Every issue of ACHIEVEMENT DIGEST® contains articles like the one below.  For your free subscription, click here HOW TO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS By Gene Griessman, Ph.D. www. achievementdigest.com   (Excerpt from a new book in progress) OVERLOOK THEIR BLUNDERS If you would like to do business with Americans, make it your business to understand them.  In general, Americans do not know very much about history or international affairs.  They are too absorbed in the present and focused on the future to spend much time thinking about the past.  And too much is happening in America for them to think long and hard about what might be happening elsewhere.  However, Americans like to make money, and more and more Americans are aware of the opportunities to be found in international commerce.   Most are late-comers and poorly equipped for the venture. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do” was not spoken with Americans in mind, but it certainly is a realistic attitude to have when you deal with them.  The United States is a huge, focused-on-itself marketplace.  Its people don’t recognize that other inhabitants of the continent have a legitimate claim to the word American.  They will admit that there are South Americans and Latin Americans and that Canada occupies a big chunk of North America, but in their minds there is only one people known as Americans—without any kind of qualifier.  Indeed, the world has generally acquiesced to this act of cultural arrogance. Only the exceptional American has a deep knowledge of other cultures.  The American educational system is notoriously weak when it comes to teaching geography, world events, or history. Year after year American college professors bemoan the ignorance of incoming freshmen. An appalling number of college freshmen don’t know the difference between Austria and Australia.  When asked to identify Muhammad, many will tell you that he is a great boxer.  (That changed a bit after September 11, with a brief flurry of interest in things Muslim, but for the most part the learning that took place was brief and superficial.) The overwhelming majority of Americans do not read newspapers. Less than 30%, including those who read very local papers, and that number is declining.  Even those who read most big city newspapers don’t learn much about what’s happening elsewhere in the world.  Except when there’s an overseas conflict that involves Americans, only a few American newspapers devote much space to international events. If Americans don’t get international information from newspapers, there’s always CNN, other news channels, and network TV.  But fewer than 5% of America’s TV sets are tuned to the news channels except during a sensational trial or a major crisis.  The networks, which have many more viewers than CNN, do not devote a significant part of their news programming to international topics—again, only if there is an overseas conflict that involves Americans.  For most Americans, TV is a medium for entertainment. There are news magazines that cover international events, but again, only a minority of Americans read them.   Their circulation figures are in decline too.  Please keep reading.  Clicks to more exciting and valuable information is at the bottom of the page. Many American companies are newcomers to international business. The American market is so huge that most companies until recently have concentrated on domestic sales.  They have avoided the international market because they deemed it unnecessary or because they lacked the requisite knowledge, and considered it too costly to acquire it.  That is changing.  American business is globalizing rapidly.  The new mantra is free markets.  American businesses are outsourcing and revving up sales and marketing abroad.  Mergers and acquisitions by foreign companies are increasing the rate and level of contact.  Americans know that they will have to learn to do business in a new environment. A significant number are reading, taking seminars on international business, and hiring consultants.  Some Americans log tens of thousands of miles traveling to international sites every year.  A few Americans even become serious students of the cultures where they do business. They fall in love with those cultures and become life-long students.  In short, Americans are becoming better at global business, but they have a long way to go. Most of the cultural blunders that Americans make when dealing with international businesspeople are just that–blunders.  Americans are too friendly a people to deliberately offend, and too pragmatic to do anything that might jeopardize a profitable relationship.  So, if an American businessperson offends you by something said or done, more than likely it was just a blunder.  Don’t take it personally. Every year Gene Griessman does scores of seminars and keynotes for business groups and associations.  If you'd like to know more about his seminar on social trends, the future, and strategic planning, click here.  He also does executive coaching and seminars for business people who want to understand Americans better.  He resides in Los Angeles, but does coaching and seminars internationally. For information, call 310-822-1864 or send an email to gene@achievementdigest.com If you would like to be notified when How To Do Business With Americans is published, please send me an email at gene@achievementdigest.com.  Just tell me to notify you. Click below for more informative and interesting pages: Abraham Lincoln quotes More About Abraham Lincoln: Resources For Further Study Is George W. Bush the next Abraham Lincoln?  Lincoln-Bush compared George Washington quotes and commentary on leadership style Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt quotes and commentary on leadership style War quotes Ronald Reagan quotes, exclusive interview "The Diversity Creed"; Why I Wrote "The Diversity Creed" Diversity: How To Make Diversity Work In Your Organization Remarkable Similarities Between President Abraham Lincoln And  Benjamin Franklin Ronald Reagan: His Big Break   Exclusive Interview The Lincoln-Roosevelt Connection Civil War Quotes: U.S. Grant's Leadership Style How To Do Business With Americans:  Forgive Their Blunders The Americans:  Who Are They And How Did They Get This Way?   For information about Gene Griessman's much-heralded Abraham Lincoln portrayals, click here Every issue of ACHIEVEMENT DIGEST® contains articles like the one above.  For your free subscription, click here