Last Lecture

A last lecture is an interesting concept. I think the key to what I find to be important comes down to doing what really makes you happy. What gives your life purpose? This can concept can vary from person to person but I think that being self-aware and understanding your environment is a big key in overcoming the mundane lifestyle that we all can allow to take place. I think a huge way to better understand yourself is to ask yourself “why” when doing anything. What is the purpose of doing whatever it is that you do? Why do we go to work or study so hard in school? These actions require direction and purpose for them to become meaningful. The same is with life in that it needs direction and understanding. I think that after awhile the purpose of things tend to blur with other things. I have seen people allow for their lives to not amount to much because they lack direction but also I have seen people lose their purpose of what gives their lives meaning while being successful but being completely miserable. I think that balance is the key. I think that when we dictate our priorities to our souls that we then become what we wish to achieve.  My dreams are many but all are significant in order to achieve one another. I will only pick one dream to share that is the main focus that also is the most improbable. I love riddles and puzzles or anything to test the human mind to see if one can solve something. I feel that challenges are the reason I exist. What good would life be worth living if there was nothing to test or push our limits? I love to think and struggle in order to find a solution. Life would be so boring if we just sat around all day eating grapes off the vines. The ultimate question, I feel, that mankind has yet to answer is "How can we create unlimited energy"? Perpetual energy to be exact. This question has been asked thousands of years ago and still has yet to be answered. Up till now this question is considered impossible because of the laws of thermodynamics that states energy is lost in any form or resistance. But mankind has made huge strides in technology and inventions in just the past 10 years let alone past 1000! Did you know that scuba diving was only invented in 1943? We had airplanes before we have scuba tanks. The first nuclear reactor was invented in 1942! Can you imagine what some of the greatest mind in the history of the human race could do with this technology? My goal is to create a better way to obtain energy. Even if I fall short of reaching my ultimate goal of solving perpetual energy, I can hopefully pave the path for someone else to do so.       

Risks and Leadership

 Being a lifelong learner is something that has to do with the benefit of failure. When one is constantly learning and at the rate of a life time, you will either be able to specialize in one area as well as being really good at multiple areas. When you look at ones life and see how you can improve your failures you are then able to take those “free” lessons you have learn in your life and apply them to your business. Being a life learner can benefit anyone and everyone. I do not think anyone that is truly humble will not every apply the practice of being a life learner. To me, being a life learner means that throughout your life you are constantly working towards a higher knowledge and that this goal should never be completely reached. 

The most difficult hurdle as a business leader is to be able to take that risk of spending time and money in something that you are not completely sure will pay off. I think that there is some level of uncertainty that play in this and the constant threat of losing money and your business is always nagging at you in the back of your mind. The risks have both positive and negative repercussions. Typically, people are more willing to take upon the minimal risk with some to little pay off but the risks that are huge are the ones that others fear from. To me, if something is worth doing and I believe in myself and my product then I have no problem accepting the risks with high negative or positive consequences.

A heroes journey

So how does one overcome oneself? I think that we all will (in some way or form) must deal with overcoming themselves because we all have so many imperfect aspects that we want to change. I think this is interesting that we initially want to say we “Can’t” do something because we are afraid of somehow hurting some form of ourselves in the process. To combat this I have two things Id like to share as well as implement in my future business endeavors is to be positive and have a plan. Positivity can be difficult for me at times and having read “Can’t” (by Guest) I felt empowered with the confidence that I couldn’t ever fail. It was as if some witch doctor gave me a potion that gave me a surety that I could do anything.

“Can’t is the word that is foe to ambition,

An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;

 Its prey is forever the man with a mission

And bows but to courage and patience and skill.

Hate it, with hatred that’s deep and undying,

For once it is welcomed ‘twill break any man;

Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying

And answer this demon by saying: “I can.””

I like the text that I provide from the poem especially the line about hate and how it is welcomed because it is only going to make things worse rather than improve your situation. This led me to reconsider many things especially how am I fighting my demons? Or more importantly “am I destroying my demons or making it easier for them to destroy me?”. Also in the text above it talks about how it bows but isn’t beaten by courage, patience and skill.  This leads me to having a well formulated plan on how to achieve your goals.

