Murder in UCLA

WHAT???? IN UCLA?? Why talk about it in this blog? because it did happen in Baruch AKA UCLA (University at the corner of Lexington Avenue). What's the crime? We broke an egg. And it's not that alone it's how we broke it that matters. We made a BASKET! and we thought it would work, AN EGG IN A THIN PAPER BASKET!! Boy, now thats what i call false hope. Now let's take a look at the steps that the professor laid out.

1) Check.
2) Nope.
3) Check.
4) Check.
5) Nope (We broke the egg even before the final act)

The biggest mistake that we made was that we didn't listen all the ideas that came out in the group. Because there was someone that suggested using the winning string technique and we didn't listen to that person. Who was it? That's for us to know and you to wonder about. The bottom line is that we failed and not what could have been. That's why vision should be complimented with actions. Otherwise like in this case ideas will used by others. Ideas don't need you, you need them. And if you don't use them they will lie idle in wait for someone else who will, and someone eventually always does. Lack of utilization would mean that aspirations will never turn into achievements. And without achievements we are nothing but another college student.

Keep on Blogging on any way

When the semester started and i saw that a blog assignment was a fair chunk of the grade, the first words that came into my mind were; "What a retarded idea". Now with only one more class to go i must admit i was wrong. I was very wrong.

First of all the professor was spot on when he said that it was better than having a term paper, especially for how he goes about teaching the class. This blog was an excellent way for people to say what they wanted to say. This was beneficial to people who don't like to talk in class and also to those who came up with ideas and suggestions that they couldn't think about in class.

I really liked some of the contents of the Attila and Wizard of Oz posts, especially the Attila one. Was looking forward to reading more and i guess if i keep on checking the blog on a weekly i will see another one that gives invaluable insight as to how to go about dealing with this world.

I have to admit that i haven't been posting on a timely manner and while there other problems that needed to be taken care of, now that i look back i could have used this blog to come up with possible answers. And since i wasn't able to post on time i couldn't get the feedback for my articles from others in class, which is an opportunity squandered. Would this have helped me communicate better and find people with similar views in class, i say yes but i will never be sure because of this self inflicted wound.

I believe the professor should continue with the blogs in the next semester. He and his students stand to gain a lot from it. Professor can use the blog to scope out and see which person has interesting ideas and then try his best to make them participate in class, occasionally calling on them, picking on them to come up with answers and solutions and well if they don't respond then they would be ignoring opportunities knock, which is a career suicide. But this holds true for those individuals that are talented and hesitant to express their views in class but then there are others that are talented and not hesitant so id don't see what they stand to gain from the blog other then the fact that they could write about their ideas and views which didn't come to their mind when they were in class.

Another thing, instead of having individual time constraints placed on every blog have one that applies to all, especially for the comments part. I understand that the professor wants people to post their blogs on time. But what if the comments had just one time constraint, i.e. you should comment on other people's blog by the December 10th, rather than the method currently used. But in order to give people an incentive to comment on time, he can give them half a point for every comment posted within a specific time frame. This would entice the students to timely repond to other people's ideas.

All in all i would indeed continue to post on my blog, there is a reason why i decided to call my blog what i did. How do you tame the business world? I am trying to find the answer to that question. I want to talk about the what the REAL business world is like and talk about and hopefully give out advise that is applicable to work and our goings in real life. Unlike the fairy tale inspired lies that they tell us off in school. Well they may not all be lies but only time will tell and when will i come up with these answers? Well with time, i am in the process of finding these anwers. It may take months and years but rest assured my last blog entry would provide that answer. Until then, answers or no answers, i'll keep on blogging on anyway.

Manager man!!

Nothing but a yes man to the big man,

Doing anything new of recognition not he can,

Achieving what anyone else can,

That’s what they tell me is a manager man,

The ever present river’s flow,

The quintessential man behind the show,

The wings that make the eagle soar,

Without him the show is a no go,

He drives the big man where ever the latter boldly thinks he can,

Doing what he does knowing he’s not the show-man,

You say he’s a no man,

I say he’s the man,

He’s a stunt man,

He is a manager man,

Because he can do what a visionary can’t,

But remember without the guide his actions will not woo,

That’s because 1 without another 1 will never be 2.

Flawed Geniuses

According to the test i am a type C. Do i agree with it? Do i want to be another type? Let's take it one at a time.

