to me by a family friend. Kave lived in unbearable poverty with her mom and her grandparents and I had vowed to help her with her studies.

When you are pushed against the wall, believe me, the entire Universe will conspire to come to your rescue. A neighboring country embassy issued me a visa within 3 hours and I started traveling all the night through the next day to the border.

When I arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, I started breathing. I felt like I was home. This was where I got a chance to contact my travel agency, FlightHub,  to ask for the itinerary modification.

Having access to the Internet for business is a dream that I couldn’t transform into reality in Africa. You buy data and they give you a modem to connect to your computer in your Hotel room. You connect and nothing works. You return to the communication company the next day and they tell you that the modem is working because they make sure their offices are covered by a very powerful free WI-FI connection. The reality is that you can’t work from their offices.

Calling long distance from Africa is not easy either. When I called, the travel agency customer service representative asked me questions like, name, address, phone number and the call was disconnected so many times during the process. A huge amount of money was wasted as well.

In the end, I was able to get a reply from them: “go back to your destination country airport so that we can assist you.” I explained to them that I couldn’t go back to a country that had just chased me. Flight Hub ignored me and I had to pay double the previous return ticket amount for just one way to reach my home country.

When I arrived in my hometown, Toronto, I called Flight Hub to ask them why they refused to assist a customer in trouble. I was put on hold so many times for hours while they work on my request.

I called so many times and on different dates, sent so many emails but there was no reply. This happened one year ago today. I wasted a huge amount of time and a huge amount of money. This happened in both developing and developed countries.

I have learned some lessons from this ordeal.

1- I will never again deal with travel agencies. I will deal directly with the airline company and check all my options.

2- I will always be careful with these visa-free countries. I will need a stamp in my passport or some kind of official document from the Embassy confirming the number of days I am entitled to stay.

3- I will always have a plan B in place.

A major cause of poverty in so many countries can be solved if people can use their time and other people ‘s time efficiently because “Time is money”. For example, if you are not sure to meet me, deliver a product or a service at a certain place and time, learn to say “No”.

I constantly tell my followers to have a purpose in life. Your ultimate goal in life will help you nourish your passion, have self-confidence, create a plan, act massively, focus and create alliances with people who really matter.

This will require a shift in mindset, by exercising discipline, your will-power, your knowledge, and experiences.