Messin’ with Texas

Current Mood: Confused

Normally when I socialize, or interact with people, I am usually very aware of each thing I say, and what it says about me. I somewhat treat it like a game of Diplomacy, where it is important to shape other people’s perception of you in a favorable way. I always used to be aware of the impression I made on people, but was not so good at controlling it – after all, don’t we all worry how we appear to everyone else. Since starting to play Diplomacy, I have gotten much better at it. Writing often has made me aware of who I am, and how others perceive me, whereas Diplomacy has trained me to control others perception of me.

I don’t do this so much with my friends (although sometimes I do) since I usually don’t give a damn what they think. However, when meeting new people, interacting with professors in the past, or as of late, meeting with people for work, I am always on my toes. My Diplomacy instincts kicked in full force during the six meetings I had in the England this past week. It almost felt like I was actually playing. I did research on each person I was meeting and their company (know your opponent!). I also asked around a bit to see what I could gather. I was really looking for anything that could impress them, or give me the upper hand in our meetings. Anything useful. Since I am only 23, it is vital that I give a very good impression of company, by giving a very good impression of myself.

Most of meetings went very smoothly except for one. I won’t say which company or whom the meeting was with. Let’s just call him Mr X. Mr X had a morning meeting and we talked about lots of things (mostly compressors obviously). I had asked him for some documents that he said he would get for me a bit later. Then we got to talk about the Hanover fair. The conversation went something like this:

X: So how did Hanover go for [your comapny], was it very successful?
C (that’s me): Yes, it went very well. We made a lot of good contacts all over the world and we believe we will be able to enter many new markets.
X: Did you get to visit any other stands while you were there?
C: Not really. Murat went around and visited many other stands, and had several meetings with other Turkish companies that were there so he wasn’t at the stand that much. Often it was just Alper and I at the stand that could speak English so I didn’t have much chance to go around. I did visit the DH (the name has been changed) stand several times.
X: Oh, for their cappuccino right.
(I am very surprised that he knows this. I did keep going to DH’s stand just to drink their cappuccino. I think I went four times. I was a little nervous that he knew this. What else could he know I thought?)
C: Yeah, that’s right (I attempted a weak smile). How did you know that?
X: I read it on your blog.

At this point, terror set in. What else could he have read?! My mind began racing over all the things on my blog. Was there anything bad there? Had I portrayed myself in a bad light? How the hell did he find my blog anyway? Who is this guy? If he found my blog what else did he find?

I had that terrible sinking feeling in my stomach, the smile I had on my face disappeared, my heart started pumping loudly in my ears, the adrenaline was going. I am sure my face showed my fear. I somehow had completely lost any footing in this discussion and was now complete at the mercy of Mr X’s follow up comment. Would it be possible, I thought to myself that what he was about to say could be of incredible importance? Had he made up his mind and strung me along this whole time? There was nothing for me to say, so I waited, terrified, for what he would say next.

X: Why don’t I get those documents for you, I’ll be right back.

The worst! That is the worst possible thing he could say! Well I guess it wasn’t. It gave me time to think, and recompose myself. My mind raced over what else he could have found out about me for another 30 seconds or so, finally concluding that I had to assume the best and not worry about it. By the time he came back three or four minutes later, I was back to normal. He put the documents down and laughed.

X: You should have seen the look on your face when I told you I read your blog!

So X has a sense of humor. I liked him a lot, and I hope we will be able to work with his company because they seemed to be the best suited to act as a distributor for us. He explained to me that when he was searching for information on my company, my blog happened to come up, and he read my entries about the Hanover fair. We both had a laugh about the whole thing and X was kind enough to drive me quite far directly to the door of my next meeting. He instantly gained my respect for having found and read my blog before my arrival. He did his homework, and he did it well. A+ Mr X. Now I know that my blog is findable on the internet and I will not be so easily caught off guard next time.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

My weekend was once again fantastic! Murat asked me how my weekend was when I got back last night (he stayed in Buyukcekmece) and when I told him how great it was he replied, “you always say that.” I went outdoor climbing, swimming at Tahsin’s house outside the city, partied it up on Saturday. I won’t go into too much detail, but let’s just say Saturday felt like I was back in the fraternity. Respect to Leyla for going drink for drink with me. Pictures from the weekend can be found at the link below:

Weekend Photos

Although my weekend was excellent for me, I don’t think that it would be so interesting for you. It was great fun, but not all that unique. Today, for a change of pace, I am in the UK. I got up at 6am this morning to catch my 8:05 flight. I had planned on an afternoon meeting in London before heading to North Hampton (where I am now), but that got cancelled. So I have done very little today. Having not slept very much, it is probably good that I haven’t done much. I have been in a zombie like state all day. I haven’t quite recovered from my weekend, and am exhausted from having to take a plane, then a train, then walk a bit, then another train, then walk then a bus, then walk… you get the idea. It took me a while to get to Wellingborough.