Do i agree? It really doesn't matter. Why? Because it's not who you are underneath it's what you do that defines you. Why does is matter what i think i am, it's what others think about you is how you are going to be viewed and remembered. What matters is whether i have the capability to make people perceive me as who i am underneath as opposed to what they think i am. Do i have the capability? I will only find that out when i decide ask people what they think of me.

Do i want to be another type? Depends, there are going to be situations when you don't behave like you normally do. You have to versatile. Almost everyone has to be in order to succeed.

Will this test help us to know where people are coming from? Well it may give you a little hint as to what to expect but it won't bring about the same results as one on one or even group interactions would.

Would this help me out with other personal interactions - like dating? WHAT????? Sounds like Dr Phil. For it to help me would mean that i don't know who i am. What this test at best does is make you realize that you have certain qualities that you subconsciously knew you had but never paid any attention to them, what the test may do is spell them out for you, so you can pay more or less attention to them, but making people realize what they have isn't always a good idea. Furthermore it may provide you with a list of qualities that other people like you have, these qualities would be much easier for the person of the same type to adopt as compared to a one that's another type.

Conclusion after looking at some of the results:
If you take a good look at all the qualities then you would realize that no matter what type you are if you lack in one area you make up in another. So in the end we all equal out. Thus there is equal potential is us all to succeed. It's the decisions and the opportunities that we make and get that set's one person apart from the other. We are all geniuses, to cut the long story short, flawed geniuses.

Opportunity's Knock

Future, future, future. When you are a junior at college that is one the most important, if not The most important thought in your mind. I have had that thought in my mind ever since i was in 12th grade, when they were asking us about our college preference list. Ever since that day i have been wondering what my destiny has planned out for me. And even to this day this same question troubles me. What i don't want to be is just another cog the wheel. And i guess this my vision. If i had to come up with the list of realistic goals that i hope to achieve in the next five years then it would be the following;

1) Get a job in One of the Big Fours, as i am an accounting major. Yes, the most boring of them all, but i am not one by choice but due to circumstances that I let go unchecked to an extent that they are not under my control anymore.

2) Get my CPA degree. That's going to be my retirement policy. So that when i am done with the busy-ness world i can sit back relax and earn some pocket change during tax season.

2) Work hard, and i do mean hard, for at least three years, and then get into a really good business school to get my masters. Nothing hort of a really good B-school won't cut it for me because unlike what they tell you here, name does matter a lot. Be it school, work or family, name is your ticket to the big game.

3) Start to do something different, something meaningful, something that would make sure people would remember.

4) save up enough money for that laser eye surgery. My eyesight is becoming worse and worse with each and every passing day. But i hate glasses and rather have a surgery, that may leave me broke, rather wear glasses. With glasses just won't feel the same. I will be a shell of my former self. What former self? Yep you guessed it right, only time will tell.

As to (1) i am almost there as i have an internship at one of them for next summer. no one got me the internship, i got it for myself. With the help of just a couple of paragraphs that i wrote in my cover letter. It was then i realized how important they are. With teh same resume that got rejected or ignored over and again but with little extra in teh form of a cover letter i was able to pull it off. If that didn't go through i would have been demoralized and down and out without a way of getting up because i was desperately searching for a plan B. And now i have it.

(2) What exactly is it i have no idea whatsoever. And the funny thing is that's my plan A. Only time will tell.

(3) That's a given, at least graduate with a 3.5, which i am struggling to do because of that one dreaded semester. But i am doing what it's going to take to make that goal achievable. And that itself no way guarantees me a ticket, other stuff like top notch recommendations from work, community service, hobbies, attitude will all factor in. And they will all be worked at as soon as i graduate. That's my plan B+. What about A? Ask destiny. Maybe a show-stopper or even a dud.




