Always wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as "Car Talk" - now I can die happy

Been a long time since the last post -- just been preoccupied with other stuff.

We finally outgrew our shared space with fellow Green Building companies (two related companies) and found our own spot not more than a km away and still in Xujiahui in a lovely old lane house.  Our friends upstairs are a furniture design company but we haven't had too much interaction with them so far.  A housewarming BBQ is in the plans, but first the temperatures need to drop below 100!

Headcount is holding at 18, with one more joining at the end of the month.  Only three of these are part-timers, so at the end of the month, it is a rather traumatic event.  I finally hired a finance/book-keeper/HR person, which is freeing me up a lot, but handling salary payments while being tax efficient is a pretty major effort, so better someone else rather than me!

We continue to get pretty good press coverage -- was on Forbes and the Global Times (Chinese national language daily), but the big personal milestone was getting onto NPR!  A nice story along with the audio is posted here.

The cool thing is that a potential partner that I had been just in discussions with about becoming a distributor got a big credibility push from this when the US-based company's president caught the show and the next morning wrote me: "Small world.  I was driving home this evening, listening to NPR, and heard your voice.  You were interviewed in a clip on air pollution in China. "

We even had some folks write in with interest in investing in us:

Quick Contact Form
Your Name:	****
Your Email:	****@gmail.com
Your Phone Number:	****
Best time to contact you?:	8 am
Your Location:	Cincinnati
How did you hear about us?:	PRI Radio
Please describe: area of concern(air, water, lead, or mold), information needed and any health symptoms or problems.:	I am interested in investing in your company. How might I go about doing that?

The big change is that this accelerates our plan to put together a push for investment by the end of the year.  We can use the money to run the business more professionally (ie. get our Chinese name trademarked, get a Chinese website, do more paid advertising, etc).  But a lot to do between now and then...

I love my job

This week I pulled three all-nighters, got in only one workout, rode about 100 miles on my scooter crisscrossing Shanghai freezing my butt off, and never ate a single meal at a normal time, but I couldn’t be happier. Since I last updated you all, a few things have happened to us:

• Received our first bribe solicitation for passing test results (we politely declined) 
• Opened our Beijing office and found a great guy to be the GM -- after an exhausting but eye-opening three month search during which candidates were considered from: Germany, Italy, America, the Philippines, and China. 
• Started working with a bunch of international schools 
• Delivered our first paid training 
• Were selected as the exclusive indoor environmental testers for a major company that does theme parks and features animal characters with big black ears (will be testing all 300+ expat staff they relocate over here over the next two years) 
• Brought onboard a full-time mold consultant, a corporate sales guy, a long-term marketing intern and a structural engineer from the UK (who does remediations). 
• Website traffic has increased 30x over the past 2 months – from about 25 hits per day to about 750 partially because of the global attention to China’s crazy pollution to S’s marketing efforts. 

Why am I so happy? Mainly, because I feel like this business has grown in a healthy way, made our clients happier and able to live longer and healthier, gave our staff a meaningful way to develop, and because I feel like I’ve finally found something that I both like doing and am good at. The metric I’ve always used to decide if it was time to move on to the next thing in life was to ask myself at the end of the day: “Did I make a difference?” Now, most nights I don’t have to wonder.

This job lets me keep learning. Whether it’s about Chinese labor laws, how government deals happen (it is NOT a myth that lots of baijiu (wine liquor) is involved), a new way to stop mold growth, or what motivates a member of the team, I am never bored. I couldn’t imagine doing the same thing day after day. At the same time, there is something really nice about getting really good at your job so that learn how to handle problems and add value more quickly with less effort. I remember giving my first presentation about Shanghai air and water in Nov 2010 and being so nervous. Last week, I gave three presentations – one to a hostile crowd of schoolchildren’s parents, one with a doctor friend to a community group, and a third to a company’s HR and operations management team – without needing much preparation or anxiety. When I was in IBM, I used to envy the expert consultants, who were specialists in their field and could really help their clients see a problem through, without even seeming to break a sweat. Meanwhile, us general strategy consultants would be researching a new industry like crazy at night, then trying to impress the clients the next day with our newfound knowledge, all the while feeling like a sham. Finally, I think I’m “that guy”.

It’s not all fun and games. Too many things still bottleneck at me and I’m really hesitant to let too much responsibility fall to other people, afraid that something will go wrong or that quality will suffer. I edit every single report that goes out and still do an average of 3-4 projects a week. It would be good to let people make more mistakes and I think I finally have a great core of people that I trust. We still have hardly scratched the surface. Maybe about 1% of the market that needs us knows about us, and probably only a tenth of that have reached out to us. But, we’re getting there and the business model is working and this baby is growing up. Last month, I was at a function and met someone who turned out to be the client sponsor of a project we had done and last week I did a mold inspection and found out that the client was the lead designer on the very same project. It’s a small world and it’s fascinating to connect the dots.

My former boss to whom I had to explain 3 years ago why I was quitting my very cushy and well-titled corporate job, just announced that he was leaving the company. I always assumed he would retire with the company, so I guess maybe it’s human nature to want to change things up or look for greener pastures. This may sound really corny, but if you there’s something that you want to do that will make you happy, take the risk.

One sign that your company is growing up

...is when you are offered a bribe to make the reports pass.  We'd always heard second-hand stories about air testing companies that would falsify reports or change them to whatever the paying client wanted.  But, it's one thing to hear rumors around the campfire and another to actually be offered money.

We were hired by a large multinational IT company to test one of their newly built facilities.  The construction company in charge of the fit-out told one of our consultants that the air had to pass standards and asked if we could help.  My response was, "Sure, we can definitely offer some advice."  This was not the sort of answer they wanted, so they clarified and told my consultant that they were prepared to offer money (didn't get into how much) to make sure they passed.  I dismissed it with some polite way, but was strangely flattered.  Is this what about the neighborhood bully feels like when he's offered lunch money for protection??

Throat's sore and head hurts after coming out of a workshop for  

a large corporate real estate management company.  This was a good way to hopefully get our name out to the folks who manage construction projects and are often on the hook to either test the air before occupation, or have to clean up a mess.  I foolishly agreed to delivery the training in Chinese.  Not a big deal until I got there and discovered that 20 of the 30 participants were dialling in on a conference call.  Hard to brief in Chinese to Chinese.  Even harder when you can't count on reading facial gestures.  Still, it went surprisingly well and we got a lot of  questions.  So, the lesson learned is that running a company in China is still the best way to learn Mandarin.

