Scott Ragsdale

Navid started a running club in our Dubai office, “team naseba” and more than 25 employees in Dubai have joined this club and are training together.

Last Friday, ”team naseba” had 8 members run the RAK ½ marathon.

It was the first time any of them had run such a distance, but each finished the ½ marathon and none of them walked any part of the race.

Dino is from Croatia, Tom is from India, Fabien is French, Navid is from Iran, Anna is from Russia, Adella is from Czech Republic, Nancy is from the UK and Basel is Syrian.

I was very proud as I stood on the side lines and cheered for them.

Several of the team are running again in an another 10km race in 2 weeks.

At least 3 of the team who joined the running club have quit smoking, and have lost weight.
All of them have commented on how they are more “focused” than before.

Surely, this club is having a positive impact across eveyone in the Dubai office, even people who are not members of the running club, are being positively influenced.

…it is motivating to see how Navid’s running club is impacting the office.

What about your office?  Why not start a running club, or a cycling club and train together …

the power of positive support and influence.

Good job Navid.

For the past many days, the news sites I read in the American press have been clogged with stories about Whitney Houston. 

Although I find this woman’s death unfortunate, the truth is that her actions led to her downfall. 

But like many talented people, Whitney Houston failed to live up to her talent because of poor choices she made on the people she associated herself with. 

A classic example of someone who was brought down by a loser. 

Probably, more than ever before … losers are all around us.
And if you are not careful, a loser will get in the way of your climb, and potentially, cause you to fall. 

Reflect.
Look around you. 

Have you surrounded yourself with great people who are making you better?
Are the people in your life honourable?
Are the people in your life challenging you to live up to your potential; challenging you to be the best you can be? 

Whitney Houston is not a victim. 

Ultimately, she died because of the foolish, dishonorable actions she chose to make in her life.

However, her actions were surely, encouraged by the losers who got in the way on her journey. 

Losers are all around us….

Be strong .. stay focused.

Don’t let the losers bring you down.

A few days ago, I took a client who has become my friend/mentor (Robin’s biggest client) to dinner in Dubai.

For the past year, we have met every couple months or so in Dubai or Jeddah for dinner.  

The client is from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  Out of respect, I will leave him name less. 

Together we have enjoyed some of the best restaurants in Dubai.  

I emailed this client a couple weeks ago to tell him about a new “trendy” restaurant which just opened in Dubai, and how they claim to always be “fully booked.” 

He replied to my email simply, “then we must go.”  His assistant sent me the details of his trip to Dubai, and our dinner was organized. 

Of course, I got a table with no problem, and looked forward to our dinner. 

The British girl who took my reservations spoke to me as if I was lucky to get a table, and told me that I had to be out of the table by 9:30pm …
I chuckled at the brilliance of the simplicity … of making this dinner sound exclusive. 

This client is much older than me, and comes from a completely different world than I do, so I really enjoy the time I get to spend with him.  Not because he sponsors a few of our events, or introduces me to important people in Saudi … but because of stories and overall experience of just being with him. 

Anyways… 

I arrived to the restaurant before my client, and sat in the bar area as I waited for him. 

This restaurant is from the UK and shares the same name of what I have read is/or once was the most “exclusive” restaurant in London …

The restaurant looked empty which made me smile thinking of that woman telling me I had to be out of my table by 9:30pm

My client arrived, perfectly on time.
As usual he was dressed beautifully, in a kandura … I find his elegance motivating. 

After our normal greetings, our waiter escorted us to our table. 

We had an enjoyable time, and I ordered many dishes for us to taste.  During the meal, a woman came over and gently, presented my client a book from the restaurant.  A gorgeous book telling the history of the restaurant, as well as explaining in detail each dish on the menu.  

I did not tell anyone in the restuarant who my client was nor his family name, so I was surprised she gave my client this present.  

I didn’t get offered a book. 

The food was “ok.” 
Nothing to be considered as one of the best restaurants in Dubai (in my opinion)

But the waiter and waitress were very nice, and the service was good. 

When I paid the bill, I checked to see if they charged me for the book or not… I didn’t mind paying for the book, but was curious if they charged me – and they had not charged me for it. 

