FOBlog

updates?

Wow, it has been a while since I last updated this blog. Well, first off, I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. It is true that I have been busy, but that should not be an excuse to not update. I will try to dedicate more time to this blog.

Talk about time management! I recently (not that recent, but recent enough ;) ) wrote a post about time management, and yet, I can't even manage my time to write on my own blog. shame on me.

I’m going to dedicate at least an hour during the day to work on the blog. Wether it’d be researching for a new topic, or writing a post.  I don’t know why, I stopped. Well, that’s not true. I do know why! At first, it was because I thought to myself that I didn’t have time for it. However, now that I think about it, I do! If I can watch an hour of TV in total during the day, why can’t I write for an hour during the day? So stay tunes for more updates!... I’m not lying. 

OCD Organizer

My internship at Disney as a store operations intern (fancy name for ‘store host’) just started few weeks back. For the past week my work schedule increased dramatically. My work week went from a wee 4-6 hours a week coaching to a whopping 28-30 hours per week. To tell you the truth, I’m not used to it. This is my first time having a “part-time” job that require that much hours. I found myself getting used to planning my days weeks ahead.

This might be a tad excessive, but I now have 3 calendars in which I organize my week. The three consists of: My Disney planner, iphone calendar, and iCal from my macbook pro. Again, it sounds a tad excessive, but let me tell you why by showing you my normal daily routines:

I have classes everyday in the morning, in which my planner will always be with me. Writing things down during class is so much faster for me than typing it into my phone. When I go home, I type up the exact dates and events from my planner into iCal on my laptop. Then I take about 3 seconds syncing my iPhone with my laptop (God bless Apple). Later on that day, I head to work. At work, I don’t bring my planner around; It’s big, it doesn’t fit in my pocket, it’s just impractical. But guess what? I have my phone with me! When needed I can always check my calendar with my phone and add more stuff to it. Then if anything is changed, I sync my laptop with my phone. All in all, writing things down multiple times help me remember it.

I have come to the realization that organizing your day is very important. It’s been proven that you can get a lot more stuff done in a day if you write it down into an organized thoughts.

Here are some steps that I do to effectively organize my day:

1. “The list”

In case some of you forgot, few weeks ago I wrote about making an effective to-do list. An effective to do list is your foundation to creating an organized schedule. Creating an effective to do list includes prioritizing your list and making it happen.  Like with any type of prioritizing, you list the important ones first. When you’re doing your listing, do nothing else except the listing. Set aside 20-30 minutes to think about things that needs to get done within the next few days, weeks, or months. Also here are some things to keep in mind when prioritizing your list; final dates, how long it’s going to take, where is it, how big is it, just to name a few. Every events, have different things to keep in mind.

2. Divide and conquer

Once you have an effective list, decided how you want to divvy up your schedule. Do you want to plan days ahead? Weeks ahead? Hours ahead? (I wouldn’t suggest you do hours...) Months ahead? Remember to not go too far ahead. I personally go by weekly planning. For example, If you have a project that is due in a couple of weeks, divide that project within the next two weeks. Don’t let everything build up to just a day before. That would take away the idea of planning! duh! I know many of you works well under pressure, but let me assure you, working under less pressure is taxing on the mind and the body.

3. Write everything down

If you feel that you’re going to forget something, chances are... you will forget it. So always write down everything! Even if it is a simple task. By writing it down, you will record it in your head. You know one of those feelings that you get like you’re forgetting something really really important? Well, if you have your things organized and written down in your planner, you can get rid of that feeling by going over your planner.

4. Make a habit of checking

Once you have everything down, you have to remember the things that you put in your planner/ organizer. You can do this by making a habit out of checking your organizer. You don’t have to check it every half hours, maybe check it every few hours or when you fee like you forgetting something. By checking your organizer and making sure your day-to-day list is getting done you will be able to use your time more efficiently. anyway, it defeats the purpose of having a planner if you never look at it.

Finance Party

I did not realize how important financial education is until I graduated out of high school. Now that I look back, I would've been way better off if I actually applied what I know about personal finances. Even just a little bit would have made a difference. To my younger readers out there, personal finance is by no mean complicated. I know some of you thinks that the term "finance" reflects back on IRA, Roth IRA, stocks, bonds, capital budget. Well you're right. In detail, "finance" will delve deep into it. However, basic personal finance can be as simple as saving, budgeting, watching your spending, good debts, bad debts. So don't get intimidated by the word "finance."

As a college student and as an entrepreneur, I'm realizing more and more the importance of knowing your personal finance in and out. In these couple of days, I wanted to talk about different personal finance things. Saving and budgeting being some of them. I just think it is very important for somebody to know the state of their personal finances.

My finance is by no means perfect, but I am taking steps into making it better. I will share you with you some of these steps and the experiences that I went through.

Marketing and I

Hey everyone! Thought this time I would write about marketing, and share with you some of the stuff that I am learning in school.

Marketing is a big part of a business. Without marketing, a business won’t be able to function to it’s maximum potential. To start with; what is marketing? What is the definition of marketing?

Dictionary.com defined marketing as “the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.” To me marketing is consumer based philosophy, management, and an organization function. It is a process of delivering values and benefits to consumers.

