charvey in Vietnam

Chez Guido

No, I haven't gotten mixed up in a protection racket.  I'm talking about a Godsend for single expat bachelors -- Chez Guido. 

Chez Guido is a local restaurant founded in 1992 by an Italian guy named -- what else? -- Guido.  He has an outstanding delivery menu -- everything from tacos to spahghetti to Vietnamese spring rolls to pizza to a New York Club Sandwich.  I just ordered the NYC Club, and I'm salivating.  Guido, I love you.

New Gig

When I returned to Vietnam two weeks ago I started my new gig as General Director of VietnamWorks.  VietnamWorks is the number one online job finding site in Vietnam.  It's kinda like Monster.com in the USA.

This job is pretty much exactly what I had in mind as the next step in my career.  After seven years I was beginning to climb the walls in big-company corporate America, with its soul-crushing bureaucracy and political battles.  Although I could have found a small company in the States, I'm hitting two birds with one stone by joining a small consumer-focused Internet company in Vietnam.  What is the other bird, you may ask?  It's living in an extremely stimulating and rapidly changing environment with a sense of adventure.  It's also having the opportunity to make my mark.  Kinda reminds me of the old adage, "Go forth young man, and find your fortune!"

My experience at Yahoo and AOL is a terrific fit for many of the challenges faced by VietnamWorks.  For example, I drew on experience helping to design the new AOL home page to determine immediately that VietnamWorks needs some changes to its own homepage.  At Yahoo I gained a real appreciation for how online users think and behave.  I'd even go so far as to say I am the most qualified guy for the job in all of Vietnam.   ;-)

Another thing I love about the job is that it's my first true general management job.  In one day last week I dealt with sales compensation plans, personnel/personality issues, team planning, marketing strategy, product strategy and space planning.  Wow.  Talk about drinking from a firehose -- it's all here at VietnamWorks.

Morgan Stanley recently predicted that the Chinese online jobs market will grow at a compounded rate of 50% (that's fifty percent) a year for the next three years.  Although Vietnam is no China, that prediction is exciting because the Vietnamese and Chinese markets have many similarities.  In addition, Australian online jobs provider Seek paid $20 million for a 25% stake in Zhaopin, the #3 online jobs player in China.  Goldman Sachs estimates Zhaopin's revenue at $8 million, which implies a valuation multiple of 10x revenue.  I likes!  Read the story here.

 

Blog Summit

Tonight I got together for a bite with a couple local celebrities: Mel, the author of "Antidote to Burnout" and Jon, author of "It's the Final Word."  We were mobbed by dozens of screaming women.  A few of them managed to break through our escort and I felt obligated to sign a few autographs.  After all, My Public is My Public.

Between bites of caviar and sips of cognac, we traded tax shelter and publicist tips.  Good guys.  Read their blogs.  If you're too busy, I'm pretty sure the Cliff Notes are available.

Home Security

When I returned to Vietnam I discovered that someone had tried to break into my place.  Although I used sturdy padlocks, they pried apart the door rings secured by each padlock on both the inner and outer doors.  I figure it was two guys and a crowbar.

Like most Vietnamese houses, I have an outer metal security door that folds like an accordion and a regular inner door on hinges.  Both doors were locked with padlocks and an integrated door lock.  Fortunately, the would-be thieves were stopped by the inner integrated door lock.  Perhaps they were spooked and ran off before they were able to penetrate it, or maybe they just couldn't figure out how to break it using their crude crow bar method.  In any event, my neighbors noticed that the outer door was ajar and locked it up again with a bicycle chain.  I was very lucky since I've heard that thieves will clear out *everything* from your house.  That would suck.

My landlord, anh Lich, was extremely concerned and responsive.  I showed him the damage and asked that he have some workers weld stronger rings in place.  Today he came by with a couple metal workers and they welded on new rings.  They also put a set pretty high up and out of reach of most Vietnamese.  Although these new rings are stronger, I doubt they would stop determined thieves who had a chunk of time. 

I've been advised by locals and expats always to have a house sitter whenever I leave town, even if it's just for a night.  That's a swell idea.  I'm also leaving the outer light on at night and may get a motion detector alarm.  Another idea is to post a warning on the door that the place has an alarm.  Even if I don't install one, it at least gives the thieves pause before doing their dirty business.

When I thanked anh Lich he smiled and responded "Of course -- it's my duty!"  He's great.

My USA Trip

My trip to the USA was fantastic.  It was great to catch up with friends and family again, even though I'd only been gone about 3.5 months.  Here are a few pics.

In Naples, Florida with my Dad and his wife Marty.  They ran me ragged around the court and showed no mercy.  Marty made an outstanding turkey dinner, too (my favorite).

The Men at the conclusion of the Seventh Annual Gathering of Men.  These are my high school buddies.  We get together every year and rent a house in Plymouth, Vermont (the birthplace of 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge).  The weekend is full of manly pursuits such as poker, golf, pool, darts, drinking beer and eating massive quantities of grilled meats.  Featured second from left is the newest and smallest member of the group, Ryan.  He quickly earned our respect by taking everyone's money at the poker table and shotgunning a sixpack.

