What I actually learned after I left New York

I left New York in 2017 after I sold. That was the start of the real education.

Since then I have been to about 49 countries. Not as a tourist checklist. More like living in places long enough to get annoyed, then get over yourself.

Patience was the hard one.

I used to get pissed when service was slow. Food takes forever. Someone is chatting instead of hustling. In a lot of places that is just how it works. Your New York clock does not travel with you. I had to learn to sit there and wait. Sounds small. It is not.

Respect for culture is the other one, especially language.

You do not need to be fluent. Learn hello, thank you, sorry, how much. People notice. They are nicer when you try. If you walk in speaking English like everyone owes you that, you stay a tourist forever.

And work is not everything. If anything, the opposite.

Spend time with your family and friends. Enjoy your life. The basic stuff teaches you more than another late night at a laptop. Those small habits show up in business later.

Over here relationships beat almost everything.

You can go to Starbucks and pay six or seven dollars for coffee and nobody knows who you are. Or you go to the lady on the corner who makes it outside her house. Word gets around that you show up every morning.

I go around four or five AM. Same lady. Two iced coffees. They all know me now. They say hi. They stop my kids when we walk around the neighborhood. That is how you get into a place. Not a pitch deck. Just showing up.

I have tried to do the same thing building Santara AI in Da Nang. We are working with the university here so we can hire kids locally and keep the company in this city. Product can go anywhere. Roots should stay here.

That is what travel gave me. Not some big theory. Just patience, a little language, and the sense to buy coffee from the same woman every morning.