I'm currently in the middle of considering three candidates to become the next general manager of the Beijing branch.  It's tough.  Really tough.  One Italian, one German, and one American.  Sounds like a bad ethnic joke.  I've brought them down one at a time for a couple days each.  Looking for a sign... 

Who you gonna call?

If you're the Canadian Consul-General and you got mad mold problems, apparently me!

He has a really nice dog

Aren't we Mr. Fancypants?

Got a real fixed line installed today, after 2 years of being in business.  No more getting called in the middle of the night on my cell phone!

Ft. Dix sure ain't Hawaii

I've just finished up two pretty grueling weeks at Ft. Dix, NJ.  I've been here to finish up the third, and final phase of the Command and General Staff College or CGSC.  It's a requirement for all field grade Army officers to complete in order to be promoted to LtCol.  Basically, it's an advanced course for senior staff officers. The course teaches everything from military history to leadership principles to learning how to work with the other military services and agencies.  

I did the first phase resident at Ft. Shafter, Oahu, Hawaii -- that was great.  Good classmates and couldn't ask for a better outdoor classroom.  I stayed at the Hilton, ate great meals on the economy, and had a rental car.  Classes usually were done by 4pm and on the weekend, I even got a day's diving in.  The second phase was 140 hours of online, self-paced learning with about a half dozen written papers.  Pain in the butt, but not that bad and I was looking forward to meeting up again with my group for the third phase back in Hawaii.

Two weeks before shipping out, however, I was informed that the Army had yanked my school slot, having decided that it would be more cost-expedient to send me to Ft. Dix, NJ.  I decided to make the best of things and at least see some friends and family in NYC, NJ, and Philly.

I was able to catch up with I and my roommate Jaime for a day before heading to Ft. Dix.  Ft. Dix, built pre WWII, is basically kind of a dump.  Billets are per person with shared bathroom, but the humidity is high, facilities rarely cleaned, and the power went out every several days.  Ironic that I had to come from a third world country to find unreliable electricity...

My class was 13, with two instructors.  Good group, almost all majors, with one captain.  We dove right into things.  We would be looking at the orders process.  How to analyze a mission, develop courses of action, select the right one, and brief it.  After the first day, I got pulled out of class and told that I had a problem with my academic eligibility.  Since I'm in China, .mil access is blocked, so I could not check my AKO email.  So, two of my essays had very minor changes needed.  When the graders didn't hear back from me, they just marked it an as failure and this came back to haunt me.

Without going into the details, I spent a lot of time there in a sort of limbo befor common sense finally prevailed and the cleared

The two weeks were especially hard because I would usually get up at 5 or 5:30am, spend an hour catching up on emails before everyone left for the day in China, then go grab breakfast and start class by 0700.  Class ran until 7pm at night.  Between homework and then doing my other FT job, I was often up to 3 or 4 in the morning. 

Throw in jet lag and I was feeling super crunchy by the end of our two weeks.  Just happy it's done.

Doing business with Chinese suppliers

Everyone hears about how easily it is to get cheated in China by shady suppliers.  My experience, however, is that it isn't so much the out and out cheating that makes dealing with suppliers frustrating, but how resistant they are to change, even if it benefits them.  Here's a typical example:

We work with a dehumidifier distributor for TCL to supply our clients dehumidifiers.   We do all the upfront sales and tell the distributor what amount to collect and when to deliver.  They just take the money and fulfill the order.  Pretty easy for them, we get the difference between the wholesale price and retail and everyone's happy.

About 8 months ago, a client reported that a defective unit was delivered to him.  Turned out to be a small faulty door, and we fixed the problem pretty quickly.  A short while later, another client complained that her unit had problems upon delivery and the company swore she had caused the damage.  I told my supplier that it would be best if the deliveryperson could unbox the units and check them onsite just to make sure they worked.  This would save a lot of problems for both of us.  My supplier contact agreed to this.

Two months ago, another problem, same door issue.  Today, a unit was delivered apparently completely defective.  The product quality problems are a problem, but not the biggest problem because the warranty is the longest in the industry and they have door-to-door service.  What gets me most frustrated is that we had worked out a solution that was little effort (maybe 5 minutes extra effort?) and benefitted both the supplier and us.  And then, still the supplier is unable to or unwilling to put this into action and we keep having the problem.  It's extremely annoying that most Chinese suppliers won't get in front of a problem, but would rather deal with the problems once they happen.  And that process change doesn't occur unless you chase it down and micromanage that it happens.  Finally, that the only way you can enforce that is to threaten something bad if they don't (in this case, if this happens again, we will switch distributors).

Thanks for letting me vent.  Is this just Chinese vendors or do you all run into the same things back home?

Lost my top guy

It was too good to be true. My life has been improved immensely for the past 4 months ever since LB joined the company as our operations manager. Interestingly, he was originally our client and brought us on for a testing project. He must have liked what he saw because he started asking me a lot of questions, we had tea a few times, and then he offered to join us for a 3 month trial period.

LB is one of those do-it-all guys. Dedicated, hard-working, resourceful... despite not having any indoor air quality or environmental background (he's a facilities manager by trade), he managed to take care of any task put in front of him.

Unfortunately, he just couldn't find the passion for this job and when we sat down to talk after his probationary period, he said he didn't feel that there was anything special he was adding that a strong administrator could not do. I told him that he was a valuable member and offered him both equity, revenue sharing, and a bump up in pay, but he gave notice a few days ago.

I know we'll leave on good terms, but I am still very sorry to see him go. I have made it his priority to find his replacement. So, if any of you know of someone Chinese who is any of these things, please let me know!

Lessons learned as a construction foreman

Happy Chinese New Year's everyone!

For the past week, I've been soaking in the sun in the beach in Thailand, and amazingly, the phone has rung only a few times (I ignored it).  In China, during the New Year's holiday, business really does come to a standstill and for that I'm so grateful.

