A China Tale

Lessons Learned

Life’s tough, I’ve learned a lot the past year and I thought I’d take a moment to record and review a few of the bigger lessons I’ve learned recently.

Perspective: Opportunity or Threat

I’m particularly proud of this one. For most of my life I’ve dealt with life as a threat to my existence. I engaged it only when it was absolutely necessary and saw it only as a threat to my happiness and self-esteem. I understand a lot of why that was but before now it was difficult to find a way to change that. What I’ve slowly discovered in my experiences here in business and personally is that each moment you have, each day is an opportunity. An opportunity to grow, to be more, to learn, to fight for what you want. That is kind of a big thing for me. I can’t pin it down to one experience or another but it’s a lesson I’ve found in time – and one of the ones I”m most grateful for.

Shut Up

Behold the value of silence. I used to be – well I still am when I have the energy – an understanding and patient person even when people were wasting my time with useless words. I’ve come to realize the value of my time and that if I aim to be successful at what I do I need to capitalize on every moment I have by spending it listening to things and people that matter not accommodating those that add nothing to my life and business. I usually won’t go so far as to tell someone their wasting my time that is in tune with the next lesson.

If you don’t have anything nice to say…

It’s tough in a world where everything seems to go wrong and no matter how hard you try you can’t get the pieces together again just how you like them. It’s tough to be positive and to realize that there really is no benefit to anyone (primarily yourself) to wasting your breath speaking poorly of anyone or anything. Even when they/it are/is deserving of it. Now don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of constructive criticism and putting people in the their place when they do something wrong – I’m talking more about those of us that “vent” to others about the lackings or shortcomings of others and situations. Not only are you doing yourself no favors in terms of the relationship with the fellow your complaining about but your wasting mind power. Mind power that could be used to think about how to solve problems and make yourself a more valuable person to your customers and your friends. Complaining for the sake of personal release is a waste of time. Find something more constructive to do with your energy and stop wasting your friends time with complaints.

Cover your @$$

There’s no space in the world I live in for ambiguity and naive trust. I live in a world bound together by rules based on non-trust. Some Chinese would sell-out their own mother for a profit when large sums of money are involved. In a way I’m thankful because getting burned when I’m small teaches me how to position myself correctly so I don’t get into real trouble when I’m bigger. So my proposals are longer and wordier, my negotiations harder and less accomodating, and my results will be that much more secured. Though they may complain and some will go a different direction, in the end those customers smart enough to realize the value I’m giving them are thankful for it – the customer is always right but that doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes. O and… if you don’t trust them with your baby don’t enter into a JV with a Chinese person – trust me on this one.

The Power of Guan Xi

This is another big one. I’m very thankful to China for teaching me the value of a relationship in business. I suppose it makes sense in a land where everyone is more than happy to cheat you out of anything they can trust means everything. Traditional marketing methods are far less effective in this country. It’s who you know, word of mouth is king, and if you have a strong relationship no one can steal your customer – they will fight to keep you. What does that mean for me? Now when I approach new professional relationships even if I can see an immediate opportunity between us I don’t talk business. I take an active interest in who they are as a person and get to know what matters to them as a human being. I approach business partners like I would an intimate relationship with care and genuine concern. Sounds a lot like what you read in all those good sales books doesn’t it . Friendship first, business 2nd. Don’t laugh it’s really the best way to guarantee success here and I would argue everywhere.

Stealing Internet

In Macao trying my hand at a little low level gambling (I only have 200RMB in my pocket.) At the hotel they charge for internet – thought they were nice enough to include a 15 minute free access card with our room card. Gee thanks! You also need to go down to the lobby to use one of their computers. I refused to do that. So how you might ask am I writing this post from said hotel? Well I am in that lobby and I noted their computers were password protected. Ah ha! that must be their point of controlling access. So I yoinked the ethernet cord from the back of the tower and put it into my laptop. Mwahahha. Aye I can even access facebook from here sweeeet. Life outside the GFWC is grand.

What exactly is one supposed to do with 15 minutes of internet access.. well wait before let’s think about the experience of a potential user. In this day and age isn’t internet access right up there with access to water or air? It’s an essential part of our everyday lives and these places (this hotel isn’t unique in their practice) seem content to try and squeeze a little extra cash out of you for access to what has become a daily necessity. I would rather they say they don’t have internet access than to notify me that they do and then after insulting me with quotation on a daily/hourly rate to further irritate me with a “complementary” free 15-minute access card. Do you want me to sign in and out with my name and room number for this service? Are you going to chaperone me while I use to ensure I don’t go over my alloted 15 minutes. Viva la net!!! Someone needs to remind me to do something scumbaggy before I leave here… I know it’s a silly thing to get too aggrevated about but I’m venting.. safer than talking about other problems hehe.

For those of you that don’t know it’s a national holiday in China right now. They have from the 1st to the 6th off from work. This two day trip to Macao is a “team building” kick-off for our new staff and I guess an excuse for me, Mike, and John to go a little crazy – and probably not sleep. I’ve heard stories about this place . Let’s see if I can make some of my own. I’ll be sure to leave any juicy bits of my adventure on here when I sober up.

