11 reasons why being a Club Med GO’S made me a better person!

eGd5eTd0MTI=_o_lquipe-go-du-club-med---sjours-et-vacances-tout-compris
  I worked for Club Med as a GO for ten years. GO stands for « Gentil Organisateur ». It was the best experience of my life that made me grow professionally and personally! I met incredible people, lived amazing experiences in unforgettable countries and discovered many cultures that will forever be great memories!

Here are MY eleven reasons why being a Club Med GO made me a better human being.

1- My sense of Adaptation: Every day at Club Med I needed to adapt myself to different situations and people: an arrival delayed at 3h00 am or cleaning up the beach after a hurricane. You need to be able to adapt yourself to any kind of situation, especially now with three kids and a busy life!

2- Respect: While working in different countries with local people and laws, you need to appreciate the different cultures. You need to respect the hand that feeds you and respect the world you live in.

3- Communication: Everyday at Club Med, I’ve met and worked with people from all around the world, so learning different languages was a big plus. I started as a GO barely speaking English and finished, ten years later, speaking five languages and able to say the proper hello in about 15 of them! (And if I drink many beers, I am pretty good in Japanese.:) )

4- Human skills and inspiration. If you don’t like being surrounded by people, Club Med is not for you!  Being at Club Med quickly developed my communication, interaction and social skills.  Meeting people, on a daily basis, inspired me and those around me to become a better person.263486_10151296097116329_1282363419_n
5- Time management: Being a GO means hard work and long hours, so my time management skills were critical to respect my schedule and enjoy my 10 minute naps when I could.

6- Helping others: Being a GO is all about teamwork. Working with people from various cultures is a great learning experience.

7- To be open minded: As a GO, I needed to have an open mind. Doing so, I did things  I never thought could be possible: dance on stage, sing karaoke in Spanish, dress up as a woman, do the flying trapeze, etc. You can’t be afraid of getting out of your comfort zone to be a GO! Don’t let your fears stop you !

259703_10150286861881329_5417907_o8– Familly; working six months in a Club Med village is like being with family. Your GO teammates become your brother sand sisters for life. All my best friends are ex-Club Med GO’S and even if I don’t see them often, when I do, it is just true friendship!

9- Say Hello, be kind! Say « Hello » and be nice to everyone, even if you don’t know them!  These acts of kindness are contagious.

10- Seize the moment. I lived in a spectacular setting daily with amazing people and every day I seized the moment and enjoyed every aspect of my GO life. #Nostalgia #MemoriesForLife

11- Lucky! I was lucky to be chosen to be a GO but like any challenges in life, you create your luck by being positive and grateful for the things life brings you like health and happiness.

#OnceAGOAlwaysAGO #GoForLife #ClubMedGO  #ClubMedXGO #LifeAsItShouldBe  #Kindness

55 Comments

  2. What a such awesome video. I wish having worked at least once for the Club. As i already said, the Club is a big family, even if you are a GO, a GE, a GM…Remembering all previous holidays, all previous nice people encountered is so pleasant. I will always love the Club and all people who think like me. See you soon on my next village

  3. If you can imagine the worst hangover in the whole world, and having a complete stranger come up to you and ask you for the millionth time ‘what’s it like being a GO?’, and you can provide the same answer you;ve given 1,000 times with a smile that makes the questioner feel like it’s the first time you’ve heard the question… THEN, you’re what is means to be a GO.

    Patience, Empathy, Tolerance & Sociability – and an almost inhumane ability to juggle time, space & cocktails.

    • Thank you Grant! It was a pleasure working with you and learned from the Master sailing GO you were! But I am still funnier than you..:)

  4. I am where I am today because of the people, life style, and love I learned in Club Med… We are , We were, We Always will be….

  5. Hi! It makes me excited reading your post. I was a GO at Med Cancun for a while and unfortunately i didnt have the expeience most of you guys say it is. I blame it all to the chief of village, i black dude i dont even remember his name. Everyone, every GO was soooo unhappy! You could see it in everyones faces. But well, im glad it was not ur experience. Cheers!

    • Sorry to hear that Rick! I supposed it was a question of timing… Try, at least, to remember only one thing that made you happy that season… Perhaps the Thursday night at Dadyo’s..:) ahahha cheers my friend!

