The "Babson" Way of Thinking

now playing Mexico by Carbon Leaf

So I go to Babson. It's the #1 school in the US (and the world?) for entrepreneurship. I have had no interest in entrepreneurship. That said, I think it's useful for my future management career. However with my new blogging/business-y job at a start-up website I'm putting entrepreneurial thinking into action. Newsflash: I LOVE IT.

Background on Me/ Life Entrepreneurship Stories:

I have never thought of myself as an entrepreneur and somehow ended up at Babson anyways. But after coming to Babson I realized I had already been an entrepreneur. When I was young (10-15) I started "businesses." Which were fairly profitable and fun. Fast forward 5-10 years and I'm 100% sure that I wanted a business degree. I chose Babson because of its innovative curriculum, beautiful campus and proximity to home. The entrepreneurship reputation had nothing to do with my decision.

One myth about entrepreneurs is that it is a personality trait. Something you're born with or a natural talent. LIES. Entrepreneurial skills can most defintley be taught. I'm an example of this. Before coming to Babson I was not creative or innovative. A year and a half later and I can think like the best the average entrepreneur and my skills are improving with every minute I spend in a Babson class. Cool. At least my 200k education is good for something :)

Good to be On the Road Back Home Again

now playing Good to be On the Road Back Home Again by Cornershop (on purpose)

I've been very reluctant to admit that Babson is like home to me. But it is. And it's because of the people here. Who I might as well admit: I consider family. I love them and have them on a pedestal above most other people.

I'm finally feeling like I'm "on the road back home again," because Babson is returning to the way it was for me at the end of first semester last year. I've got my old friends back... through their effort and mine. And we are beginning to feel like family again. Thank goodness.

I don't think it matters anymore who caused it and who started it. As long as the problems are fixed. And Stay fixed. It's nice to move on. And I feel even better to be part of the solution(s).

You all know who you are and you mean the world to me. I hope you know that even when I'm mad at you and when you're mad at me. You've meant the world to me since December 2008 and I promise that through everything that never change. And I hope you all read this. (and my other posts :p )

Symbolic Emotion

Now playing episode 4 season 8 of 24 (it's paused)

Why is the heart the symbolic center of emotion?

For homework for my Organizational Behavior class we needed to take an Emotional Intelligence assessment. The range for the highest EI was 44-55 (or something like that). I got a 44. I was pleased and not very surprised. The past year and a half has taught me a ton about myself, my emotions, other people and their emotions, and psychology as well as a level of psychological analysis which I thought one could only earn during a PhD program in psychology. But I'm happy I was able to learn so much about myself and others.

Here's my point: the symbolic center of emotion (because of love?) is the heart; I would beg to disagree with this cliche and argue that the mind is a far more important part of our body for emotion. I mean EI stands for emotional intelligence for a reason. If you're not a psychopath then you have some level of emotion and I hope that you see it comes from your head, your mind, your brain and not your chest/heart.

It's an interesting subject which I find vitally important to understanding human relationships (with oneself and others). In another life I will major in psychology and not business and be a much more mindful person than I am. For now I settle for what I am, happy and content that I can understand as much as I do about myself and other people.

Can You Create/Make Happiness?

Now playing If You Only Knew by Shinedown
and (When I'm Up) I Can't Get Down by Great Big Sea (<-- very appropriate right now)

A lot of books, experts, and philosophers say you can create your own happiness and that how you feel is your choice. To a certain extent I completely agree with this. My attitude has a lot to do with how I'm feeling emotionally. However there are definitely external (and maybe some internal) forces which the power of my mind can't contend with.

External forces can include people, environment and emotional surroundings. And in terms of internal forces I'm imagining such things as chemical imbalances which cause depression etc. These things are so strong that even attitude can't overcome them. I've experienced one or more, and as much as I love being in control: I wasn't. I couldn't have been. Control is impossible in some of these situations.

That said... right now I feel like I am in complete control. I had an AMAZING night last night and had more fun than I've had in a long time yesterday. (Just another reason that I need to stay at Babson for the summer.) I am currently happier, busier, and perhaps more stressed (but a positive, productive stress) than I've been in the past year. Feels good! It's invigorating, exciting, and simply... HAPPY! What a relief. And I think there's going to be more relief and happiness in the next few days. It can't get any better than this!

I really am lucky and even at my worst I never forget this. I have everything. I need (next to) nothing. And I'm ready to take on the day!

(Let's see how long this doing-homework thing lasts :p )

Analytical Insomoniac Thoughts

Now Playing Acceptance by So Contagious by Acceptance via BlackBerry

So was taking out my contacts last night and ironically thought of perspective and how mine defines who I am. It was almost laughable because I don't mean the vision type of perspective but the "life outlook" sort of perspective.

Mine's weird. I over analyze to an extreme with I undoubtedly get from my Mom (perhaps her only flaw? thanks mom :p ) But in as many ways as over-analysis is a bad thing, it is also a tremendous tool which college has started teaching me how to harness.

