And there are plenty of factors that have to come together for this statement: Let’s start with Tiger Muay Thai itself. The camp is amazingly well organized. There are 2.5 hours, twice a day structured courses every day for every level, from bloody beginners to really advanced pros. But there is much more than Muay Thai to it. There are daily Yoga classes at 6.30 am, “Body Fit”-courses at 9 am, weight training as well as several other martial arts experiences. Be prepared that every class will put at least equal emphasis on building up stamina as it teaches technique. Especially the 2.5 hours felt for my fitness pretty shitty. But every day a little less shitty :-)

Pricewise, a full package for a week costs 3,000 Baht (~ EUR 75), for a whole month 10,000 Baht (~EUR 250). That’s indeed for the „all you can eat“ package including usage of weight room, spinning bikes, boxing bags at your own discretion. What is more, you get to train with former Muay Thai Champions, 1:1 with personal attention to grow your skill level. 36 of them are working in the camp. Think of being able to train boxing with Mike Tyson. That’s what you get for Muay Thai for an hourly rate of 600 Baht (~ EUR 15)!

Interestingly, the entire Jaofa 50 road seems to have evolved in a comprehensive „eco-system“ at whose centre sits Tiger Muay Thai. The camp itself again is very service-oriented and can arrange for accommodation, a scooter or excursions at discounted prices. But interestingly, there are plenty of independent businesses that have sprung up in a 200 m walking vicinity. You’ll find small cosy family restaurants that offer a meal for around 100 Baht (EUR 2.50) – even with emphasis on healthy, light nutrition -, massage spas that will squeeze the pain out of your sore muscles and really lovely guesthouses. Myself, for instance, was staying in Floraville, a beautifully set garden with a fish-pond for 7,000 Baht (EUR 175) per week – in peak season.

The entire mood at Tiger Muay Thai is just right. Focused, yet not rigid. It’s functional with attention to hygiene. People I have met there we all easy to talk to, relaxed, nobody smoked or drank, but was rather eager to order the next protein shake. It’s neither a boot camp where you get screamed at nor one of these metrosexual fitness studios in western cities with their omni-present vanity. Last not least, nobody asks questions if you don’t show up. Hey, ultimately, you are on an island of one of the word’s last living paradises, Thailand. There is plenty to do if you feel you want an escape from your training routine. From a lazy day on one of the beaches, to a boat trip to another island, to a mountain walk to e.g. The Big Buddha, cruising with the motorbike, going for a dive or check at one of the plenty adventures that Phuket has to offer.

Two points, though, for improvement: First, food at the camp’s own “Tiger Grill”. It’s somehow efficient, but also pretty awful. Had by a huge margin the worst “steak” in my life and the other cooked stuff was also nothing to write home about. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect 5 star cuisine, but Tiger Grill aims to “provide meal items that are designed to give our guest the choices they need to maintain a healthy and optimal diet while training at Tiger Muay Thai“, says the website. Reality is by no means living up to the promise. On a constructive note, alternatives are in close reach: any of the small family-restaurants on the road, as mentioned above, will be much tastier and healthier and not necessarily more expensive. My favourite was Chillana where Annamay Phurisa will cook phenomenal home-made Thai dishes.

Second point affects a consistent level of teaching skills with the trainers in 1:1 sessions. No doubt that all of them know Muay Thai very well. My last trainer, Komrit (picture above), was in my view the best from a didactic standpoint. He would immediately see where I stand and have me do techniques for my level. If he saw that I was screwing up, he would make me repeat the same set 4, 5, 6 times until it looked good. Then he would do other stuff to return to the same technique to check if it had sunk in. Perfect. I believe with a systematic “train the trainer”-initiative, Tiger Muay Thai could bring this piece of the experience to a consistently higher level.

Yet, these are really minor things compared to the entire experience, which was absolutely stellar. On a side not, being co-founder and MD of Brain Pirates, a social media consultancy, Tiger Muay Thai is doing an amazing job in using all possible tools and platforms from their own website, YouTube or Facebook and feeding it with relevant, exciting content. I recommend to “Like” their Facebook-page and I am sure by their daily stream you’ll get the appetite to give it a try.

One thing I lost at Tiger Muay Thai which, however, I don’t miss at all: fat. I wouldn’t yet be able to run with the hardbodies on Jaofa Road, but aiming to come back for more is a good reason to work (out) towards it.

