Guest Speaker, Loren Seely

First off, I am going to apologies a little bit, I need to sit. I was in a bit of a bad car wreck a few years ago and it kind of took out my back. I can sit just fine, but standing and walking around I'm a bit limited. Except, most of my stories I probably won't be able to sit on it, so keep that in mind. I appreciate the nice introduction. Usually the bands that I play in I am not introduced so nicely, they call me the Round Mound of Sound. And over the years, I think was in my bow, I've been involved in music, along with travel and business. And actually, as I'll tell you, I have just retired here recently and I started a music business. So at this point in time, I am a low level record producer and I am working with some interesting folks which is a whole 'nother topic. But I came here to talk about international business. My background, a little bit that might not have been too deep in the bio, UI worked for a company called Aerostar International, and it was a company bought out. My original company was called Windson Research, and it was bought out a number of years ago. I kind of joke that I was in the business 43 years. I had the same office, but the company name kept changing. My job was pretty well the same, I managed a small plant in Sulpher Springs. A lot of people didn't know that there was an Aerospace plant in Sulpher Springs. What we produced was high altitude research balloons, and when I talk about that usually people go "oh you mean weather balloons." well no, they are actually, it's a whole other genre of product, and it specializes in aerospace research. Many times a balloon can to, in near space, as it's now known, what it takes a satellite to go and do. You can gather data, you can do a number of things, and it's very inexpensive, relative to aerospace products. We always joked about the product was, rockets and what not, you're talking about millions, multi-millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars in fact. A space station, you get up into billions of dollars. Well, this area has always been very economical and returned a lot of good science. I think it was about 10 years ago, NASA produced a list of top 10 things that were done in aerospace and our company was involved in 3 of them. And yet we are very obscure. Has anybody ever heard of us? You'll hear of us in a second, I'm going to tell you a story. Anybody drink red bull? Like it? Thank you. My retirement fund was enriched by that. The guy that jumped from space and set those records back in October, you recall that? I think it was one of the largest events covered worldwide, red bull and Eric um, I can't think of his name, Baumgartner. But the company that put the money up for this project was Red bull. It was an aerospace record that had held for over 53 years, and so those balloons that were used all came out of sulpher springs. So, that's kind of a bit of background. I am not going to get into as much of the other stuff, but these balloons are sold all over the world. And because of it I had to travel to a number of places and what I am going to talk about today, it's not going to be broad brushes as far as international business, I am going to keep mainly on what I have done. Some of the things that have happened to me, and the whole Idea of you hear the lessons and then how do you apply it out in the real world. And here's the thing, first and foremost, common since. I've always had a saying, common since isn't always common. You study about what you need to do and you get out there and sometimes it doesn't work. And I am going to give you, I'm going to talk specifically about some things. I can't illustrate every possibly thing that could go wrong, all I can tell you is that even this week in the news, Bill Gates, this is what, 2 days ago. He set off an uproar in South Korea, and what did he do? He had his picture taken with the president of South Korea, who is a very influential lady. She is quite well known and a very powerful lady in South Korea, well he did something that we probably wouldn't think of. He was shown like this. Shaking hands with her with his hands in his pocket. And that picture has got everybody upset. It was the equivalent of raising your middle finger in our society. There is no other way to translate it. And so here is a guy who is very wealthy, last I heard he was worth 78 billion dollars, has traveled all over the world, and he made a real real fouxpau. So the point is you have to try very hard to not get into those situations. And the first story I want to share with you is, I'm going to start with India and finish with India. Not because I want to pick on India, it's just that I, the places I have been the most, I have been in 35 different countries on business. The countries I have spent the most time in are Japan, China, and both mainland China, and both republic of Taiwan and I forgot I have had quite a bit of experience there. Probably the most experience I've had has been in both Japan and Taiwan. Well I was traveling to India for an international Aerospace conference, which they have every 25 years I think, and so a number of people in Sulpher Spring, it's a small town, people know what's going on, they, a lady came to me and said, "I have got a real dilemma" because I also do some work down at the local church, and she says, I've got a real dilemma and I hear you are going to India. I said That's right. She said would you do me a favor? Of course I didn't ask what it was, I just said sure I'll do you a favor, what's the favor? She said, my husband was stationed in India many years ago and he brought some things out of India that should not have been brought out. And he has passed away and I have had terrible guilt feeling about this ever since. And what they were, were very valuable gold coins, other coins, other memorabilia that she said, I want you to return it to somebody over there. And I said sure no problem. So, if you have ever flown to India, or if you haven't, in those days it was about a 2 and a half days of travel. And coming into India was real unusual in that the international flights came in late at night. And they also left late at night. And so we came in I was absolutely exhausted after all of this flying and the first thing