The Teelings Whiskey distillery was nice enough to give us a morning tour in this lovely Sunday morning. Not quite there yet with the construction still going on, but when it is completed in a few weeks it will be off the chains. Beautiful facility and have been methodically developing the whiskeys over the last few years.
long day of walking around, one less day in a bus which is fine with me. Black cab tour was deep. Seeing the peacewalls was incredible, in a positive and negative way. It represents so much violence, emulates a peaceful barrier yet there are still troubles. Religion does nothing but divide sometimes.
On a lighter note I had a fantastic lunch with Jan and company. It was awesome to sit down and have no time restrictions and just relax.
Fantastic day honestly, but the group had a rough start for various reasons. Driving to Belfast was fairly quick and painless and we got straight into a tour of the Titanic Dock. Fascinating and incredible engineering in so many ways… Check the pics.
We returned to have 4 guest speakers for the afternoon (1 prior to lunch). While I liked Brian at the end, I wish we had more time to pick his brain and chat with him. Of all the people I would say right now, Alister had the biggest (and corkiest) impact. His “observe everything” and “pay attention to the details” resonated perfectly with some of my beliefs. I’m all about being aware of my surroundings and knowing what’s going on, but to take that a step further with customers and clients… that is what’s forgotten a lot. You have to be keenly aware and almost train yourself to recognize (or observe?) opportunities for a potential business. And when it comes down to it, focus on the details of your customer or product, I mean real deep impactful appeal of your product or service im relation to the customer or client.
Cheers,
HQ
We met the founder of Nuritas today, Dr. Nora Khaldi. Upon first meeting her, you can see her passion for what they are doing and how impactful this little company could be. Backed by her charm, the incredible mathematics and scientific research on functional food, and the CEO’s drive I belive this company is going places. I’m excited that can help in some fashion. A fresh perspective from four MBA’s and a good dose of bluntness should, hopefully, prod them in the right direction. Or at least I would like to think it will help. We’ll see…
Our train ride in this morning. We have been lucky with the weather, although it rained in the afternoon. It was quite nice for the commutes.
So, Alex said jump so we could try to get a picture where you are “gravitating.” This is the result. We had mixed results. A bit awkward if you ask me, it was even more so trying to get this picture. Yikes…
Beautiful view right before it rained on the Dun Laoghaire pier. Cheers!
Wednesday started off fast with a few morning meetings at Nuritas. Great meetings and time flew by, which is good. It’s a good sign, it means that the work is interesting and piquing my interest. This is a picture from the train station at Dun Laoghaire train station looking out over part of the pier. This is only a half block from the offices, which is more of a little yellow house if you ask me. Either way, totes adorbs.
Picture from the front step of Nuritas. This was after a long afternoon of meetings and then going over the structure and team roles of the Nuritas project. It’s good to remember to take a break every now and again. It helps to step back, reflect on the work finished, take a deep breath, and then refocus on the task at hand. Great day and I’m excited with the direction of the project and team.
Get on out of this piece ma ninja….
We started today off right heading to the St. Stephan’s Green and finding our way to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Quite a lovely tour of the old 1700 house, former residence of a the Guinness family that was donated to the State. Our second stop was a few blocks away at the Dáil Éireann, which is more or less the parliamentary headquarters (The House of Representatives and Senate). Reflecting back our lecture at the Dept. of Foreign Affairs it was interesting to hear Rrory (?) talk about the ambassadors, business, and Ireland as pertains to the European Union. In particular, a common theme came up again. It revolved around companies not taking risks and trying to develop the international networks since the domestic marketplace was/is quite limited. Imagine if Ireland did not join the EU in 1973 and they were not able to do business or export/import with other european nations. They would be set up for long-term failure, again and again. That would be the equivalent of 3/4 of Colorado being completely coastal and having no trade or very limited business opportunities outside the state borders and quite possibly having a hard time even interacting with surrounding states. It severely limits your network, relations, and business prospects.