Wie jede Blüte welkt und jede Jugend
Dem Alter weicht, blüht jede Lebensstufe,
Blüht jede Weisheit auch und jede Tugend
Zu ihrer Zeit und darf nicht ewig dauern.
Es muß das Herz bei jedem Lebensrufe
Bereit zum Abschied sein und Neubeginne,
Um sich in Tapferkeit und ohne Trauern
In andre, neue Bindungen zu geben.
Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne,
Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft zu leben.

Das ganze Gedicht gibt es z.B. hier. Ein gutes Neues Jahr und möge jeder im neuen Anfang seinen ganz eigenen Zauber finden.

We were greeted by Michael Langer (left in the suit, Christoph on the right (no suit ;-)). Usually Captain Michael Langer, who just yesterday returned from Johannesburg commanding a Lufthansa Airbus A380.

In his second life he’s an instructor for Lufthansa pilots who are regularly training in the simulator especially all types of odds like system failures. On the way to the flight simulators, we came across high-tech cabin simulators where especially cabin crew receives training for emergencies. (All the pictures, by the way, are here on this Flickr-set).

And, here they are, the flight simulators, priced around EUR 12 mn each, established on four hydraulic double legs which allow for three-dimensional movements. So far the theory.

Yet the practise, admittedly, exceeded all the expectations I ever had in theory how real and realistic the sensation effectively would be. After getting seated and briefed in a couple of basics, Michael “placed” us on Runway 26R of Munich Airport and told me to apply full throttle. The Airbus A330 started to move, we felt both the bumping effect of the runway and the acceleration being squeezed into our seats. (How it’s done: The cabin of the simulator banks backwards, however as the eyes see the horizon still straight, the equilibrium organ “believes” that there is a an acceleration happening in the plane.)

At 140 knots I rotated the nose with the Airbus-typical joystick on my left and kept a pitch of 12 degrees and the plane took off smoothly. Commanding “gear up”, Christoph pushed the lever up, we accelerated further, retracted the flaps, climbed out to 6,000 feet, levelled off and continued to fly in southerly direction towards Austria. The spheric impression of three dimensional space looking out of the six window feels close to flying really through the Southern Bavaria.

At some point Captain Michael (the real one, in his simulator command console sitting right behind us) changed the weather to “passing through thunderstorm”. Suddenly, we were in the clouds, and we got shaken to the point of slight motion sickness.

Next and all of a sudden, sky was blue again and we were set on the final approach to Nice Airport in France. See the two illuminated lines through the window, we were supposed to land on the right one after crossing the bay and overflying a cruise ship (chicks in bikinis on the upper deck to be imagined ;-)

The first time, I screwed up as the inertia of such a huge plane – unlike the small propeller planes I usually fly – tends to build up when applying too much impact on the rudders. hence making the aircraft difficult to control. At least I saved our lives with a go-around …

Second attempt was easier as Michael set the approach speed automated to 150 knots, I did not have to bother about the power, so I just focused on the flight director on the navigation panel. 50 ft above ground which get announced by an automated voice, I set the power to zero, the automated voice commanded “retard, retard”. (Yes, I know, it’s me). I  slightly lifted the nose applying back-pressure on the stick. My touch down was quite hard, though. And again, amazing simulation hot thoroughly we could feel the bumper through our spines.

Approach number three, fully manual, was really a good one, despite strong cross-wind from the right which Michael added. With getting some feeling for the inertial of that huge beast, I basically forgot that I was flying an Airbus, and just did a visual approach as I would do in my little VFR-flying: Keeping the direction of plane towards the centre line and controlling the descend rate with the power. Shortly before touch-down I pushed the left rudder to align the axis of the plane with the centreline and lifting the nose a bit up. The bird just smoothly sat down, I pulled the reverser power up, we again physically felt the deceleration. Finally, I applied the brakes before the plane came to an organized standstill on the middle of the runway 04 of Nice Airport.

Overall, a once in a lifetime experience, also thanks to Michael who is not only a phenomenal aviator, but also a cool guy who doesn’t miss out on a good joke.

By the way, in case you are interested in going through the same experience, just drop me an e-mail under rene.seifert {at} gmail.com and I’ll be happy to connect you to him.

Yep, that’s The Leibertinger, just after heroically landing in San Teodoro (Sardinia) on a short grass field. If you listen to the sound, you would hear the flight director in its robot-like voice repeat: “Warning! Terrain-Terrain!”. That’s because the Garmin GPS system doesn’t know about such small airfields and believes that you’re just about to ram the aircraft straight into the ground. But it went better than that :-)

For take-off we had done lots of calculation if the length of the runway would be sufficient based on our weight, temperature and height of the grass and even defined a point to abort the take-off if we had not reached at least 50 knots. Here The Haasinger was Pilot-in-Command and did a phenomenal job in accelerating the plane, lifting it off effectively using the ground effect, accelerating further before assuming a stable climb.

