Israel

Last year my wife and I spent the Christmas holiday in Italy. It was a fantastic trip, and for me Rome is among the best cities in the world. It would be tough trip to beat.

This year we decided to spend the holiday in Israel. We have a lot of Israeli friends in London, including some of our best friends, and hearing them talk about their country got us excited. We decided to rent a car and spend 10 days driving around the country, starting in Tel Aviv, going north to Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee, going south to the Dead Sea and then driving west to Jerusalem before heading back to the airport in Tel Aviv.

Before diving in to our trip, I’ve found that many people don’t know much about Israel, including myself. So here are a few facts about the country:

Population: 7.5m
Size: 8,500 square miles (about the size of New Jersey)
Borders: Lebanon to the north, Syria to northeast, Jordon to east, Egypt to southwest
Ethnic groups: 75% Jewish, 21% Arab, 4% minority groups
Languages: Hebrew, Arabic (with English widely spoken and written on nearly all road signs)
Currency: New Israeli Shekel; 1 USD = 3.8 NIS

Tel Aviv is known for nightlife, good restaurants and nice beaches. Not a bad place to start. Our hotel was one block off the beach, and we drove from the airport to our hotel with ease (thanks to our trusty GPS). The next morning we stopped in a cafe across the street from our hotel and quickly figured out why Israelis are so particular about their coffee. It was excellent. In fact, over the following two weeks nearly all the coffee I drank was excellent. The Israelis are known to have a coffee culture, and now I know why.

We met up with friends later that day and they took us for a tour of the city. Our evening started at a cosy wine bar that only serves champagne/sparkling wine. After a few bottles we went to a brewery for a taste of the local beer before heading to dinner at a restaurant called ‘The Place of Meat’ (how can that be bad?). The next day we met some other friends for brunch on the Tel Aviv Port, which is on the northern side of the city. It’s a modern boardwalk on the beach with shops, restaurants and cafes, and it was packed with people enjoying the sun on the final day of the weekend.



That afternoon we drove north to our friend’s family’s house. They live in a kibbutz. Many people have no idea what this means, so I’ll take a stab at explaining it. A kibbutz is a type of community in Israel. It’s a neighbourhood that supports the collective best interest of the people who live there. The people who live in the kibbutz receive income and housing not based on how much they earn but based on how much they need to support their family and how much the kibbutz has to offer. Traditionally a kibbutz earned money through farming and agriculture, but today some kibbutz communities also earn money through manufacturing. This means some are wealthier than others, and the level of wealth translates directly the overall living standard of the people who live in the community. The kibbutz we stayed at had farming and agriculture in addition to two manufacturing plants, one of which manufactured high-tech equipment for the military and hospitals. As a result, the community was very nice – a brand new Olympic size swimming pool, tennis courts, playground, restaurant and art museum (where we took a personal tour, and it was amazing).

This is the view we had from our room at our friend’s house:



On our last night at the kibbutz we heard on the local news that the Israeli Army would be flying test missions with their fighter jets in the area. We heard them flying, went outside and saw one jet fly really low overhead, and since it was dark the jet’s after burners lit up the sky as it flew into the distance. Very cool.

Changing gear a bit, Israel has many important Christian sites (and important sites for many other religions too). In Nazareth, where one of our friends grew up, we saw the site where Mary lived, and where Gabriel visited her to tell her she would give birth to Jesus (Church of the Annunciation). We made a day trip to the Sea of Galilee, where we saw the site where Jesus was baptized by John, where Jesus gave the sermon on the mound and where Jesus fed thousands of people with fish and bread. Jerusalem has many more religious sites, but that’s later in our trip. First, the Dead Sea.



The Dead Sea is a big lake in the middle of a desert (Jordan is on the east and Israel and the West Bank are on the west). Its shores are 1,385 feet below sea level, the lowest elevation on earth’s surface on dry land. The water in the Dead Sea is 8.6 times more salty than the ocean, which means it’s really easy to float. The water feels different too, it feels oily. I was excited to have a float. Little did I know how difficult it would be to NOT float – keeping your body upright is not easy. Unfortunately we didn’t take any pictures of us floating, but you would have seen us lying on our back motionless, head flat on the water, soaking up the sun.

The other must-do activity during a trip to the Dead Sea is seeing the Masada, an ancient town on the top of an isolated plateau where Harod the Great lived between 37 and 31 BCE. There are two ways to get to the Masada, 1) on a cable car that takes about 2 minutes to get from the base to the top of the mountain, or 2) an hour hike up the side of the mountain, on a trail called the Snake Trail. Of course we chose #2, and we decided to start our hike at 5am in order to see the sunrise over the Dead Sea from the top. It was the right choice, and the sunrise was epic.