you do, you get to meet the people bringing you into the country. The customs people, and the immigration people. And all down through the hallway was all kinds of signs. The obvious ones, even then, don't bring in drugs, don't bring in weapons, etcetera. You know, ok I'm just kind of in a daze cloud. And then there is a big sign about gold. And I am going, I read it again, it says don't bring in gold, I don't know why, and I'm going oh crap. But I'm standing in line and what do all these people in immigration and all the people in customs doing? They are looking at the people that are nervous. Right? Because they are usually the one's that have something to hide. And I am going oh man, how do I, and I am going, what do I do? Because it didn't have a place to stop, And I am going what do I do what do I do, because it didn't have a place to stop. I didn't know what to do, and the line just kept moving forward. And I was also carrying, this was about 25 years ago, I was carrying one of the very first laptop computers called a Toshiba 1000. If any of you are historians, you probably know what a Toshiba 1000 is. It's not much of a computer, it wouldn't even be a good cellphone today, but it was a laptop. Weighed about 8 pounds and had about 5 pounds of gear with it. And so I'm coming along and I look up, and here is this security guy that grabs me on the shoulder and says follow me. And I'm going oh crap again. Or worse. These guys can read your mind. And I'm going oh man, I am just hosed. Here I am I'm in trouble, I haven't even set foot in the country, and by now I am just a nervous wreck. And he goes, he says sit down, open that bag up, that I think you have a computer in there. I said, yes sir I certainly do have a computer in there. Not to mention some gold bullion, and some other stuff, but yes I have a computer. Could you take it out so I could see it. And so I did, and he goes, ok. Now, I want you to fill out this documentation. And I said, can I ask what this is all about? And she said we have very strict import export situation at this time, if you have to, you can't leave it in India, you can't sell it to somebody in India. You have to take it out when you go. And he says, we want the serial number, everything about you. So I filled out all the paperwork, and so I go ok, I feel better. And I am thinking, I still have to go through that x-ray spectrum machine, right? And their going to see all of the stuff that I am not supposed to, that I'm sweating about. We walk out and he looks down at the line and the machine, and says you can just go on ahead. And so I can tell you I don't even remember who I got it to, but I got it to somebody that would respect the historical, that was getting it to where it should have been. But anyways, even sometimes doing something that's as innocuous as a favor to someone. And now I will fast forward to today it's very strict, you're just not going to carry this thing through cause we don't know what it is but back then that was kind of unheard of. So I said in the beginning, the things I'll talk about are things that have happened to me or us. And the next thing I would like to say is, when you are in a foreign country, you are there as a guest, and you have to remember that, you are a guest. And things aren't as they are back home. One of the first things that US people do is demand, I want something to eat where is the McDonalds? Where the McDonalds? There isn't a McDonalds everywhere in the world. There are a lot of places that have McDonalds, but you need probably to eat some very unusual things. Later I may mention that I have eaten most household pets on occasion. Just didn't know what they were. I'll come to that in a minute. By the way, cat is very tasty in case you would like to know. Probably didn't want to know that. So, one time on a trip. One time on a trip I took my wife Ann, this is my lovely wife Ann. We have been married, what? 35 years, something like that. Why she hasn't killed me I don't know, right dear? And she probably will after I tell this next story. We are going to Japan, and Japan, by the way, is one of my all-time favorite places to go. I've traveled so much in Japan that people in Japan say you have been in more places in Japan than most Japanese have. I've been to Northern Islands, I've been to Southern Islands, I've been to space center, which you have to take a boat that fly's over the water to get out. So periodically she would pick oh this sounds like a nice neat place to go, so I would like to go to Japan. I said that's fine, Your what? Oh, your very first overseas trip, ok. She knows where I am going with this. So we come out off the airplane, pretty tired, you stand up there and there's the line that says citizens and aliens. And I get right into the alien line, I looked around and I go where's my wife? I look up and she's down here standing in a sea of Japanese and I go down and go dear, you're an alien. She goes, I am not an alien! And I said dear, here you are an alien. And much to her embarrassment she came back and got in the correct line. So the point is You're not in Kansas anymore. A lot of the expectations that you have as Americans, now with some of the bigger cities that you go to, your, there are a lot of the different things that are becomming more world like, but when you have to get out into the country side on some of these places, it's not always that way. So, when when you go there, most likely your company will have sent you there, now even if you go as a tourist, a lot of the time on some business I would have to apply for a tourist visa because certain places were very difficult to get a business visa, just at that time, and remember a lot of this is not in the last few years. So, we would have, if the company that sends you has a reason to go, and it's very very important that you understand those reasons, and you agree with them, or don't go. Maybe you don't have a choice, or maybe you are going to go and find out. But understand why there sending you there. And in my case I did an awful lot of work in Taiwan, which was at that time they weren't, they in mainland China didn't get along. Even the names of the countries were different. There was the People's Republic of China, which was mainland China, we called