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Another person who significantly shaped my mindset was Prof. Grossfeld. Prof. Grossfeld taught company law when I was a student at law school. He always emphasized in his classes the significance of developing an international perspective. He always pushed his students to look beyond the rather restricted world of the German legal system. To illustrate his message, he once invited the German ambassador to Iran to one of our classes, who had been one of his students. Prof. Grossfeld always emphasized that he would be in business in Hong Kong if he were twenty years younger. (That was about twenty years ago). However, he did not only talk the talk. He also walked the talk. After becoming a qualified lawyer in Germany, he did an LLM at Yale. He also taught regularly at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Prof. Grossfeld is another example that you get a little more relaxed and nonchalant when you spend some time living and working overseas. After graduating from law school, it was overdue for me to get out of my rather provincial home town Munster. I should have left a lot earlier. However, better late than never. My first destination was Dusseldorf. Dusseldorf In Dusseldorf
I worked as a law clerk for an international commercial law firm. Unlike
the United Kingdom and France, the German economy is rather decentralized.
The financial and commercial hubs in Britain and France are London and
Paris. In Germany there are several of them. They are primarily Frankfurt,
Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf. The law firm I worked
for is based on Konigsallee, which is one of the most elegant and expensive
shopping streets in Germany. On Konigsallee there are also a bunch of offices
of international law firms, investment banks, and management consultancies.
It was my first step into a bigger world.
Miami I continued my practical training as a law clerk with a law firm in Miami, Florida. The law firm I worked for is based in Coral Gables. Coral Gables is quite an upmarket residential area in Miami. There are also a bunch of international companies headquartered in Coral Gables. While I worked in Coral Gables, I lived in Miami Beach, more precisely in South Beach. Both the ocean and nightlife were virtually round the corner. However, if I returned to Miami, I would probably prefer now to live in Coral Gables. The ocean and nightlife are no longer that important. Your priorities change a little in the course of time. In Miami I had to learn to walk and act more or less confidently at an international level. Work revolved around foreign trade disputes with Latin America. It also included researching and preparing an article by the managing partner on real estate law. As a US – lawyer in Dusseldorf had given me the advice to develop an understanding of trusts and estates, I did this sort of thing as well. Moreover, the managing partner and other attorneys regularly took me to all sorts of meetings in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Even though I had learned English at school in Germany for nine years, my English language skills did not really deserve to be called fluent. I needed a dictionary to get my work done. One morning one of the female attorneys was sighing in her office. When looking up the word in the dictionary, I found two verbs – to sigh and to groan. So I just yelled from my office to her: ”Annakaye, why are you groaning”? A second later on, a few secretaries and attorneys were virtually on the floor laughing their heads off. There was no doubt that I had picked the wrong word. As one secretary put it: ”Women only groan in bed”. Many years
later on, after spending loads of years in the English speaking world,
I am now more fluent in English than in German. It has taught me another
lesson: Again, the lesson is quite simple. If you are keen on really learning
a foreign language, you have to live and work some time in a country where
the language is spoken. In English classes at school, I learned to read
and interpret Shakespeare and Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”. But
I did not really become fluent in English there. Just spend some time in
a foreign country and you will learn the language more or less automatically.
The outfit he set up in Johannesburg is a legal, business and management consultancy with an emphasis on cross – border mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. My work there revolved primarily around drafting shareholders’ and license agreements as well as other agreements for this sort of business activities. It also included some work on currency and investment details like the Financial and Commercial Rand. Readers who are familiar with the business environment in South Africa may recall that the South African currency was artificially divided into the Financial and Commercial Rand to attract foreign investment. However, in our little chats every now and then about all sorts of things my boss in Johannesburg once made a remark I now agree with. It is another lesson that I have learned. I even included it in my remarks for a students’ yearbook this summer when students asked my to write something for their yearbook. Again, the lesson is quite simple. But it is beyond many people’s ability to comprehend. It is this: In terms of work, do what you want to do. Do what you identify with. Money will come automatically as a by – product. Do not choose a job or a career because you reckon that it enables you to make a bundle.. Auckland All the things mentioned above did not really prepare me for my job in Auckland. My job in Auckland revolved primarily around selling and marketing medical insurance to businessmen. A little more precisely, the purpose of the exercise was most frequently to replace insurance policies from companies whose premiums had been skyrocketing with policies that were more competitive in terms of both premiums and cover. As the New
Zealand business environment is very deregulated, a bunch of insurance
companies and brokerages were trying “to get a foot in the door”. Most
of them were trying to use income protection or key man insurance as a
door opener because there was more money to be made with these products
in the short term. As often, I did not follow the crowd and used medical
insurance as a door opener because there was a market for competitive medical
insurance. Once medical insurance had opened the door, every now and then
it also led to income protection or key man insurance. But not always.
The key is sometimes to do things differently and deviate a little from the rule. For example, when you live in the tropics why should you have your classes always in the classroom? Every now and then it creates a pleasant change to have the class outside on the lawn. Concluding Thoughts Life is very exciting for some people. Life is less exciting for other people. It often depends on what you make of your life. Life of some people is less exciting because they are afraid. The author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” – Robert Kiyosaki – speaks of the fear of ostracism. According to Robert, the fear of ostracism is the fear of being different. In New Zealand it is called the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. In investments the fear of ostracism results in the thundering herd mentality. Just look at the dotcom bubble. We can also call it the stupidity of the crowd. The point of
all this? Do not be afraid of being different. Do not follow the crowd.
Do find your own way. My favourite musician put it very well in one
of his songs. His name is Johnny Cash. The song is “I Walk The Line”.
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