For example my assistant just got offered this opportunity to go on a private jet for a month around the world. She came to me and she was really worried about it and said, “Teresa, I’ve got this opportunity, I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to leave you behind, I really support Tango Diva.” I said to her, “Girl, get on that jet! Get on that jet, take business cards, and have the time of your life. And when you come back, we’ll see where we’re at, and we’ll move forward. If you’re got something better to do than sit at a desk – go for it! The desk will be there when you get back.”
Q: Lessons learned while traveling always appear in unexpected forms: in the eyes of an old woman, the laughter of a child, a peaceful sunset in S. A. How have those experiences helped you in your professional life in San Francisco?
A: I think the key is to understand that people have a different set of realities, and a different set of expectations, and to respect that. For example, I’ve been to Italy. And there, everybody’s very close to you and they talk loud, and they’re flirty, and it’s important to accept that as a part of their culture. Or to Scandinavian countries and they’re a bit more aloof, and they’re not that close, then you don’t take anything personally. Or when I was in Budapest, and nobody smiled at me and I was getting really self-conscious that nobody was smiling at me, and understanding that that is their culture. They’ve only come out from behind the Iron Curtain for less than two decades, they don’t smile at you. How that has translated in my day-to-day life in San Francisco is that I have to understand that people come to me where they’re at. And sometimes that’s not where I’m at, my “at” might be in San Francisco, and their “at” might be, “Oh my god, my mom just had a heart attack, and she’s in the hospital and I’m in a really bad mood right now.” So that’s really given me an opportunity to be more understanding than I’ve ever been in my life.
