Brooklyn Brewery Founder Teaches Ukrainian Business Class

Through the miracle of a video/audio hook-up with Skype, I recently gave a talk and answered questions from business students and professors at the Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute in the Ukraine.  BEER SCHOOL, the book I wrote with brewery co-founder Tom Potter, has been translated into Russian.  Some of the students had read the book, and some had heard it on audible.com.

It was a fascinating hour and a half.  The students spoke very good English.  Each one came on camera and asked a question and a follow-up.  They asked about business plans, partnerships, raising money, corruption and competition.  I talked about a few run-ins with rough characters in Brooklyn.  They assured me that corruption in the Ukraine was much more pervasive, and dangerous, than in America.

I don’t think they completely understood Brooklyn Brewery’s support for not-for-profit and arts organizations and its word-of-mouth marketing.

Their instructor, an American named Maryann McGuire, warned me that the mindset in the Ukraine was quite different than in America.  I didn’t know what she meant until she translated the poster they produced for my appearance.  The headline read:

ASK A MILLIONAIRE ABOUT SUCCESS!!!!

Video-conference with a successful American businessman and millionaire from Brooklyn, NY.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.  I am successful, and I am an American businessman from Brooklyn.  The millionaire label is a bit premature.

–Steve Hindy