Social Media

This week was just an overall great experience mainly because it was on social media and how we can us it to benefit our businesses. I felt like I went in knowing so much that I could do to promote my business but I was pleasantly surprised that I came away with more ways to help my business. Something I think really helped was seeing all the other classmates and their input on what they thought would be a good promotional tactic for them. This allowed me to see what others are considering but also I could compare the effectiveness between there view versus mine. Ultimately, I felt that I was well grounded but most importantly reasonable with my approach and reasoning supporting my ideas. I felt that "Instagram" was a great outlet for me and my business because they allowed for different posting options as well as allowing me to merge my customers with my friends also. Plus it gave just the right amount of formality while allowing for casual post as well.

SEO

This week we focused more on advertising and how to optimize search engine results to properly represent your ad. This is a huge component with advertising because the key with being successful in advertising is to take the customers limited attention and present them with something that will make them want to go buy your product until the day they die. This is often difficult because certain markets are difficult to grab peoples attention for longer than what is normally required. Ultimately, in order to help customers to your products you need to eliminate any difficult issue that would take away from them buying your product. You need to dangle that carrot but also make it as easy as possible for them to get it.

Priorities

This week we greatly focused on deciding on what we considered more important in life. This is something to keep in mind when going into business because the line between real life and business life tends to greatly blur when you do not decide before hand which one is more important.

 I am personally a realist and tend to have little understanding when it comes to choosing sentiment over reason but there are a few things that I feel surpass those notions. I think that at the end of the day we need to remember what we value most and to attend to those priorities rather than the fallacies we develop from society.

 

Google Analytics

This week we were able to work with syncing google analytics to our website. This proved to improve our website sell experience by allow us to follow the analytics of business. Google provides great tools to help you run your businesses that many times are compatible with many different websites. By having this perspective in business one is able to properly assess the areas that need change as well as the margins that those changes need to take place. I look forward to see what else google provides in the coming years to enhance the google using process more business friendly

   This week we talked about ethics in business and how it matters. I think that ethics and morals should overlap but also look for improvement in both. I think that one has to set the example for others to see how things so be in terms or workplace ethics. As we continue I think that we need to change for the better while still keeping our identity of who were are.      

  I was told once that "Hell, is when you person you are meets the person you could become." Interesting concept. I can almost picture that encounter in my mind and see all the skills and talents the better version of myself  possesses. I would imagine that experience would be very difficult. I often refer to this hypothetical version of myself when I begin to talk myself out of doing something I know to be important. This is also a great way to understand what exactly is important to you and what doesnt matter. I think people have a power to make themselves better when they are able to be self aware in the space they live. When we look at who we are and the environment we live, we are then able to observe and most importantly think about what it is we really want. When we make the hard choices first, everything else becomes easy.
   
Something I think is very important in becoming who you want to be are the goals you set for yourself. I think that wanting something is a great way to change things about yourself. I think that ones level of desire for something should be reflected by there will to do it. I think that we ultimately create our own realities with the time and energy given to us by the universe. If that is true then what would you create? Why? I think that ones goals should also be tested by questions from yourself and others. I think that people experience exponential growth in becoming who they are and that the growing period is dependent on their environment and their goals. I think that weak people allow their environment to dictate their goals while strong people experience the inverse experience.



                 

Priorities and Passion

      Passion is something that drive us to want to become better while also having the unique ability for us to enjoy doing as well. If we became passionate about everything then those initial passions would be prioritized as the same. The thing that unintentionally make a passion stand out is the fact that there are other things we dislike. But is that a bad thing? Shouldnt we be passionate about life and about everything? Yes and no. Life isnt the same thing as everything. We should be passionate about life and living but we shouldnt be passionate about everything. Passion is ultimately something that makes life worth living but if we are trying to make everything passionate then those passions become normality thus making life no longer passionate. I think the key to passion is priorities. I think that if we are able to prioritize our passions correctly then we are able to live to the fullest.

