Special For Forbes: A Business Travel Story About Mexico

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, or know me in person, then you know I’ve worked and lived in Mexico and South America and traveled many other places besides. My time in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela was spent first with KPMG Consulting, then JP Morgan, and later BearingPoint. Between 1997 and the end of 2001, I was the PMO Director for the Year 2000 project for JP Morgan in Latin America and then a Managing Director for BearingPoint in Latin America, responsible for the Industrial, Automotive, and Transportation practice in the region. After a two year stint at Jefferson Wells as their Central Region RVP, I went out on my own, back to Latin America and ran my own consulting firm, supporting other professional services firms doing business in Mexico.

Mexico is my great love. At one point I thought I might move to Mexico City. That plan is on hold. But I never stopped traveling there and I’ve never stopped loving the land, the culture, and my Mexican friends. Working and traveling in the region changed my life. I have many memories of Mexico – and the rest of Latin America – that will stay with me forever.

So I jumped at the chance to contribute to a Special Report at Forbes, On The Road: The Pleasures and Pain of Business Travel. My piece, Glimpses: Cuernavaca, Mexico, June 2005, is about attending the wedding of a client’s daughter. The piece went through an editorial process and the copy editor chose the photo. She could not have selected better if she had come over and taken a picture of a pair of my shoes with my feet in them. The polish on the toes, I am guessing, is Lincoln Park After Dark, a favorite of mine.

The punchline to the story can be summarized by the words of the immortal Fernando, the lounge-lizard character made popular by comedian Billy Crystal:

“It’s better to look good than feel good.”