8. El Hefe

Being in charge is not what I expected at all. I have known for a long time that I am definitely capable of running a company but never one in a foreign country, with hyber inflation, with a language I barely speak, with people that generally don’t want to work in a location that started as dense forest and in the middle of no-where with my life savings on the line!

I have only had a couple of jobs in my life and I was also frustrated when sometimes I did not get what I wanted, either it was a salary increase or a change of working conditions – I was always left somewhat unhappy. What I have come to realise on this project is that you cannot make everyone happy all of the time. Even when I think I am providing an outstanding opportunity and environment for people to work in and the financial rewards to provide a life-changing opportunity that would no one else in Argentina would get. I was speaking with my business partner the other day about this and we laughed that the odds of a local getting this opportunity where 100,000,000 to one – or even more.

As we transition out of the construction phase and into the operational phase, new challenges will present themselves, but I hope that with the experience around me, we can make this lodge one of the best in the world!