The wall

Hi everybody, how are you doing?

We´re close to the end of the first week of this new world age and it seems that for Mexico there are some really interesting opportunities. First on the week we had some executive orders from the new president on our north neighbour to initiate to land some of his electoral promises, among them, the construction of the famous wall. Later on and from the same point, we received some friendly messages, about how important was the relation for both sides. And finally, once again a hard and confrontative message. And of course, we have some people on every position. Those considering that the best way is not to open any dialogue and those saying that not doing it is worse for Mexican interests.

I don't have neither the information or the knowledge to make my mind. So I will simply say that, generally speaking, sitting to talk is always a better idea than not sitting to talk. By dialogue we can always get some information about our needs. And what is that we need? Well, we need to understand which ones are our neighbours' real plans. Once we have some extra information, we will be in a better position to make our minds on a more solid base.

But we are not here to solve our representatives issues. That's their job and besides, I don't really think they will take us into account on their decision making process. We are here to try and learn from this to our day to day. So let's land this and let's take a look on our options.

I'm sure that each one of us has a similar situation on our day to day. Something that, at first sight, does not look well. I can tell you something from my side: this week I got a transit ticket for holding my cell phone while driving. I was not texting or even talking, I was simply revising the settings because it was consuming a lot of battery.

Let's go over the obvious on the situation: I shouldn't use the cell phone while driving and much less for something that had not urgency or importance at all right then. That's the first level learning and the fine gives me a good reminder so it doesn't happen again. By the way, the immediate reaction on the sanction was anger. Nobody likes it when somebody makes you see you did something wrong. But once I overtook the anger and learned what was to be learned, there is a lot more to explore. New opportunities arise.

The US is leaving the TPP, most probably will include some NAFTA conditions equivalent to an invitation to leave it from our side (the same that our fellow canadians have already decided) and for sure the financing on the famous wall will remain an issue. Let's go step by step.

The whole wall thing is more an statement that a real issue. If this guy is half the good negotiator he claims to be, for sure he is using this to keep our attention from the real goal on the negotiation. This is a national respect issue, not really something relevant from an economic perspective. So let's assume that there will be no payment at all and let's leave the discussion to go on. Let's focus on the important issues.

Mexican exports are depending today on a great amount on the northern neighbours and they are at stake by the revision on the NAFTA agreement. Where's the opportunity there? Let's take two steps back. There has been a lot of information about cars manufacturers. Let's look for some facts. The main car manufacturing companies worldwide are, in this order, Toyota (Japanese) and Volkswagen (German). Behind them comes Hyundai (South korean) and then on the fourth step comes GM and Ford right behind. Something keeps coming to my mind: the first two companies, by far much bigger by market sales share than the others, are from countries that have already made their statements on this relation to the north neighbours. And they have stepped on Mexico's side. Japan, through their ambassador, has mentioned Mexico as the best place in the world for Japanese companies' investments. Germany has already sent a message to the president of our neighbours warning him about how his ideas won't help to improve their economy. Volkswagen has also made their mind: they stay here.

I'm wondering: wouldn't we be obsessed with the girlfriend we were to drop and, as she took the decision before, we are trying to get her back because her rejection hurts?

Think about it. When the US stepped back from these agreements they opened the door for others to take their place. And they have. China and Japan have already said that the TPP agreement goes on. They are interested. I think that Mexico is also interested. Probably the new conditions for trading with our north neighbours won't be as attractive for investments on Mexico willing to take the products there. But probably Mexico is still a profitable place to invest for selling products in the whole Latin America. And don't get me wrong, of course I'm aware that the interesting market is above, not below. But this is only one of the options. For sure it's possible to find a way to make better and cheaper products, to be sold in Europe, here in Mexico than in China or Japan. Maybe even is more profitable to develop some products in Mexico than in Europe. There are very talented engineers here and they are much cheaper than the german or english ones.

Summarizing, when the officer stopped me and informed me that I was to be finned, I got angry. Then, once he told me how much was this to cost me, I got even more angry. But after a few minutes I begun to think. Anyway, I was to blame on that, not the officer. I was responsible for what was going on there. The decision for using the phone was mine. So I got back behind the wheel and begun to think about how to take something good out of the situation. First I recalled the reasons for not to use the phone while driving. That, as I said, was the immediate learning. And it's a very important one.

Then I made my mind: since I'm not going to use the cell phone, I'll be much more into driving, what's there for me? Some of those benefits have already appeared over these two days:

• I'm enjoying much more the music I'm listening while driving.
• I've become aware of many people surrounding me on the traffic and the different ways they take to cope with it. Each one of those ways has teached me something.
• I've found in my way some things that I had not seen: buildings to which I had not paid attention, restaurants, coffee shops,...
• I've had a lot more time to think. Nothing really interesting has come into my mind, but this is no longer for lack of time. What could be the reason then?

 Let's learn, my fellow friends, on this situation. These are the main ideas:

• stop paying attention to the distractors and focus your efforts on what really matters.
• take your part of responsibility on the situation and use that "response ability" to find new opportunities behind the current situation.
• keep your mind open to the possibility to replace one solution with several solutions that added will take you to the same goal.
• stay alert, keep on searching for opportunities at each step.

Well, I must leave you, I've got to go and cancel my flight tickets to Washington...