The following is a true story.
Date and Time: Monday, October 27th at around 11:35 a.m.
Place: Midtown East, New York City
I was about to walk into the Citicorp building at Lexington Avenue. I was meeting two business executives from Cornell University at a client’s office.
Suddenly I saw a gentleman, neatly but casually dressed without a tie or jacket, standing near the entrance. This gentleman looked very familiar to me. He was not a movie star. In fact, he looked a lot like the nation’s former top central banker.
Could it be Mr. Ben Bernanke, the world-renowned American economist who served two terms as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States?
I stopped, not sure if it was him. After all, I didn’t see any body guards, and whenever I saw him on TV or at a speaking event, he was always wearing a suit and tie.
It really looked like him though, so I said, “Mr. Bernanke?” – just to satisfy my curiosity, telling myself I must be mistaken.
“Yes,” he answered. It was Mr. Ben Bernanke, our former Chairman of the Federal Reserve. I said,
“Mr. Bernanke, I just wrote a book, published by John Wiley & Sons, with my co-author. I want to give you a signed copy.” I pulled out one of the 2 copies of the book, China’s Super Consumers, which I was supposed to give to the two gentlemen from Cornell.
“Really? What’s the book all about?” Mr. Bernanke asked.
“It’s about China’s Super Consumers – you know, the fastest-growing consumer class in the world,” I said. Of course he knows – he was the Fed Chair. I started writing on the first page of the book, “Ben, The Best is Yet to Come.” And I signed my name.
“Mr. Bernanke, I hope you enjoy reading my book. Will you read it?” I asked. “Sure,” he answered, “on my train ride home.”
I was amused. Only in New York.
I later told my two executives that I only had one book for them, because I had given the other to Ben Bernanke.
schan@uschinapartners.com
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Blog by Savio Chan 