it, and ROC, Republic of China, which was Taiwan. They get along better now` than they did when I was there, and frankly some of the things that I was working on were somewhat classified, and they, you know, they had reasons to be upset with me personally, and that's all I can say about that, but what I found in our company, was a mentor. Someone who would sit down with me and help me understand some of the customs there. Not that I am going to become an expert, the one thing I learned, the guy that taught me, his name was Thon, and he had spent a number of years of his life, he was a US citizen, but he spent a number of years of his life actually in Taiwan And so he said, the fact that you are going to try to make the effort to try to not do something stupid made all of the difference in the world. And I found that to be true. And he said they will test you. I said, what do you mean? He said one of the first things you'll learn going there, they, is just as soon as you get off of the plain they are going to try to, they're credible negotiators, and they know what our American weaknesses' are in negotiating. American weaknesses' are we want to get in, get it done, and get home, right? or get off and go do some sight seeing, or something else. So we get off the plane, when you can barely think, is one time they'll hit you up with certain things. Then they'll just let it coast the rest of the time until just before you're ready to leave. And you are going to go back, at that point you need to go back to your company and say in your mind, I didn't get everything done I was supposed to, so you are more open to making compromises. That's one technique I learned there. But the other thing, the story I want to share with you on testing, I went over to the company, who we had sold them product from Sulpher Springs, and we, they would ask for someone to come, a technical person to tune up their processes and be sure they were doing things correctly. And so, this was my maiden voyage on that. And so my mentor said they will test you, I can't tell you how. He said, but you need to learn how to use chopsticks, and use them very well. I mean not just like a sword, actually learn how to use it. And so we had a family in Sulpher Springs, they had moved there from Vietnam, so they, we had an elaborate chopstick training at our house one evening, and going through all kinds of things. So by the time I left I was doing pretty good at that. I thought. So they, the head guy was a general, and he said it's always good for you to eat with all of the workers that we have here. So he said we are going to have a special luncheon for you at the commissary, which was where all of the people worked ate and lived. And so they came around, and had this nice banquet. And so he said, the chef has prepared a very special dish for you. They come out and make a big presentation, and everybody who looks at it I look down, it is the biggest egg, fried egg I've ever seen in my life. It wasn't an ostredge, it wasn't that big, but it probably was an Emu. And with all kinds of stuff around it. And I'm going, I remember what my mentor said, whatever you do don't ask for a fork. Now, I don't know how the Chinese would have eaten that, but I can tell you how I ate it. I just kept talking I, oh wow we do this every day, and I didn't use chopstick etiquette, but I took the chopsticks and very carefully pulled it apart, picked it apart, and ate that whole egg. What happened from that point on, I was in. That was my big test. And for, I continued going over there for 25 years, or about 24 or more years, they closed down the project about 8 or 10 years ago. So, my point in this is, first off, expect the unexpected, use your common sense, he said whatever you do, don't ask for a fork. So I thought, how are we going to do that, and so it was just, they were trying to see how creative you can be. Because that is part of what they were buying, it was if we have a problem can you be creative with the solutions. So, the other thing is, if you can, if you can, and you enter a long term business relations, it's a good thing to get down to a more personal level, although never, ever do that too quickly. Let the other party do that. In this case, a guy by the name of Mr.Poo, I never did know his first name, it was always Mr.Poo, so we were at that level, I didn't tell him what that really meant over here, and I didn't slip up and call him Mr. anything else, but he became my lifesaver at certain functions which, banquets, the guest was expected to come in and get gloriously drunk. Or if you didn't, I mean, they would, that was, they wanted to see how much you could hold. And Mr.Poo, who became my friend, found out that I didn't getting gloriously drunk. And he took me off to the side and he says, you know, he says you're the guest, but a guest can always bestow the honor of that drink to someone else, and I'll take care of it for you. And I don't mean, I mean, I would take a sip of it, hand it off, and he would nail it. And we could do that all night long. He was an ex sailor I found out. He was in the Merchant Marines in Taiwan. And so, we became friends at that level. He also taught me some other things. I had mentioned about the banquets. And they would have very special foods. There were certain things that I can't possibly even tell you a lot of thing, but I'll send you places and give you some links that you can find out some specifics about countries. Again, the guest of honor, and I was always the guest of honor. The general would have all of his entourage and I was sitting next to the general, and he always has Poo next to me. I don't know how Poo arranged that, but he was always to my left. And so, first off, I got to where I just couldn't eat what they put there, it just didn't look nice. It wasn't McDonalds, for sure. But I'm not that hung up and I've got pretty cast iron stomach. But I learned this lesson. If you look at something, you don't know what it is, don't ask. Don't ask. And so I would say to Poo, Mr.Poo, two days later, what was that that I ate. And he would tell me what kind of an animal it was. And I told him certain things I didn't like. There was sea urchin eggs, and especially for some reason, I just had a bad thing on that. And never liked