In the world of marketing, there are 4 different philosophies that affects the way companies work. The four philosophies are:

Sales Orientation Philosophy:

Sales orientation philosophy focuses on...well...selling! Companies with a strong sales orientation philosophy believe that it does not matter what they are producing; consumers will buy more if they uses a strong sales techniques. the problem with such philosophy is that, if the customers do not want or need the product, they won’t buy them.

Example companies:

-Any car dealerships
-Many dot coms companies

Production Orientation Philosophy:

Companies with a production philosophy focuses on the company’s strongest capabilities. Meaning, the managers of such companies will assess their resources and capabilities and ask themselves: “what are we good at?” “What can we make that will be easy considering our equipments?” Such philosophy still applies today to many car and furniture manufacturer. There is nothing wrong with doing what your company do best, but it also does not take into account the customers’ needs and wants.

Example companies:

-Many americans car manufacturer
-Ikea

Market Orientation Philosophy:

Market orientation philosophy actually focuses on the customers’ wants and needs. Market orientation basically states that the sole reason for a company’s existence is to fulfill the needs of the customers. Which is right. Unlike sales orientation, they do not focus on aggressive selling techniques, but on customers’ purchasing decision making.

Example companies:

-Apple
-Netflix
-Microsoft

Societal Marketing Orientation Philosophy:

This philosophy combines market orientation and a high regards towards society’s long term interests. These companies focuses on the customers’ wants and needs and they also pay very close attention to the environment. They think about how their product is going to affect the environment or the society as a whole.

Example companies:

-Today’s “green” companies
-Duracell
-Ever Ready

Steve Jobs at Stanford

Hey everyone, My friend Andy sent me a link to Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford University. It is a very very inspirational speech. I have always been a big fan of Steve Jobs, and this commencement address shows us a glimpse into his life and philosophy. So here it is..

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

original text can be found here.

Getting Money for College

1) Get a Job

Try to get a job that is relevant with your major. By doing this, you can earn experience in your major and make money. One important thing to note when working is that the school will deduct financial aid from you if you work too much, so figure out a happy balance between getting the maximum aid and getting paid for work. If you have work study, this does not deduct from your aid.

 

2) Apply for scholarships

Every school has a website or office full of different scholarships. These scholarships have specific requirements and it should be easy to find ones you qualify for. Another place to apply for scholarships is www.fastweb.com.

 

3) Get loans

Most of the time, even with financial aid and a job, students can’t afford to pay for all their college expenses so most have to get loans. Look for loans that don’t charge interest until after graduation, such as federal loans, or loans from some banks such as Citibank.

 

4) Make a Budget

Make a list of things you need to spend money on and what is for yourself and determine which are absolutely necessary and then determine what to get if you have extra money but don’t forget to save money in case.

Good health sites

Going to the doctor can be a pain. Even though I’m not yet in the medical field, people would rather ask me or other health-bound students questions before seeing the doctor. I never assume that I know the answer (which I think is a problem with many students), but I usually search the Internet for possible solutions. The list below is of websites which I found useful for most of the problems that students have. If symptoms get worse, please see a doctor, but usually these links are good enough for everyday questions.

 

· http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/Interaction/ChooseDrugs/1,4109,,00.html
What many students want to know is whether the pills they take are safe with other pills or food, etc. This website has a program that allows you to input all the medicines you take and see potential negative interactions. This site is easy to use and can additionally check for interactions with food and alcohol.

· http://www.webmd.com
This is one of the most well-known medical websites. WebMD is great, but under certain conditions. It should be used only to look up things the doctor tells you, such as conditions you may have or procedures you may receive. Some health professionals do not like WebMD simply because by looking at it, patients tend to think that they know what’s wrong with them and know what’s best for them more than the professional. I’ve heard doctors say that a patient will argue with them on having a certain condition and talk about all the symptoms they have and treatments they can do, when in fact, they don’t even have that condition.

 

· http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com

This site is one of my favorites. I personally think it’s even better than WebMD. It can tell you almost all the possible medical conditions which are associated with a symptom, rather than a select few. So when you look up “lump,” it won’t just tell you that it’s cancer, but also that it could be a cyst or abscess. I like it because it gives different perspectives, which are not all life threatening.

 

· http://www.doctorslounge.com/ask.htm

This site is for those who won’t feel at ease unless they ask a professional. This forum lets you ask medical questions and they are answered by real doctors. It might take some time, but the answers are really helpful.

 

· http://www.medherb.com

· http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/mgmh.html

Lastly, here are two herbal medicine links since many people are moving towards natural healing. I like these particular two since it has warnings on how much of the remedy you should use and when it’s bad to use them.

Fighting Clutter

This weekend, I stumbled upon a very interesting post from Zen Habits entitled: "The Minimalist's Guide to Fighting Clutter Entropy." How many have you guys have cleaned your room just to have everything slowly clutter in again? Well in this post Leo talked about the different ways to prevent cluttering. So when you clean room, it will STAY clean.

One of his tips is called "One in, two out." Basically it says that for every one thing that goes in, two must go out. For example. if I decide to buy another book today, then two other books must go out. Either I give it out to charity, or sell it to a used book store, or even give it away to a friend. I will for sure try to do this from now on.

