Spain at its Best!

So now is my next entry since the wireless internet in Spain was playing tricks on me and would not work well. I was able to arrive back to Hong Kong tonight after flying from Zurich Switzerland and its good to be home. After a five week rally around the world, its good to relax and see friends and people who have probably thought I passed away or something! haha It was a great experience and through this work, I truly realize how many of the people we work with and do business with, become over time, good friends and people who we can rely on and help out. One great part of this work is that I am able to meet people all over the world and then they become friends who I can meet up with over time! I am very tired from my long travels and now I am going to head to bed so I can get my baggage fixed that was destroyed today by the airlines! grrrr! Customer service is certainly not what it used to be and people truly do not care it seems sometimes...........other than this bad seed, the trip was phenominal.

Vegas to LA to Narita to HK to Dubai to Saudi to Spain

I have been on a four week around the world trip going from las vegas at the SEMA show to los angeles. From these two locations, I went off for a long trip to narita japan, hong kong, dubai, saudi arabia, zurich switzerland, and then to barcelona spain. It was amazing to see the different places and how each contrasts and is different while also being the same in many respects. I am now in spain after coming from the middle east and all is well with working with our different distributors. Each has been so nice to show me around and I must say that I have really enjoyed the food and sights with great people. This entry simply talks about this and also about how much I miss a great sandwich and meat! I thought it was very interesting how each culture has opposites. In america, we work hard and leave work around 6 or so, then we are done. In Asia, people move faster than other parts of world, but they do not work efficient and then stay until late and they love to start truly working around afternoon, when it is too late for western people. In places like the middle east they love to work at night times from 7 to 2am or so since it is so hot! I could not believe the sights and things to see and do in Dubai even though it was like 90 F outside and it was cool for them. In summer it reaches about 120 F !!! Spain they love to work late and eat lunch for 2-3 hours and then work a bit in the afternoon as well. It was funny to see these differences, but each place balances their lives and works in their own fashion. Traveling so much has taught me to be patient and having to work on speaking slow and not my fast east coast speed! Pictured here is one road in Dubai where there is so much construction going on, I would look out my window and see little ants driving around this huge desert and then I realized that this desert was islands being constructed and those tons of ants were huge trucks delivering sand! It was an amazing sight. The entry above is from Spain, its a pretty amazing difference within a one week time period!

A Junk Ride Around Hong Kong

So the reason that I have not been able to update this blog for several weeks is because I have been so busy with travel, networking and just being busy in general! You can probably read more about me on www.meguiars.com.cn than this blog site. One thing I am trying to do is to not make this blog into strictly an update about my work progress. I also want to update what has been going on with my free time and what is new.

Today is rainy day in Hong Kong and that is OK with me since I slept in today, the first day to sleep in for 4 weeks and I am just taking it easy today and relaxing, while doing a bit of small work and getting my plans ready for what I will be up to next week in Macau. Yesterday I was able to go on a junk ride (old hong kong boat) and we cruised around Hong Kong island, Kowloon, and a bit of the inner territories. There was a boat load (no pun intended) of new people and it was fun to network and meet people from all over. It was pretty humorous for everyone to tell me that my accent was so strange and weird, when I thought they all had weird accents! haha Hong Kong is really an interesting city with people coming and going all the time and everyone is really trying to pursue the "american dream" here and do anything and everything to succeed! I have made close friends (mate) with another guy who is my age and he is from Australia. We have become friends and we are travel buddies and free time friends when we both are not working! The picture is after lunch when the sun was setting in Hong Kong behind the mountains. It was an incredible day with great friends, good food, and overall, even though I got a bit sunburned....it was worth it!

