Tag: Great Recession

Inertia and urge

In business parlance, we call them “entrenchment” and “creative destruction”. Find a niche, dig in. By the time you crossed “valley of death”, someone had already elbowed in to eat your lunch.

As Venture Capitalists scour the globe looking for “the” deal, they find new energy and risk-taking in places like Rwanda, Indonesia and Israel, the new “BRICS“. Emerged out of the ash of the Great Recession, these countries offer a unique proposition: invest in us for we got talent, nerve and market.

Since history can only be understood backward and not forward (a need for spices and to dispel “Earth-is-square” theory drove Columbus to stumble upon America), we can’t manufacture another version of post WWII American Dream. Whatever shape it will take, post-recession wise, one will likely find “gems” in the most unlikely places (GE and MSN in India, or “frankenfish” farmed in China bio-lab).

After reading Sarah Lacy‘s book about start-ups in emerging countries (Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky), I felt as if “Independence Day” were celebrated else where, and not in the US.

Web eco-sphere and capital flow (as in the case of hyper-Brazil) are tilted to smaller countries: lower barriers to entry, greater access to broadband and micro-funding.

To jump-start a project, one needs more than an urge to get rich. In most cases illustrated in the book, it has a cause or personal narrative to underline the efforts. Innovator’s dilemma implies a balancing act between preserving the status quo and feeding the creative urge.

If not, someone else will and will do you in.

It’s called Progress. It’s called evolution. Climbing the pyramid of need and innovation. Unplug the respirator and move into the “incubator”. I have lived on both sides of the world, one more risk-taking, and the other,  safety. It’s as if we have reached a plateau in “subduing the Earth”. Columbus, welcome to America, now go home. Take another lesson in adventure and entrepreneurship elsewhere. Maybe we haven’t failed enough. But it’s time to finish the race. Inertia and urge. Let the urge overtake the inertia.

The Columbo close

Many of us in Sales would remember and practice the Columbo close “Before I go, just one more thing….” (then we would go ahead with a Summary close, with one foot still in the prospect’s door).

With two years, and 555 blogs, I thought I was done with it. But then, just one more thing…..

Peter Falk knew about personal branding long before there was Facebook and LinkedIn.

He figured, to make it in an image-driven world, (w/ right eye removed at an early age) he would have to:

A. work harder (in this case, asking  one more question)

B. work  Last Impressions while others focused on First Impressions (beat-up raincoat, Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall).

C. work from his strengths e.g.  M.A. in Efficiency, government job experience  – both used his analytic skills to “lock-in” his signature role as Ltd Columbo (much like Alda in M*A*S*H).

In that vein, I want to continue the ride, “still against the wind.”

When I tried out for Vietnam‘s prestigious high-school, I failed, because of all things, my Vietnamese language (I finished French Elementary, not Vietnamese). But  I did get in the year after.

Then I tried out for the high-school band. Luckily, I nailed the audition: they were playing California Dreaming, Don’t Let Me Down etc… right up my “foreign-language” alley.

Even today, tourists in Asia can still find bands that play 70’s music, even when band members couldn’t converse well in English. They just listened and repeated after the tape.

Then, I got thrown out of a long line in front of the US Embassy (a week before the last day of the War). They were worried that a long line would give away the impending doom.

But I am here now, and even got back to Vietnam, walked in that same embassy to have my M.A. degree notarize (after local, State and DOS steps). It was requirement for work permit.

Oh, just one more thing.

The professor of Journalism 101 said I would never make it (with manual typewriter? grammar? or make it in Liberal Arts?) So I packed my bag, and went to Hanoi at the beginning of the Great Recession, and passed the Cambridge English Teaching Award exam.

Just one more thing. I have worked at Fortune 500 companies for 15 years, driving beat-up cars (but won 2 brand new ones to pay off my student loan) albeit without the raincoat, and pulling a Columbo every so often.

How is that for someone who couldn’t pass Jr high entrance exam in Vietnamese.

On second thought, maybe I can inspire those who have always got nice cars, nice houses, speak fluent and perfect English with library full of books hardly touched.

Now, they just want to rob the bank, not to get away with money, but to be put in jail for medical coverage.

Please don’t. Just work on your strengths. Peter Falk (and for that matter, Danny DeVito) rise to fame not on their eye or height. They differentiated, focused on core strengths, and charm the audience not without empathy and a sense of humor.

Maybe my strengths lie in the fact that I don’t give up or  forget easily.

Most of my failures have been put to use, as stepping stones.

In short, my  next company and job will benefit greatly because my former employers and I have paid a high price for my ” professional profile”  It’s up to me to never repeat the same mistake twice. And that, I don’t forget easily.  Before you dismiss me with a HR’s cold “Next”, let me recap by saying,  “just one more thing”: was it my leadership talent? or my persistence? or my ability to work well with others – that you fail to register? Like in any closing situation, I “SHUT UP”. Wish I had that trench coat on.