The late afternoon view looking west over Lake Champlain from a beach near my mother's house in Vermont.  Lake Champlain separates the states of Vermont and New York.  Look carefully at the horizon and you can see the Adirondack mountains of New York state.  Although I grew up there, every time I return I am taken aback anew by its rugged beauty.

Here's the main drag in my hometown of Burlington, Vermont.  You'll note an odd city name paved into the walk -- "Ho Chi Minh City."  The line you see in the left of the picture is an imaginary longitudinal line that runs through Burlington and north-south through the poles around the world.  Names of cities that lie on or near the longitude line are carved into blocks in the pavement.  Two others are Singapore and Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.  Pretty cosmopolitan for a small, remote American city.  According to a cool  distance calculation site I found, Burlington is 8,594 miles (13,830 kilometers) from Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon. 

Staying in touch with important people in my life takes time and effort, but the rewards are worth a thousand times the investment.  There was a popular song that appeared in 1999 called the "Sunscreen Song."  It features a guy giving advice in a conversational tone set to chill background music.  It contains bits like, "Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.  Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young."  True.

Listen to the song on YouTube here.

Little Neighbors 2

So the other day I bumped into Hoa and her little brother again while I was leaving my place in the morning.  I ran back inside and pulled out a big superball.  I bounced it a few times to demonstrate its super bouncing qualities, then handed it to Hoa.  She smiled and in turn gave it to her little brother.  He looked rather nonplussed, so I'm not sure he grasped the true nature of this small miracle of modern chemistry in his hands.  I'm sure he and his big sister have discovered its amazing properties by now. 

Ah, the warm nostalgic haze of childhood superball memories.  Someone should write a book, or at least a piece for the front section of the New Yorker.   I always managed to lose a new ball within an hour, though.  I would throw it at the ground as hard as I could in search of a new bouncing record, and it would rocket off and disappear into the superball ether.

(AJ - I had only one big superball so I did not give them two.  The others I have are quite small and I feared the boy would put it in his mouth and possibly choke on it.)

Little Neighbors

I had another of those wonderful little Vietnam moments this morning.  I was locking up my place when I felt the weight of a stare of my back.  I turned around to see two of my little neigbors, a boy of about 3 and his protective older sister of about 7 standing about 8 feet away and staring with blank expressions.  "Ah, they're looking at the weird foreigner with the big head stuffed into an even bigger helmet," I realized.  I said "hello" and they replied "hello" shyly.  I turned back to finish locking but still felt the stare.  Then I turned around again.  They hadn't moved a muscle.  I said "Tôi tên là Lâm.  Em tên gì?"  Ah, there's the big smile -- "Em tên là Hoa."  Then they ran off.  Next time I see those kids I'm giving them one of my superballs.

My Native Land

I arrived in Washington, DC on Thursday afternoon after an uneventful 22 hour journey.  It feels great to be back in the USA.  As wonderful and interesting as my life in Vietnam is, it's nice to take a break from being a stranger in a strange land and reconnect with family and good friends.  I read a quote by Sir Walter Scott in a newspaper story on the plane that spoke to me.  It was:

“Breathes there a man with soul so dead that never to himself has said, this is my own, my native land.” 

I know in my heart that that no matter where I go or how comfortable I become overseas, like the priest in the story the USA shall always be "my own, my native land."

Thursday evening I fought through the jet lag and went out with Katie and Hank to the rooftop bar at Clarendon Ballroom. Clarendon Ballroom is quite a scene and Hank had a great time chatting up some of the young ladies. He number closed a few hotties. Hank, you smoothie!

Friday I had lunch with Joe and Jane, the parents of a former colleague of mine.  They've done a lot of importing and exporting between the US and Asia, and now they're interested in Vietnam.  Joe is planning a trip to Vietnam in October.  They entertained me with import/export stories, such as finding and exporting red-colored contact lenses for chickens in Japan (absurd-sounding, yes, but between chuckles they assured me it was true.)

On Friday night I met some business school chums out for a few drinks and dinner at my favorite Arlington restaurant, Harry's.  Pictured below from left to right are my good friends Jim C, Jim S, Vanessa, Andrea and yours truly.  Yes, the bump on Vanessa's belly is a result of more than Andrea's Italian cooking.  She's due on September 7!  Very exciting, guys.

Jim C and I shared the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat all through first year of b-school on the same "learning team."  Jim S and I were roomies for two years (he knows all my bad habits, and I know his).  Andrea and I commuted and worked together at AOL.  He entertained me with funny stories each morning in his crazy Italian accent.  Ah, good times, good times....  Great to catch up with them and share a few laughs.

I'm in Naples, Florida now visiting my father and his wife, Marty.  My sister Dawn (aka Dawner, Dawnold, the Dawninator) is here too.  Just stuffed myself silly on Marty's cooking.  Life is good.