Komby in 14 Steps: Step 11: Wan Chai, the night the East never sleeps

Wan Chai doesn't sleep. Even at four in the morning, the street still pulses under the neon. You walk and you feel you're no longer in Europe.

Wan Chai is the track of that shock. The trial of a man based in London who sets foot in Hong Kong and discovers that "global" changes under your feet.

The trial: the shift

Jet lag, humid heat, a different rhythm. I went for reasons that mix life and building: clients, perspectives on Komby's verticals. The trial was also that of holding my ground between languages.

English and Cantonese stack on top of each other everywhere — in the street, in the contracts, on the stamps. I got my local phone number, then my chop: the bilingual English/Chinese company stamp, as Hong Kong practice demands. Over there, everything gets stamped. A signature isn't enough; without a company chop, no deal holds. (Proof on video.) Negotiations carry a different weight: silence weighs differently. You in the middle, never quite fully inside. Wan Chai became my night anchor: the night is where you're alone with the time difference.

The question: does what I'm building hold when the culture changes? "Easy" for a Paris restaurant isn't "easy" for an office in Wan Chai. Am I listening, or am I exporting London?

Across the harbour: the Bruce Lee statue

That same stay in Hong Kong took me across the harbour, to Tsim Sha Tsui, on the Avenue of Stars. That is where — not in Wan Chai — the Bruce Lee statue stands. A guide was explaining in English who he really was: an entrepreneur. A peaceful, silent fighter. A philosopher.

Those three words went through me. Entrepreneur: the one who builds. Peaceful fighter: strength without useless noise. Philosopher: Be water.

The seed of Like a Dragon was planted there. Wan Chai carries the night and the shift. Like a Dragon carries the philosophy born in front of the statue.

Why this title

Wan Chai was born from those walks. Hennessy Road, the pulse, then, on the other shore, Bruce Lee. The track came like a capture of place. Composing was anchoring Hong Kong in me. Sharing was holding out that night to those who live between time zones.

Years later, the track still takes me back there. The humidity. The statue, facing the harbour. The guide's voice. Prelude to Like a Dragon.

Letting it land

Komby inherited that humility: listen to the ground before you speak. And that standard: entrepreneur without useless noise, fighter without rigidity, philosopher without slides.

Next: CEO.

---

Alexandre Auger, CEO of Komby

*Step 11/14. Previous: Study Case (10). Next: CEO (12)*