For Tracy, going international was a criti-
cal step in diversification. “I strategically
wanted an alternate income source,” he
says. “I make twice as much in Europe
as I make here, and often for four days
in a row. When 9/11 happened, I had 30
engagements in Europe while my friends
here were twiddling their thumbs.”
Prior to any overseas speak-
ing engagement, Tracy’s first step
is to download all of the U.S. State
Department’s data on the countries
on the itinerary. “I never go anywhere
without that information,” he says. “It
gives a complete overview of the vital
information, like population, demo-
graphics, average income, education,
major cities and the history. You can get
a very good sense of who’s in charge
and how it’s organized.”
But despite the differences between
the countries themselves, Tracy finds an
amazing commonality between people’s
business interests around the world:
leadership, sales, management, personal
effectiveness, innovation, profitabil-
ity and productivity. “I take the culture
into consideration, but I speak on the
same subjects with very little devia-
tion all over the world, even in central
China,” he says. “People are interested
in family, health and business. It’s much
like modern technology — it works
everywhere, whether you’re talking
about phones, computers or the inter-
net. It’s the same with ideas, and the
people who are interested in speakers,
seminars or growth are hungry for the
same information.”
In addition to the State Department
information, Tracy offers a number
of other homework suggestions for
would-be world travelers. “Kiss, Bow
or Shake Hands is the Bible for under-
standing overseas travel,” he says. “No
Like the old saying about the weather, jet lag is something that everybody complains about
but never fixes. Long distances in a pressurized aircraft, plus a time change, usually results in
fatigue and disorientation — and the rule of thumb is that it takes one day to recover from
each one hour of time change.
Brian Tracy believes it doesn’t have to be that way. In addition to recommending an
herbal remedy called Jet Lag Formula, he offers the following five-step remedy:
1. Hydrate yourself. Your body loses a minimum of one pint of water per hour of flying,
so drink a pint or more for every hour that you are in the air. Your body will swell up a little,
but don’t worry. Within a few hours of landing, everything will be back to normal.
2. Resist the tendency to sleep. When you fly from west to east, your first goal is to
get onto the European schedule as quickly as possible. That means resisting the temptation to put on your eye patches and go to sleep, which confuses your body clock. Instead,
stay awake for most of the trip, only taking a short nap of one or two hours about four hours
before arrival — which is sufficient rest to carry you through the first day.
3. Immerse yourself. You’re going to immerse yourself in a culture — but before you do,
the most important thing is to take a hot bath or dip in the Jacuzzi soon upon arrival.“This
is the most powerful single factor in overcoming jet lag,”Tracy says.“Make the water as hot
as you possibly can. Discipline yourself to sit in the hot water for five minutes for every one
hour of time change. For a time change of eight hours, that means forty minutes.”
4. Get moving. Aerobic exercise can also help reset your clock.“If I arrive in the afternoon
and work out on a machine for an hour, it’s like I’m burning off the jet lag,”Tracy says.
5. The next day. After following the above instructions, 90% of your jet lag should
have disappeared. Upon wakeup, drink two cups of coffee or strong tea, and you’re
ready to hit the platform.
international speaker should be without
it, because it gives an overview of the
culture, how they think, the way they
interpret information and various social
niceties. It’s priceless.” Tracy is also
a proponent of the Fodor’s, Lonely
Planet and Berlitz series, opining that
traveling without a guide is like driving
through a city wearing a blindfold.
TRAVELING LIGHT
Can you travel for 10 days overseas,
speaking at five engagements, with
just a carryon bag and a briefcase? You
bet. But there’s a trick to it. “I usually
design my trips so that I end up in one
city for a full day,” Tracy says. “That
way, I can get laundry done.”
In order to stay light on the elec-
tronics, Tracy’s laptop stays at home
— since he uses translators and putting
up Powerpoint® slides in a foreign lan-
guage doesn’t make sense. “I create
workbooks with the keyword left out in
the attendee version and send it well in
advance to be translated,” he says. “On
stage, I’ll have my English notes, and
the translator has a foreign version to
translate exactly what I’m saying.”