In the previous 3 weeks, though, we've been working 7 days a week -- because of one mega project.  The project is removing asbestos material from a pharmaceutical plant for a German pharma company.  The way we landed this deal was kind of cool.  The overall head honcho on the project for the general contractor was a former residential client of ours and when they discovered asbestos in the air ducts, he gave me a call.  Initially, my response was, "You sure you have the right guy?  I have no experience with asbestos" But, I offered to at least ask around and quickly found that there was no one in China who did asbestos removal professionally.  Asbestos is not even prohibited in the way it is in many other countries.  So, I did some homework, and brought in a colleague from HK who had some experience, and next thing I knew, we were doing the assessment.  Learning on the fly is always scary, but the best advice a manager gave me once was to learn or prototype off the back of a customer.  

So, only a couple weeks after the first phone call, I was pitching a project for the total removal of the asbestos material, replacement, cleanup, and testing.  My contact with the general contractor advised me that the client had deep pockets, so I ended up charging about 3x more than I originally estimated (looking back, it's a good thing I did).  The single project had a value of more than our entire first year's revenue.  Now it was time to make it happen.  I traded my computer for a hard hat, safety vest, and work boots and have been putting most everything else on hold to get this job done right over the past few weeks.

It's been only a month since we kicked off the project, but I've already learned a lot of lessons the hard way and took advantage of the holidays to jot some of them down.  I thought I'd share them with you all -- they probably won't make sense to you, but if you're curious, or ever have to do construction in China or manage subcontractors, give me a shout.

Lessons learned:

1.      Do not plan to get anything done around CNY holidays.  Chinese manual laborers are accustomed to working long hours – 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week.  But CNY is sacred and there is almost no money you can pay them to stay and work instead of going home to their province.  Even if the holiday officially starts on the 22^nd and ends on the 29^th ,  laborers start vanishing by the 16^th and don't return until the 2^nd.  Us management ended up having to finish off a phase of work ourselves, turning wrenches, removing gaskets, and lifting steel scaffolding because we didn't plan correctly

2.      Managing Chinese laborers is like managing a class of junior high schoolers on a field trip.  Assume that they will not listen to the uniform requirements and insist on removing their masks while doing asbestos work.  Assume that they will not be doing what you expect them to do.  Assume that they will smoke where they want and pee on the side of the building.  The key to managing them is having positive control – having one reliable person with each team, NOT a site manager managing multiple teams.

3.      What you don't check doesn't get done to standard.  We were embarrassed when the general contractor pointed out to us that one team was not removing asbestos material – they had simply shoved in the replacement material.  They also damaged the existing ductwork unnecessarily.  It looked like someone entirely untrained had been working there.  Insist that the specialist manager has checked the work before your subcontractor manager has checked it and then do spot checks yourself.  Show everyone exactly how you are inspecting but then do the checks at unexpected locations.   Hold everyone responsible and make one single example (both positive and negative).  We ended up firing the entire ductwork team.

4.      German clients suck.  They are exacting (do not recognize the difficulties of working to European standards in China), difficult to work with, and will ask for more when you bust ass to go the extra mile.  To get them to compromise, you have to build in padding, cite a lot of standards, and then also create pain on their side – otherwise, if you just complain that it will be a lot of work on your end, they won't care.  It's your problem.

5.      Site managers must be bilingual.  Our subcontractor prided themselves on European management.  What this meant though was that they sent a young Swedish guy to manage a team.  He couldn't speak a word of Chinese and confusion ensued.  A foreign manager is a good idea but he must have a translator and have authority.

6.      Chinese workers can either work tremendously fast or horribly slow.  One Sat, I got a call from our site manager that workers were barely moving.  A scaffolding tower that normally would take one hour to construct had taken five hours and we were way behind in the schedule.  It was a combination of having worked late the night before, fatigue, but mostly, that the workers had just been told that they were going to have to stay several days late for Chinese New Year's and their morale was low.  We bought them lunch, promised them a bonus, but that didn't do much.  But the next day, Lao Yang, the grizzled old Chinese team manager, came to me and proposed that the workers were going to skip dinner and just get all the gaskets removed and replaced in two rooms we had targeted.  They would get it done and when it was done, they would go home.  This was what we had wanted.  Instead of reaching for more, I agreed, and was dumbfounded to watch absolute silence as these guys started working like machines.  Not only that, the work quality was still up to par.  So, give these guys a realistic goal, insist on quality, and let them go when they achieve it to break the "work to the clock" mentality.

7.      Work weekends and after-hours.  Seems like this would suck, but we were most productive when the client and the general contractor weren't hovering overhead to pounce on every uniform violation or distract us with meetings and requests for updates.

8.      Good practice is morning briefing and end of day site hygiene and cleanup.  This keeps safety and the day's tasks fresh in everyone's minds, and also keeps the work site looking tidy.  Although it has little to do with work progress, if the site looks like doodoo, the client will assume it's reflective of your work.  Also, it's a good chance to inventory equipment and supplies and replenish overnight before it pops up and stops up work the next day.

9.      In the contract, be very specific about roles and responsibilities.  Limit your scope precisely.  We procured some material that turned out to have a significant defect.  Although all we did was to order the material that the general contractor had specified, we shouldered a good amount of the blame and ate a lot of costs.  Fortunately, in the contract, I had included a matrix that spelled out specifically that it was the GC's duty, not ours, to purchase this. 

10.   Document every change and agreement.  I thought it was excessive, but unfortunately, covering your ass is a big part of this game.  I thought it was strange that the GC always put down every complaint in an email to us, when I would just mention their shortfalls in person, but I've since learned that they are keeping ammunition in case they ever need to terminate us.

11.   Pad the contract time and cost big.  The more risk and uncertainty, the more you should pad.  My subcontractor's initial proposal was to be done in 21 days.  We'll be lucky to do it in 60 days, with delays and the holidays.  Also, I would propose a bonus for the sub to finish on time and a penalty if they are late.  Our subcontractor did not have much skin in the game to bear the costs of screwing up or finishing late and I found that I was driving a lot harder and picking up the pieces a lot more than if I had built in a carrot and stick into the arrangement.

12.   Plan for worksite basics before the project even starts: PPE, access badges and building keys, workspace, work order and overtime paperwork requirements, secure storage area, how to get paid, and any communications/status update rhythms.

13.   Demand a project advance – we incurred easily 100k in costs without seeing a dime from the client.  This is both risky (if things went south and the client terminated the engagement) and a cash-flow burden.  Testing fees, equipment, gear, labor costs, rental fees, all add up.  I built in a 25% advance to be paid within 7 days of the project start and they agreed, but procedurally, this was a nutroll, so push hard on this before signing to make sure they do carry through.  The GC should help support you on this, not be an obstacle.

