Always stress the positive

The jornalist asked me to write about the most important advise that affected my professional life. An advise from a boss or maybe from a professor.
Of course at my age there are lots of things that in a way or another had an influence so at the beginning it was difficult to aswer.
Then I went back to the beginning, the University and the first experiences abroad.
It was 1976 and I participated in an exchange of students the University was organizing. I was offered Alexandria in Egypt, an internship in a petroleum refinery.
I was not really happy and also a bit worried. Other more senior colleagues were sent to North European Countries and even in America. Also my previous experiences abroad were limited to short holidays in neighboring european Countries, and now Egypt…
So I went to talk to the professor responsible for this activity and asked for advise.
He said that I would have a cultural shock and certainly some difficulty to adapt since things were so different there. However he said this experience could be very positive for me if disregarding the negative sides I would simply stress the positive.
So I did. A positive attitude and I found lots of positive things to appreciate.
In future I can say that I always remembered this avise and the positive attitude helped me not only to better enjoy my life but also to adapt better and faster to the many foreign environements that I faced in my carrier.
Here is the article in turkish.