It is 1994 and I am boarding a train in Moscow travelling overnight to Minsk with a Russian colleague and an interpreter. Just before stepping onto the train my colleague pulled me aside and whispered in my ear,
“Do not show anyone your American passport and do not speak English, unless we are alone in the cabin.”
The break-up of the former Soviet Union was still quite fresh. There was a lot of uncertainty in both Russia and our destination, Belarus. In the moment I could not help but think about countless espionage films I had seen. What drama awaits?
I learned why a short time later and it reminded me of something that has applied in many other situations during my career; that is, Occam's Razor: the simplest solution is almost always the best.
To find out why my colleague said what he did and to enjoy other observations about business and life in general, pre-order my latest book from Amazon before its July 6th publication date, “Exploding Turkeys and Spare Trousers, Adventures in global business.”
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