14.   During an assessment phase, the GC is your buddy.  Once you get into execution/remediation, the GC becomes a slavedriver.  For this project, the GC was super supportive in bringing us into the project so we could help them provide a way forward for the client and look good.  Once we moved into execution, however, they were all about appearances and cracked the whip frequently without helping much to fix joint problems. 

15.   Beware the phrase, "We're all in this together."  It usually means – I might have screwed up, but you're going to be picking up the pieces for my fault.  We pulled long hours and extra costs for a week for the GC's fault, but they kept coming back to this phrase and everytime I wanted to discuss cost recovery, I kept getting pushed off.

Techniques for motivating vendors or subcontractor partners?

We have consistently had problems managing quality with our test lab partners.   Sometimes they screw up the sampling at the client's house.  Or, they cut corners on analyzing the results.  We've caught problems on both ends.   The root of the problem is that the people who do the work (sampling or lab analysis) just don't care.  They are not paid enough to really value their jobs and they don't get any reward for doing better.  If we pay the company extra, they do not see this money so actually are more likely to have worse results when we have a rush fee.  So our only way to ensure quality is to micromanage and we can't be everywhere at one time.

One suggestion one of our staffers had was to give certain people some money under the table.  But, this is not really based on any standards and I worry that they may start expecting it.

What do you think about this idea:  every month, we nominate 3 best performing staff -- can be sampling staff or lab staff or even customer service, and let them know that they were selected.  We state very clearly what the criteria is and also have a little citation on why that person was nominated.  Then, we pick one to win a cash award -- doesn't have to be much (maybe 200-300rmb?), maybe a gift card, but the idea is that it is appreciated, unexpected, and very visible -- and it doesn't just motivate one person, but all three and hopefully anyone else who sees this.  We want to tie performance to results.

Do you think this idea would work?  Any modifications?  Should we pick 3 best across both labs so maybe they even feel some pride in their own lab and some healthy competition?   

What have you guys done that's worked,  either with your own staff or subcontractor/partner companies?

Day 5 & 6 - Chasing Mandarinfish & Mola Mola!

10/4/11 – Day 5 – Mandarin fish: Much ado about nothing

Decided to join the mandarin fish hunt tonight and amazingly, Sarah agreed to come along. She rarely goes night diving so I can only assume that the promise of really pretty fish convinced her. The idea is that the mandarin fish, a garishly hued species that does a mating dance at dusk, can be seen at certain places on the reef. I didn’t know anymore than this, but got ready for it like I would any other night dive.

Turns out that they do not want you to use white light lamps (only red light, which the fish can’t see) because this disturbs the mandarin fish. Also, we are to sit in a circle in about 3m of water waiting for the fish to come out. The good news is that the fish were plentiful here – I saw about 6-8 alone. I wasn’t cool with sitting in the dark with no light, and then losing my night vision repeatedly from high-powered strobe flashes by the photographers on the other side of the circle. All just to see some fish chase each other (supposedly they also “kissed” later on). I eventually (after 15 min), got bored, and wandered the reef with Sarah. She seemed to like it and found it “not scary” though I was plenty scared by how many sea urchins came out in the area we were in. All in all, I think it’s a unique diver who likes mandarinfish dives and it won’t be on my list of repeat to-do’s in the future.

10/5/11 – Day 6 – Nearing the end

The days have settled into a rhythm:

7am Wake up & get breakfast

8am In the boat for two morning dives

1:30pm Return to the resort for lunch

1-5pm Lunch, relax, nap, work on photos, work emails, read for 4 straight hours (if you are Sarah)

5pm Night dive – house reef or mandarinfish hunt

7:30pm Dinner

8:30-11pm Chat with other guests, share photos, update logs, work emails, read for 3 hours (if Sarah)

11pm Bedtime

It’s really quite relaxing – though the dives are by far longer here than anyplace I’ve been to before, they’re not tiring (no strong currents, sites are nearby, and the staff handles just about all your equipment transfer for you). The weather has been perfect, about mid-70s, light breeze, no humidity, and dry with only a couple episodes of rain. The staff is lovely, there’s tons of places to lounge around and you can be as social or introverted as you want. Best of all, no outside hawkers or vendors or random people, so it’s quiet and you can leave your rooms unlocked. We had originally planned to do some sightseeing or land trips, but never felt the need or really had the energy to do so. This is a perfect vacation site and resort for busy people who want to unwind, but also stay connected if they want (there’s wi-fi with enough bandwidth for email, but not enough for VOiP, so don’t plan on making calls)

This morning, we had a nice treat. We were originally supposed to dive at Leaning Rock I, but when we got there, there were too many divers (there is a 15 diver max, incl guides) rule in Lembeh, so we diverted to a site called Angel’s Window. We dropped in, went through a swimthrough (hence the site name), and then I heard Marnez uncharacteristically making signaling noises. I looked up to see the last thing I expected at a macro site: the huge, slow-moving, and unmistakable silhouette of a mola-mola (oceanic sunfish). The solitary animal was about 10m away, moving at a relatively shallow 5-10m. Several of us swam with it for awhile and it didn’t seem to be spooked, though it started moving away from the reef. I got a short video and a single photo. We finished the rest of the dive, then Simon, the resort owner, who had joined us to check out his new camera and housing, linked back with us near our surface interval. I showed him (while still underwater) the shot of the mola mola, and to my surprise, he gave me the one-finger salute. When we were back on the boat, he explained, saying that in all his time here, many thousands of dives, he’s never seen one either when he worked in Bali or here in Sulawesi. Paulus, a local guide, was also surprised, saying that in his 20 years diving here, he’s never seen one. Sometimes Lady Luck shows up at the most unexpected times.

