Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim

Chapter 5: Philippine Sharks

That evening, we arrived at the airport where we would meet up with Enzo. Enzo was one of Mr. Brain’s partners in NESV and very friendly and charismatic.  After a few minutes, I could tell he was a shark, though his strength was not manipulating by power or knowledge.  His strength was in manipulating by emotion.  Enzo used the current situation he was in to gather support and sympathy, which is a natural human trait, but he was not afraid to take advantage of people once they let down their guard.  Enzo had been let go from the company, as he was having trouble delivering on projects. He left on very bad terms.

Philippine sharks are different. I have experience with small fries and dragons.  The small fries are generally friendly; they will take tiny bites from you and hang around but never offer to pay for anything.  They promise many connections and hook-ups, but never deliver.  The dragons own the Philippines; they run the gambling and underground and hand out 24 carat gold cards if they like you.

How to Mess up a Good First Impression

Arriving at Subic Bay, we met Amy, a girl who runs the finance and HR division for NASV. We also met Edward, an interesting fellow who happens to be a developer as well. We ended up spending the day just going around Subic Bay with the two of them. We also booked our dolphin adventure trip and bought some clothes for the evening. We had lunch by the ocean and a very nice wilderness retreat. Lunch was about 2,000 PHP—about 50 dollars Canadian, which is pretty good for four people.  The hotel where we had lunch cost 6,000 PHP a night and about 150 Canadian.  Surrounding that hotel were crystal clear water and perfect, white sand. Renting a place for the night at this hotel would be like renting a tiny little house that sits on top of the water.

Edward made a good first impression; he was polite and funny for the first hour we spent together.  But as the day went on, I found that he was arrogant and downright rude to his bosses.

The lesson I learned from this was to take your time choosing with whom to do business.  It is good to see how they take victory and defeat; especially defeat because setbacks and mistakes are bound to happen.  One test I like to do now before choosing to do business with someone is to meet them on several occasions in different settings.  Playing a game where you can best them will teach you much about how the person handles loss, and, specifically, how they handle loss in relation to a peer.