I’m catching up on this blog on Sun, the May 9th.   Basically, I was too exhausted to do anything on the 7th.  So, first – lesson for the future – when going off to meetings overseas with jet lag involved, should plan 2-3 days on the ground prior to meetings.   Basically, work into the trip a mini-holiday – to get adjusted to the time zone – otherwise – I end up pushing my body via coffee and adrenaline rush to function at peak.  And even then, you, can truly function at 100%.  I know on Friday afternoon, I felt my energy level dipping, and as much as I was excited about what we where talking about I could not bring the ‘energy’ into the conversation.   Was it someone other than M and T, I would at that point quite worried, since it could signal to the other parties that you don’t believe in what you are saying, or that you are not interested.  I used to do this in the US, where other guys would fly in on the same day of a presentation…. I would try to fly in at least in the afternoon the day before or 1 day ahead.   That usually allowed me to hit the ball out of the park.   So, lesson to self, future international trips, best to give yourself time to  ‘settle in’ – give your body a break – any high-stakes meetings require that kind of commitment – we (or perhaps just me) are not superhuman – and pushing ourselves beyond what is reasonable is not a good long term strategy.

So, onto the day – the day was great – and we started with building a financial model for P&L and cash flow of the project with EVERYONE’s costs into it.  Worst cast, medium case, best case.  I got to understand much more of the constrains on T and M, and that was also great, as it had shaped my strategy later.   It seems the more we talk and share – the better I am able to come up with a better solution for us all.   Power of communication and free exchange of ideas.   If I where to guess, the very reason why this project will be successful will be due to the transparency and openness we have between us.

So, afternoon, we went over the MOU that Mina had sent me – nice and simple.  

We had a very interesting chat with T on the way back (he gave me a ride back into town) – and some very interesting ‘keep it simple’ lessons.  I’m going to jot them in my private section, as they are actually quite ‘strategic’ for T (I think) – but basically very ‘deep’ insights but ‘simple’ implementation.

I’m hoping that T will write a book – it would be a great story.