Take Time

Take time to break away
this is an opportunity to reflect
this is a time to get away for once from the craziness of life


Take time to write away
no need to stress about the due dates
just express my thoughts and share it with my classmates

Take time to manage and take control,

get it organized and assess the situation

write it down if you have to and take one thing at a time

set a plan and don't let the time just pass you by

pride in your work nourishes the mind and the spirit

take time to learn something new everyday

true knowledge is power but little knowledge can be a dangerous thing

Take time to pray away
prayer can be a rock of strength in time of need
for there is a true Creator who listens to my heart
and cares for the things that I try to achieve in life
for He is the one who created me with a purpose in this life


Take time to think away

thoughts are the source of power

and it can help me to acquire vision

a true vision that can give me a clear direction

a true purpose for life and to live through a holocaust

a true strength to live and see purpose even in the death camps

Take time to love

loving is what makes living worthwhile

take time to share your love with others

sharing brings true joy to our hearts

take time to appreciate life

life is too short to take it for granted


Take time and don't run against it
stop to enjoy it and learn to live in the moment
no need to rush but learn to manage it

Take time, because it is more precious than all the money and gold in the world.

my recommendations...

I have to be honest.... I still remember hate writing journals in my days  of elementary school.  I would literally throw them away in the trash as soon as I get an opportunity to do so...  So when we first started out this class earlier in the semester I really didn't like the idea of having to blog throughout the semester as part of our assignment.  Mainly because I never really like writing much but as we went on throughout the semester I really understood the value of writing about the things that we learn and experience in class because it really helps us to get a deeper knowledge and understanding about the material.  It provides an opportunity for us to reflect and actually put it in writing enhances our learning process.  Having to blog about some of the activities forced me to think deeper about the class material and objectives and also having to read about other perspectives was also helpful to get a deeper understanding.

I also realize that these blogging assignment are very useful tool for us students to get to know each other in class and their thought as well as their perspective on different subjects.  Especially in class this size, I can hardly remember any names from many of my previous classes that I attended at Baruch and other universities.  Meeting and networking with people in school is usually done through club hours but through blogging it opened alternative option for us to communicate throughout the classes. 

I would have to to say that this assignment as well as other activities in the classes were very well designed to engage the student to learn not just by listening to lectures and looking at powerpoints but forced us to participate and engaged all throughout the semester.  It was great way for us to learn about management but honestly, I'm not too sure if I will continue to blog.  Even though this was great tool for us to use but it still is too much of a diary and I'm just not really much of a writer...  I could definitely see Sarah or maybe even John to keep blogging and eventually get a large following down the line but I have hard enough time keeping up with all the social media sites like facebook, twitter and etc...

In conclusion, I would highly recommend that Professor Kurpis should keep this as one of the core assignments and many of the other class activities.  And for the rest of the followers, thank you for following me throughout the semester.  I hope you guys learned and enjoyed from this class as much as I did and wish you all the best in your ever lasting life of management and endeavors!

here is to my first and last Mcgangbang

I woke up this morning literally dreaming about going out to McDonald to order this Mcgangbang Burger so I guess it was a sign that I had to get this done today.  I’ve read that when you think about something or stress about something enough you can also have dreams about it.  To be absolutely honest, I wasn’t exactly stressing about it but I was definitely thinking about it more and more since this assignment was coming due.  Why can’t we just do a usual extra credit assignment like most classes like research paper, book report, reading assignment and etc?  But that wouldn’t be interesting or challenging enough for us and our professor. 

As I pull up to a McDonald in Sunnyside, Queens I knew I had to come up with a game plan before actually going in and approaching the staff at this fast food restaurant.   So these were some of my thought process.  First, I knew for this assignment to be successful I had to keep a serious face to make sure they didn’t take me as a joke but a serious customer.  Second, as I played the scenario in my head, I didn’t want this assignment end up being too easy because either the staff or the manager was already aware of this Mcgangbang Burger for some reason.  In that case, I wouldn’t really have enough information to write about so I decide that I would assess their reaction and if it’s too easy I may even order the second option of extra credit order which would be a cheese burger with 5 pickles and a medium french fries with no salt.  I didn’t just want to go with second option because it just didn’t seem interesting enough and I also wanted to see their overall reaction to my first order.