As we were walking out the door of the restaurant, with my client walking ahead of me, a waiter who had not serviced us came (literally) running out the restaurant, hurriedly, brushing against me to stop my billionaire client; a chairman who is from one of the most iconic families in all of KSA, and the waiter, in his mid 20’s grabs my clients arm to stop him and say “sir, you have not paid for the book.”

Really, the guy spoke to my client as if he was stealing… 

Gently, I took the book from my client and handed it back to the waiter … pointing out to the waiter that “I just spent nearly $500 dollars on only food and I was being chased like a thief for a $15 book that had been given to my client by the hostess of the restaurant…”

Luckily, I had not drunk any alcohol because surely, if I had a couple glasses of wine in me, I would have responded much more aggressively than I did. 

As we turned to go, my client nonchalantly said  “we should had gone back to Nobu.” 

Nobu Dubai…

I have eaten at all the top rated restaurants in Dubai, and from my experience the best restaurant in Dubai is Nobu. 

Even if you don’t like sushi or euro-asian food, the menu offers a variety of dishes that are always perfect. 

But what makes Nobu such a great evening is the quality of service. 

The General Manager of Nobu Dubai, Luke Bjoin has the service down to perfection.

Out of all the restaurants I have eaten at in the world, I rate Nobu Dubai’s service as one of the best (other Nobu’s I have tried are ok, but nothing compared to Nobu Dubai)  – easily, the best service out of all the restaurants in Dubai. 

If you live in Dubai, or if you are traveling to Dubai on business or leisure, I highly recommend you go to Nobu for dinner. 

For my loyal readers, this blog might seem flippant and banal, but there is a lesson to be learned from everything.

I will never go back to the restuarant discussed at the beginning of this blog. 

Service, and the handling of clients, now more than ever, must be priority number one, especially if you work in the service industry. 

Sophie arrived back from Kuala Lumpur last night, and tonight I am taking her for dinner to Nobu. 

http://www.noburestaurants.com/dubai/experience/introduction/
Nobu Dubai:  +97144262626

As the flu season is upon us, and many of my friends and employees are sick with the flu, I feel compelled to share a secret with my loyal readers… 

When I lived in Japan, I had a friend who told me that she never got sick – ever.

She claimed it was because she “gargled” after she brushed her teeth in the morning and at night. 

Intrigued … I started to gargle each time I brushed my teeth.

Remarkably, I noticed that I stopped getting sick.
Even during the flu season, I stopped getting sick. 

No joke. 

Now I am religious about my gargling … and gargle for at least 30 seconds every morning and every night before I sleep. 

Giovanna, my 8 year old daughter has witnessed me gargling since she was a baby, and I guess to mimic poppa she also gargles each time she brushes her teeth in the morning and at night.  She has done this for the past several years since she started to brush her teeth. 

She never gets sick.  I honestly, cannot remember her once being sick with the flu.

No joke. 

Sophie and Marie, my oldest daughter … they think I am crazy, and they don’t gargle … and both of them catch the flu each year. 

I am a fanatic with my gargling. 

If I notice my throat is beginning to get sore, or I have a running nose, I will gargle several times a day.

Crazily, the running nose and or sore throat will go away before becoming the flu. 

Also, I wash my hands many many many many times throughout the day. 

Again, Sophie and Marie think I am nuts because I wash my hands so much… 

But I do not get sick. 

In 12 years of being together, Sophie has never seen me sick with the flu … she has seen me with other injuries, but never sick. 

Unfortunately, Sophie caught the flu in Vienna last week and is a bit sick … and yesterday, she traveled to Kuala Lumpur sick.

For the past few days, I bothered her so much about gargling that she finally agreed to start gargling after she brushes her teeth.

Remarkably, in just 2 days, she has recovered from her flu, and feels 100% better since she started to gargle.

No joke.

Wash your hands many many times throughout the day, and gargle for 30+ seconds after you brush teeth each morning and night.

This is my secret to never getting sick.

 

 

 

This past Thursday, Sophie and I had a meeting in Vienna, Austria, and we organized to stay for a long weekend to experience the city.

Although I lived a couple of months in Tyrol, Austria last summer, I had not visited Vienna before this trip.

