Archive for January, 2009

Back to England

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

And so I am back in Old Blighty – England.

Living in Thailand was fantastic and I am pleased with my months living and working there. But I got a good job offer from England, plus the situation in Thailand was not so stable with the airport blockade (300 000 people stuck!), protests, grenades, shootings and the king not in the best of health.

New Year’s Eve was super – I was on Khao San Road. It’s one of my favourite places in the world. There is so much going on and it is unbelievably international with backpackers from all over congregating there. It’s friendly, good value and has a terrific vibe.

Whilst sauntering up Khao San Road, I spotted Angel Caido, and old sarging buddy of mine from London and Hong Kong. He used to work in China and has now moved to Thailand. It really is a small world.

Before that, I was scuba diving on Koh Tao island with my LTR. It was superb. I think I posted about it already.

So being back in England is weird. The weather is freezing, it’s dark a lot, the genetic quality of the chicas is way down compared to anywhere except Scotland. Ouch. After living in HK, Thailand, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Germany it mildly distresses me to see English fatties who don’t cut the mustard avoiding taking even rudimentary steps towards femininity.

Having said that, I am reminded of my ‘big fish in a small pond’, theory. It works like this (and I’ve followed it successfully for years) – one works in a rich country for 6 months/a year/two years and then move to a developing country to live for months at a time. In the developing country your savings from the richer country last 2-10 times a long. You can therefore be a big fish in a small pond. You can live the good life for rather little PLUS the chicas dig your exotic genes (or is it your exotic bank balance – that is when you have to screen THEM out).

I’ve lived this way in Spain, Thailand, Czech Republic and Poland. I almost did it in Croatia too but got another big pond job offer back home. Of course, this depends on your work and qualifications but I am lucky enough to have the experience and skills to work almost anywhere in the world. And I have. The problem is too much choice. South America appeals to me next simply because I like Spain and South America is a vast area which I haven’t explored at all. Also scuba diving in Egypt and Maldives and Canary Island would be great to do.

So for the moment I’ll sit out the cold in England, knowing it will warm up sooner or later. For now, I am trying to sort out an apartment. I think I have found one in a good sargey location – central and classy. Once I am moved into the new place and settle at work, I’ll be able to check out the local scene in a more dedicated way.

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Story Telling

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Story telling is, in my opinion and experience, a really useful ability for sarging and for sales and for influencing people.

I was at a bookshop tonight in Bangkok and noticed an interesting book about using story telling to improve your powers of influence.

The back cover summarises the structure of good story telling:

1. PASSION to make your listeners care about the outcome2. A HERO to drive the action

3. An ANTAGONIST to challenge the hero

4. A moment of AWARENESS where the hero realizes how to overcome his or her obstacles

5. TRANSFORMATION wherein the hero accomplishes his or her desired goal

The structure makes sense to me. Flicking through the book, I saw they talk about the importance of tonality and facial expression. I’ve found that I can talk about nothing and as long as I have the passion about what I’m saying, I can usually draw the person in.

What about the hero part of it? Is the hero usually US? Or is that bragging too directly? I don’t think so. It is possible to make ourselves the hero without letting the person know we are bragging. I think it is more useful to think of us a the protagonist who is revealed as a hero at the end of the story. The story format allows us to show qualities in our character which are admirable, rather than having to brag directly and say how good we are. Also if the person can imagine the qualities we have herself (rather than us telling the person directly we have the quality), it tends to be more influential because they think it is their own idea.

Who is the antagonist? Is it an ex-GF who we booted out – shows we are choosy about girls. Is it an AMOG we had to deal with? I suppose the antagonist helps us to define the qualities we want to show we have. Any more ideas on the nature of the antagonist? I suppose it doesn’t have to be a person, it could be a challenge we faced.

And the moment of awareness – is this when we put 2 and 2 together and got 5? Something to show we can think outside the box or shows we are creative. My experience tells me that when you can throw a curve ball here and reveal something that the listener wasn’t expecting, you can gain a lot of attraction and pump buying temperature. The moment of awareness could let you stack stories i.e. ‘and just then I remembered something that happened to me when I was at high school … there was this guy in our class … ‘ Stacking stories helps hook people too and can help develop a trance like focus.

The transformation is what? When the listener of the story sees you in a new light. You pull everything together and describe how other people saw you in a new way, thus prompting your listener to see you in that way too.

Of course you could use this story telling approach to social proof a wing man.

Many of the successful times I have influenced people, especially when I’ve hooked girls solidly, I’ve told stories and had them riveted. When combined with elements of pattern language, I find the power of stories is increased greatly.

The book is called The Elements of Persuasion.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Persuasion-Storytelling-Better-Business/dp/B001FOR5LC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230907636&sr=1-1

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Thailand New Year

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

I just got back from going diving on an island in Thailand. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years. Finally, I got certified as a diver and breathed underwater for the first time (but not in that order!)

Scuba was amazing. There were so many tropical fish once you go under water. It was warm, the instructor was good, though I had to train with two other guys who were childishly inventing their own buddy hand signals under 18 metres of water. In the end, I passed the exam with 98%

There were tons of people to meet on the island. So many Swedes! I got to practise my Swedish and befriended a Swedish guy who was there with his wife and kids. Hot wife, hot daughter. We’ll stay in touch and see each other in Sweden perhaps. I was with my LTR, after all. The weird thing is, when I got his email address, it was actually his WIFE’S email address. Go figure.

There was a fire in a nightclub in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve. Thankfully, I was nowhere near it but it was not too far from where I am living in Bangkok. Instead, I went to Khao San Road (watch The Beach with DiCaprio, if you want to see this area). It’s one of my favourite places in the world - so many people from so many countries. Anyway, I was hanging out there and who should I meet? Angel Caido from England. We’re old sarging buddies from my Hong Kong and London days. It turns out he is living in Bangkok now too and we both had the idea to sarge Khao San Road.

We hung out, hit some clubs and worked some German, Austrian and American sets. My LTR was wondering where the heck I was and when I got home her first words to me were ‘Who is she’? I explained Angel is a guy not a girl.

I’m heading back to England in January. It’s weird to be leaving Thailand because I am used to it now and like the weather, the food and the people. But I have to earn, earn, earn and I can’t do that here. Plus it is not the most stable of places politically at the moment. I got a good offer from England and even though England is cold and dark at this time of year, it makes sense to take the offer, at least for a while.

Thailand is certainly a place I’d come back to but maybe just to travel round and relax. I’ve done 3 months of work here and I’d much rather spend 3 months on Khao San Road or an island doing scuba or closing Swedish wives.

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