SEO News Today

An interesting piece with Ross Dunn from Stepforth – I don’t know about you but I found it terribly interesting . Still working on SolidRank site-wise, and biz-wise, hoping to have some content up and a rough biz plan within a month. We’ll see if the pieces come together that way . Sorry for the short entry too busy as usual! Stay Tuned!

Noise

It’s a developing trend I’ve been noticing in my communication with others, and my preference for communications from others. Is what your saying useful? If it’s not why are you bothering to say it in the first place. If what you say serves absolutely no purpose that either you nor the intended listener can immediately discern why are you bothering to open your mouth in the first place. I call this type of talk and communication (phone, e-mail, chat, instant messaging, etc.) noise. More and more I notice that when i get fatigued my tolerance wanes quickly for this type of useless chatter.

China, in my experience, is notoriously aggravating when it comes to noise. So many times I ask a simple question that can be answered in one or two sentences and in return I have to comb through two to three paragraphs of fluff to get to the meat of the matter. The language barrier is helpful when it comes to talking to some Chinese through mediums such as e-mail but if I dare approach them with my Chinese that is a horse of a different color indeed.

It’s funny because I used to be and still occasionally am a noise-maker. As I’ve gotten busier and my perspective on life has adapted in this new environment I’ve learned the uselessness of some of the things I used to bother talking about. There simply is not enough time or energy to go around to waste blabbing about things people don’t want to hear about. If I ask you how much your product is – just tell me how much the goddamn thing is. I don’t want to hear about minute details of your products quality, that your family has owned this shop for generations – that the shop down the street underselling you by 10-15% is no good. I don’t care if you think my Chinese is good or that you think it looks good on me. Shut up – just tell me what I need to know!!!

Ah that reminds me of another thing that really gets me going. I love Chinese people you can ask anyone that I know on a first name basis – but one bad habit that tends to push my buttons is their avoidance of saying “I don’t know” when they don’t have the slightest clue what your talking about, looking for, asking about, etc. You don’t know how many times I’ve walked in 3 or 4 different directions only to find out when I asked the next person that my destination was nowhere near where I was walking. I literally need to stress 2 or 3 times + “are you sure” to figure out if they actually know what they are talking about. I have to soften them up to the idea of saying “I’m sorry I don’t know.” I understand some of the why behind the habit – but my soft skill capacities are better spend on profitable endeavors… I guess its difficult to realize that by telling me false information due to inexperience is actually more aggravating and makes you look like a bigger asshole than telling me you have no idea. Maybe I’ll make a T-shirt about it – write it both in Chinese and English.

Anyway back to my Noise rant. I think this is a lesson that can be applied liberally pretty much everywhere. Get to the point – order your sentences to reflect their relative importance and keep all the useless fluff to yourself. Maybe I’m too hard – thinking too much like a company man than an accommodating human being, but really, who has enough time in life to examine the minute details and nuances behind every interaction and exchange of information. I think like a businessman. My time is precious and my mind is already full of other shit I have to deal with and when I take the time to ask you a question I am looking for the answer to the question so I can solve that problem and move onto the next. If you want to be successful you need to be useful – not loud, not overly informative, not well-spoken, nor attractive, not even accommodating and filled to the brim with soft skills – first and formost you need to be USEFUL. Nurture the mindset of solving people’s problems and you’ll have a lot less trouble getting ahead in life.

Anyway I need to get back to pumping out this worksheet for my Chinese corners this afternoon. Hopefully I’ll have enough time to eat properly – that way I can take the inevitable noise-storm of bs I’m going to run into as soon as I step outside in stride. -end rant-

Burning the Incense at Both Ends

I’ve been telling people my head popped off earlier last week and I’ve been kicking it around ever since trying to keep everything in order. Here’s a taste of what the fixed portion of my schedule looks like:

Aside from this schedule I also need to prepare materials for the Chinese and HTML classes I teach as well as do a good deal of online marketing work for the Volleyball and Chinese Corner event’s I run. Of course this doesn’t include my nightlife activities which usually occupy me at least twice every weekend.

I’ve been trying my best to break up my week and responsibilities in a manageable fashion but boy let me tell you, it’s a bit of an intimidating task. I guess it’s worth it though, I’m young I’m supposed to run around like a crazy person trying to make the right connections, put things together, and suck up as much as I possibly can on the way. I’ve been thinking to restructure my commitment to Topnotch Partners as I don’t think I’m going to have sufficient time to develop myself in that direction while I’m taking classes. I guess my thought was simply place “learning Chinese” as my commitment to the company. It is after all a critical skill to have in order to successfully expand our business here and maintain the relationship with our current portfolio of suppliers. I wonder if my Dad will buy into that .

I guess everything considered what I’m putting myself through isn’t in any way, shape, or form uncommon here. Long hours, poor sleeping/eating habits, obsession with making money, allowing myself too much ethical leeway… hehe. I wonder sometimes about what we do to ourselves – being here you get to take a glimpse back into the past of developed countries. Everything’s moving, looking in one direction with the majority of people disconcerned with some of the big problems they create in their ignorance. Can the world afford populating a nation of 1.4 billion with automobiles and all those wasteful trinkets we developed country folk can’t bear to live without.