Making a Difference for Someone

Many people think that they cannot really make a huge difference in someones life, but most times, its not really the case. Even though I am doing a lot of grunt work, most people I work with are from all over the world and also have differing backgrounds. It is extremely rewarding to go out and meet with a new person, ask questions, listen a lot!, and then work with them. There is even a new level of teaching when in a new country with different views. As I work with them about how to do sales and how to rethink how they think about work and life, you can see internal and physical change. Pictured is an unnamed man I worked with in Asia and when I first came to him, he had been selling Meguiar's for about a year. Unfortunately he was dissatisfied with his job, not making the amount of money he wanted, could not sell and was just in a bad place overall. I worked with him over a 5 day period and did everything from how to dress and look to how to use the products and tools to even how to talk to people. After some working, I could see a HUGE improvement and the nice thing is that he will learn, change and this could possibly change his life for him and his family! I hope that next time I go and work in his area.....he has learned more and has really made a huge improvement. So far, I am extremely happy with helping him out, check out his picture...who would you rather work with?!?

I am on youtube!

My day to day work is very random and usually extremely busy. Even though I have been extremely busy with work, I have really enjoyed what I have been up to. Last week we were able to purchase a camera, video camera, and new apple laptop so we have been able to upload new videos. I have been able to upload a lot of new videos at www.youtube.com and user name called meguiarsasia. Anyone can go here and see what new things I have been up to! I am going to be an Internet movie star.......well maybe not!

Working in Macau

Well I have just finished up a three day tour working in Macau with the guys and it is nice to get back to the hotel and relax with some TV and sitting in the AC. One thing that I do a ton of in Asia, is sweating and also having a ton of patience. When dealing with a new culture and also being a foreigner, I have learned a lot. I have learned that a lot of what I was taught in school when it comes to writing, you can throw out the window when writing to a person who speaks English as a second language. There is also a lot of street smarts that are handy to have and I think that I have become a better bargainer. One thing that no one ever teaches in the states is how to bargain and never accept the price for what it is. The above picture is actually taken from Bar street in Zhuhai where all of us went to Coheba and played pool, sang karaoke, and had a few beverages. After visiting multiple shops in a day and working my tail off, it was nice to take a night off and visit this hopping street. The side walk had dance lights in it and the trees had lights all over it as well. It was pretty impressive at night time when it was all up and running and there were a ton of people!

Working in Thailand

I must say, that this job is unreal! I just got back to Hong Kong from Bangkok and it was a lot of work while being really fun as well. My boss and I went there to meet with or distributor and we got a ton accomplished. It was nice to go there for a change of scene. Everything from the people to the food to the culture to the landscape is spectacular! While there were spent a late night putting show cars inside malls! It is the kind of thing you see in video games, but we drove this mini cooper throughout a mall and parked it at our display area!! It was an awesome trip and it will be exciting to see what happens in the future. Everyday is an adventure with this job and while I spend many late nights out and about, it is really fun to work for someone who uses your ideas and then you see them in action! Doing sales and marketing is hard work and it is very mental work....

Settling In

So there is work and then there is work! I have been having a blast and the previous saying usually has negative connotations. The reason I say it is because it has been so exciting, while tiring at times, but very exciting to work so far. Every day is a new adventure and I have been out and about every day making a big difference. By getting in on the ground floor of the company, it is really interesting to think of a plan, find the people to do it, work super hard....mostly 7 days a week, and then have work and personal life become one, and then see the plan become reality! The past few weeks have been crazy busy with work on the Internet, mainly under the events section of www.meguiars.com.cn and also traveling a ton and helping people get settled into their jobs. Another Valpo student has come over and is now interning with us and it is awesome to have been the guy who found him and now my finding is with me in China! Doing work that I enjoy is not bad and its been a wild ride so far, I hope to see things prosper and grow and I am looking forward to the future. The picture that is with this blog entry is one of me training 18 people how to care for their car. It was in Dongguan China and these workers will work for the first Meguiar's Car Detail Center in the world! This center is my baby and the SOP (standard operating procedure) manual is almost done! I move into my apartment on the 29th of this month and I also picked up my Hong Kong ID card today! I am officially a Hong Kong resident now! Life is on fast forward....but being busy isn't all that bad all the time.