It was little late for lunch afternoon Monday, 25th of April, and fortunately the place was packed so the pressure was rather on the staff which will make the process even more interesting.  I was waiting in line going over my strategy and how I would approach the cashier.  I was called by this young cashier and he seemed fairly new, because he almost seemed even little nervous when I got to the counter.  I asked “I would like an order of MAC-GANG-BANG Burger.”  I made sure I spoke loud and clearly enough for him to understand exactly what I was asking for.  He seemed slightly confused so I repeated my order again and this time he actually repeated after me.  Before I could even say another word he was already looking for his manager on duty.  Even the manager seemed fairly young but he seemed to be in control and bit more experienced but little irritated already because the place was little busy and he was helping out with other orders.  This time I asked the manager I wanted an order of my Mac-Gang-Bang Burger and he just about walked right away as if he thought I was some kid pulling a prank.  I already knew I wouldn’t necessarily have to ask for my second order because this might be little more challenging than I anticipated.  He came back and I repeated again and made sure he knew that I was serious.  I spoke slowly and clearly to let him know this is what I wanted but he just simply said that’s not on our menu.  I asked him if he knew what it was and he barely responded and walked away again.  I wasn’t going to give up so easily so when he returned I explained to him what it was and that it’s a combination of Mc Chicken and Double cheese burger.  Before I could even explain more he just said it’s not on our menu but he will put in an order of separate sandwiches and I can put them together.  I asked him that I would rather have them prepare and that I had this ordered at other McDonald before.  I wasn’t going to back up now so I explained to him again that McChicken has to be entirely in between the double cheese burger but he insist that he would just order the two separate sandwich and I would put them together.   People behind me were obviously getting irritated because I was holding up the line and manager knew I wasn’t going to give up and I asked again nicely that he would make my sandwich.  He walk to the back and placed my order but I knew he wasn’t happy.  I paid and asked the cashier to sign the receipt but he just looked confused and unwilling.  I just asked him to put his initials instead before his manager got back.  I just knew that there was no way that this manager was going to sign my receipt and I knew I had a better chance with this young cashier and thankfully he did before the manager got back. I couldn’t tell if it says “RF” or “RX” but I got it done.  I knew this would be one of the most challenging parts of this assignment but it was actually easier than the actual order.

The manager brought my order in a bag and I opened it immediately to make sure it was done correctly so that I can get my victory picture.  However, sandwich wasn’t exactly what I expected.  There was a chicken in between the double cheese burger but it wasn’t the entire the McChicken Sandwich.  I called for the manager but he was clearly irritated with me and in fact he was almost ignoring me.  He finally came back to me and I explained to him that I asked and paid for entire McChicken sandwich between the cheese burger.  He grabbed the sandwich off my hands and just walked to the back.   He seemed so irritated that I find it little entertaining.  He finally came back with my sandwich in his hand and I checked that it was correct but there was no way I was going to actually eat this sandwich.  In fact, I didn’t even trust it to a point where I could even give this away considering how long it took them to bring it back after I returned it and he clearly seemed not to like me as a customer.  I took a picture of it but it just did not seem appetizing to me.  Even though I absolutely HATE wasting food and especially money, this burger was going in to the trash.  I mean look at this burger and given that it took forever for the manager to bring my food back would you eat this burger?

 

To assess and review their management process, there was lack of communication from the manager to his staff primarily due to the fact that the manager himself did not take my order seriously.  Even though I let him know that I was serious and sincere about my order he was not attentive to my initial instruction and he was resistant because of his initial perception of my order.   In my observation, I think manager could have done better by being more attentive to a customer especially when there is a special request.  There was plenty of staff at the restaurant to attend to other needs and he was rude by keep walking away from me as I was trying to speak to him regarding my order.   The order could have been completed lot quicker and he could have avoided the situation of having me asking him to fix the order if he listened to my instructions.  He could have completed my order timely and saved more time for other customers behind me if he listened and have the right attitude towards customers.  Only thing that I was impressed was how quickly the manager got involved in the process but again, a poor display of the managers leadership and training opportunity to the new cashier on how to deal with these situations.    Leadership with manager is crucial in any organization whether if its major corporation or small chain fast food restaurant.   This could have been a great opportunity for the manager been an example on how to deal with orders on stressful situation where he could have display how to handle a special request by customers.  Also, this could have been a great opportunity to train the new guy.  In any organization, workers are motivated and reflected by the leadership in place and its very unlikely that I will go back to this place again.