Inside the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Having tea – I do not drink tea really. Or eat cookies in this manner for that matter… but when in Ireland, pinkies up.
Since there were so many speakers today I am going to just pick one that resonated with me. While I liked the Teeling Whiskey fellow, I quite liked Paul Byrne and his story about his software company Trintech. He was obviously experienced in the field and had multiple businesses/partnerships prior to get to where he was. Honestly, you cannot say it anymore clearly than people (and corporations) should NOT fear failure. While it is assumed there is plenty of thought and deliberation put into decisions, taking a few educated risks is necessary to succeed. Even if the first decision or business fails. You can absolutely learn from those experiences, probably more than the decisions that work out immediately. I am 100% on board with this line of thinking and I think it makes you stronger personally and professionally. It is fine to admit failure, think about the mistakes, reflect, and take action in the future to avoid that “bad” decision. It is all a learning process and there is so much to learn personally and develop professionally from failures of businesses or decisions that do not end up working in your favor.
-HQ
I started early to book a tour at the tourist office at 8:30am. Alex, Courtney and I all met up at 13 O’Connelly street to catch a half day bus tour to Malahide Castle and then to Howth. Beginning to understand the semi-grid that is Dublin streets a bit more. Malahide Castle was pretty small but quite unique to Irelands (war) history, specifically the Battle of the Boyne. The Talbot family lived there for more than 700 years and the furniture, pictures, and stories are amazing. We wandered the botanic gardens after the castle tour and were greeted near the rose garden by a thunderous peacock. An interesting and brave bird indeed.
The second part of journey was driving along the coastline to Howth, which was spectacular. The beach views and sea breeze leave me desiring more since I live in Colorado. Although a quick stop, we managed to walk through the open market, order some fish in chips to go, grab a pint for the wait, check out the harbor, and spot some grey seals. These double decker buses make a killing just driving people around to destinations and telling them about the area.
Off to the gym to work off the fish and chips grease gut bomb… In another life I wish I was a professional eater. I’m just under an all-pro right now, working on it.
-HQ
What’s crackin people???
We got an early start and met Jan and the crew at Kilmainham Gaol jail at 8:45am. Good thing we were there 45 minutes before it opened. Not one person was in line until about 15 minutes before they opened. Jan mentioned that if you’re “on time” you’re late, if you’re “early” then you are on time. This was my existential life lesson for the day, provided right out of the gate at 9 am.
I learned some solid history about Ireland and their “founding fathers,” even though at the time people were not so pleased with the uprising and fighting that came out of it. The history about Charles Parnell was particularly interesting and he had ties to America and then eventually was elected into the House of Commons in the UK. A rather dark founding history, similar to the U.S. and other countries sadly.
To liven the day up we headed to the Guinness factory about a mile away and had a pint or 3. There was quite the band in the 4th floor bar, playing (from what I could tell) traditional Irish pub music with a violin, base, acoustic guitar. and an accordion looking instrument. I suspect I’ll find out more about the music and instruments as I frequent the local watering holes.
Tonights dinner is on Jan and the school, so I have that to look forward to. See ya on the flip side!
-HQ
Friday May 22nd. I arrived via Galway earlier in the day to Dublin. Apparently, the buses take twice as long as the trains from certain cities. Surprisingly nice weather, except I was on the bus. Beautiful countryside between here and Galway. A million shades of green and plenty of sheep and cows.
My first navigation challenge came when the bus driver let me off at Busaraus station, which I kept asking him is this Connelly station. He failed to tell me that it is not the same station, but right next door, quite confusing. Anyways, only a short 8-10 block walk to the Trinity campus which was nice. The city is pretty easy to navigate and figuring out where I was and where I wanted to go was easy enough. Communication with classmates via technology was going to be the challenge with no wifi.
We met Jan in the courtyard outside the accommodation check in spot at 6 pm and he gave us the low-down. Short and sweet, nothing much because it sounded like he wanted everyone to take it easy for the first day and get a god rest. What a swell guy that Jan is….
Hasta Manana!
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