This one, however, is by far my favourite. The Leibertinger again in command, me sitting to his right side (but all credit & glory to him, he did it all). This was a small airstrip some 800 meters above mean sea level in the mountains of Sardinia, no living soul around. It was clear to us that the length of the runway could be just enough for landing, but not way to get the plane up in the air, especially due to the trees just at the end of the runway. Still, we didn’t want to miss out on that one, so we did a thing in between called “touch & go”.

Kudos. The trees below, the plane above. Exactly how it should be, and never mind the margin between the two.

What we do? We call it Social Media Branding. What is different to other consultancies in that space? We believe that we understand Facebook, Twitter and blogs quite well, but they stand at the end of the process. What matters more, that Ray and me bring combined more than 30 years of experience of marketing, communication, media, branding, operations and business building to the table. Hence, we are able to advise very clearly how and where Social Media fits into a clients’ bigger picture of integrated communication. Last, but not least we can both recommend and implement on the execution level how this whole concept will fit well within his often complex operational framework.

Founding Brain Pirates GmbH has been a natural step both from the obvious demand side of the market and a couple of assignments which Ray and I have had in the past two years. Where we can help concretely is in a modular end-to-end approach for clearly larger organizations.

• High level, kind of “philosophical” explanation what Social Media stands for. It is still surprising to see that many companies are literally standing on Ground Zero.
• Devising a tailor made social media strategy which fits into the broader plans of the client’s marketing and communication strategy.
• Setting up tangible metrics and KPIs (=Key Performance Indicators) against which to benchmark progress and success.
• Providing a comprehensive overview of best practices which would spark innovative change within the clients’ organization.
• Setting-Up creative concepts which are centered around Social Media, but would be thoroughly integrated into all other channels in reach. Online and offline.
• Building software like Facebook Apps, websites and other enabling connectors.
• Running campaign on the operational level from communication on behalf of the client to online advertisement on social networks.
• Employing a variety of exciting software tools in the market which facilitate the publishing- as well as the measuring part.

And of course, iterating over and over throughout the process to just become better. We are very excited to take this company into the market today. We have a webpage here and a Facebook Fanpage, too. We like if you like. Any feedback is – as always – highly appreciated. And if there is anything we can help you in that space, let me know :-)

As it was the first time to this island for me, I decided to come two days earlier and do a little bit of sightseeing, mainly into the surprisingly high mountains up to 1,900 meters …

… as well as trying out the local cuisine which is famous for its “Meze”. Shared dishes which keep on coming in endless numbers and makes. Apparently, me including, every foreigner on his first time consistently commits the same mistake: Eating too much in the beginning and then facing complete paralysis when more and even more food is arriving to the table.

The Island-Republic has been for decades an attractive destination for Russian tourists and investors alike: The single biggest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FTD) into Russia comes due to favourable holding- and taxation structures indeed from Cyprus.

Our hosts were enormously hospitable who made our stay a truly memorable experience. During the gala dinner on Sunday evening, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Dimitris Christofias welcomed us …

… after which inspiring and funny conversations with other attendees extended way after midnight.

On Monday, in fact the major day of the event, there were a couple of “all hands” plenary sessions with CEOs and ministers of state as well a plenty of parallel “break out-sessions” for a more intimate exchange. Like last year in Madrid for the India-Meeting, I had the honour to moderate a session about “Creating Innovation Capacity” with eight distinguished participants on the panel.

In the nutshell, a couple of issues pertaining to Russia:

• Assumptions from foreign businesspeople that Russia is operating like a Western country are strongly overstretched; one needs to know how to navigate the system with all its intricacies.
• Political regulation changes frequently, and not always for the better.
• Russia has strengths in R&D, yet deficits in devising products and services out of this, also with sub-standard abilities downstream when it comes to marketing and sales.
• Russia’s strongest GDP-driver, natural resources, is both a salvation as it is a curse: It lacks the necessary “eco-systems” (benchmark: Silicon Valley) to allow other truly innovative sectors to emerge in order to contribute to a better diversification of the economy.
• Russia possesses a healthy self-awareness about its strengths and weaknesses and has set up a variety of private and public initiatives to foster exchange to gain best practices.

This appears to be especially true after the financial crisis where the government is listening better than ever to entrepreneurs how to be serious about the necessary implementation of change.

Thanks Frank for once again putting a great program with inspiring people together, hope to see to see you soon at one of the subsequent events.

