Over the last 10 years we have worked in many countries both as speakers at conferences and delivering training programmes - listed below
United States: Princeton, Hamilton, Minneapolis, Los Angeles,
Europe: Paris, Montpellier, Barcelona, Cyprus, Madeira, Marbella, Amsterdam, Monaco, Dublin,
Asia: New Delhi, India
UK: Every major town in the United Kingdom.
Our recent forays into different countries have been challenging and exciting. When I first started my career the idea of working abroad was just a dream. In the eighties and nineties the prospect of a job for life was still possible and therefore, if you worked hard you could feasibly achieve that and possibly work in the same building for your whole career.
Those days are gone. My wife is a teacher and every year gap students from international locations come to her school to work. I met one, who at 19 from Zimbabwe, already possessed considerable understanding of the international world she was entering. She is expecting to work eventually in the UK and has siblings already in Thailand and South Africa. They accept that their future, in terms of their careers, is overseas.
And here we are working for global companies in international locations, not simply because we enjoy it but because that is where the work is. And the work has mainly found us, and has requested us to go. So we have to consider our international strategy, the international life of our business.
After a sales career of over 2 decades I am now reaching the jet-set heights I dreamed of. Some of the realities of this lifestyle are NOT what I thought they would be. They say that 'when the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.' others say 'be careful what you wish for, it may come true.' - and I must be clear that I have no regrets, however, if I must balance this life now, with my family, how will it be for our children when they start their careers?
The world is getting smaller, travel cheaper, and the reality is that for new career executives in 15 years time it will be possible to travel across the globe more quickly and with greater efficiency than ever before.
And I suppose that the one thing that will never change, until they find a way to 'energise' people from one place to another, is that in order to do business you must generally look the person in the eye. And for me, the future will be owned by those who possess the greatest confidence to enter a room full of strangers and communicate, whether they speak the language or not, and succeed through strength of personality. Which is not necessarily something you can train or teach.
Our international work is placing us in a unique position to scale and develop what we do with new trainers and new skills to learn around international business rules and laws. It also takes Jeremy and I out of our comfort zone as we develop new trainers, and teams of trainers. So the future is bright and exciting. What is there to fear when there is a whole world of possibilities out there?
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