eel. So he would make sure that there wasn't any sea urchin eggs in the feast. The other dilemma eating wise, is when you bring out a whole fish that's all been fried nicely, the guest of honor is expected, gets the head. And the eyeballs, they're a special delicacy. I never could quite get used to that. Although I did, when I, the times I had to do that, I don't know how many can eat oysters whole, just pop them down like an oyster, and pretend that you are at Brenams in New Orleans, and you can convince yourself it's an oyster. But what Poo taught me, was I'm a guest of honor, but I can bestow any of the stuff on him. And man, I bestowed stuff left and right on him. And so one of the other things about eating things you don't know what they are, don't ask. And if you slice it very thin, I could give you a list` of things that you wouldn't normally eat, and it does taste a lot like chicken. I wouldn't say that, wow this tastes like chicken, but it doesn't taste far from chicken. I've had all kinds of things with that. Again in a area of, I said, I have traveled in Japan, I spent some time in Japanese hotels. Not the fancy western hotels, I have stayed in plenty of western hotels, but specifically the Japanese hotels, the etiquette there is a bit different. You always, there's a place as you come in, you take your shoes off. And there's a nicer place for you to put them. And in the room there are slippers to wear and a, I call it kind of a kimono thing, I don't remember what the name of it was, that you wear around the hotel. And down to diner, they didn't have chairs to sit on, you sat. Very typical food was served in that style. And so one night I was there with a famous scientist from Norway and we were walking around, went out, and this is a very remote village. Remote fishing village. In fact it was one of the villages in that tsunami. If fact right where I stayed it was, the whole place was gone. And he was a very tall guy, he was about 6 foot 8. At that time my nickname eventually became with the Japanese Mr. Sumo Sized. I was about 360 pounds at that point, which is not a very good sumo but that was my nickname. That's the level that we got down to. They did call me Mr.Sumo Sized. So, we were out walking around, and we had a very early operation the next day, flight operation. So, we went to bed early, and in the middle of the night I heard this god awful commotion going on out in the hall. And I just kind of stuck my head out and, you know, then I did stay out of it. And the next morning I asked him what happened. The next morning I asked him what happened. He says, oh man, you remember when we went into the bathroom area where the bath was? They showed us that we wear the red slippers. He said, they are really serious about those red slippers man. He said, I forgot, went to use the restroom, and walked back that night. And you always set your slippers outside the door at night. I can't remember why we did that, but and he said I set the red slippers out there, and the management found out about it, and that's what all of the commotion was about. So, one of the other things, in travel you probably will not know the language. I speak what I say is broken English. Unfortunately many of us, as Americans only have one language, and sometimes other cultures tend to know more languages that we do. That's bad news, but it's a good news is a lot of places speak English. Unless you get into some places you shouldn't be. Or you get somewhere where somebody doesn't, and I found 2 solutions. Again, this is in Japan, I also saw it in Taiwan, and India to some extent. Although in India there is no problem with English. There always seem to be young people with a book in hand wanting to practice their English. And they are usually, you could usually tell them, they had their school outfit on. And so, when I was ever in trouble, and I mean deep trouble, I didn't know where I was at, I got on a train outside of a, I think it was Taiwan, I had no idea where I was, I had no idea how to get back. And I saw a group of, they were school girls running around trying to find English speaking people, and they could all practice. Usually you would have about 5 or more of them around. And so I always got help. I always was helped that way. And so the other thing is body language. I can find a restroom by going through, I'm in great pain, and you know, pointing down, you know, ok, right over there. I won't do that for the camera, but I assure you that I can put on an act that someone knows I am in distress. And people have always stepped forward to help. One of the things I always like to do is learn as much, if you are just going to one country it's easier, but even if several. Learn as much about, just reading background, about the culture, about the language, and learn a few simple words. Thank you, good morning, goodnight, are simple phrases always help. And even if you mess up, but you are trying is always gotten me out of, I've done some stupid things, don't think I'm not I just don't have time to tell all hundred of them right here today. So, I try to learn as much about, and when I get there there are certain things to stay away from. I've found that religions are always a hot button, politics is a hot button, you ought to realize, we need as Americans to realize years ago there was talk of what the Ugly American is like. And there are a lot of places in the world that not only don't like us, but despise us. And I have always and this is not a new phenomenon, it's in the news a lot, but it's not a new phenomenon. I found out many years ago that I would go through great pains, if I saw groups of Americans I just stayed away from them. Because how could I tell where they were from? first off, they were talking loud their obnoxious, you know, and I didn't want to be identified with them. Other thing that is a giveaway as an American, is combat clothing. wearing cammo. We are perceived as a warlike society. And guess what, we go on vacation or we go out, and we show up in Cammo. That doesn't help. So as far as business went, I tried to not act like an American. I act more like a Canadian. For some reason, actually not some reason, there is a good reason, Canadians are well liked, I think, almost everywhere in the world. And