    • Im agree with you, I was also a GO in Cancún and the experience doesnt was good.
      The only good thing is the people that you know, the Potter GOs but only a few because not all are friendly and cool.

  6. What an inspiring article it is.
    I love this two sentences: You can’t be afraid of getting out of your comfort zone to be a GO! Don’t let your fears stop you !
    Thank you for sharing in being a GO.

    • Thank you Heather for your kind words… Watch ou for my next article of how I lost 60 pounds in 6 months… don’t let your fears stop you..:)

  7. Great article LP! You’ve captured the experience so well. And it brings back a lot of memories.

  8. What an amazing experience I have had w club med!!
    1981-1987
    Always in my heart, always there never to be forgotten for a minute

    • Thank you Rande! Especially in the 80’s, the Club was so  »libertin »… So open with less rules but any era of Club Med was great!

  12. Well said LP, I always felt Proud ,and still do, to be part of a very elite group of people known as GO’s …all with the qualities that you describe ….. all capable of achieving anything to benefit others! …and taking pleasure in doing so!

  13. « If the guest gives you a hard time, just look at the horizon and take a deep breath » -LPLB. Thank you LP, this is classic, we use your quotation on the every day base! You were the best chief of sports and most hilarious animator!

  17. Inspiring!!! Images and comments confirm that this is not just a simple job, is a lifestyle!!!

  18. I saw this months ago when you first posted it and I loved it! Now, seeing it reposted sent me back again. There were too, too, too many good times spent during my 12+ years in the Club. Since the reunions I’ve been to with my family and the vacations shared with them have kept the spirit of the Club alive with me. Thanks for posting this to keep me looking back on the best days of my life!

  20. absolument!!! i agree 110 percent!! i could probably come up with 10 more reasons!! it was the best 9 years of my life and trying to explain it to non club med people just never seems to work!!

  21. Thanks for the best 11 reasons. I agree with all of them plus I will add that you make friendships with GO’S and GMS that continue even after you no longer work there. Loved my time working for Club Med.

  23. That was amazing! Reminded me of all the things I learned during my short 6 month stint as a GO.

  24. Hey, I was a G.O. almost 30 years ago and happened upon this link. In the first photo, is that Nick scuba from England?, Bobby Z the DJ? and possibly even Michele landsports from Belgium? I worked with them in Turks in the winter ’89.

  26. Wow. Fabulous article. You captured everything there is to being a G.O. at Club Med. I was one of those G.O’s in the 80s. I was a Scuba G.O. I worked in 9 different Club Meds all over the world. I was actually a Los Angeles police officer for seven years prior to working for the club. I was a guest at two clubs in the early 80s and then resigned to work at Club Med and travel all over the world starting in 1986. My name is David Lozano. I was 28 years old when I started working at Club Med. The idea was to work for the Club for one year at two different clubs and make friends with the guests and hopefully bond with them so they would offer their address and allow me to stay at their homes as I traveled around the world. After working at the two clubs for the first year, I had over 700 addresses from people all over the world that offered to allow me to come and stay with them. I then purchased an around the world ticket for $2500 which allows you to get on and off the plane as many times as you want, whenever you want, as long as you go in One Direction around the world. Aside from visiting all the various guests and their countries, I was able to walk in to many club meds and just start working. I worked in Martinique, Horgada/Egpyt, Cancun, Helius-Corfu/Greece, Turkey, Sonora Bay/Ixtapa, Turks and Caicos, Maldives and Cairo/Egypt. After several years I return to the United States and was going to work for the Secret Service but I got accepted into law school at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. When I returned to the law school to start my second year after spending the summer at my home in California, I had brought back with me a box of my Club Med photographs to show my friends in the dorm. When I opened the box, out fell my address book and out from the address book fell a business card. I picked up the card to see that it was from a G.M girl that I had met at my very first Club Med that I worked at on Martinique Island. It had been over five years since I had seen or spoken to her. The business card said she worked on Long Island, New York which was just across the bay from Bridgeport, Connecticut. I decided to call her. When she picked up the phone and said hello, I said her name. She acknowledged that she was that person and then I said my name – from club med. I then heard a loud « thud » as she dropped the phone on the floor. For a moment, there was silence. But when she picked up the phone the first thing she said was « why are you calling me now?  » I told her that was a long story. She said, you don’t understand. I just called off my wedding three weeks ago. I told her I did not understand. She said that her mother caught her in her room crying two days before the wedding. When she asked what was wrong, she told her mother that she did not have the feelings that you’re supposed to have when you marry someone. She said that the only time she had ever felt that feeling was when she met that Scuba G.O in Martinique. I took the ferry boat across from Bridgeport to Long Island the next weekend and three months later we were engaged and three months after that we were married. We are still married today – 24 years and two kids later. Being a Club Med G. O. was one of the greatest moments of my life. And every once in a great while I will stumble upon something or someone who speaks fondly of Club Med and shares those great memories and experiences. You lplb are one of those stumbles, and I’m so estatically happy that I fell upon it. It is great to hear that someone else shares in those memories and experience, and I hope to meet you and your family one day at one of those incredible Club Med reunions. If you ever find yourself in Los Angeles, California, please look me up. I’d love to have a drink and smoke a cigar with you and reminisce about old times.

