A Raindrop in the Ocean

A unique memoir in which a young adventurer from colonial Rhodesia charms his way around the world, sleeping in stately homes and public toilets, smuggling drugs across several borders, and losing a $50 million fortune to the CIA, before settling into a stellar banking career. Looking back on a life well lived as he faces terminal illness, he swears that the key to his success was his grueling training as a Buddhist monk in a snowbound Japanese monastery.

Michael Dobbs-Higginson enrolled in one of the oldest Zen Buddhist monasteries in Japan and was ordained a lay monk in his early 20s. He also became a black-belt in the stick-fighting discipline, kendo. After studying medicine in Dublin, logging in Canada, and teaching surfing in Hawaii, he moved back to Japan, where he set up several businesses before being chased out of the country by unscrupulous CIA operatives. He then became an investment banker and has invested in a number of start-up business ventures. He is currently developing electric vehicles and drones for the Far East and an e-commerce platform for Africa.