so if you didn't have to, and Canadians of all nationalities. Canadians don't all just look alike, but they tend to end their sentences with eh. I learned that from a Canadian, he says, oh yeah, eh. Just practice that a bit. But one other trick that I was told, not a trick or thing, and I haven't tried it, is to sew a Canadian flag onto your luggage or somewhere. Now, you probably will get by with it until you run into a real Canadian. And they don't like that. But it was a Canadian that gave me the idea. And what other things do the Canadians do? They are very respectful. They talk softly their very respectful, they've earned that reputation in a lot of ways. I don't mean all of them are all, just like all of us are not obnoxious and whatnot but we are perceived as that. In Japan another thing in business is how you hand a business card. Now those, I don't know if you have been out in the business world yet, but in the US you hand out cards like you handing out treats on Halloween. You just here, here, here. In Japan, and to some extent a little bit with some of the Chinese, but not as much as the Japanese, a very formal way of doing it. You hand your card and you take their card in one hand, and you hand your card to them. And where Americans go oh that's nice, and stick it, that's again the equivalent to Mr. Bill Gates. Take the card and study it, and ask questions. First question is, so pronounce their name and get some help. Work with that, you're in the company such and such, have a little dialog about that. And then very respectfully, I've been in meetings where there was a half a dozen people, and usually the senior people always come to you first, in that particular company, I don't know if this is always that way. And so I would line them up in the order that I got them and I would be able to look at that, and when I left and got to the hotel, I would write on the back my notes about this particular individual. Because a lot of times these are people that I've worked with quite a bit down the road. And did. And another thing, in Japan, again, and I'm just touching things saying common since common since. You need to know if you are being entertained or you are entertaining. The Japanese generally, and back when I was going over there, and I haven't been there for a few years, have unbelievable expense accounts. Most everywhere I went, people knew I was a musician as my hobby, and because I would always take Cd's. That was something I, some places expect little gifts brought. And so, something I did one time, I would bring gifts made in china, to give to the Japanese. I got gifts made in China to give to the Chinese. And that was wrong on a whole lot of levels. And so it was a real dilemma what can you do, to know it was 100% in the US. Well I started taking, I took bottles of whiskey. But the stuff they liked was fifty seventy-five bucks a bottle. And my company didn't give me that much expense money to pay. So somewhere along the line I came up with the idea of making CD's of my music handmade, and when I started I made them, I don't know how we used to take 2 or 3 hours to make, not they take about 9 minutes. to make. And with a nice case and everything. And then I would sign it. And because of that, that became my calling card. Everyone knew I was the guy that played music. I'm not saying it was great music, understand, because the bands I played with, we aspired to be unknown. And in fact if I told you the names of them you would say who the hell are you. We achieved at not being well known. But to them, it was American music. And at that time I was playing in a jazz band, so it was all improve Dixieland music. So one night they decided oh you're a musician, we are going to take you out for a special night, special dinner they said. And they invited, let's see, I think there was about 8 or 9 other people there from their company, and they took me to downtown Ginza, most expensive real-estate on the face of the earth in Tokyo, and we had a fabulous diner, we had as I recall, bottles of scotch, good scotch, and they had the very best jazz singer in all of Japan there. And she was incredible. Absolutely unbelievable and I was like wow. You know, American jazz is good, this lady was really good. At the break, she sent word she wanted to meet me. She wanted to meet an American jazz musician. I'm just nobody playing around Sulpher Springs, but she, it was all improv, and that's what fascinated her. And so it was a really nice night, and really built some good bonding between some people in the company and myself. And we went on to do a lot of business. I just casually asked, and this was 20 years ago, I casually asked one guy, what did that night cost? He says, that was over 10,000 dollars. That was 20 years ago, so we are probably talking 25,000 now. Be very careful in entertaining that you know what you are getting into. And that was one that I could have just walked in and asked, but they also happened to know that I didn't work for a large corporation, probably it wouldn't work. So, let's talk about legal things. The laws in other countries are not the same as ours. Legal systems are not the same. There's some in some places are different. I'll mention, and I'm going to quote you something on drugs in a second. Some places are very free with it, other places they think they're open about it, not necessarily. And the problem is, once you get busted for anything the things you have learned in the good old USA about Miranda Rights perhaps, and you know this and that, that doesn't always apply. And I've got a little document here I want to read you. In the links that I gave Elva, there are about 5 links to US department of, 2 of them are government that will go in and tell you specifically certain areas. You can't do it on an iPad cause it doesn't have flash, but on your computers and a mac you can go to specific countries and get all of this information. It's right there. I didn't bother to print that out I just gave you the link, but this is what it says, I'll paraphrase a bit of what's on that site. It says, Every year several hundred Americans are arrested on drug charges. People caught in illegal drugs are subject to the laws of the country. Not those in the US, and ignorance of the laws is no