[ID:0885]An international banker who has worked in the Middle East for several years tells the following story of how working overseas became his career because he was open and flexible to new methods of working. He began to enjoy the life and came to prefer the working environment in the Middle East to North America.
“Come for a day, stay for a lifetime! I went to Saudi Arabia in 1992 at the age of 52 to work on a seven-month project. As events and circumstances unfolded, I remained there until 2004 and then moved to Kuwait. It was not planned; it just happened. I found that I thoroughly enjoyed working with the Saudis and I really came to appreciate their sincerity, consideration, trust and willingness to learn. I put a lot of their cultural awkwardness and weaker business acumen behind me because it was obvious that they were learning fast and were catching up quickly. I still work with the Arabs in the Middle East and I find that I prefer their method of doing business to many of the methods and behaviors of westerners.”
