Building three extraordinarily successful businesses while traveling in over 80 countries, author Ron Cruse had more than his share of adventures. Operating worldwide in almost every headline grabbing hot spot of the last twenty years, Cruse developed simple yet profound lessons vital to his accomplishments. Garnering invaluable insights from his dealings with a cast of unique characters - a gentle Sudanese, a Harvard educated Saudi, a Masai guide, an Indonesian shopkeeper, a Russian cleaning lady, an Iraqi driver, and many more - Cruse realized that an understanding of culture is elemental to business. From the unusual array of characters Cruse discovered culture affects perceptions, actions, thinking, communication, legal frameworks, even danger; creating cultural chasms that can make the most ordinary of events turn bizarre. Without the guidance of the astute lessons Cruse formed to overcome the steady, always whacky, barrage of lies, bribes, and perils that are the real challenges of global business, success is virtually impossible to attain. Not only are Cruse’s lessons critical for the businesspeople selling their wares in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East, but in today’s fickle and sometimes shifty corporate world, these simple lessons can pay big dividends in the United States and Europe as well.