After two days of relaxing at the Dead Sea, we were off to Jerusalem. After an hour and a half drive we arrived in the Israeli capital – the traffic was bad, but the city’s skyline was littered with historical buildings, and as we drove along the wall of the Old City I knew it was going to learn a lot over the next couple days.

We arrived in Jerusalem on Christmas Eve, and we found a Christian Christmas Eve service at the Jerusalem International YMCA right next door to our hotel. The service had standing room only, and it reminded us of the services we grew up with back home. Afterwards we went across the street to the King David Hotel, a Jerusalem landmark. On the floor of the hotel’s lobby are names and signatures of many of the hotel’s famous guests, including six U.S. presidents, five British prime ministers and numerous movie stars. It was a perfect place for having a drink and snack before going to sleep.



The next day we took a tour of Jerusalem in a bus with a local guide. In the morning we went to one of the most memorable places of our trip, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum and Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was an eye-opening experience in a number of ways. In the afternoon we walked through the Old City of Jerusalem. One highlight was the traditional location of where Jesus was crucified, prepared and buried in the cave. I say ‘traditional’ because there is no way to prove the exact location, but this is the place where Christians from all over the world come to visit and remember Christ.



It was Friday, and as the sun went down the Jewish Shabbat began. Around that time we were visiting the Wailing Wall, an important Jewish religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem, and inside the gated area we no longer were allowed to use our cameras. Before visiting I didn’t fully understand how much the city complies with the Shabbat. On the Shabbat no work is allowed to be done (in fact, I learned there are 39 prohibited activity categories), and we saw this first hand at the restaurant for dinner. The menu was entirely cold food. I ordered a simple sandwich that came with fries, but when my meal arrived I had crisps on the side (can’t use a stove). It was interesting to us, who come from a country that separates religion and state, to see how intertwined the two are still today in Jerusalem.

We drove back to Tel Aviv the following day, visited the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (which had a lot of modern art by local artists) and flew back to London. We had a great trip, and I hope more people now can understand how much Israel has to offer visitors!

John Mack on Leadership

Last month John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, went to Wharton to describe what it was like to work during the chaos of September 2008. His talk is about leadership during crisis, and I can think of few people who are more qualified than him.

I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get him to speak at LBS...

Oktoberfest 2009

Oktoberfest in Munich should be on everyone’s ‘list of things to do before I die’! What an event – it’s your lovely local fair on steroids. Over 16 days some six million people make their way to Munich for the festival. It started in 1810, originally as a wedding celebration, and continues today as a festival most widely known for beer drinking, but in reality is much more.

We landed in Munich mid-afternoon, and after an easy train ride to our hotel we promptly made our way to one of Munich’s famous beer gardens, Augustiner-Keller. The beer garden holds a modest 6,000 people, and I imagine just under half that number joined us that Saturday night. We ate good food, enjoyed good beer and met a lot of people.

The next day we showed up to the Oktoberfest at 11am, without a tent reservation. If you’ve been before, you understand that this is not good. If you haven’t been before, let me explain. If you want to have a beer in one of the main tents you need to have a seat in that tent. The best way to ensure this is to get a reservation. But reservations are incredibly hard to get, so you need to show up at the festival early in the morning to get in line to grab a seat in the general seating section. The general seating section usually fills up by 10am and the tent shuts its doors, and if you get one of those seats you usually don’t leave the tent for the rest of the day. So, showing up to Oktoberfest at 11am without a reservation is not recommended.

All of this is negated with a little bit of luck, and fortunately lady luck was on our side! We walked in to the Schottenhamel tent (find some more info on the tent here and here) and chatted up one of the men guarding the reservation tables. For some reason he liked us, so he gave us a table for the next 2 hours until the next reservation showed up. Perfect! That’s all we need, most reservations only are for a few hours anyway. After a few hours, the next reservation showed up – turned out to be a few older guys who have come to the Oktoberfest for the last 15 years. We asked them to join us and they were happy to do so! So for the next 2 hours we remained at our coveted table, enjoying the live music, singing, dancing, and having a great time with our new friends. About six hours after we arrived at the tent (and about six hours longer than we thought we could stay at the tent) we decided it was time to go ride a few roller coasters before calling it a night.