And on a personal note: Thanks to Davor, from Les Clefs d’Or- Concierge from LeMeridien in Limassol who helped me within 18 hours print my forgotten business cards and held some true insider tips for the best local dining in the area ready. “Hvala vam ljepa na vasoj pomoci, Davore”, – who originally hails from Bosnia and with whom I proudly conversed in our mother tongue Serbo-Croatian. That’s globalization at its best as it comes with the touch of home … :-)

Let me explain here on my blog in a bit more of a conversational tone what we are up to. We are global publishing network writing stuff that matters for our life, in particular the various lives of each of us. You might be familiar with Edward de Bono’s concept of the various hats we should put on during decision making. Similarly, on a broader perspective in one’s life somebody might be a teacher by profession, have a family with a lovely wife raising two kids. But there is more to life than the obvious on the surface: This human being might be an avid guitar player, enjoys going for a hike in the mountains and really love his food. That same person will find help, advise and entertainment for his various lives like in a magazine as a teacher, spouse, parent, musician, naturelover and foodie. Check out our overview of all the lives we are writing for.

Here’s the deal with „global“ for our publishing network. I’ve been living and working in various continents for the last years where I dare to say that I have a fairly good understanding how to assemble a business that brings together the best pieces from each part of the world. Our company is incorporated in London (U.K.), a big chunk of our operation runs out of Bangalore (India) with an international team, the design for aMillionLives.com has been done in Poland, our writers hail from India, the Philippines. Our users as we know from our logfiles appreciate our content from all over the world, the U.S. running with 60 % at the forefront.

Where does the name MillionMiles Media (MMM) come from? Two simple explanations: I was looking, no surprise, for something that sounds somehow cool and has „Media“ at the end. If you check out every freaking word on this earth in combination with „Media“ at the end, the domain is taken by some filthy domain-grabber. So extending the query to two prefix-words, landed me with MMM. Second, I liked it because last year with all my travelling I had crossed the mark of a million miles in my frequent flyer programme.

Yep, that’s my news of the day. Happy about every feedback, good or bad, sympathetic or just pathetic. If you like our Fanpage on Facebook or moreover, place a link from your blog or site to aMillionLives.com, I’ll include you in my evening prayers – hands duly folded. Promised.

Really speechless about your attention for my 40th birthday today. As I don’t think I can do justice to each and every of you so say “thank you”, here’s my little video message from Zurich (Switzerland) – a perfect place for a middle aged man to find the necessary support systems.

Thanks again and hope to see you soon, best
René

I’d like to illustrate this on a small example which happened yesterday during boarding with Lufthansa in Frankfurt. My purpose is both to use this public display as part of a complain which I have filed, but also as an illustration of a broader picture which I see emerging.

When I arrived to my boarding gate B23 for my flight LH 754 from Frankfurt to Bangalore yesterday on February 04th 2011 via direct transfer from Zurich, I requested at the boarding gate an upgrade from Economy to Business Class thanks to my abundance of miles in the Miles & More programme. The German tall guy behind the counter, let’s call him by his initials E.H. said „Yes, if you have miles.“ He went to his computer, went through the menu and replied: „Sorry, it doesn’t work, your ticket class doesn’t allow for an upgrade.“ End of the story – for him. I retorted that I didn’t believe this was accurate, as I had upgraded myself successfully on the TO-sector.

I grabbed my mobile phone, called my always super-duper-customer-oriented Lufthansa-agent Vignesh Mohan in Bangalore who has been immaculately serving me in the last 3 years. He immediately picked up and explained to him the problem, he replied that he believed, too, the ticket was upgradable, but he would cross-check in the system and call me back.

Time was running out as I was the last passenger at the gate, the German guy and his female German colleague didn’t bother to even look at not to mention look after me once. Vignesh being Vignesh kept his promise, called me back after 2 minutes from India and confirmed: “The ticket is upgradable.”

What came next is really the point for my anger and the illustration of the different attitudes. I was polite and relaxed, went over to Mr. E.H. with my phone and said kind of: „I have Vignesh on the phone, your Lufthansa colleague from Bangalore, I suggest you both talk to each other in airline-lingo with all your ticket-codes to sort things out.“ He again wouldn’t even look at me, lest try to find any solution. Instead his female colleague stepped up to me and said in a super-annoyed way: “Well, it doesn’t work this way, we would have to call the ticket counter.” – Expectedly my response was: “And why don’t you do it?” She went on with: “Next time be a bit earlier with your upgrade request.” I turned back to E.H. and asked him why he wouldn’t talk to his colleague in India. Brief answer: “I in general don’t talk on a mobile phone.” Wow, that’s a rare mix of impressive and progressive.

