Streams of Life (32)

Streams of Life (32)

Finally my time working for the guy from North Africa came to an end. To be honest, I have never felt as bored as when I stayed with him, and as relieved as when I left him. Though he kept stressing that he was a nice guy and had a business

mind, I just couldn’t like him.

The day before yesterday after another day shopping in the second-handed electronic gadget market, he finally asked me to call companies for a meeting. Before that I had given him a couple of company websites and a website on which he could

have a look at potential companies for his product. But what happened later was

he only met a company, and, without getting any quotation from the company, left them his two machine models.

He explained to me afterwards that in his life he liked trust, as the saying goes “trust exchanges for trust.” But I wonder in this situation what that has got to do with trust. Without getting any information from the company, and without going to visit any other companies, how can you make up your mind and think you have made the right decision?

Yesterday I took a morning train with him to a potential company who can make bamboo skewers for him. The reason he chose the company was because this company is the first one on the list I sent to him. He was so engaged in his Nikon camera

hunting the day when I called those companies that he couldn’t spare me longer

time than half an hour to contact those companies. And even when I was calling

those companies, he kept interrupting me, asking me to find DHL service in Shanghai to have his junk posted to England.

I talked to him once or twice while we were sauntering in the market. I said “G

, have you considered visiting companies first before you came to these markets?

After all, that is your main purpose of coming to China.” His reply was that the situation was totally in his control. But then after the futile trip to Ningbo

yesterday, in the taxi he apparently looked agitated. “I have to go back to look for another company to make my skewers.” Sitting in the dark, I turned my head towards the window and didn’t say anything.

The other day in the smoky second-handed mobile market, he said that why I didn’

t look like having a good time. In his opinion he did me a huge favour by taking

me out with him every day. But he didn’t understand that I would have surely done something far more productive and useful, though maybe my efforts couldn’t

get paid off right away.

So yesterday I decided to be honest with him. I told him that I am not working in order to polish my CV, or to struggle to make a living, and that I prefer challenges and experience following after it to any instant payment and gratification. So it was wrong of him to think that I owed him some thankfulness or any of that kind. And I would recommend one of my friends as his market companion in the

coming few days.

I don’t know what he thinks of me now. Maybe he thinks that I am too young to tell him what was good or bad, and that I am not a perfect translator for him. But I think I have done my best to eliminate his business risk on this trip. I told him that it was impossible to send those fake-branded products he bought through shipment companies; and, during his meeting with the bamboo skewer company, that he shouldn’t give the company payment before he knew the exact production and shipping cost.

I admitted that I learnt something from him from the business prospective, such

as how he priced his products, and how he nailed down the right product in the first place. But apart from that, there were more negative lessons. Up to yesterday, he still had got plenty of products to buy, plenty of complaints to make, and plenty of chance to get cheated. On top of that, he hadn’t even finished half

of his business mission yet. When I waved goodbye to him last night, I couldn’

t help feeling sorry for him. Or maybe I was just sorry for nothing.