beijing!!!... well.. sort of

last week i got to spend a week in beijing! if i have any advice for the weekday work road warrior, it would be to NOT stay at hotels near the office! our first 2 days was so hectic, as our team, comprised of members flying in from shanghai, korea and hong kong, met for the first time, with less than 24hrs to rehearse a big presentation! man - it was chaos and harmony all at the same time! of course, it meant late nites, cause no one had excuses of distance home and back to work the next day. it got done. it went well. and hopefully we win some biz! the rest of the time was spent training my team up there, which is always a good thang. one thing i've learned is that no matter what cards you're dealt, you can always overcome with hard work and a positive attituden - God, of course, is the ultimate!

case in point is one of our consultants in the beijing office. she's been in the real estate industry for so long... much longer than my {almost} 1 year (she's been like 6 years in the industry)!!! she's college educated, and very smart - but she limits her intelligence to only when she's either speaking or writing chinese! unbelievable how some people will think the're 'dumb' just b/c they do not speak english (in this case)! i mean - when i speak putonghua - i KNOW i sound dumb and childlike! but that don't make me any dumber (as if that was possible...). but here she is - all telling me how much i know and can do simply cause i speak english. so yeah - we spent 3 days trying to dispel her of that egregious notion. but no question about her work ethic - she works hard (as hard as can be said for mainlanders, who have somewhat of a different ethic than HK'ers do).

so the other part then becomes attitude. right from the beginning, she qualifies all her apparent shortcomings with her english deficiency. hmmm... so before i even begin training, she's already admitted defeat. never mind that she could teach me so much about how real estate biz is done, especially in china. she could also teach me the subtleties of the negotiation process, which is probably the prime skill in this industry. all i know how to do is make pretty slides that move and talk! hehee... ok - so i can make numbers balance as well - but that's all irrelevant! i've been here less than a year, in an industry as foreign to me as beaver tails are to the rest of the world. but yet, here i am, training 2 people who are probably a million times brighter than i am (albeit, in their own respective languages, according to them!) in some biz i barely know, and in some place i've NEVER done biz!

the point is that i feel confident cause i walk with victory. i've gone thru periods of inadequacy - more than i care to recount. but you know - john 16:33 says 'in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!'. you think john is just talking about salvation? you think he's talking to those down and out, begging for food, or lame, or blind? no... he's talking to all who choose to walk in the light. it applies to spiritual, personal, professional life. who among us, if given an opportunity by God, would turn down God's command just b/c he/she feels inadequate? was the great apostle paul not short of stature and slow of speech? was even moses himself so afraid to speak in public that he needed aaron as his mouthpiece? wat about gideon? nate spoke on david and passion at 180 this past w/end.. very powerful talk, and challenge. i won't go into details, but one thing he said that hit me was that david came out, and even tho he was this li'l inexperienced boy, he charged forward to meet goliath KNOWING that the victory was already won by the Lord. all he had to do was to OBEY HIS command, and step forward.

so the challenge God places in my heart - i meet head on, no matter what i know and what i don't know. as maggie said in her sermon this morning - God will give me the tools when the time comes. sometimes that means working 24/7, but what the heck. my workplace is also my ministry. i'm doing all things God has called me to do - and nothing less! i mean, who can say they lead a more fulfilling life than that? i wasn't called to go plod thru life going thru the motions - i was called to be excellent at wat the Lord has blessed me with, and with confidence in Him! well - i feel that i was in pretty excellent form, resisting the temptation to buy the fake dvd for 24 season 3, and c.s.i. i might have some small regrets, but what the hey... there's always next trip!!!! ehheeh :)