 I think that this week did a great job in helping me find those passions as well as prioritizing them to allow me to maximize my efficiency and joy in my life. In closing I want to share that I think that we have the ability to control our realities. I think that we are able to set a mind set that can dictate our surroundings to more desirable situations. I think, as people, we have that ability to make things more enjoyable by simply changing the way we think about things. I think once we find what makes us happy we are able to being growing in those areas and also trying to become passionate at the things we have to do also.

Advertising

A huge component to having a successful business is to be able to advertise correctly and effectively. To take it a step further, I think that being able to grab your customers attentions is one thing but to be able to relate to them in some way is even more effective. Something I was able to learn from this weeks lesson is to be able to use the Google AdWords campaign correctly, and most importantly, effectively. I think people are more willing to spend their money on a company that has taken the time to try to relate themselves with their customers. Coming up with 20 key words was surprisingly easy since I put myself in my customers shoes. Many people are very simple in terms of needs and understanding. We all need to breathe, eat and sleep. I think if we are able to look at the things we all can relate to the easier it will be to effectively advertise. 

Mastery

Mastery

 The book “Mastery” by Robert Greene is incredibly insightful and provided the right amount of relatability to make this even more enjoyable. There are many concepts that I found that build themselves off of one another, but I think the main theme of the book is to be able to concentrate that genius level of thinking that we all have into our work and goals in order to perform at a higher level. I think the key to this is to put yourself into difficult or challenging situations that forces you to either adapt or fail. Not only that but to also be put into those situations multiple times in order to gain the experience and knowledge associated so that the “Mastery” is as natural as breathing.

I really like the concept of the “Invisible Force” that is guiding us to things much like that comparison with Einstein and his compass. I believe that is true on all levels that there is something that is guiding us to different paths but I think the key to this concept is to acknowledge which path to take and then to be willing and able to take that path. I think this is why we were assigned this book so that we can take this concept and apply it to our future businesses. So this brings me to my question “What path is the primal nature guiding me to?” This is a stark contrast to the question “What can I do to make the most money?”. I think that the first question is so powerful because it will allow us to enjoy what we do and that will lead to more inspired ways of thinking and also more opportunities to experience mastery. The latter question is only able to satisfy a problem which doesn’t provide as much growth as choosing the path you feel naturally drawn to.

To add to the powers of the invisible force, I think that it is very powerful to realize the uses of the invisible forces so that we can learn from them and use them to assist us in our goals. A big example is the “invisible hand” concept in economics which states that any economy is able to self-correct itself and doesn’t need government interference. Since the utilization of a “Lasse fare” we have seen incredible leaps in innovation in many important fields all due to allowing the invisible hand guide economies to an equilibrium. But by simply allowing the invisible force to guide us isn’t enough, we must learn from it. The “Lasse Fare” or free market method of economics was yet able to reach that mastery level of thinking because we had yet to learn from it. As time continued we discovered that the free market system had a huge flaw in it which were “Monopolies”. By allowing the invisible forces to take control and by experiencing their methods we were then able to operate at a mastery level of thinking with the conclusion of a duel market system which is currently in use of the USA.  

There is a quote I once read on an inspirational blog that said something along the lines of “What if your destiny is actually looking for you?”. I think this goes hand in hand with having that primal instinct to gravitate towards what you really want to do. For me, I love working with my hands and making new devices to accomplish tasks. I like thinking up new ideas to solve problems and finding better ways to do things. So what does this mean for me? I think that I need to put myself in a position that I can learn the skills and knowledge associate with manufacturing. I think I need to implement the advice from Robert Greene and give up time and money to better understand the craft and gain experience. This works out well because I need to do 2 internships to get my degree.

I think that utilizing the advice from Robert Greene and becoming aware of what drives us and using that to reach a higher level of thinking is what allows the innovation of geniuses. I don’t think that many people are born with these abilities but have abilities that allow them to operate at a higher and faster level which allows them to reach this mastery. By implementing this into my future business endeavors I can rest assure that success will find me if I allow it to and continue to gain experience.