I don't think there's a simple way to describe perspective. I think mine's pretty good. (Not vague at all, right?) But okay here are more specifics. I am constantly evaluating everything I do based on how others view my actions. I am not necessarily changing what I do based on other people's reactions... that just becomes conformity, which is one thing I am definitely not. (Although coincidentally I often agree with the majority... hmmmm.) This out of body sort of perspective makes me a strange person, among a zillion other things. It makes me much more conscious of other people, although once in while (oh alright... often) makes me more narrowminded and critical of myself. This isn't terrible; most of the time. Last year it was a huuuge problem. This year it has proved to me a blessing.

See how things change? Finally change is a blessing. Which is another thing. I am very comfortable with habit and don't generally like change. But I have come to appreciate it and its benefits. Just because I am more comfortable with the status-quo doesn't mean I dislike variation or change. I have come to embrace it and hope I begin liking it more. Self improvement is the best kind of change and this is what I have especially embraced over the past 18 months.

But back to over analysis (interestingly this over analysis is probably the reason I started blogging... to help understand myself, all you reader people are secondary :p ).

I woke up at 2:30AM. FAIL. This is what happens when I try to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep: I go to bed early, get the same number of hours as I would normally, struggle to get back to sleep while normally failing at it. I fail at it because it feels like a waste of time... my mind would rather be working!!

This over active, over-analyzing mind is what led to this blog post which is days behind. My new job, which just happens to be blogging (more or less...) has taken up a lot of time. I've been enjoying every minute of it. Writing for that blog has served a very different purpose from this one. It has served as an outlet for creativity and analysis (similar to this one) but on a very different subject. The subject of cars is much more interesting to me than myself and I get a lot more pleasure analyzing General Motors and writing reviews than figuring out how truly disturbed I am. Haha.

On that note, it is 6AM and I have already been productive today (not bad, eh?). I am going to go change, go to the gym, and then shower/breakfast (the order of the last two are TBA.... keep and eye on twitter cus I'm sure to update somewhere in there).

Good morning! I hope you have as good a day as I am about to!

Let Me Give You a Tour!

If you click here (and look at the picture) you can see where I work! That sounds weird. Over the last few days I heard about, applied for, and was accepted for a job writing for a car blog which I follow.

The application was fairly simple but took a few days to put together. Although simple and probably not very exciting to most people, this represents a lot for me. It is a stepping stone towards my dream career. It allows me to learn from people and experience. I fully believe that experience is the best way to get better at something.

From the few things that I know about my new bosses/coworkers we have some things in common, least of which is our enjoyment of analyzing General Motors. This time of year is always particularly exciting for the car industry because of the NAIAS (see previous post), which is arguably the most important American auto show. This makes the timing of my new job even more exciting to me.

So here's the bedside version. After work on Friday night I got home and stayed up for a while futzing around online while watching TV. My RSS feed showed a new post from GMA (which along with Facebook, Autoblog, and Twitter I had already checked in the last fifteen minutes) announcing available positions. I got really excited and decided to go out on a limb the next morning and apply. I'm an early riser but stayed in bed until 1 on Saturday working on my app. Then on Sunday I modified existing resumes and wrote a cover letter. By Sunday night I had heard back! I'll have a skype meeting tomorrow (well, later today) and go from there!

Luckily for you this probably means you won't have to hear about cars in person, 'cus I'll get my fill of it online. I can't promise to eliminate all car posts from the blog though :p

Pizza

Now Playing: Everything Hits At Once by Spoon via last.fm

I can't function at night. I'm a "morning" person. On the other hand, my mind works wonders at night and I think more because I simply have the time too and I'm not distracted by err, living.

So I wasn't even going to right this post tonight or maybe not at all.

Then I ate pizza. Actually I had the title/subject in mind already but then both luck and coincidence happened in one event. So I decided I had to write this post. I walking upstairs to go to bed but decided I was hungry first. There's plenty of food in my room. Instead I walked back down stairs into the kitchen. Sitting right in front of me was a pizza. Not even kidding: half a pizza. EPIC.

Anyways, I was thinking about whether or not luck exists based on someone else's blog post. I believe in a lot of weird things (I'm borderline on karma but that's about as weird as I get). I think "you make your own luck" is a lot more true. (Then again: being born into a good/wealthy family? Can that be called luck?)

Any positive coincidence can be considered luck, which as far as I know always has a positive connotation. Ok, now that I've said that revisit the fact that luck doesn't exist. False. What I meant is that I can not be a lucky person. But a single event happening to me may or may not be lucky. It seems to me luck is merely a positive random coincidence. This makes me feel better somehow.

I'll never be lucky or unlucky. I'm more of a reason-based person. I think that's why I prefer kharma. There's definitely something real about balance with reason on either side (karma explains why things happen and gives reason to be/do good) this balance is even more appealing to me. In reality, I don't believe in karma either, only the ideas, actions and mindset which it promotes. Maybe if luck created this motivation, I'd believe in it too.

Now I just need a little luck to make the name of that song I wanted to download appear. Or maybe by coincidence FNX (my new now-playing) will play it...