Natural Born Leader

I remember hearing that I have natural leadership as I was growing up.  When ever and where ever I went I always had a crowd of friend that were with me for some reason.  I always had to be the first one or the one always planning something for the group or organizing trips/events.  So when I took this test and found out that I was ID or Influencer and a Dominator, I wasn't exactly surprised.  But at the same time I think I'm not as aggressive when it comes to being a leader or just in general.

Often I find myself enjoy being in a leadership role but I do wish at times that I had little more C in me.  Just little more meticulous and careful... or even little more detailed at times.   I tend to be impatient and when I have things to do I like to get things done now, like right now!

I think its great to have these test once in a while to get a deeper understanding about yourself and also for you to understand your weaknesses.  Yes, I do believe that you can improve certain degree.  For example even though most times I am impatient or not as detail oriented, I think these things can be improve upon self control and disciplinary process.  Not to an extreme degree but I certainly believe that you can even improve on your creativity as well.  You might not be able to excel as much as someone who are natural but certainly can improve.

It was very clear that the assessment of this test was pretty accurate seeing how certain people ended up in certain categories.  Interestingly enough, most people that I expected in the class had the similar
categories.  For example John and Sarah both fall into ID as well...  I think as long as individuals were some what honest with themselves on their own assessment should of been pretty accurate.  In the end, another interest day in class.  Hope you guys enjoy your break and see you all in class!

Thirst for a vision

This video tops my list as one of the cheesiest video ever!  However, I cannot help it but to agree more on the fact that we all need to live a life as visionaries and not just as visionaries but someone who takes action and follows their vision with passion.  I agree that there is amazing power in a vision.  A vision allows you to see what others can only dream. 

I remember reading about Walt Disney once.

In 1982, Disney World in Orlando, Florida finished work on the Epcot center.
Walt Disney had recently passed away, so the Disney executives asked his wife to cut the ribbon and say a few words. When the MC called her up to the podium, he smiled and said," "Mrs Disney, I just wish Walt could have seen this!"
She smiled and responded by saying, "He did."

He has seen it all along; it was that people were able to see it in physical form when Epcot center was finally completed but Walt Disney saw it in his vision and took action to turn it into reality. 

As much as I am inspired by this story of Walt Disney and many others but one thing that I’ve been struggling with is the lack of true vision for myself.  I feel like I am caught up with this daily life routine of school, work, friends and just life in general.  I barely have time to sit down and think for myself.

Where am I heading? What am I really trying to achieve? What is my true passion? What am I living for? What am I dreaming about today that I can turn that into a vision?  These are some deep questions that I don’t really have answers for right now.

Instead of going to college like most people right after high school, I started working right away.  I spent some time teaching English in South Korea at a small institution then moved back to US and spent a year with my uncle in his construction company, then spent 4 years in the US Air Force as a medic, after that I moved to NY and spent two years in real estate before I decide to come back to school full time to pursue a career in finance.  But to be honest with myself and be honest with you I’m still not sure if this is what I really want.  In reality and what I get from my short experiences is that you can earn money and success in anything if you put time and sincere effort into it.  You can continue to learn and move-up in career or you can go back to school and learn what ever you learn and do whatever you decide to do.  But where do you find a career and not just work?  Where do you find this true vision and passion? Its not that I don’t want to have vision, it’s that I’m still searching for my Disney World!

Since I am required to list and share some of my vision here are some things I have in mind.   This is little vague visions/goals but I want to be successful, very successful… who doesn’t right?  But more than anything else, what I really hope for is to find my true passion.  In short term and to be little more specific, successfully finish school by 2012 with GPA above 3.7 and do well in my current internship at JPMC to get a full time offer by end of this summer.