On our final day in Munich we got a chance to enjoy the city itself. We went to the Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel, took a tour of the Residenz (one of Europe's most significant museums of interior decoration), walked through the Viktualienmarkt (the popular Munich market) and went for a stroll through the English Gardens (where we went to yet another beer garden, the Seehaus).

What a trip!

For my 30th birthday Jamie took me to the French Riviera, where we stopped in Marseilles, St. Tropez, Cannes, Eze and Monaco. Southern France is a beautiful part of the world, and I highly recommend visiting the area so you can see what I mean.

My most memorable experience was not walking the marina in St. Tropez, it wasn’t visiting the world-famous Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco and it wasn’t the breath-taking Mediterranean views along our drive on the coast. All were incredible, and each offered insight into why southern France is a destination for so many people over the summer months.

My most memorable experience came on the morning of my birthday, when I got behind the wheel of a Ferrari. It was a red 360 Spider, and it’s a special creature – the car stunning to look at, but that’s not all. Its 400 horsepower catapults the car to 60mph in about 4.5 seconds and its handling allows you to throw the car in to just about any corner without worrying. Oh, and the sound of the 3.6 litre V8 sent a tingle down my spine every time I touched the gas pedal.

The fantastic thing about this experience was the perfect alignment of what I wanted to do with the car and what I was allowed to do with the car – for me it was simple, I wanted to abuse a $250,000 super car. I wanted to make it go as fast as I possibly could and I wanted to make the car corner with little consideration for any consequences. Lucky for me, the French man who rode with me was happy to comply. We were a team. He pointed out the police station, told me where we should ‘keep the engine quite’, guided me through the corners and told me when I could ‘really get on it’.

This was a great way to begin my fourth decade of being alive. Maybe after another four I’ll own one of these beautiful machines!

The Ultimate Road Trip

A good friend is riding a motorcycle from Atlanta, GA, USA to Buenos Aires, Argentina this summer. It’ll take him 67 days and he’ll ride around 20,000 miles. He’s sharing the experience through a blog, which you can check out here. He’s posting videos in addition to writing some excellent commentary (some videos are taken using a helmet cam).

It’s an amazing undertaking by an amazing guy – I’m looking forward to following him along the way.

The Summer Internship

Last week I started my summer internship. I'll be spending the next two months working in the private equity industry, an area of the financial world I find incredibly interesting. Undoubtedly I'll learn a lot, and I'm certain I will meet plenty of smart people with brilliant investment minds.

As a result, I probably won't be posting too much on my blog, but I'll continue to update my Twitter (see right) with random thoughts on just about anything. Have a great summer!

The First Year

Yesterday evening, following a Capital Markets & Financing exam, the first year of my MBA at London Business School came to an end. For me, the year was an absolutely incredible experience, and marking the end of the year came with many emotions (in addition to a few pints at the Windsor, the unofficial LBS pub). (The photo above is my Stream after the final first-year class.)

The people who surrounded me over the past 10 months are from all over the world, offer many unique experiences and perspectives and, most importantly, have become great friends. We sat in class together, travelled together and socialized together, and while not everyone got on well, we all challenged each other and along the way learned a thing or two from each other.

Now we’re all headed in different directions. We’ll be doing different things over the summer – some will stay in London while others will be leaving to work or travel. Some people will be working at the investment banks, others will be consulting to big companies and some will be starting their own business. I’m happy to see some of my classmates doing great things outside of the business world, from helping to organize the 2012 Olympic Games in London to working with non-profits in Africa.

Last week we welcomed the MBA Class of 2011 on campus for Admits Weekend. It seems like just the other day when I wrote this blog post about my trip to London for Admits Weekend. How time flies. I met a lot of nice and interesting people, but I am confident that they will not be as good as the MBA2010 class!

So what’s my advice to those people who may be considering an MBA? Like Nike says – just do it! You’ll learn a lot, but more importantly, you’ll meet people who you’ll know for the rest of your life. These people probably will be some of your closest confidants throughout your career, you may do business together, you’ll definitely challenge each other and you’ll become great friends.

Revisiting LTCM

Long Term Capital Management is widely recognized as one of largest disasters ever to hit the global financial system. A hedge fund founded by senior members of Salomon Brothers, LTCM came in to existence in 1994 and for four years delivered exceptional returns to its investors. Then, in 1998, the fund lost $4.8 billion when its bets started going sour following the Russian crisis.

Eric Rosenfeld was a trader at LTCM, and he recently spoke to students at MIT about his experience at LTCM. In this candid perspective Rosenfeld attempts to explain the facts of the LTCM collapse. Here is the link to the interview.

