A China Tale

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Some reflections on negotiating business relationships

I have to be careful, each day I believe I’m getting better and better at discerning people’s position and desire in business and putting pieces together in ways where incentives are aligned and risks are sufficiently managed in so far as each party is concerned. However, I still find myself occasionally in a position where I feel like I’ve wasted my time with someone I’m vetting. Maybe it’s when I’m most engaged with my own side of the equation that I falter – though maybe it’s of little concern as I’ve only just recently gotten out on my own. Learning to stand on ones own two feet by means of my own endeavors is no easy nor small task.

Recently I have been in negotiations with a language training center to involve my language activities into their marketing mix in return for an invesetment. Things are looking iffy at this point and here are some of the lessons I’ve pulled out of the endeavor thus far:

Find the decision maker

Yes of course! Well who doesn’t know that! well like many text based understandings this lesson has found it’s solidification in a mistake. I originally began conversations with this company through a contact I had made through a networking event several months ago – what I failed to discern immediately was that she was not infact the key decision maker in their business, a partner yes, but the real ‘driver’ of the business – No. If your talking to the wrong person your just creating more wind between ears in my opinion, if you want to get something done you need to get to the key person making things happening and making the hard and fast decisions about the company.

Listen, THINK, Discern THEIR position

Again not rocket science but something I believe you always need to be developing a real keen ear and eye for. Deducing intention, desire, and position not just through what people you are investigating doing business with say but what they don’t say and how they word it. What kind of person are they? Where are they in their career? What do they want to accomplish with their business? How do you fit into their goals?… and if you don’t why would they do business with you? The last peice fell a little hard on my head during our last meeting. It was quite clear to me at that point that the real decision maker, who was now in front of me, would not have agreed to the conditions under which I began a ‘trial’ relationship with these guys.

You really need to be able to put your agenda aside, completely, and focus on building an understanding of that key decision maker and their business. I forgot to do this sufficiently, I think I filled in a lot of the blanks myself early on because I knew what this company was, their size, their service, their position in the market – more or less. However I did not know the heart, mind, and passion of the key decesion maker and I did not sufficiently consider how she would like to work together and what problems they were currently facing. Do I have a marketing product to offer them with fantastic ROI potential? I believe so. Is that relevant to the key decision maker? Let me stress this – it depends entirely on their position and of course your relationship with him/her. Small business is messy – I have a firm understanding of this. Time is always on short supply and catering to any agenda but your own is damn near implausible. I forgot this in my blind ambition to reveal how valuable a proposition I was making them. I pushed about how valuable what I had was instead of investigating what their current plights and agenda were for the business

How to access Facebook in China

Update – 6/9/10! – All Hail Freegate

After more than a couple months scraping along with proxy sites I’ve managed to get my hands on a professional version of Freegate which performs superbly well in getting you through to Facebook, Twitter, and any other non-adult blocked website from within China. Download the rar file here and hopefully you’ll be surfing Facebook without having to go through loop holes that will leave you with patches of hair missing . If your unfamiliar with Freegate and how to use it take a look at my quick introduction below. Let me know if you have any problems!

Tweeking with Tor

Tor is, for those of you that don’t know: “free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.” you can read up on it at TorProject.org. Basically it anonymizes (that might not be a word >.>) your connections by bouncing them around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world. You can download various packing’s of it here – I’m still playing with it and a simple install / connection to the tor network seems to be blocked by China – never fear I’ll update again when I have something concrete to give you about Tor. It is very promising and I’m sure after I’ve jumped through a few loopholes we’ll have another solid option for breaking through the GFWC .

Enter the Great Firewall of China

It’s the kind of problem you usually run into in the office place or in your university when the powers at will are seeking to keep you focused on productive things like… not giggling at Facebook pictures. Well for those of you that are unfamiliar its an everyday occurrence for all netizens residing within the boards of good mother China. The blockage of Facebook began several months back after an incident in western China where after some folk decided to write some not-so-agreeable / controversial things about the uprising. A similar event took you tube off the list almost a year ago – for those of you that have a decent memory (unlike me) it had to do with events in Tibet at the time. If your unfortunate enough to have a site hosted in China that would dare host such controversial content (anything anti-chinese government will do – take your pic) the troops will simply parade your business and shut you down no questions asked. Being unable to extend the same courtesy to sites outside their borders they’re solution is to block domains containing said content – for the sake of their o so childlike citizens. Whatever would they do if they were held responsible for deciding for themselves what to believe and what not to!?

