Category: Thoughts on a 30 Minute Bus Ride

No, I have not taken any of these courses yet. But from what I gathered, this is what each course is roughly about, in my opinion about each major:

Before we start, I am generally assuming that each major requires knowledge about that particular field for success.

Accounting

I tend to think of this topic like legal studies. It’s never about knowing the rules, it’s always about knowing how to bend them. Accountants are not number crackers, they are mathematical strategists. It could be a fun career, but a tough one to get into since understanding all the rules in the first place is so difficult. Trait required: adaptability.

Finance

Financial experts are people who watch their investments grow and grow and grow. Is it fun? It could be. It’s sort of like gambling, but with a reasonable degree of precision. Have you ever gambled before? You need to hit big, and you need to know you’re going to lose. Finance is definitely not for those who always shy away from failures. Just imagine tonnes of money you’re investing, and you not being able to lose that money. Of course, you don’t want to lose it stupidly and make it on some crappy investment, but it’s hard to forecast the future right? You need to be able to deal with the pressure of taking risks, along with the ability to deal with failure when it actually hits you. Not suitable for typical Asians.

Marketing

This major is about creating value out of nothing. In today’s society, I think marketing is the biggest thing ever. But I don’t think that marketing majors are necessarily the best at their job. i find that the best marketers tend to work backwards, they don’t add value into their product without knowing how to add value. In other words, they first tap into consumer psychology, and then they start their marketing campaign. Most important skill – ability to understand the subconscious mind. (very different from understanding a conscious rational mind)

Logistics

I don’t think logistics is a good major to be honest. This is one of those things which is A LOT better done on the field. It takes a lot of business sense to get logistics, because most of this I think is things you think about conceptually. In practice, it might work different from your concept. But overall, this is to increase efficiency on supply chain management. Main requirement skill: strategic, conceptual mind

Human Resources

Knowing what people want, knowing how to talk to them, knowing how to make them do what you want them to do – that’s what a real HR director should be able to do. Influence and understanding is the key here.

Real Estate

I think these guys are actually the safest out of every single profession. It’s quite hard to go wrong with real estate, especially since housing value tends to appreciate over time as population expands, making it much easier for real estate agents to do their job. Real estate can be tremendously overlooked in Canada, but pretty soon, as more people migrate out of China to here, property prices will definitely rise, and these real estate guys will definitely make a lot. (I have doubts in my mind that this would happen, but I keep my hopes up for this profession)

😀

For those that don’t know already…I watch Glee….

It’s not bad at all. Here is a remade version of a song:

This, along with ‘Dream On’ are my favorite musicals on Glee so far. They’re just SO catchy. It also tells us a bit about how little the actual words in music matter….it’s all about the tone, pace, and music.

Everyone has a limit – the point where you just cannot push further.

That point where you’re tired and exhausted. That single point when you feel as if you have been done enough because you have already learned and practiced continuously to no ends. You’re just not made for this job. You’ve screwed up so badly that you no longer want to try. You have other things to do, this stuff is just boring, you can’t continue. One tired point when everything in the world stopped mattering, and you stop because you feel that nothing else can be done. Nothing should be done.

Stop making excuses.

Post inspired by Jordan:

“This game is seven card stud”

Most of you who play poker or read ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams will recognize this quote. It somehow flashed out in front of me after a certain epiphany.

I have always been in favor of the idea that we determine our own fates, our destinies, and ultimately our lives. However, this fails to hold true on deeper thought. It is now more plausible to say that we can merely influence the direction of our lives, but to have absolute control is somewhat puzzling.

Everyday, we are presented with new opportunities. Opportunities to study, to make friends, to exercise….which opportunities are best for the future? Who really knows? The guy sitting next to you might have an unique connection with you, but a conversation fails to flow through because you’re both afraid of strangers. After that, the conversation is lost, and the person who could have been your best friend, your new network, or what have you, has left you as a foregone opportunity.

People say playing video games is a waste of time. I beg to differ – video games have never been a better source of socialization method. So are comic books, or books, or anything. I have made friends just by talking about dota/HON (and I didn’t even have to play an actual game with them). And there they were – our parents saying that it’s completely a waste of time. At that time I thought they were right. But upon reflection – not really.

I guess I’ve taking on a highly investment-like view of time. We never know what type of opportunities we actually hold until we either lose or gain them. It feels almost like a game of chance, where we simply make some decisions, and life and its many factors take us for a ride.

Am I simply saying sit back and enjoy the ride? Sort of. Am I saying that we have absolutely no control of our lives? Not exactly. Like on a roller coaster, it’s not guaranteed you won’t fall off. What I’m trying to say is that there’s always those that try to become something that they are not. Those who act, doing something they have see no pleasure in doing. When they do it, and their actions don’t reach the goal they anticipated, they feel out of control and spiral into a whirl of depression.

