A long time ago I was gifted 1% of a port. A real port, albeit a minor one – the owner had done wrong by me commercially and the recompense was more than fair, 6 figures.
We were still ongoing partners in other ventures. He look me out to the port – in America – to brag about its potential. I also bragged; being an efficiency genius, I wagered that I could improve their operations, merely by casting my eye over it.
It bugs me today, decades later, the exact words I said, and how wrong I was.
I was not good at efficiency, I was OCD obsessed with efficiency. Two very different things.
In Cambodia this week I am obsessed with being efficient around doing the best solution to:
- ATMs mostly serve $100 bills in USD
- ATMs all charge $5 per withdrawal
- Shops/restaurants mostly can’t accept a large bill
- Small change is returned in the different, local currency, so you carry both
- Exchange rate is 4150 to 1
- Many places only accept cash
- Neither currency has any use back home (for me in Australia)
- Tuk tuk drivers are vague on price
- The lowest note is worth 3 cents and I left them on the bedside table
Upshot: I spent literal hours of torment over a few dollars difference. $20 tips on a trip costing $1000+ (local money), instead of the holiday aim being to relax. Instead of enjoying a walk along the river, I am consumed by the craziness of their system, a system that isn’t my normality.
I confuse being efficient with being obsessed with it so much I am anything but.
But my oddness led me to being a part owner of the most inland water port of the USA.