Wellingborough is exactly what I imagine an English town would be like. It’s old, cloud and green, with cars on the wrong side of the road. The commercial part of the town is very small. Everything is packed together around its small center. My hotel is less than a kilometer from the center so I was able to walk around and do a bit of shopping that I haven’t had time to do in Turkey (I know it would have been cheaper in Turkey, but I have no time). The buildings are all small, and there are plenty of trees around. Furthermore, there is lots of nice green grass, something you don’t see too much of in Turkey.

My first time crossing the road I made the mistake of looking the wrong way – this must be classic mistake made by people form countries where they drive properly. After the adrenaline of almost getting hit had worn off, I wondered how many foreigners are hit by cars each year because they look the wrong way. I imagine this statistic would be interesting. More interesting and more amusing, is how many British are hit by cars per year because they look the wrong way in other countries. You could look at how many people total from countries driving on the wrong side of the road get hit in countries where they do things right, but I have a feeling that statistic would be 95% British.

On the train – it was a very nice train – I was watching the weather report. The weather was, and I quote, “cloudy, with sunny spells developing.” Depressing isn’t it? I don’t think I have ever heard the weather put that way. The word ‘developing’ is always used to describe thundershowers, or hurricanes, or low-pressure systems or anything really, except for sun. You can have rainy days with the sun ‘peaking through,’ or ‘partially sunny.’ ‘Sunny spells developing,’ seems to imply that the weather here must really suck. I have heard stories that British weather is bad, but I had never been here before. In my first hour in the country, I happened to catch the weather report and it was pretty dismal. I must say I am glad I don’t live here. Istanbul seems to be sunny all the time, which is quite nice. Maybe the crappy weather is why it seemed nobody smiles around here. (If you are wondering, the weather was sunny and warm today).

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I was thinking about my last four plane rides and the people I ended up talking to. They were all quite lucky I suppose. Simply by being outgoing, friendly and by wearing a smile, I have managed to meet several interesting people.

First, on my flight back from the US, I met Leyla. She’s half Turkish but grew up in New York. She has sort of become a part of our group (Izzy, Tahsin and I). She’s visiting her grandmother for the summer and I am assuming we are more fun than her grand mother is. Through her, we have also befriended her sister, Berna, who is a student here in Turkey.

Number two, my flight to Tunis. In the airport, while waiting in line to check in, I struck a conversation with the guy behind me. He’s an Algerian businessman who owns some textile factories. We talked for about half an hour (all in French) about lots of things. He was impressed by my story and gave me his cell phone number and office phone, and took my card. He said he would help me find a distributor for our products in Algeria. Of course this all sounded great, but these things usually are quickly forgotten. People like to talk about big ideas that are different and exciting (everyone wants to be part of something bigger than themselves) but they are usually forgotten because neither party follows up. Well, I am not like that. I ALWAYS follow up. 95% of the time I make people put their money where their mouth is. When I was in Switzerland, Daniel in my French class said I should come to Barcelona sometime and visit him while he’s there. Three weeks later I was in Barcelona, and Daniel was very surprised.

Anyway, so I called Mr Mohamed and he said that he would return to Turkey in two to three weeks and that we should have dinner together. After that he would arrange for me some meetings around Algeria. How excellent is that! Algeria is one of the biggest markets for compressors in Africa so Murat and Atila were excited to hear this news.

On flight number three, I had the luck of sitting next to two beautiful Tunisian girls. We talked  (in French again) about various things. They were on vacation with their family so I offered to have them come out with us. We exchanged numbers and they actually did call me back. It never materialized but hey, I did get a phone number ?.

On flight number four, my flight to the UK, I sat amongst the English wheel chair basketball national team (not sure how that is actually played). Bored, I struck up a conversation that ended in me getting invited to one of their games this weekend. Unfortunately I will not be here as I am returning to Istanbul on Friday evening. I have a very important person coming to visit us on Saturday so I will have to be in the office.

In addition to all of that, don’t forget that on my flight back from New York to Istanbul they thought they were going to have to bump me so they gave me a $400 voucher for use with Delta or any of its partners. When I didn’t get bumped, they said I could go ahead and keep the voucher!

Anyway, so I just thought I would take a minute to brag to you all at what great luck I have been having lately. Keep a good attitude and be friendly, and you can do the same.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Current Mood: Esctatic & Happy & Playful

Ce poste est pour ce qui parle français. Je suis désolé si vous ne le comprenez pas.

