One reason this has been a stressful week for me is that yesterday was the last day in the company for someone who has been with this company for 30 years and who has been my mentor (and very frequently my protector) for my five and a half years with this company.

He’s someone who knows every detail of a multi-billion dollar business and, most importantly, someone who would always say what he was thinking and unafraid to say “fuck you” to his boss’s boss’s boss when he felt he was right. (This is no exaggeration, “fuck” is his most frequently used word, in and out of the boardroom.)

We hit it off on a personal basis from the day he interviewed me for this job. I believe that to this day, there are people in the company who remain amazed that someone at his lofty level would choose to associate so closely with me, someone so deep in the trenches and so far from home. But I believe he valued my opinion and saw me as one of the few people in the company who “got it,” who understood what needed to be done and then went out and got it done one way or another. I knew he was incredibly demanding and I made it a personal priority to know the answer to any question he might ask me before he could ask it.

I knew this was coming. He had called me awhile ago to warn me. He asked me to not start looking for another job yet, to be patient and that some of the changes that I’m hoping to see in the company will come soon. However, at this point my biggest hope is that he will be working someplace else soon and that he will give me a call once he’s there.

With that in mind, dinner with two business associates last night at a new restaurant in Roppongi called “Roc Mon” (6 gates). Some sashimi, some yakitori, some champagne and a shitload of sake. Our waitress was quite cute and I tried my best but she didn’t speak any English and probably thought I was insane.

As a matter of fact, a lot of people in my company think I’m insane. I work for a company that values style over substance. I was talking with this person who is leaving today, mentioning how I’ve managed to establish a friendship with a very senior executive in our region. I told him how this guy, who is Japanese, confessed that for the first year or two that we worked together he didn’t like me at all, but now he considers me a friend and is glad I’m still with the company (actually I’ll be going out with this person tonight and fully expect we will get wasted). He said, “When that guy first met you, he must have thought you were from another fucking planet.”

I’m blowing off most of today, going to do a little shopping and resting up before joining this senior VP for what I suspect will be a mostly liquid dinner tonight. Tomorrow back to HK for two days before heading to Manila.

Hongkie Town
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