A death and birth in Dalat. Long live Michael Jackson. Long live Infinite Wisdom.

My birthday week in Dalat was inspiring. I was taken as a birthday gift and if one can be given peace, comfort, hope, inspiration and confidence in a big box with a ribbon on it, that was my gift. A gift from God. No cakes cut, no candles lit and no songs sung. It was perfect.

The Ana Mandara resort is an old French colonial weekend colony that has been meticulously refurbished to maintain the architectural integrity of the original villas whilst bringing them up to date with WiFi, microwave cooking and the like. The staff are courteous and casual and make a science out of staying out of your way while still making sure that all service points are met. Birds sing daily and nights by the fire are standard. Our villa had three fireplaces, making me a full-time Boy Scout and just as happy as could be. Candles are lit in groups of three always. Flowers arranged immediately. A trip to the market one day brought tuna, vegetables, fruits and the finest of Dalat's vineyards - and with the help of the resort kitchen for pots and pans, I was able to cook a meal that rivaled what the chefs had been preparing for us the whole time. Magical. With a jazz soundtrack. Morning was delivered in waves of reflection and care. Introspection and extroversion. Exploration and discovery of truth, love, logic, loss, magic and pro-activity. Beautiful mystery, explained - explained again.

Then Michael Jackson died. Turning on the BBC while having my morning coffee, it was like a replay of Princess Diana's death in August of 1997 except the celebrities had been changed and the person to whom I would deliver the news would be different. In 97 I had driven from the lake house to the local convenience store for the morning's milk and eggs when I saw the newspaper headline as big as it could have been printed, "Di Dies!". This I knew somehow, would be reacted to profoundly by my wife who was still sleeping back at the cottage. When I asked her why this was such important news, during the day long coverage her response was simple. "David", she said, "Don't you know that every little girl wants to grow up to be a princess?" This response would prove to be a milestone in my understanding of women in general but not prepare me much for my traveling companion's reaction to Jackson's death. "Michael Jackson was a foolish man. He couldn't manage his life or his money", was the statement. No sorrow, no sympathy, no regret. Just a cold hard statement of what was essentially the truth. Michael Jackson was a victim of himself and no one else - now relegated the the historical oddity chamber of pop fame.

And did he contribute to my life? Yes. But did his death have the impact on me of that of John Lennon's? No. Because with Lennon a part of my childhood died but with Jackson only a part of his childhood died. He seemed to live in a perpetual Peter Pan state and that, in the end, may have been his demise. He refused to grow up. And my week in Dalat would teach me that, that was exactly what I needed to do.

Grow up a little bit more.

I have always been extremely guarded of the childish part in me that looks at a white sheet of paper and conceives castles to commerce and so showing that to others has been something I have avoided - even to my wife during our 15 years in marriage. Yet here in Dalat I was being confronted by a friend, confidant and full-time muse to look beyond my reality and into a future of intelligence, stability and growth - a future so unlike anything that Michael Jackson could have ever conceived.

And so a death, and a birth, were happening in Dalat - all at the same time. It was coincidence, and contradiction and contrition to the fact that I would need to leapfrog some things in business and jump-start the machine again - all inspired by the most unlikely person I had met through a failed job interview. Who knew. Well, it seems that God knew. From Dalat comes the invention of a new business. A combination of art, commerce, logic. illogic, inspiration, analysis, magic and maturity. I'm not going to go into a full description now, but I will explain the name. The name came from a desire to combine creativity and logic in a business sense. The name is Infinite Wisdom. More on that later.

For readers in Germany, France and Africa stay tuned for an upcoming tour schedule as the Wild Wild East goes west. A death in Dalat. A birth in Dalat. From the loss of Michael Jackson to the birth of Infinite Wisdom. The one to thank, already knows. It's time to take this show on the road. Long live Michael Jackson.