Just very recently I was in one of those meetings where I am supposed to sit with seasoned executives. Oh well. In Brazil we had a famous comedian (Jo Soares) who would say “A ignoráncia desta juventude é um espanto”. Something like “The ignorance of these young people is unbelievable”. Actually untranslatable and difficult to explain if one never saw the program.
Well, for me, many of those executives are the ignorant ones. Or maybe I am just frequenting the wrong crowd.
Many have no clue about a computer, neither about IT in general. They do use their mobiles a lot. (How do they manage that? OK, they do disturb everybody with the loud ringing). They claim to understand China. After 27 years of China I feel I am still in kindergarten myself.
They seem totally clueless about how Beijing will handle the Olympics. They seem well brainwashed by China Daily (not reading well the newspaper). They don’t see the logistical thunderclouds approaching. I just went through days and days of discussions with specialists, foreigners and Chinese and local government and we all agreed we need to “fasten seatbelts”. So, it hurts when my remarks on some risk issues are considered as some silly ideas by those so-called execs. It is actually often unbelievable the amount of rubbish I have to listen to myself.
Well, there is always a lesson somewhere:
– they are execs with probably fatter wallets than me, so what’s the use of my wisdom;
– trying to suggest well-intended plans out of pure idealism is mostly looked up on like “this guy must have a hidden agenda”;
– the wisdom I have, correction, the bits of information I have about the 2008 Olympics & China: I sell myself too cheaply.
As the same famous Brazilian comedian said:
“Cale te boca”.
Read: shut your (big) mouth.
Or another – French – piece of wisdom: “On a tort d’avoir raison” – you are wrong to be right.
With that I need a good whisky.