went dinnering with a good friend of my parents (also my dad's business associate) and his family. i love to sit in when the adults talk, especially businessmen, there's always things to learn.

like how every little detail matters. any idea where BATA originated from? czech republic. if you're a BATA promoter, you better know that. if your customer from egypt is here, feed him nothing related to israel. better make sure you know what's halal and what's not.

volume of your voice matters. if you're a customer, you're almost always right. feel any injustice, just ask for the GM, in a loud voice. more often than not, the case will not escalate to that level. note: try nothing of this sort in 3rd world countries.

自動，不要被動。

we all know columbus found america, but who gave america her name? chinese did. rumour has it on the streets that on board columbus's ship, there were many chinese cooks. columbus, on hitting land (america), first thought it was china. there was a big hoo-ha. the chinese cooks, boggled by the commotion, came out of the kitchen and yelled in cantonese: 'hai meh lei ka?' (what's that about?) columbus thought the chinese were saying the place's called 'america'. from then on, the land kept the name.