A Crisis of American Competitiveness? Further Adventures in NYC

I found myself in the position to meet Mark again. He was a well-known person in his country, part of the leadership of a billionaire family with deep political and business connections. Mark was also insanely highly educated at four of the top schools in three continents.

Back a year and a half ago I had set him up down in Southern California with a lady “Z” and a meal at the hot dog stand Pinks. I also had arranged tickets and some other activities of which he did not partake. This time we were meeting on the opposite coast, Manhattan. Now I’ve had several experiences in New York I’ve written about on this blog. I have a place there and enjoy the city a lot.

Mark’s experience with “Z” was positive, but he had not seemed very impressed afterwards. In subsequent meetings he would thank me for the consideration and the arrangements, but never say much about the woman.

It made me wonder if he wasn’t happy with her. After all, he had access to the best women in Asia and eastern Europe. So I wanted to aim higher this time around and show him how good it could get in the US of A.

The meeting was somewhat last minute, so I didn’t have much time to plan.

In Southern California I had chosen Pinks because, frankly, I didn’t think highly of the Los Angeles area restaurants. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good ones, but I wasn’t finding any truly world class ones in Mark’s desired cuisines. So going to the other end of the spectrum seemed appropriate. In New York, of course, the choices were different. I selected Jean Georges as a good compromise between innovative and traditional. I felt very confident I would exceed the bar set last time on the food side.

For the companion, well, this was more of a challenge. Again, because the arrangements were a bit last minute, there was some difficulty. In addition, there are additional constraints when you are arranging on somebody else’s behalf. Often providers are unwilling to meet anybody but the principal, which is understandable given the attitudes in the United States in general about that business.

I was aiming for dinner and dessert. Mark would have “dessert” in private with his date. I would not, as I am taken. Or he could have dessert with two women, although it didn’t seem likely I would find two on short notice. As it turned out there was an intriguing possibility of hiring identical twin models, but this fell through. But in the end I found a lovely, presentable woman through a network of providers I knew from before. Let’s call her Lee. She was willing to meet Mark under the appropriate conditions. I invited an open-minded coworker as the other side of the double date.

I met Lee a half hour before the dinner to prep her on Mark and the date protocol. I did not need to worry, she did great. The dinner was splendid, about as good as you could ever hope a social double date to go (other than the fact that the new sommelier there was an idiot). I could not recommend Lee more highly as a social escort to a high class locale. She was charming, excellent conversationally, and attentive to Mark.

After a four hour dinner, Mark went for dessert with Lee. It seemed like everything went very well.

Later, Mark and I met again, this time at an Asian-styled drinking establishment. We talked some business. He thanked me. He said the meal was fantastic and the company was great. But then he said he’d give me feedback on the last two female encounters I had set up. Since the Southern California meeting we had become much closer associates, and he felt he could give me feedback without offending me.

He then proceded to tell me that although the women in America were beautiful, and a good change of scenery for him, there was no comparison to the skills and attentiveness of the Asian women. Not to speak of the value.

He then told me that he had gone to Kevin’s membership only place the previous night, since he also was connected to Michael. There he hooked up for a short time with an exceptional South American woman, who had model looks, an amazing attitude and good skills, but again, short of great.

It reminded me of my changed attitude toward American providers when I started frequenting Asia and was exposed to the skills level at the high end. I blogged that experience here and here.

So my mission to plant the American Flag somewhere near the top of experiences for Mark was not successful. But if at first you don’t succeed...