Ethics

          This week we talked about ethics in business and how it matters. I think that ethics and morals should overlap but also look for improvement in both. I think that one has to set the example for others to see how things so be in terms or workplace ethics. As we continue I think that we need to change for the better while still keeping our identity of who were are.      

  I was told once that "Hell, is when you person you are meets the person you could become." Interesting concept. I can almost picture that encounter in my mind and see all the skills and talents the better version of myself  possesses. I would imagine that experience would be very difficult. I often refer to this hypothetical version of myself when I begin to talk myself out of doing something I know to be important. This is also a great way to understand what exactly is important to you and what doesnt matter. I think people have a power to make themselves better when they are able to be self aware in the space they live. When we look at who we are and the environment we live, we are then able to observe and most importantly think about what it is we really want. When we make the hard choices first, everything else becomes easy.
   
Something I think is very important in becoming who you want to be are the goals you set for yourself. I think that wanting something is a great way to change things about yourself. I think that ones level of desire for something should be reflected by there will to do it. I think that we ultimately create our own realities with the time and energy given to us by the universe. If that is true then what would you create? Why? I think that ones goals should also be tested by questions from yourself and others. I think that people experience exponential growth in becoming who they are and that the growing period is dependent on their environment and their goals. I think that weak people allow their environment to dictate their goals while strong people experience the inverse experience.



                 This week was about how to become who you want to be and what that person should be. I think that this should be a life long pursuit because if you are not working towards something then you are being complacent. Also I think that one would need to be constantly reconsidering goals as well as being firm with others. Times change and so should we, to a degree. Ultimately, we need to be someone that will be able to to accomplish the goals we desire as well as being someone that others can use as an example.

               

          

Website construction and necessities

       This week we continued with working on our website by working on credit card transactions button and other methods that we can use to accept payments through our websites. I went with pay-pal and I designed my button so that it has been edited to my liking to optimize purchasing capability. My website is merchant based thus allowing people to purchase products from my site. Having the paypal button will greatly optimize the purchasing ability for my future customers.

 
     Also we were able to continue working on our websites and also looking at different formats and guidelines we would like to implement on our site to allow it to function more smoothly. I am going for appeal and for ease of purchasing. I feel that these two aspect will optimize my website as well as my business over all!

Passion for Passion

       This week we talked about the "Why" of things? The things that we develop passions in are typically things we have interested in and also the things we are able to succeed in. We also asked "Why" are we passionate and "Why" those areas tend to succeed? So what is passion? Is it possible to have multiple passions or can we only have one? I think that passion can be placed into to groups which are "Naturally born passions" and "Learned passions". Naturally born passions are typical passions and the easiest to succeed at but learned passions have the ability for us to grow the most. Learned passions require us to learn something out of necessity but ultimately become a joy to continue. So this begs the question " Can I become passionate about everything?". The answer to this is surprisingly no. Despite I said that people can learn to be passionate about things, you would not be able to be passionate about everything because if you did then those things would cease to become a passion.

      Passion is something that drive us to want to become better while also having the unique ability for us to enjoy doing as well. If we became passionate about everything then those initial passions would be prioritized as the same. The thing that unintentionally make a passion stand out is the fact that there are other things we dislike. But is that a bad thing? Shouldnt we be passionate about life and about everything? Yes and no. Life isnt the same thing as everything. We should be passionate about life and living but we shouldnt be passionate about everything. Passion is ultimately something that makes life worth living but if we are trying to make everything passionate then those passions become normality thus making life no longer passionate. I think the key to passion is priorities. I think that if we are able to prioritize our passions correctly then we are able to live to the fullest.

   In closing I want to share that I think that we have the ability to control our realities. I think that we are able to set a mind set that can dictate our surroundings to more desirable situations. I think, as people, we have that ability to make things more enjoyable by simply changing the way we think about things. I think once we find what makes us happy we are able to being growing in those areas and also trying to become passionate at the things we have to do also.




