Trust me

So I nearly got conned.  If I hadn't already been broke I could have lost a lot of money.  Others did.  Dr Aaliyah is a real talent.  Smooth, persuasive, credible in short bursts.  She came up with what is in fact a really good idea - a training company focussed entirely on Arabs in general and Emiratis in particular.  There's a lot of focus here on Emiritisation and consequently there's a lot of money to be made.  And as yet not many exploiting the niche.

It doesn't take a lot of capital to start a small training company but it does take some.  There are licences to be acquired here and that means premises; there are staff to hire and marketing to be done.  You can start small and grow.

But the good doctor had 'plans' though it seems these plans never included paying for anything or anyone.  Suffice it to say that after some 4 months operation staff and contractors remain unpaid and licences un-obtained.  All of which is really sad because the sales team have secured business and are ready to run.

So the 'con'?  Look for investors, lots of small ones interested in being involved but not risking a big sum of money.  In this case she's discovered that AED250k or about $60k seems to bring a balance between being small enough for many people to risk and big enough to warrant the risks of being caught.  And it looks to me after a few months of being involved and two solid weeks of poking around where I should have poked long before that she's found around 6 or 7 suckers to stump up the money, sometimes in cash and always with nothing more than a signed document.  No official stamps, no registrations at the Dubai government, no basic due diligence by anyone.  It's The Producers translated to the desert except it's not funny.

Temptation and greed are odd things in that they overcome the most rational of people who don't want to see what's plainly visible.  A promise from a convincing speaker of your money back in a year and profits of 25% plus is close to being believable if you mentally squint. And when she included 25% of the equity it sealed the deal - several times.  Of course her 75% and 6 lots of 25% represents a mathematical problem in the real world.  But not if you slip in a decimal point on the documents - after the fact.

To the learning points then and it's a really simple set; one some Mr Madoff's victims should have considered too:

-  If it seems too good to be true then it probably is too good to be true
- Trust nothing, check everything; twice
- Everybody lies

Business is no place for *blind* faith.   Leave that for church.

Pirates

I just finished reading The Pyrates - by George Macdonald Fraser, Hollywood stalwart and creator of the wonderful Flashman books based on the caddish character from Tom Brown's Schooldays.  It's funny and clever and thoroughly entertaining.  Everything a good pirate book or movie should be.  Errol Flynn would have been totally at home as indeed would the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Then this morning I read in the papers about Rachel And Paul Chandler who've been held for a little over a year by Somali pirates and saw their gaunt and strained looking photos.  And it made me realise what an odd species we are.

We find boat thieves exciting and dashing.  Big time criminals  - Bonnie and Clyde, Capone, any number of Russian oligarchs, the American Robber Barons of the 19th & early 20th centuries - become heroes and the subject of movies not far short of a hagiography.

But when was the last time you went to a movie about the loveable and amusing social security cheat who held down a below minimum wage cash only job and claimed unemployment benefit at the same time.  To feed her kids and keep a roof over their heads?  Or the illegal housemaid working a 15 hour day seven days a week in order to send cash home and support the family.  I have seen government sponsored advertisements urging me to rat them out though.

But I don't remember seeing any government supported advertising on how we're going to rid the seas of the pirates.  Though I did see a very lighthearted story today about Max Hardberger a man who makes his living repossessing stolen vessels from the pirates.  And mostly not glamorous armed cutthroats either but much more often from the clutches of crooked officials and shady brokers.

What I didn't read about though was the hardship caused to the crews and the ship owners whose ships are stolen.  The story was more about the thrill of the chase.

I realise I'm just an aging hippy buddhist with a soft spot for the underdog.  But I don't care.  That's where everyone's feeling should lie.

The name says it all "cutthroat" is not a cool epithet.  It's a blood stained job description and we should not forget that. Ever.

Travelling light

I'm doing some pro bono work for a thing called the Emirates Travellers' Festival.  The ETs are a group of youngish Emiratis who travel the world by Land Cruiser mostly, going to difficult and interesting places and educating people about the UAE and Arab and Muslim culture and doing occasional good works.  And learning and learning and learning along the way.

And now these guys are working on setting up a Festival to be a celebration of Travelling - for whatever reason be it thrill seeking or charitable works or education or some combination.  It's to be a chance for people from all over the world to share and enjoy.

Today I was interviewing Sheikh Awad about this.  He's the driving force behind both the Emirates Travellers themselves and the Festival though he's got himself a veritable army of helpers and advisors. 

He's a genuine enthusiast.  He did a piece to camera, impromptu, in Arabic and English extolling the virtues to be gained from meeting different cultures and seeing different places.  It came from the heart and just drips with the enthusiasm and joy you can see in his eyes.

But what comes across so strongly in conversation is how much he wants to share these experiences and the learnings.  It's all been wholly positive.  Now, he mentions in passing that some places were difficult and risky but I'm made to swear I won't mention which places.  Not from fear on his part but from a desire not to put anyone off from trying if they want to.

And I also come across a trait I see in too few people here - expat or otherwise.  He must have told me a dozen times in the conversation that we have to make careful plans but in the end we have to "...just try it...get started and get on..."  He's happy to pull it together and dot i's and cross t's but just keen to get on. "Take a few risks; not stupid ones but some or you'll get nowhere".  It's nearly a mantra.

I've also been teaching business people about Entrereneurialism and that sums it up perfectly.  The managers I've been working with often understand intellectually but over here the culture is not one of taking risk.  Remember most of our workforce is expatriate and if they cross their bosses they can be fired and sent home at pretty much a moments notice.  That fear engenders neither any climate of risk taking nor does it make providing real customer focussed service possible.  Because staff are more frightened of the boss than they are concerned for the customer.  After all the customer can't have them deported.

This produces a badly skewed work culture where intelligent people will not challenge patently foolish instructions, where filling in the appropriate chit is more important than problem solving and where even the smallest risk is avoided because of the potential for disproportionate punishment.

It's REALLY holding back our development.  Somehow we have to remove the fear and replace it with pride.  A revision of visa rules might be all that's needed to get things rolling.  Perhaps coupled with the carrot of possible permanent residence if not citizenship for those who show the most commitment.