A great thing about living in Dubai is that many European cities are just a 5-6 hour direct Emirates flight away … I highly/fully/enthusiastically, recommend Emirates.  The best airline in the world.

After an easy 5 hour flight and because of a 3 hour time difference with Dubai, we arrived to Vienna around noon on Thursday.

We stayed at the boutique hotel “The Ring” which is in an ideal location, and overall our stay was perfect.  I recommend “the Ring” and we will stay there again when we go back in March.

Our first night, we went to dinner at Zum Schwarzen Kameel, “the black camel”… a restaurant that has been open since 1618, and the interior is the exact same since 1901 – same restaurant in the same building since 1618.  Incredible.  The restaurant was full by 8:30pm and the ambiance was ideal.

The food, wine and esp. the service was exceptional (our favourite restaurant of the trip)

After dinner, we walked for 30-45 minutes back to our hotel…a brilliant experience, and something I once would have taken for granted.

The streets were empty, and the walk at night through Vienna is gorgeous.

We had a successful business meeting on Friday morning, and then spent the afternoon walking around, and site seeing.

Vienna is famous for many things, especially its café’s, cakes, and pastries … I read that Vienna is the place where “filtered” coffee was invented, thus the café culture is strong with great café’s all over the city.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love to go to a cafe and read, smoke a cigar … and/or talk with friends.  I prefer to just go to a good cafe than to attend a sporting event, concert or even a nice restaurant.

My ideal weekend is to sit in a cafe, smoke as many cigars as I want and read….

Over the 4 days, we tried all the top rated cafes.

We had breakfast at the cafe Sigmund Freud once went to each morning for many years, “Café Landtmann.”  Great ambiance, but not our favourite cafe.

We had lunch at café Demel, a big, beautiful café which was the most crowded of them all.

Of course we went to “L’hotel Sacher” to eat a “Sachertorte” … the “sachertorte” is a special chocolate cake, and one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties.

By far our favourite café was “Café Central” which has the best hot chocolate I have ever had, and probably the best I will ever drink in my life.  Seriously, their hot chocolate is perfection … it’s impossible to improve the flavour.  I read in one of the guides that this cafe was once Lenin’s cafe of choice.

Over the 4 days, we enjoyed the Vienna café experience, however, you can’t smoke a cigar in any of the cafes … which is unfortunate for someone who enjoys cigars.

On Saturday, we spent 4+ hours visiting the Leopold Museum.

Sophie majored in art history, and her hobby is art – she knows more about art than anyone else I know.

Her favourite artist is Egon Schiele.

She’s talked to me about this artist since I can remember … there are many books in our home in France on him, she even told me about Egon Schiele on the very first day we met … back in Nice, 12+ years ago.

Vienna’s Leopold museum has the most Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt on display in the world.

We both (but esp. Sophie) looked forward to visiting this museum.

Unlike London, Paris, Florence, Milan, Rome, Venice … where the museums seem to be always crowded with tourists, there were very few people at the Leopold museum, so we had the museum to just about ourselves.

Incredible how close we could get to some of the most famous paintings in the world – as if the painting was hanging on a wall at home.

At the end of the day, we visited the “Academie für Bildenden Künste” museum which has Hieronymus Bosch’s, “The Last Judgement.”

We also saw several pieces by Rembrandt …
Again, you can physically touch the paintings (of course I didn’t) but I find it incredible such access is allowed to these masterpieces.

We spent more than an hour enjoying Bosch’s “The Last Judgement” … we got so close to it that we were able to see all the incredible detail of the work.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around the city.   Brilliant experience.

Our last evening, we went to a great wine bar … in the basement of a gorgeous building that our waiter told us is “several hundred years old.”

The entire 4 day experience was great, nearly perfect.

Upon reflection, and my motivation for sharing this blog is to point out that in fact, over the 4 days of our long weekend …. Sophie and I didnt do much. 

We just enjoyed walking around the city, sitting in a cafe, reading newspapers or visiting a museum — we just enjoyed the experience of Vienna.
……………………………………………………..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna

http://www.theringhotel.com/

http://www.kameel.at/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachertorte

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Schiele

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Hieronymus_Bosch