The video that we say in class told us that all leaders should complement vision with actions, because one without the other is not possible, just like how 1 without another 1 doesn't make two. This is a good point indeed but my question is does the combination of both always guarantees success? I think not because if you look at it almost all of have a vision, and just a simple act of coming to school constitutes as steps taken to achieve that vision. And not all get what they want, especially if you you don't have the name factor going for you. There are abnormalities and people might argue that they were more dedicated to their vision the others that why they are what they are. This is true to an extent, but there are others who are, if not more then at least equally, dedicated to their vision but they never succeed. This is because they never get a chance. And then among those are those that get a chance but they let it go, that's what lands them in the position that they end up in. We all have a vision, it's rare to find someone who doesn't, and most of us take actions to achieve that vision but many of of them don't get there? This is because, those who have both vision and appropriate actions, wait for that chance, that chance when someone will knock on their door and give them that ever slightest boost to get to their goals. Greatness lies dormant is us all and whether we achieve it or not depends a lot on whether we answer that knock. Some do and some don't and that's what differentiates the have-s from the have-not. So what about those other deserving candidates that don't get the knock and, is there anyway to try to make sure that you get that knock, that's a discussion that demands a separate blog entry.
So the question shouldn't be whether you have vision or not, especially to college students, the question should be when Cometh the hour will cometh the man? When you hear it will you be willing, will you have what it takes to answer . What students should be asking is; the man has cometh but when will cometh the hour? How and when will we be able to hear that nerve tingling opportunity's knock?

The City or the Company???

Well the moment I saw that it was Mac Donalds that we had to, to complete our project the first thing that came to mind is their crappy customer service and the bad attitude of the cashiers. But that was to be a good thing for me because I thought it was going to give me something to write about for this paper. Boy I was wrong, I was very wrong as a matter of fact. I went to the Mac Donalds near my house and I was well prepared for their attitude drenched service. When I entered I saw, to my benefit, that the place was jam-packed. So with a sly smile on my face I walk up to the counter and BAAM!! A sucker punch: My order was being taken by the manager himself, there go my 100 or so words for the essay. Well I went along hoping to encounter some mishap from the manager or one of his cronies. So I place my order and to my surprise it was greeted with a smile and not only that he personally walked over to the guy incharge of the French fries and told him not to put salt on my fries and then he tell the guy preparing my burger about my specific pickle requirements and to my surprise they both got it right the first time around. The manager detected the slight disappointment on my face and with a smile, God I hate that smile, told me that as far as the fries go the lack of the salt on them was not a once in a blue moon order because of the fact that they have a lot of retired people who come in at that place. Upon finding out that I was doing this for a class project he put the icing on his cake by apologizing to me. Well I walked out of the place with having lost my $2 dollars for no cause at all. Now a normally I would be happy after getting this kind of service at a Mac Donalds but since I had to write this essay I started to analyze the situation to come up with the explanation that would explain my biased view, that it wasn’t good management that resulted in this good service but rather it was something that I did that made them behave in this strange and bizarre way. Fast forward to 10 minutes later I came up with one “definite” conclusion: The words ‘I have a very specific order’. So, firmly of the belief that that was indeed the case I decided to have another go at the Mac Donalds management. And this time I decided to enter into an unfair fight. How? I went to one the most busiest Mac Donalds on Earth: The one at Times Square. Yes I know what you are thinking and yes I am a sore loser. Anyways, i walk in and boy did I get my money’s worth of service. Lets start at the beginning. I walk up to the counter and instead of a slime was treated with a disgruntled expression, BAAM!! Round 1 for me, sweet revenge. I give my order to the not so I-am-happy-to-be-here employee who after hearing the order looked at me as if was from Mars. After finding out that I wasn’t busting her chops, she slowly but surely turned around and walked to co-worker who was packaging various orders. The both then turned around and looked at me as if I were totally bonkers. Anyways she comes back and tells me to step aside while my order was being prepared. When I was waiting I found out that there was one disadvantage in this venue for me, I couldn’t exactly see what was happening with the whole order and exactly how many people were involved. All in know is that they took more than half an hour to give me what usually takes at the max 15 minutes. Everytime i would ask her about my order either she would not respond the first timw and when she did it was because i raised my voice. Upon getting the order i asked her whether i could talk to the manager and well after a five minute argument and another 10 minutes (may have been more) i got to talk to the manager and he told me that it was confusing for th people who were preparing my order because they were used to one specific routine and told me that they couldn't be blamed because thats not the way thing were done over there. Istead of arguing more i just left and kindly asked the manager to keep my burger as a reminder that there's always someone that wants to go the other way.
All in all if I was a consultant I would go back to the first Mac Donalds and ask the manager over there to become in charge on training the employees on how to take special orders. Both old and new employees should be asked to undergo a simulation where they have to treat especial orders but also how to handle rowdy customers. And order to do this they must be emphasized to practice patience. But the difficult part is doing all this in a timely manner especially if you work at a very busy place. And for this communication between everyone in the order preparing should be top notch.

