Appreciation was something I felt while hanging around Mr. Princeton. Upon reflection, I had left Canada originally because I felt I was being unappreciated. I felt the skill I had was not being used nor was it being recognized. I wanted to go to a place where I would be able to push my abilities to the limit.
Before I left Hong Kong, Mr. Princeton had a photo taken with me to commemorate our meeting and he gave me a painting as a parting gift. The gift was a painting of two bald fellows, one riding on top of the other shoulders, with massive grins pointing in opposite directions. When we were in Shanghai, we’d stumbled upon a similar painting from this artist and were scrambling through our pockets to find enough money to buy it. We negotiated really hard to buy this painting for Mr. Princeton’s apartment and the painting was just out of reach of our combined wallets. After negotiating, we finally started walking away, but succeeded in getting it after walking around the mall and nagging the owner each time we arrived back at his store.
After this incident we gave each other a nickname: “Cheap date,” because we were so broke we couldn’t afford this painting and because we stayed at the crappiest hotel in Shanghai.
Creating shared memories and giving each other nicknames is an important step in establishing camaraderie, friendship, and genuineness. This was the final parting lesson that he gave me before I left for Canada. We even took a photo and it was great; Mr. Princeton still has it as his Facebook photo, and it’s a very happy moment.
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Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim
Non-FictionEver wonder what it takes to do business in Asia? How do Asian business executives behave and think? Do you want to create a business from scratch in under 24 hours? If so, this is your guide. This book is a compilation of over one hundred business...