    • Great story !! <3 I especially love that her address card actually fell out of the book! I too, have been with my Club Med GO husband for 33 wonderful years and with 2 kids.

  27. I was a GO for six years back in the 80’s.. Nothing holds a candle to that even tho I continued on and became a cabin crew member to date .. That was the most rewarding and amazing experience in my lifetime .. I’m just sorry I’ve lost touch with so many old friends .. Is there a GO facebook page ????

  28. This is such a beautiful video! Thank you for finding the words to describe what it’s like to be a GO. You captured the essence of the experience. I have to admit the video brought a few tears of happiness to my eyes from remembering so many wonderful times shared with our GO family…

  29. Club med I started as a GM in 1975 loved every moment,experience, people life long memories then I got the chance to be a GO non contract my life changed forever I did things at the village that were amazing some scared me but I did it
    I must thank Alain Blanc who gave me the most precious forever gift,now getting a chance to build amazing adult relationship with some new EXGO who for sure will be forever friends

  30. So true …. 2 years in Club Med (1989-1991) …. and a lot of souvenirs. 2 years of great experience :) <3
    What else?

  31. I loved my job from day one when I started my job as a G.O.
    Bastille day 1995 was my first day in CLUB MED
    I HAD 7 incredible years working in 8 different villages meeting so many people
    To this day when A song comes on the radio that we did crazy signs to, I have a huge smile on my face and sometimes do the dance in my car
    Once a G.O. Always a G.O.

  35. Absolutely Agreed ✨

    Thank You Club Med

    If You look in the stars, You will see a TRIDENT

    I believe in Palma de Mallorca Ckub Med’s Papa Mr TRIGANO, I had shown to.

    Club Mrs in The Sky 🌟

    Anyone has noticed the Trident shape in the sky?

    Reina

  36. Being a GO from 90 to 93 was the happiest, and most professionally productive time of my life. Great friends for life, and a sense of quality work that I never saw anywhere else. Once a GO, ALWAYS a GO!

  37. LP,
    Great Article ! I will never stop Thanking the Stars that I got to work for Club Med in places like Morocco, Tunisia, Yugoslavia , Switzerland, Tahiti, Japan, British West Indies, Bahamas, Guadalupe, Colorado, 5 days in Florida, ( Thanks Ben) and Dominican Republic.
    Work, Travel, Save, Repeat !
    GOs and XGOs dont forget to Seize The Moment !
    Cheers from Sausalito
    KK

  38. LP – You took the words out of my mouth! Nothing in this world could ever compare to the splendor and hard work and sanctification to all the happiness and you GOs bring to others and to yourselves. I remember the days when GOs had NO days off and worked in the shows practicing after midnight in the theater every night but up in the morning every day with a bright cheery smile on their face to start over another day. I as you know have lived and breathed CM for 42 years. Like you, Club Med has been my second family for over half my life. I can’t imagine my world without Club Med in it.

    My last CM vacation- May 2019, was my 84th time back to CM Cancun and my 114th CM vacation in 42 years with CM.

