Year in review 2017

January, sometime in the morning of the early days of 2017, I am sitting by the pool in my home at Ho Chi Minh and I was stricken with the idea of reading The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump. Despite the initial realistic confrontation with the fact that this book is not for everybody, I decided that I wanted to make it work for me. Later in the year this proved to be a right move.

Off I went mid January and so on onwards with the idea that I can put together, close and execute the best win-win deals in advertising while growing my companies. In that favor I started working with my people providing the best possible experience on the ground on all the many countries where we do business. All this while, I wasn’t really spending much time on the ground and focusing on the core of what runs my business, flying.

With more than 100 individual flights this year I have been and done business in 10 countries. While now officially living in Japan, Singapore and Vietnam, I have also strengthen the likes of the UK and France, re-endevoured myself in the beauty of Malaysia, continued to grow my presence in Hong Kong and China and then returned to the place that has a special place in my heart, The United States. In addition I also made a stop-by to Canada for also other projects that occupy a place in my heart. All in all, I have met many diverse kinds of people, created unique networks of highly influential individuals and consolidated my position as an internationally acclaimed professional in advertising beyond my local surroundings. I have made of myself somebody who can make anything happen anywhere for any commercial reason that requires that a product or service is advertised. And more importantly, I can do this cross-boundaries.

On the personal side of things, life continued on the high motivational pace, sometimes pulled back by the sadness of not being in Japan as much as I wanted for my daughters. All things considered in perspective however, this sadness didn’t last long since it is all driven by them, and let’s face it, otherwise I could not be doing what I do each month, day, and second of my life.

As 2017 comes to a close, I can proudly said that I have cracked the hidden code in The Art of the Deal. The powerful message reserved to the few who can understand it, has given me a better approach to feelings applied to the work place, how to communicate with people, how to literally deal with them and fundamentally, it has made me a better business leader and dealer.