Contrast that with Vignesh who was still on my ear and grasped the full sense of urgency of the situation and said: “René, give me a couple of minutes, I’ll sort things out from India.” I don’t know what Vignesh did, but magically after minutes the upgrade went through as smooth as silk. All fine, but I really got annoyed by this pathetic behaviour from the German Lufthansa team and announced that I would complain against him and asked for his name. He wouldn’t even have the balls to tell me, so I had to bent over and read it from his name plate. The grand final of the scene were his good bye-words: “But I just want to let you know that I am not the responsible load manager.” Bingo. This says it all: Zero attitude translates to zero responsibility which translates to zero civilized behaviour.

I do not even want to stretch the terms “customer orientation” too far and I don’t even intend to play my black card being a HON Circle member. This is just not a manner to behave. And being an entrepreneur I am safe to state into Lufthansa’s direction that you simply don’t want anybody like E.H. doing any customer-facing jobs. This was not his one time-failure, it’s an attitude problem and he’ll never get it.

Compare that to Vignesh’s attitude and action, and I am happy to conclude that we need more of the Vigneshs being allowed to play a much stronger role on the global economic stage and replace the E.H.s ideally yesterday. And please nobody tell me that this was – prominent German term – “unsozial”, i.e. not in line with social considerations.

Picture Source: Flickr.com / Andres Rueda

I was lured into the seminar with the bait of “speed reading” and what I got went way beyond. Our trainer, Ruth Wenger, founder and CEO of the Swiss company Alphaskills opened up a completely new world to us. Ruth has been professionally involved into research, studies and moreover practical application of human consciousness for the last 30 years.

What is all of this about? From a starting point, we all have to digest a lot of reading material for professional purposes. Our seminar on “Informations Management” was geared towards increasing both our efficiency and effectiveness in doing so. It is worthwhile to pre-empt that “reading faster” is only one piece of the entire puzzle:

1. First, one is supposed to screen the material and decide if it’s really relevant. The decision to dismiss an article is sometimes the most effective way of all.




2. Then, preparation for reading is supposed to scan over the content to get an idea of the structure. This would apply for an article as well as a book.




3. Goal setting: Formulating and setting of an objective what should be known/learnt/achieved after having read through. (“After reading this book, I want to have a better understanding how to apply global innovation into my company.”) This is indispensable for directing one’s brain onto the right path and indeed quite a change to “let me just see what’s written in there.” This can include setting up the primary branches of a mind-map, which is very conducive for the right brain that will come in charge for the next step.




4. This one is entirely new for most of us: Putting oneself into the “Alpha-State” through an imagination/breathing-technique. This is no cosmic yadda-dadda, but something that can be measured during EEG in a frequency spectrum between the state of external awareness and that of dreaming during sleep. In this meditative “Alpha State”, the mind is relaxed, yet alert and very much receptive similar to a dry sponge.





5. Next comes the actual “speed reading”: Letting ones eyes flow over the text by pulling the eyes over it. Rather vertically top down than jumping over each word line by line. Therefore text printed in rather narrow columns is particular well suited for this technique. It is surprising how much one will perceive via this scanning technique, which relies broadly on our ability for peripheral vision.




6. It is not prohibited, rather the opposite, to slow down and read in the regular, also called “digital technique” to absorb some facts and data really, really well, as long as it serves the objective set under (3). At this point, one might also get back to the mind map and continuously enhance it with more branches and relationship.

This technique worked astonishingly well for me. I was able to increase my speed from 450 words per minute (which I got told was a lot anyway) to 1002 words per minute in our last exercise. In a longer exercise, we got 6 times 5 minutes (deliberately these 30 minutes were broken down with interruptions) to get a gist of the book I had brought: C.K. Prahalad’s “The New Age of Innovation”. It was surprising to observe on myself that I got more than just a fair idea what the concept of the book is about by following the Alphaskills-methodology. I guess I’ll invest another 30 minutes into that book and will then happily put it into the shelf as “done”, whereas I would have at least needed 4-5 hours to read it in the old style.

It is worthwhile noting that reading a poem or a novel will not follow this strategy, because the beauty of the content lies in their linguistic nuances. However, after rigorously practising the technique it is well known that it will also speed up the time for such leisure-reading without compromising on anything.

All in all, a highly recommended experience with a phenomenal highly experienced trainer Ruth. After the 2-day seminar there are in addition different online-modules to be worked on from the company’s website in order to increase the level of practise. This online curriculum will last for the next 8 weeks and start for me right now.