excuse. Burden of proof is on the accused to show that he or she is innocent. And it says because some Americans take advantage of an all expense paid vacation abroad in exchange for carrying a small package in their luggage. And to their surprise, their caught the fact that they didn't know they were in there does not reduce the charges against them. Every aspect of a drug bust abroad is different than the US. For instance, few countries provide a jury trial. Many countries do not permit pretrial release, pretrial detention, often in solitary, can last several months. Prisons lack even minimal comforts, in some places such as beds, toilets, and wash basins. Diets are often inadequate and require supplement from relatives and friends, and many of the officials do not speak English. In one of the links I gave you there's links on how to contact the consuls, there's things, and that's all in stuff that she's posted for you. So, the best, safest thing is be very careful. And this applies even to other laws. Don't make assumptions that is you've broken a law and get caught. Some places the punishments are rapid, and not something you'd care to do. Before you go, let's see how much time do we got? Elva, with me plenty of time could be here until tomorrow. I'm sorry. I don't want to leave out a couple of things. It's good to know what values and attitudes of people have. For instance, how are women treated? Minorities, or gays, or so forth. It's good to know when your going in. I'll give you a story, and this happened in Tokyo. Now, this was many years ago and I know it's changed since then, but now, at that time it wasn't. I was also at an international space conference speaking, and there was, this remote site that I told you about that was washed away in the tsunami, I wanted to get out to that. It was very difficult to get to. You had to take a number of trains and finally a, it was very difficult to get to, and to get an invitation to go to it. And I kept telling all of the people at the conference I really wanted to go out there. And, I kept getting no that's not possible, no that's not possible. And it finally dawned on me, one night Ann was with me, and it became apparent, the reason it was impossible, as I found out later, was there were no hotels for women to stay in up there. And she couldn't go. And so I thought, I still need to go there, because that's one of the reasons I came, so the next day I said I've got a real problem, real serious problem. I really want to go to Sandiku, but my wife want's to stay in Tokyo to go shopping. And she has our gold card, or at least at that time whatever was the equivalent to the gold card, I said, but I will, if at all possible, I'll go, I'll take a chance that she is going to bleed us dry, which she didn't by the way, shopping in Tokyo. I left her, her first trip abroad, in Tokyo and said I'll see you in Sulpher Springs. I gave her directions how to get back, and she made her way back, obviously. There wasn't a divorce over it either. So, I found out right there that was an impediment. It just wasn't possible because she was along, but it was solved very quickly. That wouldn't necessarily happen today. Before you go anywhere, there's a whole lot of things that you need to go through. The last five, or last 3 links that I gave you are numbered very very practical things that you can do. Things like find out if your cell phone works over there, how are you going to communicate. A lot of cell phones don't, use their standards. Also, can be very expensive, but there are inexpensive ways to do it. One of the most inexpensive ways is when I switched to on our last trip, soon as the iPad came out, I became a vivacious user of iPad. And, wherever I could get a Wi-Fi signal, which is a lot of places, and always in a Wi-Fi___33 cafe, you could make phone calls, and very inexpensively. But the thing is, you need to think about the adapters. luckily, most computers, including apple and run on 220 with the right adapter. You just have to make sure you got the right plugin in the wall. One of the other things, that I want to share with you is, let's see, I said try not to look like an American. We are usually identified by our jeans, ball caps, loud voices, camouflage clothing, and how we use a fork. If you are really trying to not look like an American. How many people take a fork and change hands when you cut something, whatever. That's a dead giveaway. Not that that's a, if you're not doing the other stuff. So I would practice a lot of times doing it the European way. Where you, it's kind of a trip to learn how to do that, but to roll peas up on the back of a fork and hit your mouth, but it's well worth knowing, and I just have found consistently, if someone says are you an American usually I will identify myself, of course your passport does that, but try not to act like the vision of it. We went, and if you have any medications be sure you take extra. Or take the scripts along if you can get some. We mentioned that we took a trip with Ronny *** who is a friend of ours, Ann and I. He was the guitar player in deliverance, everybody has seen deliverance? He's the one, ok, it's been long enough that show's not well known. It was a shocker of its day and as he was the guitar player in that. And so we went on a musical tour of Ireland where we would. But I ran out of on the way home, everybody got on, the plane took off, and 2 hours later, or no, the next day and a hurricane hit on the east coast. We were stranded in Ireland for 3 she said bad days, I said it was glorious because there was a pub nearby. With a pub and a hotel, I thought it was great. But what wasn't so great was running out of medication. And I've got a heart problem too, and we had to stretch it and by the time I got home, man, I was glad to see my heart medication. And so I think I'm going to start closing up with my last story. ok, but it might take that long. I'm not sure which version to give them. Alright, let me get a couple of other things. Strange foods, don't ask. Customs issues. These guys have no since of humor. I don't know where they find them. Actually, I knew an ex customs agent. He said their trained not to have a since of humor. Although he did, if you get a couple of beers in him, he was a pretty