I'm surprised by the sheer willpower some people have.  I know of several people who have decided that they want to enter and succeed in the Chinese market--without knowing a lick of Chinese.

One of these people is a good friend of the firm, Pat Randolph, a law professor from UMKC.  He's done a lot of incredible work in China with Beijing University and many other organizations, helping people all around the world learn about and understand Chinese real estate law.  For his efforts he's been awarded the Great Wall Friendship Prize, the most prestigious award given by Beijing.

But what impresses me, beyond the fact that Pat's been an asset to the world community, is the fact that he entered the field with no China expertise and little language skills.  He simply decided that he would.  So all you who are reading this and who are interested in entering China in some field or another, know that you can succeed without being an expert or a native speaker of the language.  But determination is key.

Here's Pat!

Here are some links pertinant to this story:

Pat's page at the University of Missouri-Kansas City: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/Profiles/Randolph/

Beijing University's law page (Chinese) http://www.law.pku.edu.cn/

News link: http://www.umkc.edu/news/pressrelease/fullstory.asp?id=2005179