Long Time No C(ES), With A Little NAIAS

Now playing: Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes by Paul Simon (new feature of this blog)

(CES is Consumer Electronics Show and NAIAS is North American International Auto Show, you're welcome :p )

I managed to work three things into my title, pretty good, you think?

Ok first... it's been a while. In fact, I didn't blog for all of December. Unless you count twitter. Which I really don't. So yeah. Sorry about that. I had planned on doing a 2010/ New Year Blog. I didn't. And a friend reminded me that I missed it. (double meaning, you find it. And thanks, J, for pointing this out.)

Skip ahead to now and I'm actually kind of happy I missed it... seems like a little bit of a cliche. So instead I'm going to write about two of my favorite subjects in one. In vague forms progress and cars. In this case by progress I mean technology, and more specifically (and because it's me) in cars. CES and NAIAS (remember those from the first line?) have been going on at the same time recently and both have been really interesting because of progress. Also because of how integrated they are. Also, Babson teaches innovative thinking. If there's any subject in which innovative thinking is most important it is in the tech industry. Case in point: where/what to combine with technology. Who would have thought to add PC capabilities to the cell phone? Not me... but smartphones're one of the fastest growing cell phone markets. And tech in cars, don't even get me started.

And that's what brought me back to my blog: MyFord/MyLincoln. Wow! I am sooo thankful I added Ford stock to my portfolio/IRA/401K before it exploded. Lucky me! Now I can retire.... oooor not so much. For those unfamiliar check out the link at the bottom of the post to see what MyFord is.

As a self-proclaimed car enthusiast/aficionado I am mildly averse to tech in cars. I think they should be for driving and simple driving pleasure. However, as a practical business student I acknowledge that cars are all things to all people and safety systems that bring your car to a complete stop because you are too inept to are a good, practical idea to some people, if not to me. However, one of the biggest benefits to the personal computer is customization (you know, to make it personal :p ) I am a total control freak so I love anything I can customize and make my own.

But when it comes to cars I do not like anything after-market. For those who know car-speak everything I have has to be OEM (original equipment manufacturer). (example: I drive an Audi therefore every part in my car is manufactured by Audi). To a certain extent (and in an OEM manor) I do like my car to be custom. Boring things such as the color. However, companies aimed at people my age (maybe customization boomed with the tech generation?) like Scion have capitalized on making customization the norm. (Random question: does this eliminate it's appeal?) To a certain extent very few Scions are the same because there are literally hundreds of thousands of favorty available customizations. This is more mechanical: wheel/rim options, break caliper colors, interior carpeting, stereo etc.

This is where (My)Ford is welcomed to the blog post. Finally. MyFord is the technological equivalent to Scion's customization. It is mostly software with a couple big computer screens in your dashboard. It builds on Ford's successful Sync (by Microsoft... google it if you want to learn about it). And creates a customizable car. However, not just one car. Because you can save your customized MyFord settings and carry them to any car. Cool? YES! Just my kind of customization! MyFord has four categories which is as specific as I'm going to get in describing it: Phone, Navigation, Climate, and Entertainment. Clearly these can be expended on with (sub-)categories. Opening up completely new doors for the future. Indirectly this can even sync (no pun intended) with the internet. Here's how: my BlackBerry (and recently, your iPhone) has a facebook application which syncs contacts pictures, contact info, etc which then goes into your phonebook in MyFord. Some day, if anyone ever gets me to buy an American car, let alone a ford, you may call me on my car (sounds weird, huh? thanks technology haha) and the facebook profile picture which you chose will appear on a screen in my dashboard AND/OR control panel. Wow. And to think that approximately 100 years ago automotive tech was so primitive that Henry Ford said you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. (My point is that you could only get one color back then, now the person calling me (in my car no less) chooses what picture shows up in my car. WOW.)

But I digress. Customization was supposed to be the point. As I get older, wealthier, and more buying power I am more intrigued by technology because it is more exclusively customizable. My blackberry is very customizable right down to the specific ring tone which I use for text messages. My car isn't quite as customized. Probably the most unique thing about it is the manual transmission, or maybe the color of the inside or outside. In reality it's probably actually the bumper stickers (which I count as customization but they don't need to be OEM :p ).

I'm not quite sure if this blog post has a point. Actually... wait it does. And the moral of the story was foreshadowed when I made the comment about how some people like/want/need (marketing core concepts?) a car that can bring itself to a complete stop. The point is this: there is a ton of technology out there. Some of it good, some of it bad. A lot of its goodness or badness is in the eye of the beholder (and for me, based on how that beholder uses the tech.). I think braking systems which stop a car are bad technology. I think MyFord type systems are good. (They can been seen as distracting and therefore bad as well...) In an ideal world everyone (including me) would use this tech. in a safe, appropriate way making it a great milestone for technology in automobiles.

Bottom line: tech depends on what product it's in and how it will be used. And whether it fits your personality and interests. MyFord fits me. So hopefully it will be available in a General Motors product.

MyFord Info Link:
http://bit.ly/83tQ36