Carnage amid Chaos, yet sweet redemption

This activity was a excellent hands on experience of as to how to handle a situation where a large group of people have to come up with a solution with certain limited resources and no particular given set of rules.

This activity by far the most important one, with our future professional careers in mind, was also by far the most difficult and for the professor the most predictable one. I on a personal basis could have predicted the ongoing action but i have to admit i was shocked as to what unfolded. Shocked not because there was something new but because each and everything thing that was expected to happen did actually take place. The confusion was indeed the usual ingredient but the girl with the good grade refusing to compromise and the guy who almost took it all apart at the last time are not your usual suspects but they were there and both at the same time. I think its easy to say that the person who came out of this the most most happy chap was the professor himself.


In terms of handling the affairs i think the class did an excellent job until the end. No one was assigned the leader yet one guy decided to step up and not only act but also got the support and response that you would expect a leader to get. It was not only him there were other "sub leaders" or managers to help him out. Almost everyone had the same agenda in mind, at least the majority did but that was undone by the fact that the acceptance of the proposal would require a 100% vote. That meant that the contradicting view of a couple of people were of huge significance. But the class as a whole should versatility and adapted to the new and changing situation and coped with it by coming with a proposal that pleased all. That was until due to a is understanding it all came apart. And this is where i think we failed, instead of getting up from the fall we lied down and accepted our fate. Which as it turned out due to one person wasn't to be. By this act that person not only take the highlight of the night and made it their own but also the credit that was to be given to the people who orchestrated the whole deal for the major part. And they have only themselves to blame as when they were required the most they gave up. Equal blame lies on my shoulders and those of the rest who just lied down and refused to struggle. In the end though we got parts of what we wanted. Why parts? Because we left it all to be done in the nick of time. And as i had mentioned befor doing things according to tthis approach leaves you neither here not there.

Me on a personal basis chose the avoidance method. Avoidance not in terms of what the professor has explained in his slides but more along the lines of sitting back, observing and learning from other peoples mistakes . And i did learn one important, amongst others, lesson. That my approach while good could have been carried out while participating and helping the group out. They say time and tide wait for no man. Indeed they don't but as long as you learn from youe mistakes there is always a second chance.

Nick Of Time! Not as "CooL" as It SounDs

In today's world time is of the essence, in part because time is money. Some people take time for granted because they have not confronted the harsh reality that the above is soooo true. Can't really blame them as i would be a hypocrite to do so as i used to be one of them poor souls and in some way still am.

The management problem that i am facing this semester is that of managing my time. I have part-time internship, a weekend job and to top it all of i am taking 6 courses this semester. Add some club activities and you got all the ingredients needed for a nervous breakdown or failure of all. And thats going to be my biggest test this semester, to put it all of. And not only pull it off but to do so in flying colors. Right now i seem to be pulling everything off in the nick of time, while the going is bad it's the flying colors that i projected for myself. The task ahead is to ace in the tasks that are assigned as possible. All this is possible even within the given limited time frame, all that is needed is near perfect usage of time. Now that would be possible through a series of trials and errors, but once again time, in a different sense of word is of the essence.

Here in lies my biggest challenge of my college career to date. I have start walking the walk from the word go from now on. And i have an idea on how to do so, by not stop doing things in the nick of time because that leaves neither here or there. I'll you readers( if there are any!) on my progress. Oh and in case you guys were wondering its GO!!

A little bit myself

I am a Lower Junior at Baruch College. My major is yet to be chosen, but one things for sure i like most of the Baruchiites, am going to end up in one or the other section of the busy-ness world. One question that always comes into my mind is how to you go about mastering the business beast. When you look around you see thousands of thousands of students and most of them doing what you are doing and that makes you wonder how do i differentiate myself from these people. ? Not only in terms of getting a job but also in the terms of not ending up just being yet another student that went to college. Going back to the business world, what can you do to master it, ca it be mastered? What steps should you take to being successful in this field? These steps are what i am looking forward to finding out? How do you go about taming the business world? How? Well like i said i am in the process of doing so, so welcome aboard and enjoy the journey and don't worry you didn't miss anything, because it has just began.