Shanzhai Lu

My friend Shaun Rein wrote an op/ed today in Forbes called "The Great Recession Saved My Generation" reflecting on Generation X type stuff. I think it's worth a read and retweet. Mostly known for his talks and opinions on China and consumer market trends, I must admit I look forward to the ones where he gets out of China mode and shares his thoughts on stuff like this:

As I neared 30, I realized that many of my classmates were still living off their parents, or were crammed into little boxes with four or five roommates while slaving into the wee hours at firms like Goldman Sachs and Google. They had all gone to the right prep schools and the right colleges and had gotten into the right analyst programs at the white shoe banks, but they still didn't seem to be living up to their own or their parents' expectations. The vast majority of them were laid off at least once in the era of the dot-com bust, and several more than once. But still we didn't have a shared identity. The dot-com blowup only affected the more affluent swaths of America, and the hedge fund boom of the 2000s certainly didn't touch America's heartland.

Anyways, reading that made me want to write a bit about him today. See, I met Shaun back in 2007 when I was host and producer of a podcast for Entrepreneur Magazine called The China Business Show. I interviewed him for his China insight and we quickly became friends because he fit in my subconscious strategy of surrounding myself with people who make me look smart by association. He's a really sharp guy. And he knows it too as I sometimes think he gets some perverse joy out of reading comments from trolls trying to knock down his ego. But I digress.

Over the past several years, he's developed this talent for giving me advice on all sorts of stuff in my life that I always HATE hearing at the time. Even if I'm not asking for his opinion, he'll offer it. My business. My divorce. Raising my son alone. I think he's even thrown in a bit of dating advice that I never asked him for -- err, maybe that's why i'm still single. But that's Shaun for you. Yes. I said I HATE his advice. Not because I don't need it, mostly in part because it usually results in me going back to him 6 months later on one of my visits to Shanghai and telling him over coffee that he was right. I HATE feeding egos, but I'll always give credit where credit is due.

So yea Shuan. I know. You told me so. This blog post is my way of saying thank you.

Just don't let it get to your head.

:)