When I think about the moments that have most influenced the way I approach law and business, surprisingly few of them happened in the office or the boardroom. Instead, many of the biggest shifts in my perspective occurred thousands of miles away—walking through crowded markets in Asia, sitting in quiet cafés in Europe, or navigating airports where I didn’t speak the language. International travel has been one of the greatest teachers in my career, and I’ve found that it shapes the way I think strategically, both as a lawyer and as a business advisor.
Broadening Perspective Through Exposure
One of the most powerful aspects of travel is perspective. When you’re immersed in another culture, you quickly realize that your way of doing things isn’t the only way. Something as simple as how people negotiate, how they value relationships, or how they approach deadlines can be completely different from what we’re accustomed to in the United States.
In law and real estate, perspective is everything. Deals rarely unfold in a straight line, and each party brings a unique set of expectations and experiences to the table. International travel makes you more open to those differences. It trains you to listen first, rather than assume, and that habit carries over into client relationships, negotiations, and even how you design deal structures.
Learning to Navigate Ambiguity
Travel also teaches you to get comfortable with ambiguity. Anyone who’s been lost in a foreign city, tried to understand a menu they couldn’t read, or attempted to follow unfamiliar customs knows the feeling. You don’t have a playbook; you have to rely on judgment, adaptability, and sometimes creativity to get where you need to go.
The legal and business worlds operate the same way. Transactions rarely go exactly as planned, and the most complex capital structures often require creative problem-solving when obstacles appear. Travel conditions you to stay calm, think flexibly, and embrace uncertainty as an opportunity instead of a roadblock. That’s an invaluable mindset when advising clients on risk or helping them pivot mid-deal.
Building Empathy and Cultural Intelligence
Another lesson travel offers is empathy. When you step into another country, you’re the outsider. You see what it feels like to not fully understand the rules, the language, or the unspoken cues. That experience builds patience and humility—two qualities that are just as valuable in law and business as technical expertise.
In practice, this translates into cultural intelligence: the ability to understand and adapt to different communication styles, expectations, and priorities. For lawyers working in real estate, where deals often involve lenders, investors, and developers from across the globe, cultural intelligence can make the difference between a stalled negotiation and a closed transaction.
Seeing Patterns and Opportunities
Travel also sharpens your ability to see patterns. When you’ve experienced how different countries tackle common challenges—whether it’s urban development, infrastructure, or financial systems—you begin to recognize parallels that others might miss.
For example, I’ve often noticed how certain real estate investment strategies that thrive in one market have similarities to strategies that emerge in another, even if the contexts are very different. That ability to spot patterns and connect dots translates directly into strategic thinking. It allows you to bring fresh ideas to clients and anticipate trends before they fully take shape.
Strategic Thinking Requires Stepping Back
One of the most overlooked benefits of travel is simply the space it creates. When you’re pulled out of your day-to-day routine and immersed in a new environment, you gain the distance needed to reflect on big-picture questions. Many of my best insights about deals, clients, and even my own career path have come not when I was sitting at my desk, but when I was halfway around the world, thinking about things from a new angle.
Strategic thinking requires that kind of space. It’s difficult to see the forest for the trees when you’re buried in emails and back-to-back meetings. Travel forces you to step back, reset, and see the larger landscape—exactly what’s needed to advise clients effectively and make thoughtful business decisions.
Bringing It Back Home
The real value of travel isn’t just what you experience abroad, but how you bring those lessons home. The openness, adaptability, empathy, and perspective you develop on the road can transform the way you approach your work every day. For me, that means encouraging clients to think more broadly about risk and opportunity, guiding negotiations with patience and cultural sensitivity, and always keeping the bigger picture in mind.
As lawyers, we often focus on technical skills and legal expertise, but I’ve found that some of the most impactful skills are the human ones—skills that come from lived experiences outside of the office. International travel has been one of the most effective ways for me to cultivate those qualities, and I believe it can do the same for anyone in law or business who wants to think more strategically.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, law and business are about people—understanding them, connecting with them, and helping them achieve their goals. International travel is one of the best ways to deepen that understanding. It broadens your vision, sharpens your judgment, and reminds you that there’s always more than one way to see a problem.
Whether you’re closing a complex real estate deal or advising a client on long-term strategy, the lessons learned abroad can make you a more thoughtful, adaptable, and effective advisor. And sometimes, the best classroom for strategic thinking isn’t in a law firm or a boardroom—it’s halfway across the world.