So what? Well, live life decisively – reflect everyday to make sure you know where your values lie, who you are. Build on your strengths, and one day, lady Fortuna will reward you for sticking persistently to your values. It’s all a game of chance anyways, so why not make your bet on actions that you enjoy making? Don’t regret it when you think other people have better outcomes than you, because sooner or later, those say outcomes could come looking for you.

Stick to your values persistently, and let life guide you through. Prepare to live and enjoy your life.

Very interestingly, Toyota has managed to report over 1.2B worth of profit this quarter. Not only this, but Goldman Sachs are optimistically looking towards the future despite their legal liabilities. What’s this? China’s economy STILL hasn’t overheated after around 10 reports per day saying that they would by last year?

Forget these large companies; forget the economy; how often in life do we find things not turning out the way they’re supposed to?

Take a good one second to think.

I don’t know about you, but I’m already reflecting upon trends that have happened due to expectations.

Just when people start understanding relationship concepts about ‘hard to get’ it seems ineffective. Why? Because EVERYONE is now ‘hard to get’. And it gets to a point where it’s sort of annoying, especially in group projects; you know when people are deliberatively seeming busy, but actually have nothing to do with their spare time except to stall you.

Just when everyone thinks they know the secrets of business success, that formula shatters. Just when people think they know everything is good, everything turns bad.

I guess part of this concept comes from the fact that we are all human, and our expectations fuel us towards certain directions. Think about it this way, those managers at Toyota probably worked their bums off to preserve a profit gain. Likewise for officials in China and the CEO of Sachs. I would go as far to say that their strength and determination have gripped them to transcend pre-written realities.

Now, apply their mentality onto all human beings. Aren’t we all the same? Whenever our expectations become factored into the equation, the outcome turns completely differently. The fact that we are all inextricably interlinked animals makes it so that your expectations will affect my reality. In any game where you and I are interlinked, if I tell you my expectation, I can pretty much expect that my expectation isn’t going to come true, because now I have to factor in your expectations. Think for example – if I tell you that I expect you and your girlfriend are going to break up, my expectations might influence you to not break up, because you want to prove it to everybody that the relationship will work. Take another exam, if I expect house prices to rise, and I start telling everybody, then eventually everybody will start investing. If everyone’s investing, then nobody is truly buying, and therefore we’d have an asset bubble created.

So if you have any new business ideas or plans, don’t share. This doesn’t mean to say that you shouldn’t help your neighbour, but when ideas and expectations for the future are yours, you should keep it to yourself. At least this way, you can minimize the chances of an outcome which defies your expectations.

In an article by Richard Branson published in Canadian Business Online, the famous entrepreneur shares the insights of a successfully creative business.

Virgin airlines started off small, but they have created value like none other – they have utilized the valuable asset of humor.

Other fascinating ideas include “stainless steal” imprinted on all forks, and ads which showed Hilary Clinton screaming “I can’t keep my bill under control!”

Reflecting upon these innovative business ideas, none of it could have happened without the dedication of Branson himself. By using himself as a model, and jumping off buildings, planes, mountains, you name it, he has created a team of fun-loving and risk-taking individuals inspired to keep a smile on customers’ faces.

Of course, none of Virgin’s successes can be claimed if Virgin was not a competent force, but it is the humor which differentiates them from other companies.

So what does this all mean to me? It is inspiring to see a company achieve professionalism and humor simultaneously. It gives me a bit of reassurance that anything in this world is possible, and that life is filled with surprising opportunities. Sometimes, planning isn’t the ultimate source of wisdom, it is action which counts, and defines.

So I mis-read the instructions, and I didn’t post about ethics in my first post. This post is a hybrid of make-up for the first post + strong feelings towards this topic.

Topic: ‘Freedom and Democracy”

Link: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15270960

Firstly, I do think the West has built in certain associations within the English language. We simply associate ‘good’ with ‘freedom’, and ‘freedom’ with ‘democracy’. While I think there is a more objective argument to support democracy, I also think it is ethically wrong to intrude into what other countries find to be the optimum strategy of political rule.

Political freedom, I think, is less possible in a country like China. Imagine having all 23 provinces voting for a single leader. Such a wide-scale election would not only be impractical, but it is likely to produce undesirable results. What if a demagogue without skill became leader and drove the country into chaos? At the very least, now, with China’s one party state, the chosen leader is competent and capable in leading a country. Not all countries are suited for democracy.

This brings on the question of ethics, for why should Western society constantly promote democracy and good to be one of the same? It’s not the truth. Certainly, democracy is associated with freedom (although this is merely Majority’s Tyranny as shown by the article), but should freedom or ‘Majority’s Tyranny’ be associated with good? I leave you to answer that. For now, I will conclude by asserting that they are not one of the same, and that we should not always think ‘free’ is the same as ‘good’ in every situation.