I love getting to know the real person in front of me. And when I interview, I like to dig deeper than the standard questions to find out who I am really talking to.

So I am quite partial to open - ended questions and then take it from there. It's usually an informal setting where I try to put the person the most at ease. I know HR experts have different opinions about this, but my goal is to feel entirely comfortable with the person... and seeing how they react to non - standard questions is an excellent way of doing so.

Here are some sample questions I love to ask:

- If you stayed with your current company, what would be your next move?
- What makes you stand out from others?
- Tell me your greatest accomplishment
- Give me an example of a time when you took the time to share a co-worker's achievement with others
- How many hours a week do you need to work to get your job done?
- Do you take enough time to make a decision?
- Why do you want to work here?
- What are your salary expectations?

And my favorite :
- Tell me about yourself.

Building on the Maslow series, I thought I would venture a little matrix bringing it all together. In each of the 16 combinations the matrix offers, what are my definitions, my objectives, my current situation, my expected results and my roadmap to getting there ?

Simple and soul-searching ...  just like I like it.

                   happiness | achievement | significance | legacy
self                               |                      |                     |
family                            |                      |                     |
work                             |                      |                     |
community                    |                      |                     |

Sometimes, I come across stories that inspire me to be a better person, to excel and go beyond established limits. This story is from the Bible, from the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah knew that to be a good leader you had to have clean hands and a pure heart. The basic quality for leadership is the same as the basic quality for success in a person's life. And that is to be true to one's belief and values.

So what made Nehemiah so special ?

Nehemiah had a sense of calling.
Nehemiah patiently waited for the right timing.
Nehemiah established reasonable and attainable goals. You know one of the reasons why leadership fails is 1) they have no goals whatsoever or 2) they establish goals that are not reasonable, measurable or attainable.
Nehemiah made prayer and recollection a priority in his life.
Nehemiah rearranged his priorities in order to accomplish his goals.
Nehemiah acted decisively when it was time for him to act.
Nehemiah took time to rest, to plan, to pray, to think.
Nehemiah became personally acquainted with his task.
Nehemiah made shrewd use of his time.
Nehemiah surrounded himself with trusted allies.
Nehemiah provided vision for the people.
Nehemiah involved a broad-based work team in the work.
Nehemiah never wavered in the face of opposition.
Nehemiah executed a plan to accomplish his goal.
Nehemiah didn't hesitate to take emergency action when emergency action was necessary.
Nehemiah was very visible and approachable.
Nehemiah managed his resources very well.
Nehemiah verbalized his dependence on other's help, and he did it again and again.
Nehemiah was not afraid to get his hands dirty.
Nehemiah took care of his people financially.
Nehemiah personally sacrificed to accomplish his goal.
Nehemiah refused to live above his people.
Nehemiah didn't hesitate to discipline inappropriate behavior.
Nehemiah had a great view of the value of his own work.
Nehemiah exuded integrity before everyone.
Nehemiah showed discernment in dealing with people.
Nehemiah didn't hesitate to attribute his success to others.
Nehemiah kept his promises.

Whether you believe in the veracity of the Good Book or not is besides the point. The example given here of someone who wisely persevered against all odds is worth a moment of reflexion.

As business leaders, the best decisions are often not the ones we say YES to, but rather the ones we decide to say NO to.

Passing on an opportunity is one of the hardest things an entrepreneur or a company has to do, but (imho) it is the single most differentiating factor in its success.

What follows is a result of experience, mistakes, books I read and some gray matter.

Knowing how and when to say NO requires :
- knowing yourself and your values
- knowing your business and its capacities
- being able to qualify and quantify the opportunity
- creating and adhering to a solid vision

Here are the questions I ask myself when analyzing an opportunity
- what is the exact need that this fills ? where do I position myself to that need ?
- how convincing is the solution to that need ? what are all the details ?
- how does this solution distinguish itself from all the others ? what are the barriers to entry ?
- what is the short and long term potential for the opportunity ? any upside to leveraging with current assets ?
- what are the risks involved ? what assumptions were made that include a measure of uncertainty ?
- is there a realistic execution plan of the strategy ?
- are all the necessary resources there to back up the opportunity ?
- is the team ready, willing and able ?

Things that can block an opportunity
- existing markets : our clients would not like it if we ...
- existing business models : we don't generate $ here with this method ...
- existing distributors : our distributors would not like it if we ...
- existing strategies : we decided way back when to do things this way ...
- existing structures : we don't want to manage this new opportunity in this department ...
- existing arbitrary constraints : if we don't generate this or create this or have this result his, it will be a complete waste of time ...
- existing vocabulary : we don't understand it ...

In Sanya, Hainan, China, there is a street near the bus terminal that has close to 20 double sided boothes with an assortment of products to sell to tourists who wander by.

What is interesting there is the model of competition. First : every booth sells a variance of the same objects: pearls, jade, chopsticks, plates, etc...

Second, the proximity of the booths to one another is never more than 1 foot.

Third, the prices are already on the low side. The perfect storm of negotiating and good prices. I have rarely seen the power of the walk-away be so effective.

Whose the winner ? The consumer ... and the manufacturing company that produces those objects for the 20+ booths.

I was in the southern province of China, on the island of Hainan. It is a developing economic zone with great potential. On the software and web development side, their expertise (and price) is quite impressive... but the details of that will be another post.

I wanted to list some of the observations I made there. I don't know if these observations count for all of China, or just the Hainan province I was in, but it gives you a good idea about the fun little differences we share.

SOCIETY
- They are good people with sometimes horrible bad manners (Watch the impromptu spitting)
- Absolutely the craziest driving I have ever seen - no look lane changes, father crossing a very busy highway (à la Frogger) holding the hand of a 4 year old behind him, on-coming chicken games between cars...
- Walking away while bartering is a surefire way to win
- TV is boring: 100 channels of Chinese soap operas, American Idol knock offs or period pieces. Only 1 channel in English, and its controled media
- English is incorrect translate
- The world is truly flat : Investor from Singapore, CEO is from Taiwan, VP Biz Dev from Canada, project manager from Scarborough and the graphic artist from Germany ... all in Hainan.
- Chinese is a friggin' complicated language
- Whatever it is you are smelling while walking down the street, don't ask
- I saw one blond woman here.
- At the end of dinner, they don't give you candy... they give you cherry tomatoes.
- KTV - or Karaoke TV - is an endless source of fun and entertainment (why is that not here ?)

PRODUCTS
- Hainan redwood is rare and expensive
- Silk is cheap
- Beds are hard, very very hard (your wooden floor in your living room is softer)
- Pizza Hut is a luxury product
- There are no Starbucks, but don't worry, the virus is coming shortly
- Tech gadgets are 1 year ahead
- Peanuts in shells taste different
- There are more special effects in a cell phone commercial than in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie
- You get a 5 course meal for the price of a McDonald's trio.
- Fresh sugar cane is a great substitute to coffee
- When I buy clothes here, I'm an XL size (those of you who have seen me are on the floor laughing right now)
- Every piece of the body of the pig is comestible. And I mean every piece...
Aside from eating every part of the pig, I ate fish tripes, eel, frog and ox tongue. And it was all tasty.

FINALLY
The international language is NOT english. It's sign language, impromptu pictionary and... thank you.

Montaigue said that getting out of your normal confort zone is good for you, well, he's right.