Day 3 – Another day in paradise & Day 4 - Trouble in Paradise

Got a little more sleep last night and came to breakfast with more energy.  It's funny how quickly you get to know other guests and staff and how comfortable you can feel sitting down with someone new.  A large group of 14 guests arrived last night and they were still doing their own thing.  Serge was running around busy organizing everything and I felt bad hitting him up with a request to rent a computer.  My Oceanic VT6 wireless air-integrated wrist-mounted computer that is pretty new and had just been repaired at the shop was malfunctioning after the first dive.  Really annoying when you pay good money for something that should be top notch and it performs worse than rental gear.  Especially when it's critical life-support systems.  I got a computer and an SPG and started the second dive.  Sarah stopped me early on to signal I had a leak.  I looked at my SPG and the hose was leaking from half a dozen spots.  The dive guide signaled that I should go up, so I did.  The two boat guys really were pretty clueless and tried to fix it by wrapping it with masking tape which obviously didn't work.  I came back up and just removed the hose and replaced it with my original transmitter as a plug.  Got back to the group and still got about 40 min dive.  Unspectacular, but ok reef dive.

I learned that some hoses are designed to rupture in multiple places when they fail in order to dissipate the pressure and allow you to finish the dive as opposed to a single catastrophic fail point in the hose.  Serge later said that he had dove for like 2 weeks with a hose like that and it only lost about 10 bar (5%) during a dive.  Good to know for later.  Still, having a failed computer and SPG in less than 24 hrs is no fun. 

Our second dive was also a reef dive.  No major finds, but still nice to just float along and look for little things casually with good visibility and very pleasant topside weather.  Another 70+ min dive.

No one was up for a night boat dive, or even a shore dive, so I went on my own.  We're in sort of a bay, and max depth is probably around 20m so it's really hard to get lost.  I went looking for the wreck again, and although I didn't find it, I did get to take my time figuring out camera controls and taking some shots of shrimps, crabs, and nudibranchs.  I really enjoy the house reef – in a small area, it's got a little of every environment – muck, black sand, coral, and even eelgrass – sort of a mangrove.  At these shallow depths, you can literally go as long as you want.  My longest dive this week was over 100 min and I only came in when I started worrying that dinner was getting put away !

Day 4 – Trouble in paradise

Little bit of drama today.  There is one big group from Europe – they are a sort of dive club of people that all work at the European Space Agency.  Major egghead and rocket scientists, but as you might expect, some funky personalities and egos.  Apparently, some in the group were unhappy with the constant muck and black sand diving and wanted more coral reefs.  As a result, the groups were broken up into a group that was mainly muck diving, one that was mainly coral diving and one that was in between (or maybe mainly photographers).  We asked to be counted in the muck dive group and was put onto a new boat with new divers, which was fine.  We met a nice Dutch couple – Peter and Karim, Luis from Portgual (who now lived in Spain), and Wim, a slightly eccentric older gentleman.  Was still diving with Marnez, who has a quirk – he rarely signals with audible sounds, unlike just about all dive guides I've ever come across.  He just sits there and when you check over at him, he's waiting patiently with something to show you.  I suppose that's one way of making sure that you don't wander off and keep tabs on him, but I wonder what I'm missing and it doesn't seem the most efficient use of his time.

After we came in from the second dive, there was a group arguing loudly with it seemed other group members and either Simon or Serge.  I guess the boat came back to refill some of the large 15L tanks and some divers felt this was an inconvenience.  I think that's pretty crazy because a 15L tank is a privilege, not a right, and at most other resorts, you'd just have to suck it up and finish your dives early if you were an air hog.

At night we had a special treat.  Bent gave a presentation on marine life symbiosis and it was really educational and entertaining.   Among other things, we learned that some jawfishes live their lives in the anuses of sea cucumbers, eating their gonads and gaining nourishment through their excrement.  If  any anenomefish (clownfish) appear to be ventilating a lot or opening and closing their mouths rapidly, they could be carrying a parasite (some sort of 10 footed decapod) that lives in their mouth, eats their tongue away and then digs its feet into the stump of the tongue and stays there.  Sometimes even two can occupy the mouth, which really seems to bother the fish.  The fish sometimes will even suck on anemone tentacles to try to remove the parasite.  The image of this apparently grinning demon face peering out of a clownfish's mouth is the stuff of nightmares.  No need to make up monsters when they exist in real life!

Day 2: Hit the water running

We were up at 7am, and groggily rolled into breakfast by 7:15am.  Chow was buffet style, simple fruits, cereal, bread, and you could request eggs.  We set up and were ready to go onto the boat by 8am.  There were 8 guests with about 3 guides.  The boat was really spacious with plenty of space for divers to get setup without being in each others' way and backroll entry and ladder re-entry.  The distance out to the first site was longer than I expected – about 20 min.  Sarah and I were paired up with local guide Johan, who was a terrific spotter and always cheerful. 

I had high expectations and they were surpassed by the very first dive.  Muck diving is just about the only place in the world where trashing the environment actually has a positive upside.  The area around Lembeh Straits has mostly either a silty or a black sand bottom with some spots of coral reef or coral rubble.  For the most part, however, it's a barren, inhospitable environment that offers little shelter.  As a result, the marine life that survives is tiny, often cleverly camouflaged to blend in, and there's a lot of symbiosis.  Anenomefish living in stinging anenomes is a good example.  So is the gobies that stand guard while their blind partner shrimp ceaselessly dig safety holes and push sand and rocks out of the way.  When there's any sign of danger, the goby communicates this to its partner through the link provided from the shrimp's antenna on its dorsal fin and they retreat to the hole in the blink of an eye.  So how does trash fit into this?  It gives the animals an extra place to hide.  Tires, shoes, coconut shells, all become highlights of a dive because of what you can find in them.  You can't pick up a bottle without finding something peeping out from inside its neck. 

The first site was silt giving way to black sand, and surprises were everywhere.  Cuttlefish of all sizes, two mimic octopuses (by first encounter with them), nudibranchs (but not the huge variety I've seen elsewhere), a bizarre two-foot buried crab that shot out like an arrow when disturbed, many different shrimp, and best of all, warm temperatures (81F/28C), shallow depths, and a 70 min pleasant dive.  I came up thinking, "This is going to be an awesome week!"  The only downside was due to my own fault.  I had a new camera, a CanonS95 point and shoot in an Ikelite housing, but the strobe and macro lens I ordered arrived too late for me to bring it along, rendering the camera virtually unusable for anything but shallow, well-lit subjects.  So frustrating, because you come to this area to hunt bizarre creatures you won't find anywhere else and it's ideal to claim photos as trophies.

We did two dives, the second at a reef and not nearly as nice as the first and then returned around noon.  The crew was awesome, took care of everything and we just took our cameras, lights, etc.  Annoyingly, my Oceanic hoseless dive computer crapped out again on the second dive.  I just had it fixed earlier this year after it died about 100' down on a wreck. 

