Chapter 1
The importance of international trade of goods, services, religion, and ideas truly could not be stressed enough. This is pivotal in the advancement of humankind back when cars, planes, and mass transportation were not even ideas yet and centuries were still counted in the single digits. If we think about it like this, globalization has been around for centuries and shows no signs of stopping now that international transportation has become exponentially easier since the eighth century. The only difference from then and now is that there are more options of goods and services that are traded in a fraction of the time. Instead of paper and spices, we now trade smartphones, cryptocurrency, and vaccines. Whereas it took weeks to transport one good from one side of a country to another, it now takes a couple of hours on a plane.
Ultimately, international trade was around far before we were alive and will continue long after we are gone. But, for all the entrepreneurs out there, there is an opportunity that exists now that allows you to capitalize on the scientific and technological advancements that have come before us. International trade has evolved into international business.
Putting the International in Business
Now, international business is often thought of as selling a good or service in a different country. I’d argue it’s not. This definition is so sheltered; it is only a shadow of what it could be. In this book, international business is everything international, everything business. In my interview with Monte Woods, the former CEO of OPUS Agency and longtime Vistage member, he said, “International business is just normal, and the world has grown small even if you’re selling just in the United States, chances are you’re trying to attract an international audience.” So, no matter if we are talking about selling a good or service in another country, sourcing ingredients or resources from another country, incorporating a new idea, strategy, or process that was inspired from a different country, or selling something that exists in one part of the world in another part of the world, it’s all international business. But, if we really step into the light of the twenty-first century, we’ll quickly find that international business really just means business.
We now have a digital silk road that anyone can access to gain knowledge and information about things they’ve never known about before. We have overseas transportation that allows entrepreneurs to not only ship products anywhere in the world to their customers, but also import resources to create their goods or services. We have unparalleled opportunity to travel around the world and witness different ways of life and unique products and services that can inspire us to create something new or improve upon something old.
Hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Chapter 1 of Fly By! You can join me on this international journey!
In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more articles, excerpts from the Book, and other stories from my book Fly By, which is available on Amazon and Kobo! If you want to read more stories and articles or get updates on the launch of Fly By, you can fill out this link. If you want to connect, you can reach me here via email or connect with me on social: @gracehuang_author on Instagram and this link on Linkedin.