Knocking holes in the GFWC

So I’ve been asked time and time again – “hey Dave! How the heck are you getting on facebook in China!” “Hey Dave can you show me how to get on facebook?” or the less common “Can you help me get on facebook I’ll do anything *wink wink*” Ok so I’ve never actually been asked that way but hey I can dream right?. Basically these are the ways I’ve employed over the past year or so.

Freegate – Currently Being Blocked

I’ll let wikipedia take the lead on this one:
Freegate is software that enables internet users from mainland China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, among others, to view websites blocked by their governments. The program takes advantage of a range of open proxies, which allow users to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites.[1] Developer Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) estimates Freegate has 200,000[1] users. The maintainer and CEO of DIT is Bill Xia.

You can download freegate (OLD) from my server if you would like to play around with it yourself. Interestingly enough it was funded by the US Government… let’s not dig too far in that direction. Anyway you’ll see that I’ve noted in the previous title that this method is currently blocked. Several months back I noticed Freegate was intermittently allowing me uninhibited access – my fears were confirmed shortly thereafter by fellow users I’d brought into the know about this o so useful bit of software. For now I wouldn’t keep your hopes up for this being a reliable source to get through to the other side of the wall but it may be worth holding onto once the big heads behind this nugget find out a way to outwit the knuckleheads behind the great wall here. Just an FYI for those of you with more… single handed browsing needs – pornographic sites are blocked by Freegate as well – sad faces all around I know

Update: There are a few pseudo-Freegate’s floating around that are now working in China. FreeU10 and u96f I’ve been using FreeU10 for the past week with no problems – I recommend giving it a try!!

Update 1/18/10 – FreeU10 also is no longer working – I’m going to try paying for Black VPN for a little bit and see how that goes. Getting on Facebook in China for free is becoming more of a dream than a reality to me nowadays .

Black VPN – Partially blocked

Black VPN was beta testing for a while and during that period of time they issued free access logins, as far as I know this period has now ended – making it difficult for me to share this method of enabling my fellow web users to access their beloved facebook. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is essentially having your computer log onto another computer somewhere in the world – that isn’t blocked by China – and then using that machines IP to go about accessing the world wide web. Black VPN is one of several open VPNS *cough* well not so open anymore since free beta testers are no longer being recruited. Here’s a short list of some other free VPN’s you may want to try using to provide you with the same GFWC cracking options:AlonWeb, PacketiX.NET, UltraVPN, CyberGhost, and the slightly less popular AceVPN.com, JAP VPN, andAnchorFree Hotspot VPN. You can read a bit more about these free vpn services on this blog article I found.

UPDATE 1/18/10: BlackVPN is no longer free however if you would like to tried their paid service (which I recommend) using this code will give you two extra months for free: QCYVZMB. I believe the fee is 5 Euros for one server or 13 if you would like access to all 3.

Four your reference here’s the procedure for signing up for Black VPN.

1. Navigate to Black VPN.com and fill out the form as listed in the first picture below (with your own info of course) the Invite Code in the picture will not work as it was discontinued. Hope you can find a new one and share it here if you do!!
2. You’ll then receive your log in information that I would recommend you copy&paste to a notepad or word file as you like (see 2nd image below – actually the logon listed should work as long as no one else in the world is using it!)
3. Lastly you’ll need to add a new VPN connection to your computer – the instructions are linked conveniently on the blackvpn website

Image 1

Image 2

I marked this method off as partially blocked because the only server offered by black vpn that has been working lately has been the one located in the Netherlands. I wouldn’t mind much but getting Google results in Dutch does tend to turn my smile upside down after several searches. It constantly reminds me of how aggravating IP sensoring location specific auto language selecting sites tend to make me – I think the world is ready for drop down menu’s to select your language of choice on multilingual sites don’t you? Is it so much to ask for that to be standard? Anyway if you do manage to get one of these Free VPN’s set up correctly you should be readily able to access Facebook and Twitter and Youtube and anything else that is getting moderated by China.