Another tip of his that I would also do is a "Regular De-cluttering Session." It sounds like it says, Clean up regularly. I'm going to aim for a once a month de-cluttering session. That way, there's going to be a regular maintenance of it.

"Limited Storage." Put a limit on yourself. Don't allow yourself to have an infinite amount of space. If you allow yourself to think that way, you'll always bring home more and more things. By limiting the amount of space, you will buy or bring home less things (hopefully)

After all this, everything comes down to habits. It is ALL about your habits. You are in charge of your own clutter. Clutter don't just being itself in, you brought it in. One of my habits that ended up cluttering stuff for me would be: I buy things and I don't remove anything, so everything just ended up cluttering.

These are just some of the tips that I will personally use. For more information on the other tips or other ways of de-cluttering, visit Zen Habits.

have a good rest of the day!
-Ed

The List

As college students, we all have a lot of things to do in a day-to-day basis. We have school, work, homework, friends, girlfriends/boyfriends/spouses, sports, side businesses, and many other activities. On some days it is very hard to find time to fit everything in. Through trial and error, I have learned a few steps in which I can prioritize and maximize my day.

1. Make a habit of planning the night before
Set aside about 5-10 minutes before you go to sleep to go over things that you need to do the next day. Really take the time to actually think it through and make sure you do not forget anything. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself when you’re brainstorming:

• Do I need to turn in      anything?
• Who do I have to meet?
• What time are my classes?
• What time is work?
• Do I need to call so-and-so?

2. List, list, list!
While you’re brainstorming about the things that you need to do tomorrow, write them down. It doesn’t have to be neat, just make sure it is legible. Write all the things that you remember.

3. Its prioritizing time!
When you're done writing everything down, put numbers next to them in order of importance. One being the most important and ten being the least important...or whatever numbering system you feel comfortable using. Why do I write them down first and THEN put numbers on them? Because by JUST writing things down (without prioritizing them), your brain will only focus on remembering things that needs to get done and not worry about putting them in order of importance yet. Some things to keep in mind when you're prioritizing:

• When is the deadline?
• How hard is it to accomplish?
• Where is it?
• How long will it take?

Don't worry if you have a long list. In fact, make them long. Don't be afraid to write a lot, but realize you won't accomplish all of it.

4. Review
Once you finish your list check it once... check it twice. Make sure you have everything there.

5. Doing it
Remember, a plan is nothing until you put it into action. So the next day, when you have your list ready, set out to accomplish each part of the list. If you can accomplish everything that's good; if you can't, don't worry about it! Keep track of the things that you did or did not do and it will help you learn to manage time more efficiently.

In the beginning, taking time to prepare the list sounds very time consuming. Well, it is! But as you get used to it, it will go faster. Also keep track of all the lists on a day to day basis. So you can see how much you've progressed through out the year. Maybe you start on January 10th accomplishing 7 things a day and ended up December 12th accomplishing 14 things a day.

Have a good rest of the day every one!

-Ed

Starting the Semester Right

As the holidays end school semesters and quarters are starting again, and we all have trouble starting another run at grabbing A’s or just passing the class. I’ve learned from experience that getting a strong start often helps you make the grade you want. By starting well, most students can end well since what you do in the beginning can turn into habit and get you started on your way to good grades in not just this quarter but the rest of your academic career.

 

Tip 1: Do Things Early

Before school even starts find out where your classes are so that you are not late. Professors like to hand out syllabi right from the beginning of class and if you arrive late, odds are, you’ll have to come up and ask him for intro materials later.  I’ve learned that professors really get peeved by that, and if you want a letter of recommendation, you’ve might have killed your chance. Also buy your books early since many books get sold out the first week and then you’ll have to wait to do homework. If you really want a letter of recommendation, talk to the professor right from the start to leave a first impression.

 

Tip 2: Make Study Buddies

Usually people do better if they have peers to provide support and share questions with. When you go into a class, you should know at least a few people, especially if you share a major you should be taking similar classes to people of your same major so your study buddies should be able to share many of your classes. Other benefits of study buddies are buying books off them as well as sharing notes off them and old tests for classes you need to take and they have taken.

 

Tip 3: Stick to a Schedule

 Being time efficient is important especially in the later years. A good schedule should not only include school events and homework assignments, but outside activities such as going to parties or grocery shopping. A schedule should not only help you manage your time, but help you visualize if you’re being fully efficient with your time. A key thing students have trouble with when dealing with schedules is adhering to them so remember to do that.

 

Tip 4: Save Everything

This sounds like a weird tip, but most students I know who get high grades save everything. The reason this helps is you need to keep your old tests and midterms during that semester review concepts and get good grades. Also, classes often repeat concepts from previous ideas and having material from old classes is a good way to review.

 

Tip 5: Don’t Burnout

Cramming and studying hard is important, but you need to relax so that you don’t get so tired. By balancing your work and recreation, you can find a good balance to get good grades and still have time to enjoy yourself.

What are some of the things that you do to start the semester off right?

Have a good semester everyone!
-Dan