Thanksgiving

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving to the fullest and surrounded themselves with family and friends.
It was certainly interesting out here. A group of 50 foreigners (maybe 1/3 of which were American) invaded a Chinese-run German restaurant for turkey and all the great little things that go along with it. The organizer took care to make sure everything was done to a more or less Western standard, and to be honest, the meal was surprisingly familiar.

Good times were had.

Today we wrap up our assessment for our client with the small trading firm, though our deadline has been pushed back since he allegedly celebrated our holiday as well.... and a bit too much.

No complaints as we power forward and seek out new clients.

Busy mind, tired body

Ideas fly around here all the time, and every expat has at least 6 different business ideas/pie-in-the-sky dreams for making it big out here.  The reality is that very few of this ever comes to light.  At night though, after a few pints, everyone gets into the same diatribes about how things here could function more efficiently or how millions could be made on any scheme.

The reality for us is that our original idea still stands, albeit with some modifications, but we have come up against many hurdles, and a new idea is in the works for us.  Time is an issue, as it is a program that would take place this summer, and we are moving quickly an aggressively to get it implemented as soon as possible.  

I am constantly brought back to the jewelry design convention I attended a while back.  One of the speakers kept hammering the mantra that brainstorming and planning are 10% of the picture, you can have a solid gold business model or plan, but you have nothing until you are able to implement it.  You can be smart, the smartest even, but it will get you nowhere without the ability to take proactive steps forward.  This is perhaps the toughest thing for me, and the rest of our group, and I would imagine we share this with 95% of the population at large.  

The next two weeks will be critical for us.

On a side note, I've signed up for rugby, and have a trip out to Guanzhou this weekend to participate/get destroyed by much larger people than me.  This will be interesting.