   

Websites ETC

     This week had so many components to that made everything feel overwhelming at first glance but then later proved to build upon one another. The first thing that I really learned was product analysis and how to choose what product will help your business the most. This proved interesting because we were required to choose 20 ideas to build a business on. Initially, I could only only think of maybe 6-7 ideas but I then pushed myself into thinking "What is it that people want verses what do they need?". This allowed me to look at things from a different perspective and I was able to expand my thinking process. Along side that new way of thinking I was then required to narrow down these choices upon certain guidelines that would prove to be most optimal. This was difficult because I realized that my initial idea would come to not be as efficient as others, thus I was forced to go with the better option. I noticed that in the instructions that people would still choose their first idea regardless of proving not to be as efficient as others. This shows that people will ignore the numbers in order to do what they want over all. I thought this was powerful and something to consider avoiding in the future and try to allow for the most efficient product.   

The necessity of fear

         Something I learned this week in me classes was the breaking down and understanding of fear. Upon this lesson I learned that fear has its purposes and is very useful. Typically we think of something scary like giant spiders and sharks when we think of fear, which is good. Fear is a survival tactic that has been installed into our survival DNA hard drive since the beginning of time. This allows us to protect ourselves preemptively without having us experience these deadly instances first hand. Many fears are simply derived from something that we simply dont understand fully. For instance, the fear of the dark isnt simply the fear of the absence of light, it is what we think might be lurking in the dark that scares us. If we simply shine a light in that dark space then are fears dissolve because we now know that there is nothing in the dark to harm us. I like this quote from JFK on darkness.

 "We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future."

 I think instead of cursing the darkness we need to appreciate what it allows us to do and grow from that.

      With this in mind fear is just a program we use to be safe and to grow, but with any program or system that has been practiced, fear is able to be misunderstood and can be abused. This can prevent people from doing what they really want to do. We cannot allow fear to prevent us from doing what it is that we dream about all day. So how are we able to defeat this abuse of our most primal instincts? Just like with the darkness, we must shine our light or simply understand what it is about that fear that makes us so afraid. When we do this we will understand that our misconceptions that our mind has come to are simply irrational and that we are then able to understand how to achieve our goals. 

The power of dreams

         This week I have been asked to write about these three questions in my class. 

• Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?
• Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?
• Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.

  Randy Pausch was a PHD in computer science and created a university software program as well as created a ride at Disney World. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2007 and died in 2008. Ironically, after diagnosed with cancer, he was chosen to give a lecture as a part of a series of lectures titled "Last Lectures". During his lecture he talks about his achievements and how they came from childhood aspirations and that it was because of dreaming and working hard that he was able to do what he did. He talks about how he would write his goals as well as math problems on the wall of his room growing up and how that helped him stay committed even as an adult. I think there is much power in this idea. Like in Rocky 4, Rocky has a picture of his opponent on his mirror and he would have to look at it before he would train. I think that by writing down your goals but also putting them somewhere you would have to see them constantly, is a way to stay motivated to work hard to achieve your goals. From that motivation came hard work and that hard work birthed skill and talent. At that point you just need to refine your abilities to where you can succeed at anything. He also said that "Experience is the thing you get when you dont get what you want.". I think this is powerful also because we need experience in order to learn and grow. I think the key to this is learning how to handle failure and short comings to drive you harder and realize that you are progressing as long as you dont quit. We are not always going to get what we want right away and we have to be ok with that and learn what to do in order to get whatever it is we want. 

 I think dreaming is the most worthless, yet powerful thing anyone can do. What determines if dreaming is worthless or powerful is how we use our dreams. I think men have different types of dreams but it is the dreams we constantly think on that shows us who we are. Lawrence the Arabian said "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible". I think this quote sums up everything that I stated earlier and then some. I think dreams are what make men create wonders of the world because they felt at one point in time that the dream was worth having. But dreams are only dreams if they are not acted upon. I think people forget that their dreams do not have to stay dreams but can be a reality if they only worked on them. I think that we should have many dreams, some more important than others, but dreams to achieve, as well as dreams to expand our limits just to see if it could be done. Ultimately, dreams should be our deepest desire that should test the reality we live in order to see if we are worthy of having our dreams come true. 