Alors, je viens de rentrer chez moi après trois journées a Sfax, Tunisie. C’était un voyage pour mon travail, mais c’était tellement bon. Il m’a relaxé beaucoup. J’ai visité une petite entreprise qui fait le service pour des compresseurs. Monsieur Kamel Hachicha était mon hôte et aussi la chef de l’entreprise. Je pense que le voyage va être un grand succès. Le Mardi, on a passé onze heures ensemble entrain de discuter beaucoup de chose et faire des visites a des clients. Je pense qu’il y a un grand désire de travailler ensemble sur les deux cotes (Je l’espère).

On fait, la chose qui était intéressante n’était pas le travail. C’était la payse. Il m’a pris a l’aéroport de Tunis, epuis on a conduit pour trois heures et demie jusqu’au Sfax, a la centre de Tunis (il n’est pas une aéroport près de Sfax). Le voyage était trop long et chaud. La soirée auparavant, j’ai dormi seulement quatre heures, donc j’étais tellement fatigue. Mais, j’ai aimé le voyage. On a vu beaucoup du paysage et des bâtiments (vieux et nouveaux) qui m’intéressent. Tout le paysage est couvert par des arbres d’olive, et la terre et rouge sans beaucoup d’autres végétation. Les feuilles sur les arbres d’olive sont un vert très pale. Les troncs sont foncés et ils ses tondrent beaucoup. Contre la terre rouge, ça fait une bonne contraste de couleur. Aussi l’odeur du paysage était incroyable. Il a senti comme la vrai terre. Je ne peux pas le décrire en français ni en anglais. Il faut aller si vous voulez le connaître. Je suis désolée, mais je n’ai pas prix une bonne photo du paysage.

Des villes sont aussi très bonnes. Au centre ville, la plupart des bâtiments sont blancs, ou presque blanche. Ils sont vieux (je pense qu’entre 40-80 années) et petit. La plus grande au centre ville a eu quatre étages. J’adore l’architecture de ces bâtiments. Je pense qu’ils sont indicatifs d’une colonie française.

La dernière journée, quand on était en train d’aller a l’aéroport, on a arrêté a un vieux bâtiment construit par les romans. Je ne sais pas comment il s’appelle en français, mais je vous pressente des photos. Amuse toi bien !

Other News: I played soccer with Murat, Baris and their friends last nighta t 11pm. It was a team we didn’t know at all so it felt like a real game. Although only having slept 4 hours the night before, I was so tired, but incredibly energized because of excitement about the game. We won 4-1 - I scored one and assisted one! Because I was so excited to play, I ran my heart out and was extremely exhausted. I don’t think I have ever run so much in one hour. Right at the end of the game though, I slammed my head extremely hard and was quite dizzy for a while.

In summation: we won, I scored, I had a non-debilitating injury => Great game!

On the way back I layed down in the back and all my muscles tightened up while I was napping. I had a really hard time trying to walk up to my apartment afterwards. My head still kind of hurts.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Current Mood: Esctatic

I am back from my week in the US. It was an exhausting week. I had to take care of some stuff for my Turkish visa, visit a ton of people (Amy, Andra, Eddy, Dave, Jennie, Andy, Kat, Jeremy, Lukasz, Rahul, Kim, my cousins (John, Dawn and Grant), my grand parents, Katie, Jennie (different Jennie), Nick, Rina, Dan, Jessica and Liz), pick up things for my friends here in Turkey and go to my brother’s graduation. I didn’t really get too much sleep while I was home. It was nice to be home, and it was great being able to see so many of my friends in such a short period of time.

My trip home was very long and exhausting. I was already very tired from the my week in the US, and I was dreading the 10 hour over night flight. I knew the flight was full, so I got there very early so I could be sure to get an exit row, which I did. With about an hour to go before flight time, Delta announced it had over sold the flight and that they needed volunteers to give up their seats.

I figured what the heck, it could be worth it. I didn’t ‘need’ to be back on that day. It seems like I am always waiting on things in Turkey, one time they could wait on me. Starting with me several people volunteered to give up our seats. They processed my $400 voucher (for use only on Delta) and took my ticket. Before they could process anyone else’s refund, things seemed to get very disorganized. They had told us we could leave only 3 hours later on a different direct flight, then they said we would have to stop in Milan, then they said there was a problem with both of those flights. I was annoyed, but I had 400 bucks in my hand.

With about 15 minutes to go before takeoff, there were only the four or five people who hadn’t given up their tickets waiting. The agent suddenly told us that we could board the plane and assigned us all seats. Apparently it wasn’t full. He said I could keep the voucher. When I complained that I had given up my sweet exit row seat, he said there were three empty seats left on the plane and that I could have all three to myself! Talk about good luck!