UPDATE 1/18/10 – this path for signing up is no longer valid as Black VPN is no longer free – you’ll have to follow their order flow from their homepage in order to obtain a username and password which you’ll get in an adobe document attached to your follow up e-mail after you process payment through paypal. Again if your signing up use this code to get a couple months free: QCYVZMB

Proxy Servers – Mild degree of maintenance – a little more technical

A step up from proxy sites this tends to be a little bit more technical than simply logging onto a proxy site and browsing through their search bar. I use Foxyproxy with Mozilla Firefox when I dabble with this option. This option requires you to surf the web for free proxy servers (Thanks Google) and copy their IP’s and ports to the proxy handler on your computer. That would typically be your browser in most cases. [Internet Explorer >> Tools >> Internet Options >> Connections] in the case of Internet Explorer. [Tools >> Options >> Advanced >> Connections >> Settings] for Mozilla Firefox. If you don’t already know how to configure your connection in your browser I would suggest finding a nerdier person around you to help you out a bit. If your a little more geeky like me I would heartily suggest picking up FoxyProxy and configuring it to your liking with proxies of your choice. The browser add-on lets you select when to use certain proxies for certain sites allowing you to optimize connection speed while also easily being able to access forbidden sites without having to manually switch proxies when you navigate to them. One way or another setting up a Proxy server correctly on your system should grant you access to Facebook in China.

Proxy Sites – High Maintenance but always a faithful if not tiresome last resort

I won’t bore you with going into any great detail about the various options out there for free VPN sites offering you freedom to surf the web. Basically the idea is very similar to VPN servers. You log onto a site and you are thereafter allowed to use that sites IP to surf the web. You can do a simple search on Google to find a sleu of Proxy site options. The biggest problem with these, hence the labeling of high maintenance, is the fact that they are always being blocked so there is a constant stream of new ones produced daily. There is also the considerable risk that your running your data through a medium that may not be trustworthy. Careful when logging into your banking and other personal/sensitive information carrying sites – more often than not your in the clear but when you do get taken advantage of it’s a nightmare. I would even be slightly concerned with accessing Facebook through these – I’ve been hereing of more and more hacking occurrences. It’s 2nd on the internet in terms of traffic as ranked by Alexa so I suppose we should expect as much

That’s all Folks!

Those are the primary channels I’ve used to access Facebook whilst in China. There are more involved ways such as having a remote system in a unmoderated part of the world enabled to accept remote control from your terminal in China. For example having a box in the US that allowed your computer in China to log onto it and use run it remotely. That’s kinda neat the first time you do it but the lag time can become an issue depending on distance and system configurations. More advanced techniques are out there I’m sure but I’m not one to talk about those. Unfortunately like many in my position I’m a jack of all trades – master of none. I’ll look to you geekier folks for guidance beyond these simpler methods

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.

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.

Study Aches & A Little Software History

So I began well intended, looking for some software that would translate chinese text to english when placing your cursor over the text in any application or webpage. The winning candidate turns out to be one Powerword created by Kingsoft a Chinese based software company which has been combating Microsoft on various fronts for more than a decade. Problem…. apparently the software was designed to aid Chinese learners and was therefore designed with a Chinese interface. Having downloaded and installed that version I found the functionality I could use acceptable but most of the applications power was unavailable to me because of the chinese interface. So began the search into an english interface version of the software…

This article springboarded my learnings surrounding this matter. If you tire of my ramblings Wikipedia has a well thought-out entry you may like to peruse. Now to clarify there are several versions of “Powerword” I have seen mentioned back and forth online. The software I initially downloaded (zip file named ‘powerwordlite.25269.3009.exe’) was infact the free software developed by the Google/Kingsoft joint venture (using that term loosly – haven’t researched the official relationship between the two entities). All other versions of Powersoft (I lost count of how many I found – ranging in years from 2000-2009 version numbers 3.0 to 5.5 and a languages Japanese, Chinese, English) were/are produced by Kingsoft and are not freeware. As I’m in China the fact that they are not freeware simply means its a little more difficult for me to effectively transform it into free ware.. [A. Search online for a full download and crack OR B. Go down to my local electronics shopping area and pick up a hacked copy for 10 yuan]. Though I’m sure these behaviors would be frowned upon by many it is an unfortunate defacto law of the land here in China. Some acts are in motion in an effort to circumvent this trend but believe you me for now they remain in full swing.

3 hours later….

Decided to call it quits on account of frustration and lack of desire to pull all the hairs out of my head. Looks like I may have to go the route of steal/copy/crack in order to get what I want. Thats ok – I’m in the right place for that .