The Danish Way - 12 Ways It Changed My Life

I moved from Argentina to Denmark over twelve years ago, and I can — without doubt — say I’m a changed man.

As it’s said, you’re the average of the five people you most hang out — and, by extension, you can say also that you’re the average of the 5m people you share the country with.

Today, I want to go through how I changed, specifically — and, maybe, give you a hint of what could be in store for you if you’re an expat in a city like Copenhagen. Let’s go.

1 - Weather

****This might sound strange to you, but before moving to Denmark I never really checked the weather. (Definitely not daily!) In Buenos Aires - my home town - , you don’t need to. Most days are sunny. Rain/storms are predictable. The temperature is consistent through the season — warm in summer, nice in spring and autumn, cold in winter. No need to complicate it.

This couldn’t be more different in Denmark. The weather app in here got promoted to the top of my iPhone’s home screen. I check it a few times a day.

It’s also changing and unpredictable — I even routinely check the temperature and rain chances per hour. Many important decisions — like, what to wear, where to go out, whether to go to the office and more are relying on this.

Thankfully, the weather reporting here is quite legit. It’s often spot-on — and least more often than not!

2 - Humbleness

I came to Denmark with my head up high, and the “Personal Brand” mentality - I was like “I’m amazing, look at me”. I would boast about my accomplishments, exaggerate my skills and more.

I’ve completely flipped on this now. I still have a very high self-esteem, but I’m a lot more humble — too much even, sometimes.

In Denmark, the way it goes is that you're not better than anyone else. People who go around saying "I'm so good, I've so much money, look at my job, etc." are not popular, to say the least.

Here it’s also about context. You see it at the office: workplaces are A LOT less hierarchical than in places like the US or Dubai (or Argentina too). I’ve seen it at my job in Maersk: many of the top executives were incredibly down to earth.

SO - While my share of failures have definitely humbled me out, living in Denmark and for this long has 100% moved me in this direction.

3- Career

I work for Maersk in Copenhagen. I worked for Carlsberg before as well. If you asked me ten years ago, I would’ve told you that’s impossible: I was a super renegade, off to live a digital nomad life and unconventional life. I was dead-set against working for corporate in Argentina at least.

Thing is, in Denmark corporate is GOOD. It’s like most companies have perks as if they would be in Silicon Valley: you get flexibility, good salary, canteens and a lot of holidays. This is not common in many places, and especially before covid. You also have a lot of big international companies doing interesting things, and especially if you consider the size of the country: Denmark definitely punches above its weight on this.

4 - Taxis

Oh, taxis. Taxis are so expensive in Denmark that it’s ridiculous. Even if I’ve the money, I feel ripped off every single time I take a taxi in here. Just to put it into perspective: the 8-10 min drive for the airport to my place can cost up to 300 kr — well over 40€. Taxis were a top ten expense on my son’s first two years — just for the few times we had to take him to the hospital after birth. (Video about that here).

Hence, I almost never take a taxi here. I do a lot of taxis when I travel, but here in Copenhagen, again, only if it’s the absolutely necessary and there’s no other option. This has been a huge change for me.

5 - Football

I watch a lot less football in Denmark vs. my time in Argentina. This comes through multiple reasons:

I’ve only one love, and that’s my home team Boca Juniors. I love football itself, but don’t support/don’t care about other teams. I used to go to the stadium couple times a month back home, but in Europe I couldn’t care less.
In Argentina, 80%+ of my conversations with friends are about football. In here, almost zero. Again, when my friends are hyped about Manchester United or Liverpool I’m like, “Great” but can’t care less.
The Danish commentators on TV are SO BORING. They basically don’t speak. So it’s not engaging to me to watch on TV either.

I got a bit more into football again now that Argentina became World Champions - like how cool is that! - but still a lot less intense than normal.

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6 - Outdoors

I now spend a lot more time outdoors than back in Argentina. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, considering the natural beauty of Argentina and Denmark’s terrible weather. I think it goes two-ways:

First - I just don’t take the outdoors for granted anymore. When it’s a nice day here, I go out - even if I don’t feel like it. You never know when it’s going to be nice weather again. In Argentina this is never an issue.
Second - In Copenhagen at least you’ve huge and beautiful parks all over — Frederiksberg Park (show it) is stunning, Kings Garden, Faelledparken and even, you can include Tivoli as well. It’s very, very green and nice to walk. You’ve beautiful parks in Buenos Aires and plenty of green, but it’s not as “close” as you’ve it here.

7 - Fitness

In Denmark I started to work out a lot more. You kind-of feel the pressure here: people look good, the parks are always full of people jogging, most people bike, and the gyms are full.

In South America, people are also sporty — at least my social circle was. But here it’s next level: most people are. It’s a very inspiring context as well: I have so many friends here who run a marathon and even quite a few as well who did hardcore triathlons like Iron Man. I know maybe just one back home.

I really had to up my game here and that’s great.

8 - Meat

There’s another thing I do a lot less in Denmark: to eat meat. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: in Argentina, we eat massive amounts of meat — and, for us, need to clarify, meat means beef: we’re either #1 or #2 beef-eaters per capita. Back home, two out of every three meals for me were beef.

In Denmark, this changed — I still eat a decent amount of beef, but nowhere as much as I did before. But, unlike taxis, I pay it up more often.

(Fun Fact — It was shocking to me to see in Denmark TV advertisements for chopped meat (!). If that’s what’s advertised, tells you a bit about the food taste here!).

9 - Structure

If I could point to the biggest change I had over the last ten years, though, is that I became a very structured person. I started to wake up early, to plan my days, installing good habits, and more. These are all the pillars of my drive to be a high performer.

Now - I don’t think this is Denmark-specific. I think I would’ve turned this way also back home, or if I would’ve lived somewhere else. (Because it was my intrinsic drive to do it). But in here the context helped at least: if you’ve dinner at 6 or 7pm instead of at 9.30pm, and if you’ve flexible work hours you can design your day with a lot more liberty.

The flip side to that is ... Getting this “boxed in” made me lose charisma. But I’m working on that again.

Then... a few more:

In Denmark, I started to dress like a local — back when I was in the US for a few months, I was even told that “I dress like an European”, whatever that means
I also became open to and then got kids - It’s just less of a “commitment” here (for a lack of a better word!) as it’s not expensive, the work culture is very supportive and you just don’t worry about safety.
And LAST - Believe it or not, I became more “okay” with paying high taxes. I don’t like it, mind - but I went from just blatantly hating that, to understanding the benefits in terms of social harmony when you’ve a country with lower levels of inequality, especially as the whole world is up in flames. (This, though, doesn’t apply to the investment taxes, which I still think are insane).

If you made it this far, you will love this video over here where I go through my Top 100 things on why Denmark is the best country.