Dad Visits Hong Kong

My father was able to come to Hong Kong for a few weeks and help me get settled in. I was able to outfit my apartment with Ikea materials and we were also able to get mandatory items such as my HK ID and HK drivers license. So now I am officially a honkie! haha It was great to show him around, we did many touristy things such as Victoria's Peak, Stanley's Market, Macau island, LKF, the alleys, museums and other things. We were crazy busy the whole time he was here, and the weather held up for us, even though you could cut the humidity with a knife. The days really fly by now with work and life, but it is better to be busy, than sitting around doing nothing. Several of my main duties are to train staff all over and to also develop a Standard Operating Procedures manual....needless to say, Meguiar's is keeping me busy. Below are a few pictures to check out.

First week on the job

Well I was able to complete my first week on the job, and it has been a whirl wind tour around Asia. Every single day has been complete with work, work and more work. It has been a bit hard to catch up to speed with how fast things go when out of school, and between traveling and working, I am dog tired by the end of the day. It really takes a high energy person to do what I am doing, even though I do enjoy what I am doing most of the time. Last week I was in Shanghai visiting with government officials for the first and brand new Auto Museum in China. It was an amazing building with a lot of incredible vehicles inside! After doing that and holding a clinic for about 50 people at a local detail shop, I was then off to Hong Kong where I worked not only in the office but also worked at finding an apartment to live in. I think I have found a perfect place off the MTR subway that is affordable with furniture and also has a beach and sea view! Currently this week I am in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, I am here working with our distributors and also creating a SOP manual for our detail shops. There is so much work to be done and so little time. I can really see why my boss had a hard time finding people that would fit with this job, it is really tiring and demanding at all hours of the day....I am banking on the hopes that it will pay off in the long run and that I made the right choice in moving to Hong Kong. I think I did, it is just going to take time to meet people my age and start a new life here.

A New Product off the Valpo Assembly Line

Before I knew it, I had already been through the Valpo assembly line and I am all done with college! I think that I learned a lot and I know that I have plenty more to learn. I think that I spent my time well here and before I knew it, it was over. The time flew by and now I am off for an adventure overseas. Above are just pictures from my graduation ceremony, enjoy!

Boston Red Sox

This was an awesome day to go into downtown Boston after two hard days of mulching 10 yards of mulch for my parents! It was awesome to head into Boston with my family and a friend to see the red sox play the cleveland indians. Even though they lost, it was great to head into the city for some good italian cuisine with a flattened beef panini and wash it down with some fine beverages. The whole afternoon was spent in Boston and mainly Fenway Park (Pahk). The seats we had were exceptional and it was awesome to be back with the Bostonians and to see their antics from a streaker on the field to the crazy antics of the people in the crowd. The guys and a girl in front of us had plenty to drink, we counted about 12 trips to the bar to get $14 dollars of beer each time! Not only did we see those actions but we saw the new additions to the sox team with Daisuke Matsuzaka and oldies such as Manny. Dice K wasn't as good as I would have hoped, I guess even a 52 million dollar man cannot always be on his game every day. Seeing all the players up and close was an experience and there were several foul balls that flew by our heads. Luckily we did not get nailed in the head like a few other unlucky fans did a few rows ahead of us. It was a crazy day with awesome family and friends. There is truly no place like Boston with the culture, people, history, sports, and fun all around.

IN to NE to MA Road Trip Pics

Nebraska to Boston Road Trip

When one travels by car, they really realize how far one location is to the next! I have been spoiled over the years by flying location to location, but driving from Valparaiso, IN to Falls City, NE and then onto Boston, MA. A total of about 2000 miles, it truly tests the patience and stamina one has with sitting in one seat for 22hrs. I did this journey with my mother after my graduation from college to head out to see my grandma, that I have not been able to see for a long time. It was nice to travel out to the very small town and see my grandmother and spend time with her and also show her all the new things I have been up to. It was also a pleasure to head back to where my family roots are. I was able to see the gravel road where my grandmother was born in 1920 and I was also able to see the old houses that my mother and father grew up in, one having my name carved in the concrete sidewalk still way back when I was in third grade in 1993. The town is still alive and doing well with a new library, even though the restaurants seem to be lacking and the main street does not seem to be a very main street compared to other cities I have been to. It was awesome to come out to this open area and relax and let my mind ponder about everything, including the several life changing things I am about to embark upon. Along with my thinking I was able to help my grandmother out with her apartment, cleaning and organizing and sight seeing the Midwest for one last time before I leave the country. An interesting thing that I was able to notice was how parts of the Midwest seem to be great places for Walmarts, chain stores, and some very large people who seem to hang around rest stops and all you can eat buffets. Going on this Midwest road trip really showed me how large some of the American population is and how people internationally may view us. People told me in Asia that I had a small belly and was large in Asia, I thought to myself that they should see parts of the USA! I want to add pictures to this posting, but that will have to wait until I get a faster Internet connection. The trip went well with flooding and rough rain in the Nebraska area, extreme road traffic around Chicago and the 400 mile thruway in northern New York is always a fun one to drive, my radar detector came in handy, needless to say. Home is looking better and better by the mile and it will be nice to get back to good old Massachusetts before I go to my new home in Hong Kong.

