The Optimistic Alien: Fighting Back in Risky Markets is a book of survival in risky markets. It represents Mike Willard's journey in overcoming both personal and business challenges in his 15 years in Eastern Europe. We believe it will be of interest to any expatriate who has ever set foor in a foreign land, or any adventurer who has ever dreamed of pulling up stakes and doing so. One day Willard was bobbing up and down on his live-aboard cabin cruiser on the Potomac river in Washington, D.C., and two weeks later he was taking steps to launch businesses in Moscow, Kyiv and Istanbul. The Optimistic Alien, an odyssey: The ups, the downs and the all-arounds of an American entrepreneur in the rough-and-tumble world of East European business.