The resort has dedicated wet and dry camera rooms.  Lunch was served and as soon as you sat, plates were brought out to you.  Delicious and healthy local food.  Basic water, coffee, tea, and Milo are free and sodas/beers/smoothies are pay as you go.  There was a third boat dive after lunch around 2:30pm, but we were on the 2 boat dives a day plan and were pooped anyhow.  We caught a nap and then around 4:30pm, when the boat came back, a group of about 5 of us went for a twilight dive in the house reef.  The "house reef" is a bit misleading, because it's not really a reef, but just the area in front of the resort.  Still, I managed to see two octopus, a stingray, a Harlequin shrimp, leaffish, banded pipefish, sea snake, and a variety of crabs during the 70 min dive.  Came back, took a quick shower, and it was dinner time.

The guests are from all over.  We have Bent, Swedish university ecology professor who takes and sells photographs on the side; Liz, also a university teacher from Newcastle, Australia; Olaf, a single photo enthusiast from Germany, a couple from Germany, and Godfried and Micky, an older but really energetic and fun couple from Denmark.  Everyone is a competent diver, considerate, and pleasant.  We spent the evening just chatting with each other and the owners, Simon and Zee, who bought the resort in 2010 after managing it for two years.  It really is a labor of love and the remarkable thing – the one thing every well-run place has in common that I've stayed at – is that you can tell the staff is happy, empowered, and genuinely happy to be here.  A lot of laughing and smiles, though they clearly work hard in the background so the guests can chill out.

Chinese National Day Holidays in Indonesia

It's annual holidays in China (happens twice a year) and this year, we planned early enough that we could have our choice of dive destinations we hadn't yet visited.  The short list included: Fiji, Manado/Lembeh, Sipadan, Palau, and the Philippines (again).  The only criteria was that we needed to be able to use award miles.  Fiji and Palau just didn't have good connections and we were pretty indifferent to Manado/Lembeh or Mabul/Sipadan.  Both are renowned for muck diving, which is finding bizarre, tiny aquatic creatures in silty or black sand. 

I found award tickets  to Jakarta via Singapore and then we purchased domestic tickets to complete the trip to Manado.  There are about 10 resorts in the area, all that essentially package accommodations, full board, and diving (either 2 or 3 boat dives a day).  We settled on NAD, which seemed  like a reasonable  price but with nice bungalows.  Simon, the owner, was very responsive and we got a 7 nt package with upgraded bungalow, full board, and 2 dives per day (and unlimited house reef diving) for around 800 USD total.  Like I said, very reasonable.

We had a midnight flight out of Shanghai.  Sarah and I had both been so busy that we didn't have a good chance to pack and we threw everything together in about half an hour and jetted to the airport at about 9:30pm.  It was 24 hrs later before we finally arrived at our destination.

Our first leg was to Singapore via Singapore Airlines, my favorite airline.  Uneventful 4-5 hrs – I napped a bit.  Then we were in Singapore for about 3 hours waiting for our hop to Jakarta.  Of course Sarah made a beeline for the La Perla shop.  I took care of a few work emails and then did the male La Perla equivalent and hung out at one of the many technology/photo/audio/computer shops in the airport.  Singapore is truly a nation of geeks, but I'm thankful for that.  I picked up a wireless signal repeater that you supposedly can just plug in to increase the strength of the signal.  From experience, wireless signals don't go very far in resorts and I can't count the number of times I've literally dangled my laptop out of a window or been crouched in some courtyard getting bitten by mosquitoes to take that IP call or get that important email out.  It was only $70 too, so if it works, will be money well spent.

We got onto the Jakarta flight, also on SQ, and landed in Jakarta a couple hours later.  First step was getting a visa on arrival (most countries can do this).  This was painless and quick and cost USD 25 per person.  We paid in RMB, which was a bad idea because the exchange rate was much worse.  I always forget that the international arrivals terminal is quite a way from the domestic terminals.  You have to go upstairs and then take a taxi or free yellow shuttle bus (better) to T1 or T2 (starting from T3 Intl).  The transit easily takes about 30 min, so it's good to leave plenty of time.  We were lugging a good amount of dive equipment, but still made it under the weight limit.  For future info, the check-in limit is 20kg per person.  If you're traveling together, the limit can be combined.  We came in at about 34kg.  We had another 3 hrs to kill and first hit the ATM (usually a good idea to do this in Jakarta because a lot of the smaller places don't have ATMs or they are not the right network).  We found ATMs that would take Unionpay and also a Citibank.  Actually, in Manado we also saw several ATMs at the airport, but not sure if they would have worked.  

My experience with flights from Jakarta is that they are usually late and this time was no exception.  We were about an hour late.  One nice thing is that a middle-aged distinguished man stopped us and introduced himself out of the blue at the terminal.  Asked us where we were from and told us that he had lived in the US for a little bit.  Turned out he had been in San Bernadino, which is not a big county, and near LA.  I was surprised to find out that San Bernadino is a sort of community heartland for immigrants to the US from Manado!  Youke works in public health and we exchanged info.  Genuinely nice guy.

The flight was fine though Sarah remarked that the seats were more cramped than any flight she's taken in a long time.  Being a budget airline, food and drinks are not provided but can be purchased.  It was a 3-4 hr flight, and by the time we touched down, we were pretty tired and hungry.  Manado was a small airport, and the thing which stood out the most was that there were touts and taxi drivers everywhere.  Worth getting someone right away to drive the other touts from swarming you.  We found our driver from the resort and were on our way.  The drive from Manado to Bintang was about an hour through tiny roads where we were continuously swerving to dodge roadside traffic.  But the van was really comfy and we just fell asleep.  Arrived at the port, transferred onto a boat and took another 20-30 min to arrive at the resort.  So glad that we did not decide to stay in the town (which you can do for cheap, diving during the days).  It was quiet once we left the port.

Zee and Surge met us and greeted us by name as we stepped off the boat, which was a nice gracious touch.  We dropped our bags and were invited to have dinner and a welcome drink right away which was great.  The first impression of NAD, our home for the next week, was a quiet haven, well-kept, with most activities centered around a homey, but open eating and community lodge area.  There are little housing units on the ground floor, steps from the eating area, and then three bungalows about 50m away.  Our bungalow was really nice.  Not glamorous or mint-on-the-pillows luxurious, but clean, dry, attractive, big firm bed, working & quiet A/C, and a bathroom that didn't stink and had actual working hot water instead of the cold water in a basin ("mandi") that I was used to in Indonesia.  Really the perfect type of place that Sarah and I like.