Valpo Memories

This senior year has been a blast living in the house and being able to really connect with the underclassmen and help them out with things such as job hunts and advice about school. Also, when it comes to senior year, I wanted to make sure that I experience as many things that Valpo and surrounding areas such as Chicago have to offer. This year has been busy with school work like usual, but I have also been able to keep busy with Phi Psi activities and along with that, comes a lot of weekly meetings and other such items. The photos above are a brief summary of a few of the activities that I was able to enjoy before graduation such as a Cubs game, visiting Phi Psi headquarters in Indy, touring Chicago, having two live bands play music at my fraternity, and other dances and social activities that are always fun. Time is on fast forward, but the memories that I have created here with my close friends, will never fade away.

SEMA Show 2007 Pics

SEMA Show 2007

I was going through my pictures today and organizing them into folders and making sure I can keep track of them, this can be a challenge with a poor memory at times. As a little car guy growing up, I was always interested in cars and because of this and reading through multiple car magazines, I always ran across this thing called the SEMA show.

Over the years it has blossomed into a huge multiple day event in Las Vegas where anyone and everyone related to the car world goes. As the main website states, "It draws the industry’s brightest minds and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center. As part of the AAIW, the SEMA Show attracts more than 100,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries for unlimited profit opportunities in the automotive, truck and SUV, marine and RV markets."

Basically it is the Rolls Royce of the car event world and every new and amazing product, concept car or other new thing is displayed and shown off. When I was asked to go out over a weekend in my first semester of my senior year to work this show, I almost fell out of my seat. I was extremely excited and I had no idea what I was in for.

The show went on forever and had anything my heart desired. I spent a long time working the show and talking and networking with car people from all over the world. I spent my time doing everything from giving demonstrations to talking to new customers to giving interviews. It was a blast and was really a dream come true for a 22 year old.

The really cool part of the show was that I was able to learn from the show and then learn how to transport the ideas used in Vegas to a worldwide display area. People in the states do not always have an understanding of how things work outside the USA borders and being a midway point for the company should prove to be an interesting task and job.

Spring Break 2007 Pics

Senior Spring Break

This was an amazing way to top of my college experience. This senior spring break was an amazing two week experience that started off with eight of my pledge brothers and I going on a seven day cruise off Miami to Cozumel Mexico, Grand Cayman Islands (where this picture was taken with my cousin) and also to Ocho Rios Jamaica. This seven day cruise was an awesome experience that I was able to have with some of my closest friends. There were a multitude of shore excursions that we participated in such as zip lining through the rain forest and also meeting up with my cousin who lives in Grand Cayman. The whole experience was a spectacular experience that I will never forget. This section could go on forever, but there were so many crazy experiences, places, people and stories to talk about! The second seven days were spent with my parents in Key West Florida, where we did a lot of bike riding and meeting up with my great aunt and her husband. These two weeks were a nice dose of dreaming, unfortunately school was quick to return after my trip.