    My history: 42 Years with Club Med (1977-2018). Club Med villages visited: Playa Blanca, Cancun, Ixtapa, Huatulco, Guaymas (Mexico), La Palace Manial (Egypt), Eilat (Israel), Paradise Island (Bahamas), La Caravelle (Guadeloupe), Magic Isle (Haiti), Chateau Royal (New Caledonia), Bora Bora and Moorea (Tahiti), Turkosise (Turks & Caicos), St. George’s Cove (Bermuda), Cherating (Malaysia), Phuket (Thailand), Martinique (Caribbean), Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), DaBalia (Portugal), Rio das Pedras (Brazil), Club Med I (Mediterranean 1990, Janyck Daudet-CDV), Opio (France), Ibiza (Spain), Lindeman (Australia), Columbus Isle (Bahamas), and Sandpiper (USA).

    Favorite CM Sports – Windsurfing, Sailing, Waterskiing, Tennis, Snorkeling, Crazy Sign Dancing, and falling in love with the G.O team.

    More recently, other great CDVs in Cancun I vacationed with were Gus (Luke Nealy), Eyal, Marco Sciara, Oliver Sanchez, Eduardo Rojas, Aziz, Nicola Gala and Abdel Osmani. Through the years I have had many other great CDVs in Cancun such as Sylvio de Bortoli, Christian Fellat, Gui Billard, Alan Doucan, Jean Mourgues, Michel Verdure, Bob Fagan, Abdel Zouari, Guy Thomas, Francois Venin, Ye Jhurry, Gregg Snyder, Aurero Stern (1994), Yves Lebon and Rico Paoletti. (I have known other great CDVs at other villages around the world such as Gino Andreetta, Philippe Claverotte, Patrick Baccieri, Pierre Simaeys, Jo Jo, Abdel Bellazoug (Bebel), Vincent Rouard, Jean-Marc Desy and so many more.) I would have loved to have had Angie Boucher and Andrea Livingston as my CDVs too!

    I was in Cancun when LaPalapa/Beach Restaurant burned to the ground in the 1990’s when a young GM from NY threw a Sparkler up in the air which landed on the roof of the restaurant. I was at CM Cancun when Eduardo was CDV and candidates for Miss France 2012 arrived at CM and danced the crazy signs with us. I was in Cancun for the one and only “Salsa Extravaganza” when there were workshops all over the village all day and all week, and dancers came from around the world when Gus was CDV. I was in Cancun when G.Os were hired from Cuba and then from Brazil. GM rooms in my first CMs had no locks, keys, telephones or TVs. We walked around with bar beads, pareos and flowers in our hair. Julie Keeley, Hammer’s wife, was one of the first GMs to be in an exercise video on the beach that CM Cancun made and sold to GMs. We did not have e-mails, cell phones or any social media back then. I remember for many years CM never even had computers, and our room assignments were made by push-pins on a wall at the reception!

    Best G.Os for waterski were Paul Vinyard and Scott Smith. Best G.O for windsurfing was CDV Andrea Livingston – a World Olympic Champion. Recent great G.O. windsurfers in Cancun were Pirate (Claude Lacelle), Ragaboo, Paulo CG and Eduardo Samaniego. My 4 Muskateers – GOs like no one else who were later CDVs – Kevin, Hammer, Hendel and Ryan Leach.

    G.O I am most thankful for – Kevin Batt for overseeing the remodeling of Cancun after the Hurricane. CM Cancun would not exist today if it were not for Kevin! (My dream came true – Oct. 2018 I met and windsurfed with Andrea Livingston at Cancun’s EXGO Reunion – she has been my inspiration for windsurfing all my life (former CDV and Olympic Gold Medalist for Windsurfing).

  39. My son – Jamie Neilson – was a G.O. and I saw how hard you all worked. Many G.M.s do not appreciate that as well as working in the mini club, or circus team, or tennis, or golf etc. etc, these great G.O.s also become your entertainment at night in great shows, your luggage carriers when you arrive and depart and your companions at mealtimes. I had so many wonderful experiences visiting Jamie at all the clubs he worked at (a Mother’s duty!!) and made so many friends with his fellow G.O.s. Thank you for many great memories.

  41. Truly a life changing experience. I see so many familiar faces in that last photo, including the man who gave me the opportunity to be a G.O. Thanks for reminder of these wonderful times.

Submit a comment

Copyright © 2015 — LPLB