My technological revolution

I have a blog, I network with people using LinkedIn, I share my life with friends via Facebook and I tweet. A year ago I did NONE of these things. So what happened?

First off, I no longer work 12 hour days, so I’m sure the extra time has something to do with it. But there’s more. It’s interesting to me to see how the way in which we get information and share information is changing. I started my blog to share with my family and friends the experience of moving to a new country, travelling around the world and getting an MBA. Now, after integrating Twitter in to my blog (see right), my blog is the centre of my online footprint. I imagine the content and the way in which I use my blog will continue to change as time passes. The fun bit is that I have no idea how it will change, I just know it will.

For me, the most fascinating of these different technologies is Twitter. There is something very fundamental about expressing what’s happening in your life in 140 letters or less. When I joined the ‘Twitterverse’ I had no idea how interesting, useful and fun it would be, nor did I fully appreciate how much I would use it as a source of what’s going on in the world.

The Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN competition to see who could gather 1 million Twitter followers is a testament to the popularity of the service, and provides evidence of the power of the technology. (Here’s a link to the story, and here’s Ashton counting down to his victory) For a celebrity like Ashton Kutcher, or any celebrity for that matter, the ability to immediately connect directly with fans completely empowers them and eliminates the need for fans to rely on other forms of media as a source of information. I wonder what this means for TMZ or US Weekly? Will tabloids exist 5 years from now?

I also follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter, another early adapter of the platform. When Lance broke his collarbone during a race in Spain, I didn’t hear about it first on the news. I didn’t read about it on ESPN.com. I read about it on Twitter. Levi Leipheimer, one of Lance’s teammates, posted updates regarding Lance via his Twitter. I learned that Lance was released from the hospital when Lance himself sent an update and photo on Twitter. By the time the traditional news picked up the story it was old news. This is a great example of how Twitter is changing the way news reaches people.

There probably will be more innovation in media, and I’m sure the way in which the world deals with information will continue to change. That being said, I don’t know if I can handle much more. I can barely keep control of the various platforms I use today, let alone what the future has in store for us.

Skydiving

Humans are the only animal that voluntarily put their life at risk. I joined the ranks of this crazy group two days ago when I jumped out of a perfectly functional airplane 15,000 feet above southern Nevada.

The emotions surrounding my first skydive were incredible – worry, fear, excitement and anxiety, and that’s all before I arrived at Vegas Extreme Skydiving Saturday morning. The airplane we flew in was very rickety, made a lot of noise and normally would be quite scary, that is if you’re mind isn’t pre-occupied by thoughts of jumping out of it a few minutes later.

Somehow I got the pleasure of going first, which required me to sit right next to the door. After the fact, I think it was good to go first. My friends were the last ones out, and the thought of watching everyone else toss themselves out the side of the airplane probably would have raised my heartbeat above an already dangerous level.

Immediately after leaving the airplane, the feeling of fear and anxiety turned to excitement. Then, 10,500 feet later when the parachute opened, that feeling of excitement turned to satisfaction, relaxation and enjoyment as the likelihood of me making it safely back to earth increased significantly.

Did I ever think that I would go skydiving? No. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely! I would encourage anyone to do this at least once, even if you're scared.

To put the risk in perspective, the company we used, Vegas Extreme Skydiving, has been around for 7 years and has never had an accident. Also, a few of the instructors I met have over 20 years of skydiving experience and around 20,000 jumps a piece. While it only takes one mistake to mitigate all this experience, these few little facts helped me feel a bit more comfortable before my jump.

Richard Hytner at London Business School

A few weeks ago my class welcomed Richard Hytner, Worldwide Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi (the advertising company), to LBS. Richard joined us as a guest lecturer in our Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities course. Overseeing 150 offices and 7,000 people, Richard helps to lead one of the world's largest creative organizations, and his task at LBS was to help us find our inner creative being.

Richard's session focused on how teams can foster creativity, and he blessed us with some excellent tools to assist our brainstorming and creative process.

After the class I realized that Saatchi & Saatchi was responsible for a great television commercial currently running - the T-Mobile "dance" commercial filmed in London's Liverpool train station. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then take a few minutes and watch the commercial here.

I actually was in Liverpool train station when this commercial was filmed. On my way to a meeting, a few classmates and I walk from the tube into the train station to see the ENTIRE PLACE DOING THE TWIST! Not exactly sure what was taking place, we stood by and watched for a few minutes before moving on. It was fun to watch, and we left Liverpool station with a smile.

Another LBS MBA TV Episode

And this time yours truly makes a cameo appearance...