Gordon S. Riess

Passports to Adventure Gordon S. Riess

Passports to Adventure tells, in a highly readable, down-to-earth, and amusing style, how an international businessman and his family met the many challenges of living and working in Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. The author and his wife dealt with an remarkable variety of unusual situations and colorful characters, including a smuggler and an assassin, an archbishop and a Mafia don, a bigamist and a prince, a counterfeiter and an Abbott, as well as scores of farmers, business people, government officials, educators, and ordinary citizens in all walks of life in some forty countries. The book describes unorthodox business operations and fascinating personal experiences. It offers acute insights into many diverse cultures. Although primarily written as entertaining reading, it is also informative. Anyone interested in travel abroad, international commerce, and the customs, practices, and life in foreign lands, will enjoy this book. The tales are all true, although the names of certain individuals have been altered to protect their privacy. The author has been a senior executive of giant multinational corporations, as well as the founder of several small entrepreneurial companies. He has worked in a number of widely diverse industries ranging from automobiles to motion pictures and from paper products to medical devices. The book spans a period of several decades. Consequently, the political environments and the standards of living in some of the countries have changed over the years. However, the basic cultures, business practices, and moral dilemmas continue to be very much as the author described them. His observations and recommendations to individuals interested in traveling, living, or working abroad remain valid and pertinent today. Some of the material in this book was published in "Confessions of a Corporate Centurion" by the same author, from 1st Books Library.