I was ready to crash, but had a bunch of work stuff like payments, customers, and a paid webinar, etc I had to take care of, and with the poor wireless Internet coverage (we're on the edge), it took about 5 hrs before I could sleep and got about 3 hrs before I was up for our first full day.

My first Chinese radio interview

Last week (well, the week before I was sick), I did one of those things I would have never thought possible a year ago.  I gave an hour-long radio interview entirely in Chinese.

Maybe it was that adage, "No publicity is bad publicity."  Or, that we're on a ghetto guerrilla PR & marketing budget and this was free.  But, when an acquaintance in the LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) asked me if I'd be willing to talk about  air & water on the on the daily radio program "LOHAS Everyday," I thought, "why not"?  After all, I do it all the time with clients.  

I started worrying the night before.  I was supposed to show up at the station in 12 hrs and still didn't know where it was, hadn't seen any questions, didn't even know how long the show was, and suddenly started doubting my ability to speak in complete sentences in Mandarin.  Finally, my liaison called me with some info and a read-ahead on the questions.  They were actually the sort of questions I normally field, so I jotted down some notes in English and then got some rest.  The next day, I got to the station.  There was a surprising amount of security to get in.  I met Lisa, my intermediary, and then she brought me into the studio.  I met the two hosts, two nice, young Chinese radio DJs.  Wu Bing was an upbeat, energetic guy in his mid-twenties from Beijing.  Ruan Jing was a little older and more thoughtful -- a nice counterpart to Wu Bing.  Kind of the way Jackie was for Howard Stern.  They were both very nice and went over the process with me.  We'd go through the entire show, complete with fade in's and outs, and then they would make edits later to piece the show together.  If I made any huge mistakes, they could edit out later.  

We started -- I thought it was pretty funny that their intro music was Ludakris.  They must have kept their questions especially basic, because I didn't have any problems understanding and not a whole lot of problems speaking, though I'm sure my Chinese teacher would have had a few choice words for me for some of the mistakes I made.  But all in all, it was really like just having a chat with interested friends.  Lot of fun.

Afterwards, we took a few photos, I got a little tour of the station and their offices.  The show played a couple days later and Lisa was nice enough to send me a CD of the audio.  I'm not sure how to leverage this interview, but just wanted to share with y'all.

My body is a mystery

Some (and I believe the smartest) Christians use the mystery of life to prove the existence of a higher power. I definitely believe that. After a topsy turvy week of health ups and downs, I know that the body is so incredibly complex that either God or aliens had to have put us together.

So, a couple months ago, I blogged about coming down with Scarlet Fever. 5 days ago, on Monday, I woke up fine. Went to the new office, participated in Monday morning show and tell, and got through a long day. As i do every Mon, I went to brazilian jiujitsu. Once there, I started feeling a little out of it. I didn't grapple very well, felt tired and hot, but kept going. Afterwards, when I rode back, I felt so exhausted and almost lightheaded that I was afraid I wouldn't make it back. My temp was about 102, and I was still feeling chilled. I tossed and turned for most of the night and then worked from home, mostly laying in bed. For most of that day and night, I continued to have a fever and a steady, heavy headache.

On day 3, I finally went to the doc, when i realized i had a large patch of itchy raised welts on my chest. This doctor diagnosed what I had as non-bacterial, viral infection. I was given Tylenol and sent home.

Day 4 was fine -- I had less appetite, my throat was raw and I wasn't drinking much - but I could still function. The patch of raised welts that had been just in patch areas were now covering 70% of my body, less my face, thank goodness. Nights were bad, as body temp goes up and your body becomes more sensitive to itches.

On Day 5, I went into the office to organize some things, and spent half the day there. Sadly, I wasn't even thinking so straight anymore. I was hardly eating or drinking, and my nights were hours of tossing and turning. I was still doing okay. Until about 3pm, when I realized I was sort of wheezing fluid into my lungs and my lips were so puffy they looked like Angelina Jolie's. I had one more important planning meeting and actually had to have my marketing person talk to me while I typed to her in a chat window. It was strange, but it worked. I went to the hospital and actually was sort of pissed at the doctor who let me leave the hospital with Tylenol only and didn't warn me about any of this. She said it was very unusual for adults to get the same type of virus twice so close together. Then she wanted to admit me overnight. I ended up not doing that, but agreed to walk through a battery of blood samples at a different location.

The doc was great and said:

1. I have a viral infection

2. My liver bloodwork is way off, about 6x

3. He recommended steroid injections to reduce the swelling. Apparently, my body is fighting the virus so hard that my immune system haywire and is super sensitive. Everything is now a threat so my body reacts by getting inflamed, itchy, wheezing, swollen. And that makes me miserable not talking, eating, or drinking.

I took the steroid through an IV drip. I was very worried because the very next day, we were due to host a BBQ and pool party that might draw between 10-40 people. The day rolled around and I woke up and could swallow, talk, and my face was mostly back to normal.

Day went by great, my chest returned totally back to normal. but I have to say that I have never swung between such highs and lows. The worst was feeling like you have a mouth full of ulcers and not being even able to talk without feeling all cut up.

Takeaways?

* Next time you get sick, main thing you can get tested is if you have a viral or bacterial infection. Antibiotics work only for bacterial. Nothing (western) is known to solve viral infections so all you can do is reduce the symptoms and ride it out

* Normal cycle is 5-7 days. After 4 days, get on steroids (last about 24 hrs)

* You are contagious through droplets of moisture you release, but after the first night, i didn't have time to put on the mask

* I feel so sympathetic now for people who have bad allergies. Right now my back is so itchy that if i rub up against sometihing a few seconds later I was to sleep on top of it.

You know you've been married too long when...

So what's the only case in which you can live down forgetting your wedding anniversary?

... when your spouse also forgets!

