The Rubbie Pie

The Rubbie Pie

Being based in Zurich, I’d naturally travel often with Swiss International Airlines. Fun fact: they’d actually serve good food on short flights and it is free – something you don’t experience often with domestic flights in the US. This Swiss-branded company, managed by a German corporation, definitely sets itself apart from anything else available on the market for flying saucers like myself.

 I would like to share my experience on a particular business travel on a ZRH – LIS flight on my way to the Web Summit this year. To my delight, they served a rhubarb pie as a dessert and it reminded me of my Oma (grandma in German)’s rhubarb pie. As a child, I used to dream of traveling abroad. It’s a huge contrast of my reality today: I travel all the time for work! Back then, behind the Iron Curtain where I was born, we were exposed to very limited information about the world outside our country. I had zero knowledge of how the ‘other worlds live’ – there were no multiple TV stations, internet was not even a thing yet and forget about streaming. 

My only access to the outside world arrived in the form of German newspapers which were brought to me by my parents who were teaching at universities in Germany. Believe it or not, advertisements from Aldi supermarkets were measured as the entertainment of the day! This turned out to be the turning point of my life in terms of my achievements with Nanos and Huubsh today.

Rhubarb pie is not something I would eat on a daily basis (I don’t have a sweet tooth) but Oma used to bake this for me when I was a child, while sharing her thoughts about life in general. She would insinuate a few stern and “opinionated” advice to prepare me for the real world. We spent many hours in the kitchen together, talking and cooking together. Oma used to speak to me in a very proper old-fashioned German, with a liberal hint of all of the countries she lived in, and the literature and history books that she’d read. It used to sound imperative and full of insistence. She would explain to me how it ought to be like to live, work and build important relationships based on principles that were not constructed on communism. It might be rather strange for me to divulge this as an international business woman but back then, she would advise me with an assured, rather ‘grown up’ concept.

I must have looked genuinely puzzled on more than one occasion, because one fine day, she replied in kind and said the following,

“When you don’t know what to do, then, my dear, go to sleep and tomorrow is another day”.

Okay, but I still have unanswered questions from yesterday as I woke up this morning. And here is another one that boggled me,

“Only help people when they asked you for help”.

The longing question then and now is, “But why?!” Why should I ONLY offer help, when I’m confident that someone wants it? That goes against my nature of wanting to help my friends, community and to some extent, acquaintances that I deem to deserve assistance of some form, whether they overtly ask me or not? I still struggle with this advice and more often than not, act as a nonconformist against it. 

Nowadays, I think to myself, damn, if only I could truly appreciate her inner thoughts then. I should have written them down so I can read those today with a fresh perspective. I suppose I’m doing that now, even if it’s only a tiny part of it.

By the age of 21, I managed about 100 people who were twice as old as my age. Since then, whenever I felt lost and doubtful, I’d still refer back to my conversations with Oma. There were memorable times of the two of us having a coffee and rubbie pie. These very memories are the essence of my work today. Whenever someone reaches out to me and mumbles the following words, “Can I ask for your help?" My ears would perk up and I gravitate in finding out more. This has, in my line of work, serves me well. This business trip definitely deserved a mere mention to my beautiful Oma. And all because of a rhubarb pie!

Afterthought: If you, like me, have fond and wonderful memories of a parenting figure who instills similar values as mine did, I’d highly suggest for you to reach out to them. It’s what makes my world goes around and I’m greatly thankful. I hope you’ve had similar experiences too.

Great advice on airlines, Sasha A. Schriber. If you ever need any help on accessing the best airfares for your trips our expert team of operations staff would be more than happy to help, feel free to contact our Sales Director, @Garry Lloyd?here.?

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Sasha A. Schriber的更多文章

  • Let's Talk About Failures

    Let's Talk About Failures

    Newsfeeds on social media channels are full of success stories from entrepreneurs – be it raising hundreds of millions,…

  • From A Late Bloomer To Other Late Bloomers

    From A Late Bloomer To Other Late Bloomers

    Ever since childhood, and throughout my life, I have been told that I was a late bloomer. People said that I could do…

  • Setting Salaries As A CEO - Including Your Own

    Setting Salaries As A CEO - Including Your Own

    Remember when you first thought of starting your own company? Goodbye to those mean old colleagues, hello to your name…

  • Pandemic - will we need cars any longer?

    Pandemic - will we need cars any longer?

    Now I’ll be talking about cars, or the automotive industry. Since my late teens, I've always had a car.

  • I Would Like To Test Nanos And Spend $50, Which Platforms Should I Advertise On?

    I Would Like To Test Nanos And Spend $50, Which Platforms Should I Advertise On?

    You are about to start using Nanos and are not yet fully convinced if it is right for you. Wondering how it can help…

  • Patents - How To Do It?

    Patents - How To Do It?

    First, why do you think you need a patent? You probably just started a company and have come up with a very good…

  • What Do We Do Here at Nanos?

    What Do We Do Here at Nanos?

    You probably heard about Nanos from your friends or colleagues or Googled and found us when you were looking up…

  • Using ‘1–2–3’ or ‘In-Betweening’ As a Way to Reach Your Goals

    Using ‘1–2–3’ or ‘In-Betweening’ As a Way to Reach Your Goals

    My past corporate career with the largest entertainment company has taught me something important and super useful for…

  • Is Social Media Dead?

    Is Social Media Dead?

    [Lorraine] "Hi Sasha! I have just started as a marketing manager in a tech startup in the UK with a breakthrough but…

  • Why Is My Ad Not Performing Well?

    Why Is My Ad Not Performing Well?

    You’ve created your campaign, launched your ads, and are waiting for potential customers to visit your website. But…

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了