The Rare Earth Series, Volume One: On the Job Training - Berlin to Vladivostok

This is the first volume of a four volume series documenting Billy Mays’ twenty years, 1983-2003, living in Central & Eastern Europe. A student turned unwitting spy through his work for Radio Free Europe, Billy’s adventures both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall are described in a career that spans two decades from Soviet-bloc martial law Poland through the Klondike-like era following the Soviet Union’s collapse.


In the course of an amazingly successful career as a director for several multinational firms (including FEDEX) and as a corporate real estate executive, the author befriends world leaders, becomes engaged in spy networks, is immersed in black market trading, and has numerous brushes with death along the way.

This is a true account of unusual events as they occurred in Central Europe when both political and economic upheaval changed the region from Soviet control to European Union membership. The author’s sometimes unexpected role and participation in that transformation of the “New Europe” provides an entertaining backdrop as he personally pursues a career…quite literally…getting his training while on the job.