I grew up in a family business. My father manufactured furniture in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) on the continent of Africa. My dad was a craftsman who made beautiful furniture, but he knew nothing about sales. I watched his business struggle for years, not because he didn’t have a great product but because he didn’t know how to present it to buyers. In short: He couldn’t sell. My father’s struggle led me to a life-long journey into the question “What makes people buy?” I got my first job when I was 18 selling J. Lyons tea and coffee from a van to small retail stores in Salisbury (now Harare) the capital of Zimbabwe. I did that so well I was quickly promoted by J. Lyons to England here to selling doughnuts and cakes off the back of a van in East Ham, London. My career progressed to Fleet Street, where I sold advertising space for trade magazines. Eventually I had gained sales experience in real estate, freight services – even cosmetics! I immigrated to the United States in 1978 where I began doing sales consulting and professional speaking, based out of Miami, Florida. This has been my career for the last thirty years, and it’s taken me around the U.S. and the world.The long and winding road in sales gave me the understanding and insight to write a blockbuster business book called Brain $ell with Tony Buzan in 1995. Brain $ell became an international bestseller, with 20 foreign translations.Today, more than ever, in order to be successful in this very trying economy, you have to be able to sell yourself. It’s not a question of products or services; it’s simply you, doing what you do best in a way that gets people to notice.Working in Shanghai or Sydney, Johannesburg or Toronto, Miami or Chicago I have made two major observations: One, people are more stressed out than ever; and two, many people lack the ability to handle everyday workplace situations. Together with my co-author, Vanda North, who has made similar observations on her global travels, we came up with the 50 most common situations and how to handle them. Our book Mind Chi: Re-Wire your Brain in 8 Minutes a Day, Strategies for Success in Business & Life, addresses all these issues and more. It's the first business book with an easy-to-understand–and-apply, permanent (hard wired) process on how to make productive business and life changes.A great believer in “get the person right and the world will come right,” Mind Chi is our contribution to the important task at hand.