First Blog Post: A Businessman in Ukraine

People say that your first blog post is the most difficult one to write. But after reflecting on it for a week, I realized that my first blog post should really be the easiest to write. I have a lifetime of backlogged thoughts to write about. So with that, lets jump right in to a thought I had last summer.

Business concerns lead me to move to Kyiv, Ukraine from sunny Southern California. I remember some of the warnings from my friends about the Russian mafia looking to break my thumbs and corrupt Russian police that wanted to arrest me and take my money. (Never mind that I was going to Ukraine, not Russia. But that’s a topic for another post.)

Soon after I arrived I came across this video on the internet.

Dr. Daniel Thorniley, Senior Vice-president of The Economist Intelligence Unit speaking at a conference in Russia

The same week I saw that video Red Bull came to town with a team of crazy motocross riders. They performed an amazing stunt show at Independence Square (site of the Orange Revolution). I took this picture that day:

This picture made me realize several things that gave me comfort in my new home town:

• While people around the world may speak different languages and have radically different customs, we are more similar than different. On that day we were bound together by (1) the common desire to watch people risk their lives to put on a show and (2) being part of the target demographic for Red Bull Energy Drinks.
• As an American businessman in Eastern Europe, I have a safe profession. I don’t even have to wear a helmet.

Posted in Business and Economics |