  My dreams are many but all are significant in order to achieve one another. I will only pick one dream to share that is the main focus that also is the most improbable. I love riddles and puzzles or anything to test the human mind to see if one can solve something. I feel that challenges are the reason I exist. What good would life be worth living if there was nothing to test or push our limits? I love to think and struggle in order to find a solution. Life would be so boring if we just sat around all day eating grapes off the vines. The ultimate question, I feel, that mankind has yet to answer is "How can we create unlimited energy"? Perpetual energy to be exact. This question has been asked thousands of years ago and still has yet to be answered. Up till now this question is considered impossible because of the laws of thermodynamics that states energy is lost in any form or resistance. But mankind has made huge strides in technology and inventions in just the past 10 years let alone past 1000! Did you know that scuba diving was only invented in 1943? We had airplanes before we have scuba tanks. The first nuclear reactor was invented in 1942! Can you imagine what some of the greatest mind in the history of the human race could do with this technology? My goal is to create a better way to obtain energy. Even if I fall short of reaching my ultimate goal of solving perpetual energy, I can hopefully pave the path for someone else to do so.       

First of many

       Hello and welcome!
                                             I am starting a blog for a myriad of reasons but it doesn't hurt that a class I am in is requiring one. Two birds with one stone best suites the reasoning but I also wanted a platform where I can express some of my ideas and receive feedback. I have many journals and notebooks with ideas but many of them are either theoretical or methods to things I do or show a way I think which are trade secrets. Thus, this is perfect for me to share ideas I want but also to work on and improve them with your help and feedback. Just a disclaimer but my spelling is very bad. I am dyslexic and my mind moves faster than my fingers so do not be surprised if some words or sentences do not make any sense.

     About me. I believe that anyone is able to do what it takes to make themselves happy. I think that one's "purpose" is what make them who they are. That being said I like to work and more importantly I love to learn. I truly believe that one should never stop doing both and that you really cant have one with out the other. Work is the easy part if you think about it. You just do what has been learned or told what to do. But learning, that is what separates the average from the exceptional. I am not saying work is easy, work is the physical or mental adaptation of what is being told or what you have learned. Learning, though, is the process of seeing, understanding and adapting to a concept. Which is essentially working. You can work without learning but you cant learn without working.

  With that being said, I want you to reflect about the "About me" paragraph, that was actually not really about me but what I think, and apply it to this. I love the concept of a paradox. A paradox is something that contradicts itself like the "never ending staircase" or "can God make a stone so big that even He cant lift it?". The reason I like them so much is that it make you think critically by breaking down the composition of the two ideas that are being combined to make the paradox. By doing that you have to question the purpose or function of something and ask yourself "Why do I think this way?" Many times most concepts are generally understood to be a certain way. For instance being caught in the rain is universally understood to be a bad thing. Its these universal concepts we subconsciously agree to that make paradoxes work. Which begs the question "Why do I think that way?". The answer I am speculating is that people either have much in common with one another or we don't really think about things and accept things that aren't worth thinking about. Which brings me to this question "What are the things I just accepted and didn't really think about?". What if there are parts of yourself that you do not know because of what you simply accepted wasn't challenged? Who could you become? Would you be a better person? It is by asking questions we can learn more about ourselves. And it is by working hard by what we learn to make ourselves better people.

   I would like to apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors as well as the irrelevant and boring post but hopefully you were able to see a bit about how I think and view the world. In terms of my class, as well as for business, that this way of thinking is what makes me want to be an entrepreneur because I believe there is a place for me and the way I think. I want to not only think outside the box but question the box as well. I think that is how innovation is implemented by questioning everything and asking how you can make it better. Ultimately, I want to become the best I can be so that others can do the same. This is just one of many ideas I have and some are more mind bending than others.

                      Thank you for your time and any comments and Ill post again next week!