nice guy, but they are not going to be that way when you come through. And they don't have to have, necessarily ESP, but they can spot problems. And we were coming back from, was it Ireland wasn't it? No it wasn't Ireland, it was someplace else. I said to my wife, see that guy up there. He is a heap of trouble. She says, how can you tell that? And I said, I think he had a couple of dubies before he got on the plane and he smells like he came from a doobies brother's concert. And man they busted him. And they have no since of humor and they are just not fun to have to deal with. Luckily I have never had to do that, other than the one incident that I told you about earlier. Jetlag. There's a lot of different ways that people get around it. And not everybody can. Use my wife as an example, she cannot, she's jetlagged from the time we get there to about 3 weeks after we get home. It just takes her that long to get adjusted, right? And you'll read a lot of things in literature and different suggestions. All I can say is, it's a little bit different for everybody. Try something to see how it works for you. You find something that works, and stick with it. One of the things that works for me. And I guess it's not going to work for everyone, but it works for me. We try to arrive during the daytime. Now the first thing you want to do when you get off of a long flight, I want to sleep, right? Or you've tried to sleep on the way over. One of the best things to do is get out in the sunshine. Soak up that vitamin K. in the sunshine. And start having the son convince your body of what the new time is. And then get a good nights, and get to sleep. at the new, normal bedtime for yourself. Even though you might be driving towards the end, force yourself through that. By doing that, I can be ready for business the very next day. I used to take, a company used to give us 3 days to get acclimatized. And I found I could do it very quickly. And then near some of my last travels, I found I could even go and do a business meeting get in, and it's in the morning. As long as I could get in the sun. That seemed to be, or even outside. The sun doesn't shine everywhere, but convince myself, convince my body that I, that there was a new time and I needed to deal with it. So, advice there is you have to find your own way, but triumph. There is something that will work. Some people will gradually change the hours. Going to bed earlier and earlier. There's a lot of different things. One of the other things that actually helps some people is melatonin. You can buy melatonin over the counter. I think it is a natural, something your body makes naturally. And, in the balloon world that I came out of we would go out on flights. A lot of times we would have to instantly have to change our hours from like be awake from 11o'clock until about the next, 7 or 8 o'clock the next night. So you just have to abruptly change it. And melatonin was how we did it. We called it the safe drug drug of the balloon industry. You would go and eat a supper at breakfast time. You would be surprised how hard it is to get breakfast at supper, or at noon get the big meal, take about 3 or 4 melatonins, and go to sleep immediately and it would shock your system into adjusting time. So, you know, it might work, I just know an awful lot of people when we had to do abrupt time changes we used that, and I never hear nobody on overdose from melatonin, I did a few other things, but not that. Ok, Safety in travel. The first thing is be aware of your surroundings all the time. You know now they say don't, be sure you don't leave your stuff unmanaged, unwatched. And so, always before I'd go anywhere, I would read up on what are the safety issues in the country. And certain countries you just don't want to go to this part of it. Or what about this, what about that. So, I made a trip to India, this is the trip that I almost got busted for illegal imports. Leaving wasn't so much fun either. We were, the project we were on over there was supported by the US government, and therefor we were under I thought diplomatic passport. They looked after us the whole time except towards the end of our trip, which there were riots broke out. And we were in a place called Hyderabad. I don't know if you've ever heard of Hyderabad. Hyderabad and Secunderabad. We were actually, there's a big lake in between. If you have ever been there it's like Dallas Fort Worth with a bigger lake. And they were firebombing busses, trains, there's a big insurrection going on. We didn't know much about it because everywhere they took us was in blacked out busses, we couldn't even see out. Except one point I scratched a little hole and stuck my camera up there, and the security guy said, man, you want to get us all killed? You don't want to be taking pictures through that. So, Ann sat at home reading all about this going on knowing that's right where I was, and we didn't have any much means of communication. So it was a pretty intense time and they decided that we should go home early. So, they rearranged our flights. And, we parted company in Hyderabad. In Hyderabad you took a local flight to the international place, which was in Mumbai. And, on the way, of course all this time we've found out about all of these bad things going on. I was pretty much a nervous wreck. And I had read security things. Don't do this, don't do that. One of the things that stuck in my mind was if someone comes up to you in any situation and pulls out a 1000 rupee note, asks you do you have change, don't do it. And they said it's because that's somebody trying to find out how much cash you have on you. And specifically it was a 1000 Rupee note. So, on the way to the, to off the plane in Mumbai, we got in a cad, and the cab driver, immediately, I though hijacked me. He's not taking me where I want to go. And we are not communicating well. And so I finally get across to him, I want to go to the international airport, no if's and's but's about it. He said, he was saying something, I finally figured out no you need to go someplace else. And I'm going no, no, no. I got, I mean, I got pretty excited. Your taking me to the airport. There was probably a little more language in there than that. Some of those words he might have understood. And so