Life Experiences: Grab Your chance!
- Clyde
- Sep 24
- 6 min read
Chance opportunities on new working & life experiences can help us grow, become wiser and discover unknown life routes.
Whether these routes prove to be fortunate or not, new career encounters may lead us on the right path or otherwise, help us realize what isn't for us after all.
When I had my first working experience in the Travel sector of Greece, back in 2000, at Aphrodite Beach Hotel - Mykonos, it never crossed my mind, that I would ever have the chance to write my own blogs, on my very own website later in 2021.
It truly amazes me how much the travel environment & our needs have changed over the last 25 years! The trips we book, the hotel reservations we make & the experiences we are searching for have become so detailed & specific in order to cover our desires, that we cannot compare the present times with the past.
Let's flashback & see how it all began for me, over two decades ago. How it grew & flourished into eventually co-founding in 2021 out Online Travel Agency Bonnie and Clyde Urban Tours.
The flash back
Back in 2000, while studying Tourism Business Management & Economics, I was given the chance to work for a few months in a beach hotel & gain working experience during the Summer season, on the Island of Mykonos or the Island of Winds, as it is better known to us locals.
Simply, I couldn't turn this down. When we are young & full of energy, all chances to gain experiences matter, work-related or not, in order to build your personality while discovering what attracts you the most & what doesn't.
After all, I had no expectations and all I was looking, was some money for a pleasant Winter time back home in Athens & lot of fun. Mykonos was the right place!
I left home & headed to the port of Piraeus
carrying my backpack with enough clothing for 3 months stay on the island, feeling strong & ready to dive into the new unknown world.
After I issued my ticket, got onto the Mykonos ferry boat.
Arrived at the Hotel and after a couple of days, the owner-manager of the hotel, announced me, my job: beach boy. I had to collect a fee from the guests, that were using the Hotel's facilities at Kalafatis Beach. Epic times!
With a length around 500metres, Kalafatis beach is the longest beach in Mykonos.
I had to walk up & down - left & right every day from 10:00 to 18:00.
The sun was blazing hot & the sand felt like walking on charcoal.
But still, I had a distinct feeling that this was the best job I could ever ask for: being on the beach all day long & not in an office or inside a restaurant serving, able to swim any time I wanted to, while meeting people from all over the world, hearing different ideas & collecting good tips.
It felt just right.
I was in the mecca of “anything is possible”, breathing the air of freedom.
Unknown between unknowns, I could be anybody I wanted to be.
And that's exactly what I did.
Those months woke me up from a passive reality that I was living in Athens: home, studies, weekends off. My eyes & mind opened wide: travellers from all over the world, a diversity of people, languages & cultures. Not to mention the huge mix of different money currencies (no EURO back then). The island of Mykonos became my new world.
Slowly but steadily, by watching my colleagues & following my instincts, I was improving myself day after day, I was sculpting my new personality, open to new adventures.
Finally, self-confidence set in. It was a very pleasant period of my life.
An undiscovered world was revealed to me.
This life experience, helped me understand, that I would like to continue my journey into the Travel world of Greece and grab my chance.
Couple of years later, my priority was to find the right business environment. I wanted to try new things & I was looking for my next step forward.
Very quickly realized that
hotel-oriented
businesses weren't the right thing for me.
I had a natural attraction on Travel Agencies & Tour Operators. I wanted to have the full picture on how the system works from inside, so here we go again.
I just grabbed the first chance I was given, in Mykonos again: issuing air-tickets & organizing simple transfers for a local Travel Agency.
Adding these skills to my CV, I was able to move forward very fast & soon I was handling shore excursions operations for Cruise Ships' companies, working in a specialized Agency in 2003 & 2004. Here I'll need to add, that I've putted together with my own hands, the pieces for the offices & cupboards, that arrived from Athens, as this Agency & their office was brand new in Mykonos.
A whole new side of the travel industry presented to me, consisting of tour guides, bus/transfer companies, shore excursions management, archaeological sites, museums, restaurants etc.
My responsibility was orchestrating all these professionals in working together, in order to achieve the best quality services with the maximum efficiency at the minimum cost. This ia very interesting task to try.
Without question, it is a job that keeps you awake and helps you create a very useful network of businesses & professionals, that probably you'll meet again on the future.
Meanwhile, my University studies faded smaller & smaller into the background until my diploma finally came years later. What I find to be an important achievement is that during my studies, I was also developing my work experience simultaneously.
My journey in Tourism & Travel continued to evolve over the years in
Rethymno 2001 & 2020, Heraklion 2005, Chania 2006-2018, Santorini 2019.
A variety of tasks, responsibilities, skills, places, people.
The best education I ever had by far. Also more interesting & totally different from the things that they teach you at the University, with the old school books.
Today's reality
Through this journey into the so-called "heavy industry" of Greece (which in my opinion is not a heavy industry at all, as there is not a final product produced but only services) that includes: Cruise ships companies, Travel Agencies, Overseas Tour Operators, Hotel chains & Hoteliers, Transportation companies of all kinds, Charter flights, guides-escorts, public authorities etc., I realized what I didn't want to continue doing: to keep serving the model of mass tourism in Greece.
I saw the system from really deep inside and for many years.
With all the experience that I have, I can tell very responsibly, that for a better sustainable future for our country & the people working in the travel sector, we better focus on the small scale tourism, small groups & individual travellers rather than millions of people that they don't even know where they are.
In order to protect our environment, our culture, traditions & grow equally economically in a long term plan.
There are many reasons for but I'll mention just a few briefly:
Travellers seek genuine local authentic experiences, whereas tourists seek only sun & a swimming pool.
Individual travellers are ready to invest their time & money, in order to have a non-touristy experience, that will connect them with their visiting destination.
Mass tourism pressures local economies for lower rates instead of higher quality.
Mass tourism destinations see landscapes sacrificed in the name of "development".
Local businesses are more profitable when they deal directly with individual travellers without agencies between them.
These reasons, that are only the tip of the iceberg, along with all the useful professional lessons that I took all the years, finally led me to my latest enterprise, co-founding in April 2021 our Travel Agency:
Our philosophy is:
- More people loving Greece, Travel, Life and the Sea.
- Paving new roads in the modern travel world, with eco-responsibility at the core.
- Promoting Crete's authentic character through alternative tours.
- Creating life moments, always with a human approach & friendly attitude.
-focusing & specialized in non-touristy tours(we created the 1st craft beer tours in Greece back in April 2021)
We were soon proudly nominated by thE:
We'll keep moving forward while embracing new life experiences.
Grab your chance.
See you out there.
- Clyde
Thank you, so glad you can relate to embarking on career and life journeys!
I loved reading your article Clyde. Gave me lots of hope and perspective on how my own career choices have helped shaped my life too. My first job was in landscaping! Cheers to you & all your future projects too!