Sad, but true.  I came back from jiujitsu practice as usual, pretty late, and Sarah greeted me with a smile and a "Happy Anniversary, Dear".  My mouth dropped open, a few choice words came to mind, and since I can keep no secrets from her after over 15 years together, I admitted that I had totally forgotten.  Normally, this would have sent me to matrimonial purgatory, but she cheerfully admitted that she only remembered that afternoon when her mother emailed her to wish her well.  That's how I know I married the right woman -- who else would have let me off that easily??

These days, I put everything in my calendar.  If it's not there, I forget it.  It's a modern day crutch that helps me to function by letting me only remember what I have to (hence the Far Side cartoon).  Anyone else do this?

When it rains it pours

I think you're supposed to say that when bad things are happening.  Is there a saying for when good things happen?

Last week was a good week.  A very good week.  The amount we brought in last week (no cash yet, but deal value) was nearly 50% of our total revenue to date.  True, much of this was from one project alone (a big deal with a bank covering nearly 6000m2), but this was actually 6 different projects.  On average, we've been doing maybe 2 projects a week.  The best part?  They were all commercial projects -- the direction I've been wanting us to go.  Doing homes is fun, satisfying, tangible, but in no way scalable.

The other interesting thing is that our business is growing into a relationship role.  In many of these projects, we were the general contractor, bringing subcontractor(s) to do some work that we billed for, coordinated, managed, and took responsibility for (and a sizeable cut).  In one project, however, we were contacted by a HK services provider to be their subcontractor.  They took almost the same size cut but did very little value add besides landing the deal.  But, it's worth doing because we aren't at that point where we can find business like that and we are learning about how to be a general contractor by being on the other side of the fence.  Pretty fascinating and really learning on the job.

Keeping fingers crossed, last week was really the first week where I felt like there was really promise beyond just feeling like we were doing a good thing, being professional, and meeting a market need.  I felt excited that this could actually make some money and be a real business venture.  Maybe not a coincidence that I averaged about 3-4 hrs of sleep too...

Oh, forgot to mention that at the end of the previous week, I gave a talk to a community of builders, architects, designers, and property managers on how indoor air quality is important to green building.  Way more  people showed up than we expected.  Normally, 50-80 people have gone to the events I've attended.  The organizer estimated about 130-150 at this one.  After some scares with the audio not working and then a challenge of all the pictures in my presentation not being displayed, I still went ahead and gave it.  Got some decent questions and then chatted with about a dozen people after the talk.  I'm pretty sure I should follow up with the opportunities and business cards a little better, but I'd like to think that this week's amazing uptick might have something to do with that talk.

Thanks for letting me share my bit of happiness!

Inc magazine...mmm good

For my birthday, my big bro L got me a subscription to Inc. Magazine.  He probably saw me browsing his back issues when during a visit.  Like probably most entrepreneurs or small business owners, there's so much we don't know and learning from other people or reading real case studies is immensely important.  I started receiving the issues a couple months back and I really enjoy the magazine and wanted to give a shout out of appreciate to my bro.  The best gifts are the ones you wouldn't go out of your way to buy yourself, but can use and appreciate.  

And, I hate reading online, so the added expense of print magazines was so much nicer.  It's weird.  I like and do all my research online.  But, reading newspapers and magazines online totally ruin the experience for me.  It may be generational.  Sitting back on a lazy Sunday morning with a Wall St Journal is really a relaxing time.  

Inc does a great job being relevant to the brand new one-person startup baking cupcakes out of their apartment kitchen to the $50M tech company with 30 employees.  I suspect larger companies probably find it less interesting, but that's the nature of the beast.  There's probably a graduate-level Inc. out there somewhere.

But for the moment, I really enjoy reading stories and different approaches, whether how someone dealt with trademark infringement, libelous claims by competitors, decisions on whether to expand into franchises, etc.  The best part is that reading these things, even how someone dealt with failure (always the best lessons) fire me up.

In other news....

Next week, I've been invited to give a talk ambitiously titled: "Managing Indoor Environmental Quality for Green Building Success" to a group of mostly builders, architects, interior designers, facilities managers, and people in the green and sustainable industries.  It'll draw on a few real project case studies we've done to highlight why indoor air testing and paying attention to indoor environmental quality can impact green building, from marketability to cost savings to productivity to health and safety to minimizing legal liability.  This is going to be big in helping us strengthen recognition as thought leaders in this space.   If you have any ideas (other than an email to a bunch of acquaintances inviting them to attend) on how we can market this or use it to increase our SEO or credibility, please post your comments!

Who got fever? I got fever. Scarlet Fever

This Saturday I woke up with a bad sore throat. It happens in China. I didn't think much of it, but then was chilled, and when I took my temp it was over 102F. Sarah suggested helpfully that I had the flu.

No biggie, but thought it was weird because I just had a flu shot (I always think those things are useless).

That night and the next day, my temperature hovered around 102-103 F and I got to enjoy a cold bath and other fun home remedies.

Then on Sun, the fever broke. But instead, I started feeling tingles in one foot -- how it feels when your foot falls asleep. My feet are pretty beat up, cracked, and always itching from being on the jiujitsu mats, so I didn't think too much of it. But during the night, the itching got intense -- I actually dreamed about it. And, the spots and itching spread to both feet.

On Monday, after a quick websearch suggested I might have anything from strep throat to foot and mouth disease, I decided I'd just get down to the doc's and get antibiotics started.

Good thing I did. The French doc diagnosed the strep throat immediately when she looked into my throat, but then when she saw my feet, she said, "Hmm....very interesting". That is not something you want a examining medical professional to say. She believes I have come down with either scarlet fever or hand and mouth disease. (Actually I just looked it up and I my symptoms match the classic symptoms of foot and hand disease 100%, but I'm just an amateur doctor) Doesn't really matter because both are related to streptococcus bacteria and both are treated with penicillin. It's often transmitted by children and according to PubMed, "Coxsackie virus is transmitted by contamination with feces". WHAT? Coxsackie? Feces? Now that I think about it, I went to a Chinese hospital on Friday and probably encountered about 500 people in two hours or so. Next time I'm wearing a mask and gloves.

Although I didn't even know scarlet fever still existed, apparently I have it and should be better after a week or so. In the meanwhile, it really sucks because I'm hungry all the time but can't eat much because I have these big white ulcers in the back of my throat and it hurts like heck to swallow. If you're trying to lose weight, I highly recommend this.

If you're in Shanghai, look me up and I can pass it on to you personally :)

Hope everyone had a more fun Fourth of July wherever you are...