In my 20+ years as a trainer/consultant/entrepreneur in Chinese Asia I have seen relationships ruined, opportunities lost and money wasted over culture. Poor decisions and actions caused by wearing the wrong cultural glasses.

Wearing the wrong glasses means not looking at a situation the way it really is, or how the person you are working with sees it. It happens in two main ways: you

	communicate or act based on what your experience or culture has taught you is right
	decide based on what you think should happen rather than analyzing the actual situation and deciding what can or is likely  to happen

Not only Westerners wear the wrong glasses: Chinese do too. It is a very natural thing to do.

I founded Treasure Mountain Consulting Corp in 1989 in Taipei to focus on two areas: management/cross-culture training and performance-improvement projects. In both areas my goal was the same: that those I train learn to see things through the appropriate glasses; that those I lead and consult to make decisions based on the actual situation.

In 1998 I moved TMC and my family to Canada (my home) but kept my ties to Chinese Asia, traveling frequently and emailing constantly. I also brought a little bit of China back with me: my wife Carol is Chinese.

My biggest professional compliment was being called "the most honest consultant I've even met." I think I get paid to say what I think, not just agree. Most clients like that.

Business success in Chinese Asia doesn't come easy. One cross-culture communication or action mistake by a trader, buyer or sales rep can hurt a relationship or ruin a deal; a cross-culture mistake by a manager can cost millions or destroy employee motivation. That's the bad news.

The good news is you can learn how to prevent (or at least minimize) cross-culture mistakes. It's not that hard. My job is make sure that you learn how.

Some government and semi-official clients are:

	OSEC (Office Suisse D'Expansion Commercial)
	Canada Asia Pacific Foundation
	Vancouver Board of Trade
	CETRA (China External Trade Development Council)
	Trade Office of Swiss Industries, Taipei
	Representative Office of British Columbia in Taiwan
	American Chamber of Commerce, Taiwan (AmCham)
	European Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (ECCT)
	British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (BCCT)

A partial list of corporate clients includes:

I believe the simple answer is usually the best. I find that people too-often look just at the Big Picture—working with Chinese—and get lost in how complicated the entire task seems to be. What they forget is that even the biggest tasks are completed one small step at a time ... and that each small step is simple.

The first step is to get a pair of Chinese glasses.

I'll tell you a secret: after a year and a bit I was really disliking life in Chinese Asia. Nothing was working right. I was thinking of leaving. Then one day I stumbled on the idea that different cultures use language in different ways to communicate. Wow! I started to look at everything again, but this time trying to see things the way I thought the Chinese saw things.

This is the genesis of everything I do now, and how I got my first pair of Chinese glasses. I doubt I would have stayed 14 years without them.