Living in Phi Psi

Throughout my four years at Valparaiso University, I have learned a lot about school and also myself. It has been a great learning experience and one place where I have been able to apply my skills as a leader and mentor a lot, has been at my fraternity on 801 Mound St. Here I have lived for three out of the four years and I have so many fond memories of this house. The rooms may have all been so small, the halls were narrow, the food was horrible and the whole place smelled funky, but it was my college home. Here is where I was able to study and have fun on the weekends. Here is where I lived with 50 of my closest friends and we were able to create ever lasting friendships and memories together. This small house is certainly not the Ritz and I would not want to live here forever, but it gave me the opportunity to meet more people than I could ever imagine and it allowed for so many experiences such as traveling all over the Midwest, going to leadership conferences in Indianapolis, and even going down to Cabo San Lucas for fun and leadership work. This house may be average to some, but to me it is extraordinary and has taught me that if you want something bad enough or think something needs to be done, you should be the catalyst and lead the way for others to follow. There were so many boys that joined this house, that left as men, each took their own path and each is hopefully following their dreams. It was a great place to develop as a person and was also a great place to take chances and hone each persons skills and especially people skills. Phi Kappa Psi will always be a part of me and if it weren't for this house and the people associated with it, I probably would have not stayed at Valpo.

Cars, Cleaning and a Career

It is hard to believe that what seems like yesterday, I was cleaning my silver 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix in my driveway. My mom would always yell at me when applying the tire foam since it would stain the driveway. I am pretty sure both parents and neighbors thought I was totally crazy for always obsessively cleaning my car from top to bottom every day. I always used to joke about how I learned to be so clean from my mom's vacuuming and after a while, I thought that my best friend from home and I should go out on our own and be our own bosses. We would basically clean anything that moved from sport cars, to soccer mom vans, to hearses, to huge trucks. It was great to get some extra cash and eventually it became so large we went off and started to hire people. Our business was off and running!

Now that I look back on it, this experience taught me so much from keeping the books, to dealing with customers to dealing with the good and bad. It was a challenge and I absolutely loved every second of it, even though it was not always smooth sailing. College then came along and one reason I chose Valpo was because it was somewhat close to Detroit. Through the car detailing connections and the valpo one, I was lucky enough to attend the International Design Forum for three years in a row!! This slammed my career into high gear and through networking and a lot of luck, one professor in mind, I was able to get my foot in the door with Meguiar's International. This was a much better work environment for me than the previous summer's internship where I was doing more financial work than marketing.

This senior year I have been busy doing administration work for the company website and also trying to find recruits to join the team! I think that I was able to land one and it will be interesting to see how things play out. Who knew that my passion for cleaning cars would turn into a career. I have learned so many things while on the job and at school but the old saying that my dad used to tell me when driving to school, "life is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" is so true. The future should be a wild ride, but one thing is for sure...I will most likely obsessively clean my car forever!

Ending Up Valpo

Well I have about 5 weeks left at Valpo. It has been a very fast four years and I cannot believe it is already over. What makes it worse is that I have been employed before senior year and I have been itching all year long to head overseas and start work. I have made countless friends at this small school and it will be hard to leave them behind. The classes this year have also been very easy compared to other years which has allowed me to focus on work and also enjoying the last few weeks with my close friends. My plans after graduation are just as hectic as ever, typical Matt move where I get bored too easily and must be on the move. I graduate on may 20th and then mom and I head to Nebraska to see my grandmother. After the several days on the road, hopefully not driving each other too crazy, we will be in Boston, MA for a short time period. I leave for Hong Kong on June 15th and from there my boss and I will be traveling all over Asia and other parts of the world. It should be a wild ride, but no matter where I go, I will miss my close friends and memories that I have made while at Valpo. I certainly will not miss the bad weather, the muddy roads, or other nitty gritty things, but overall it has been a great ride. Just like anything in life, the experience totally depends on what you make of it and I think I am ready for the new chapter in my life.

Intro To Blog

This is a new experience for me to create a blog page. I hope to try and keep this blog updated with new adventures that I have and new things that are going on in my life. I am not a big one into writing deep thoughts, I prefer to go out and do things than sit at my computer and write all day. Anyway, enjoy the below blogs and feel free to shoot me an email at matt.davies.m@gmail.com if you would like to chat with me.