It s a shame I've been sitting on this book for about two years now. A friend of mine gave me Never Eat Alone , by Keith Ferrazzi a couple years ago (thanks Rey), and it s been on my bookcase ever since. It was resting there not because I didn't want to read it, but because I already had so many others in the pipeline. I finally got around to reading it last month and I definitely recommend it. In very simple terms, Ferrazzi explains why networking is important and how to do it. From how to make call lists to planning dinners to personal branding to goal setting, it s all here. He also maintains a valuable blog .
Inevitably there will be times when you have setbacks or things don t go your way. Maybe you didn't get a job you thought you were sure to get. Maybe you lost a job unexpectedly, didn't win a contract, or lost a major client. Your car always seems to break down right after you've had some other unexpected expense. These kinds of situations immediately place us in crisis. They don t feel good, but sometimes they re what we need in order to grow. The beautiful thing about crises is that they force us to take a step back and reevaluate what s going on in our lives and rediscover what we truly want and need. When we get over that initial shock and feeling of disappointment, we might realize that maybe that job wasn't really the best for us anyway. Maybe, just maybe, that wasn't what you really wanted to spend your life doing. Maybe that friend was holding you back instead of pushing you forward. The way I deal with crises of these sorts is simple: If something doesn't go my way professionally, I try to create a situation that would be more rewarding than the situation originally planned. A while ago, I was offered a job that looked very promising. After I accepted the offer, they pushed the start date back three times, later informing me (via e-mail) that they wanted to bring me on in the near future but I should feel free to explore other options. I was extremely disappointed. I felt disrespected and angry, but decided to make the best of the situation and follow my dream of working internationally. I then flew to Santiago, Chile and had great professional and personal experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Later, reflecting back on the original opportunity, I realized that working for a company that avoids a start date three times and then can t pick up the phone to explain the situation is probably not where I need to spend my time. Use setbacks as an opportunity to put your goals in order and act on them. In the moment, it s difficult to look at a setback as temporary, but they are. They happen to everybody. It s how you respond to them that will determine how they affect you.
Day two was an interesting one. A little more alert today, we were better prepared to take in some of the things Beijing has to offer. We started our morning with a 7:00 breakfast at the hotel. The spread included everything from Western style omelets to bean dumplings. It was a great way to start the morning. From there, we headed towards the U.S. Embassy where we had a private meeting with “Lee” to discuss Chinese-American political and business relationships. Key takeaways included the need to be culturally sensitive, knowledgeable of laws and regulations in both countries, and the differences between business practices. For example, the Chinese tend to be much more about relationships than their North American counterparts. Where we often do business over the phone and email, Chinese business people prefer to meet in person and court relationships over a much longer period of time. However, once that bond is formed, it is much more difficult to break.
Once our time at the embassy came to a close, we were shuttled over to an authentic Chinese food restaurant for lunch (the name escapes me for the moment), which prepared another very nice platter for us. Although the names of the dishes were largely the same, the taste was vastly different. I think the most of us appreciated the authentic flavors and spices. From there, with packed bellies, we traveled to “The Forbidden City,” and toured a city that received its name because, for several years, was only accessible to royalty. I’m definitely adding The Last Emperor to the list of movies I need to see. According to our tour guide, that is the only movie to ever be filmed in the actual city.
At the entrance of the "Forbidden City"
We made it. At 4:02 p.m. (Beijing time), and after an 11 hour flight, twenty of us from Bainbridge Graduate Institute landed safely at Beijing Capital International Airport to begin our summer study abroad session. As we landed, I glanced outside the window of the plane to find that Beijing looked very much like a combination of Houston, TX and Seattle, WA. It was wet, hot, and humid. The ride to the hotel again brought more similarities to light than differences. Guardrails look exactly the same, there’s still a McDonald’s at every exit, and rush hour traffic was backed up as usual. I guess the traffic is to be expected when there’s a population of over 20 million people in the city and a tremendously growing, car-owning contingent. In just the last decade China has become both the largest auto manufacturing country and auto market in the world. The city of Beijing alone is adding over 2,000 cars per day to their already congested streets and highways.
The monitor from the inside of the plane showing our progress towards Beijing.
In the limited time I’ve had to experience the city (which mostly involved walking a few blocks around the hotel and the ride from the airport) one thing I can say about it is that it’s clean. I mean, really, really clean. I haven’t noticed a single piece of trash on the streets at all. As I was walking by, I noticed several shop owners sweeping rain water away from the front of their doors. When I ordered dinner, my plate ware arrived wrapped in plastic and was unwrapped in front of me by the wait staff. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to find out if this cleanliness is due to pride, respect, culture, government regulation, a combination of these, or something else altogether.
The art is simply beautiful.I haven’t seen much, but their use of white space and accent colors. I’m very excited to see more of that. Today, we have a long day, first visiting the U.S. embassy. followed by a tour the Forbidden City, and culminating with a dinner. I have a lot more to share, but my eyelids are heavy, so I’ll do my best to report on some new things tomorrow. In the mean time, enjoy some a few pictures.
Group of BGI students ready to get some rest after a long flight.
Communication
So far, email, Skype, and LinkedIn are working just fine for me. Facebook and Twitter—not so much. As expected, unless I use a VPN (which is inconsistent at best) to access these sites, using social media platforms will be a challenge. I have been able to get around the Twitter thing by using a third party application rather than logging into Twitter directly, but only when I have access to wifi. However, with all the things to see and do, I'm not so much worried about Facebook right now. I'll post pictures when I return, but in the mean time, I'll be blogging about the experience here. Until next time…peace!