Sandy Hamilton - Perspectives

Get on Board the China love train

While on a rather long and exhaustive flight yesterday I got caught up on some reading, some statistics - I love statistics. In the Thursday US Edition of USA Today there was a little stat that should have caught your eye. 200 million Chinese children are learning the English language in school - WOW! Pathetically, only 20,000, that's right, twenty thousand US children are learning Chinese in school. Here are some stats that might have you pull your kid out of Spanish and have them reading Mandarin.

- First and foremost, the population of China is 1.5 billion - 300 million in the US.

- The Chinese economy grew at 9.9 % in 2005. In 2006 it grew 10.1%

- Chinese trade surplus was $109billion in 2005. US runs a $700billion deficit

- China has 111million Internet users, ALREADY!!

- China has 350 million mobile phone users currently. They expect 490million by end of 2006.

If you have a young child, and want them to be successful in business, have them learn Chinese.

Mind, Body, Spirit

A couple of years ago I started doing Bikrahm Yoga which I did for 6 months or so. I was in pretty good shape from it. Believe it or not it really does strengthen your "core" and build you from the inside out. I stopped because the local studio went out of business.

Today I re-engaged with Yoga as a part of my "you better get your fat ass, you're stressed out mind and your lost spirit" back in shape before you keel over routine going (drinking Tequila in Cabo only went so far). I've always kept "semi active", running, lifting weights, swimming, etc but more on an add hoc basis - hasn't done the trick. So today was Iyengar Yoga at lunch - and now I can barely freaking move. Tomorrow is Hatha Yoga followed by an intensive of Vinyasa Yoga on Thursday. I don't know if I buy all the "this pose twists your left kidney so you will now be enlightened through your bowel movements somehow" jargon but I certainly do hurt a lot from it so something must be working. 

Cabo San Lucas vacation was perfect!

Every year about this time, usually a day or two after Christmas, we go down to warm, sunny Cabo San Lucas for a week or so. It's a perfect time to do it, work slows dramatically, it's usually cold or snowy in Denver, and it gives me time to reflect on the past year and get recharged for the coming year. This year was no exception. The kids are getting a bit older now so there are more things to do with them. Here's Alec and I on the pacific side of the Cabo. We rented a couple of ATVs and had a blast!Rolling through a mountainous national park and descending to the beach on the Pacific side was amazing. Waves were breaking about 20' and the guide let us go wherever we wanted to up and down a 5 mile corridor. Very cool!There were 5 adults that had a child doubling up with them and Christine was solo - wild woman on an ATV!

We did the usual activities, adults out to great dinners a few of the nights (Edith's, Poncho's, LaDolce) which were all fabulous. Of course too much tequila and an overdose of fish tacos, guacamole and Queso Fundido are now being paid for through a new healthy eating regimen.  The kids always love going to MiCasa but the service is starting to wane given their new expansion. Here's the crew out one night (I think it was at MiCasas) and yup, that's a margarita in front of me. One evening we took an amazing sunset cruise around the tip of the Baja. I'd highly recommend doing that. We did New Years eve at Cabo Wabo - which was a blast. Golf was fantastic at the Desert and Ocean courses in Cabo Del Sol. The hammock at the beach under the palm tress called my name a few times allowing me the occasional nap and the opportunity to read "The Search" by John Battelle and "City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt. Both great books however I'd high recommend The Search if you're a tech guy or involved in a start up. It chronicles Googles rise to stardom along with all the twists and turns. So now it's back to life, back to reality (which I like just as much as my fantasy vacation). If you're planning to go to Cabo get a hold of me. I'd be more than happy to give you some recommendations. I've been going for the past 10 years or so now and know the landscape pretty well.