Surviving your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business and Life

Chapter 1. ARRIVAL IN AFRICA

Where am I?" Sean Spencer thought as he peered out of the dirty Plexiglas window at the vast open expanse below.

The droning of the airplane's engine lulled him deeper into his thoughts. Though he knew how much this trip meant to his wife Ashley, he couldn't just forget about everything. The recent loss of her teaching job and his struggle to keep his company afloat placed their whole livelihood on the line. This trip—which she'd won as a rookie salesperson of the year—couldn't have come at a worse time.

The pilot nudged the throttle as the wheels of the small six-seat Cessna grazed the top of a large acacia tree and came to rest on a narrow dirt strip. As thepropeller carved its last arc against the late afternoon sun and yellow dust settled around them, Sean wondered again where exactly they'd landed. Surely this wasn't an airport. The landing strip was hard to distinguish from the surrounding veldt. It didn't even have a building—just one old weather-beaten wind sock.

He sat back and took in the scenery around them as the heat rose inside the plane. There wasn't much to see except a single Land Rover parked a short distanceaway at the edge of the clearing. He smiled to himself as he looked at Ashley sitting in the seat next to the pilot. Like a little kid on a new adventure, she absorbed every detail with wonder on her face—and she wasn't going to waste ...