I ended up not sitting by myself. I asked a cute girl I had been talking to in the airport if she wanted to sit with me, which was nicer than having three seats to myself.

When I got back, I got the message from Murat that I should just take a cab because he couldn’t pick me up. I got back, did a bit of catch up on work, then went straight home and passed out. Slept something like 14 hours (in two sleep periods) since then. Still a bit groggy though.

In other news:

Murat left for vacation today.

Congrats Graham on your graduation.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Here’s a picture of Liz and I the Sunday I left Hannover. Yes, she has short hair now.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Current Mood: Cool

Yesterday, Tuesday, we had a long meeting to organize ourselves after the Hannover fair. Basically, Murat and I took all the contacts we made at the Hannover fair (a total of 75 potential distributors and 9 potential OEM customers) and divided them up. In a sense we were dividing up the world. I got most of Western Europe, the Americas and Africa. What does this mean? It means that I am responsible for following up on all the contacts we made in that area. You can see below, the complete list (notcounting OEM customers)

[[[Had to remove the table due to technical difficulties]]]
In 37 different countries we made 75 contacts. So it seems pretty successful. To make it easier to view the data, i have also included a map for your viewing pleasure. Click on the map for a full size view. Theoretically, we are going to be emailing a lot for the next week, and then going on the road, visiting all the potential opportunities that seem promising.

So right now, I have a big pile of paperwork and notes on my desk. I am going to have to do some research on each of the companies, and the markets that each company is in. Then I’ll start going through them one at a time. I have a total of 38 to follow up on, plus a few other random contacts.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I posted some pictures at:

Hannover Pictures

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Current Mood: Angry

While we were setting up the stand, I did my best to take periodic pictures from the same spot. Since I didn’t have a tripod, and I wasn’t too disciplined about this project, it came out so so. There are about 60 pictures in this 30 second clip. Setting up the stand took us a very long time (you will notice it becomes night and then day again as the video plays).

As always, enjoy, and let me know what you think.
Video of our Hannover Stand being built

PS You have to click on the link, then a page with the embedded file will load. Unfortuneately, wordpress has some retarded find and replace function that checks all the code you enter. So whenever ‘em’ comes up in the code, it replaces it with ‘i.’ In html the ‘em’ and the ‘i’ tag are very similar. However, it also replaces the ‘em’ in the ‘embed’ tage with an ‘i’ which means I cannot put embedded videos on my blog (I don’t know why the apple one worked, because it to now has the tag ‘ibed’ (which does not exist) in it’s code, but for some reason still works). Anyway, if anyone knows how to fix this please let me know because I am so frustrated and pissed off right now I am tempted to break something.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sigh… It’s finally over. What an exhausting week. Today, Friday, was the last day of the fair so it was kind of slow. Murat and I went around and visited other companies: sellers of both competing and complimentary products. It was kind of nice. We had cappuccino with the general manager of Dominick Hunter, got a cool battery-less flash light from Kaeser Compressors, and had lots of cookies at the other stands. It was nice. We also made a contact with a lot of very good potential that we are all very excited about.

I spent most of my day first trying to get the CMU TV feed to work so I could watch the buggy races at CMU. After the races had already started, I gave up and just listened to the radio webcast, which was still fun. Last night, and all the way up until today I felt a little bit of that buggy excitement that I used to get in the days leading up to race day. Reliving the memories in my head and imagining my friends all back at CMU getting ready for race day was almost as exciting as being there.

We got a harness strap from the driver wrapped around a wheel, so our time was terrible. We finished about 6 seconds slower than last year, but still made it to second day in seventh place. As far as I can tell, all the men’s teams were much slower this year, so we have a chance to make it as high as fourth, which would be awesome (our best finish in five years I believe). Despite the cost, I ended up having a few short conversations today with people back at CMU. It was the closest I could get to being there. I think next year I will try very hard to be there, and I will hopefully drag Izzy back with me.

Now we are packing up the stand, which is exponentially easier than building it. In just two hours, we have completely disassembled everything. Now we are just waiting to get our boxes back and pack up our compressors and stand materials. It will be nice to go back to being me for a while (I have been making a huge effort be more outgoing and friendly than normal). Tomorrow I will have the day off. Liz is in Hannover visiting her grand parents so we will spend the day together except for during the races. Then Sunday it’s back home, marking 12 days in Hannover. It will be nice to be home and wash clothes, have my desk, get back to weight lifting, get back to regular running… the list goes on. If Murat and I are going to spend the next couple months or so traveling, I am going to need to buy more clothes.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!