he takes me to the international airport. And I get out, and what I don't know, I later found out, that he was trying to communicate to me was since the flights leave, since the flights leave in the middle of the night, after 12 o'clock, that airport doesn't open until 10. And it was 11 o'clock in the morning. And it didn't occur to me. I get up and all these people are gathered around where these luggage carts are, sitting there like they are so upset mad and everything. I go charging up to the door, grab it, and it wont open. You know, I'm, what's wrong here. Finally someone says airport doesn't open until 10:00 tonight. So there I was. I go, this is not a good thing. So I sat my luggage, and it was hot sticky, I knew not to buy any food or anything with the drink carts that came around. People were bringing around carts with coffee, milk coffee in it. I didn't. And so finally I am getting so tired I thought, I've got to get some exercise. Got all my gear on a cart, in those days I had my computer gear, you know I probably had about 5 pieces of luggage. So I thought I'm going to get some exercise. So I start pushing this cart around. Just to pull the kinks out of my back, and whatever. And, about this time it was getting close to dark. Getting late afternoon, the sun had started to go down. I was feeling pretty good. I got pretty rambunxous, and I didn't realize it at the time, but I had pushed the cart off the property. Of the airport property. And all of the sudden, this guy appears in front of me, I have no idea where he came from. Out of somewhere, and Sir, do you have change for 1000 rupee note. I'm going oh crap. Oh crap. I'm in trouble. Because you're getting set up to be robbed. The safest thing is that they will rob you and send you back but at that point, they say you'll probably be killed. The back of my mind flashed a scene from a seminar that I had gone to years and years ago about a guy who worked in China when it was very very dangerous to work in China. He was actually a missionary. And he would get in trouble with the local authorities. And there it could be very brutal. He said, whenever I got in trouble, he said, what I would do, I would act like I was either deaf, or dumb, and they couldn't communicate with me, I couldn't communicate with them, and they would eventually let me go. And so, and he said sometimes I would make some fairly funny faces. Well, so I looked at this guy, I don't think I had glasses on, but I crossed my eyes, looked at him real funny, like this. And he says again, do you have change for the thousand rupee note. And this time I am giving him the eyes crossed real well, and I promised Ann that I won't do this in public any more, but the other thing he told us is to drool out of the side of your mouth. I can do it, I can drool, but she's with her hear present I promise you I wont drool, but I can do a real drool. I started letting it all hang out, I contorted my face and everything and looked at this guy again. And so psychologically what is happening, he's thinking you know, this guy's crazy. And I probably was at that point. And, he could probably hurt me. It switched the gambit to the other side. Saying, now my life might be in danger because this guy is unpredictable. And so the last thing, I am standing there all contorted and like this with this other thing. And he goes, where are you from? And I looked him backed, and drooled as much as I could and I go Mars! As he ran off, I said Mars! Again, that guy was on a dead run. I turned around with the cart on a dead run. Pushing it back onto the airport grounds. I tell that story in every one of these classes that I do. And I have told it a lot of places. And to this date, I have had 2 or 3 people come back to me and have used that technique in this country. I had a guy and his wife it happened to them. Pulled over roadside park. And all I can tell you is that for some, it works but you've got to pull it off. You have to, now that, one of the other fellas told me I just couldn't get that drooling part down. But he said, I did a couple of other things. He said, he was at one time a black belt karate. He said, I went in and did a couple of moves. And the second time he said, we want all your money, he said, you take credit cards? And they gave up on him too. So, The last comment I'll make is, it's really an honor to get to go to places, to meet different people. Learn about them, Celebrate what they do, celebrate who they are. Ask them questions. And really, really be glad that you're there. And it's amazing. It's amazing. I've talked about a lot of scary types of things, but it's very very rewarding. And some of you will probably do a lot of international business and you will have a lot of stories better than mine. So, thank you for your attention. Any questions? Yes, and always, in my case, said that the company was being run by a general. And the first thing they did was sent a general to meet me. And I was very formal, and they went through a formal kind of ceremony. And we had I call it the chank I check room, it wasn't really, but it was all very ornate. And they served tea and very formalized. And then they took you on a walking tour and then they passed me off down further in. And he is the same guy who took me to lunch and gave me the egg. Then after that the relationship had hit a level and the answer is yes. And it was very rewarding. Even when our first, or second daughter got married, he sent a wedding gift for her. Going to where? London, London is an exciting place to go to. Let's see, if you're on business there, when a business day is complete, you have a party, you don't talk business. Oh, you're going to school there. I would get on the websites, the first or second one and look up there. I'm excited for you, our daughter, our oldest daughter spent a year going to school in Paris, and unbelievably rewarding. You come, what I've seen, one daughter went, one daughter didn't the one that came back, she has a much wider world view. And the world is really big out there, you come back and I probably love the US way more after my first trips over seas and I came back. I literally kissed the ground in Texas one time I came back. Man am I glad to be back here. I thought this place sucks, you know. Thank you.