Holiday Greetings: Underrated Relationship Tools

Luck plays a bigger role than most admit. Being in the right industry at the right time, meeting the right buyer — there's luck. But luck favors the prepared. Knowledge, service, and reliability let you catch it.

Memorable unusual requests: a buyer demanding real-time video of production before every shipment, a client asking to share a container with his competitor, and an L/C with dozens of soft clauses. Every one taught me something.

The biggest mistake in 10 years of exporting is trusting verbal promises. Clients who enthusiastically said they would order — I waited months. Now: trust is good, a deposit is better. Everything else is just intention.