At times I feel like you just have to commit to what you have front of you and make the best of it.  Because as Viktor Frankl did in his Jewish concentration prison camp by setting three goals which allowed him to be one of the few survivors.  Of course I’m not fighting for my survivor but at this time I do feel like I need to take a day at a time from this crazy schedule and attempt to survive the life style that I currently have.  And as soon as I get a chance, my plan is to get away from this craziness, take vacation by myself, go some where quiet so I can have sometime to think to myself and reflect and hopefully then find my Disney Land!

Decisions... Decisions...

I got to say, this class is really full of surprises.  This had to be one of the most interesting class activities I had to do in my life time in education. (I also have to include the eggdrop exercise.) It’s hard enough to make a decision for myself but to make a decision with the class of 50 or more to come to a 100% agreement on structure of the future exams and grading of the 1^st exam???  Geesh talking about a mess of communication!  LOL!  Believe it or not it was somewhat entertaining.  I actually had fun watching people arguing and screaming and running around the classroom.  It was also entertaining to see people trying to take lead.  It was great for the first person taking the initiative to lead but it was amusing to see second and third and fourth? Haha

In the terms of 5 ways of people act in decision making, I would have to say I was more on competing to win initially, raising my opinion and trying to get my views across but then soon I realize that the few people too many weren’t willing to drop the essay from the exams and it didn’t help that girls up front who were leading also wanted essay on the exams.  After seeing that it was pointless arguing because I couldn’t win with everyone screaming and arguing their own opinion.  At then, I realize I just need to sit back and compromise and accommodate to the class in order to come to a decision.  It was also interesting to see that majority of the class were sitting back in more avoidance approach of this conflict and just few key people voicing their opinion.  I guess it all made sense when we finally heard the lecture that in big group people can take the approach to avoid conflict.

In the end, I was just glad that we were all able to collaborate and come to a decision because as like the majority class, I really needed that curve and extra credit.  Good job class!

If only our Eggy had wings

If only our little Eggy had wings to fly...  I wouldn't have been looking like a idiot jumping up and down front of the class thinking our Eggy survived the fall.  I really did believe our eggy made the fall and in fact I got the whole class thinking that our Eggy made the fall.  It was extremely sad to see 10 points fly away when the Prof. Kurpis pulled out our cracked Eggy from the trash can.

When there is failure you can always learn from it.  From this class I realize how difficult it is to come together and execute a plan even with a clear objective when there is pressure from time limitation.

First, Our goal and objective was fairly clear.

• Protect the egg from the 10 feet drop.

Second, Evaluation of our resources.

• Our team decide to carefully plan by assessing amount of resources we had to make sure we made the right amount of cuts and pieces of straws and tapes.

Third, Development and alternative and tactical planning

• This is where I think we could have done better and the reason why are Eggy didn't survive the fall.
• We could not come up with a clear design - Our team did excellent job on brain storming for ideas but we spent the whole 25 mins and couldn't come up with clean design that would actually protect the our egg from the fall.
• In the end, we decided to bulid some foundation of cushion on the base of the egg where it will initially have the contact at the fall and then lay small layer of cushion on the four side of the egg.

Fourth, Implementing and evaluation

• Our team really rushed trying to execute the plan that we came up with, however, without a clear design its hard to execute and our egg didn't really look like anything that I imagined it will look like.
• I volunteered to go first when it came to evaluation because to be honest, despite the lack of design and creativity, I thought our Eggy had enough to survive the fall.

Conclusion, the most difficult part about this exercise was that we had time limitation rather than limited resources.  We were really rushing trying to come up with a solid design and without it, 10 minutes to execute was not nearly enough and only to tape on few straws to our poor Eggy.

Culture shock all over again!

Culture shock can be experienced just about every where you go.  From across countries to across states, cities, offices, schools, towns, rivers and mountains.  South Korea is only as big as size of the States of Ohio.  However many mountain terrains caused this little country to have 8 to 10 different accents in their language.  You don't have to fly far away especially when you live in United States too.  You can experience slightly different culture when you travel across United States.  Even right here in New York City.

I moved to New York city at the end of my enlistment in United States Air Force from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.  Down south, we usually take our time with just about everything.  For most part, people are very friendly, polite and laid back.  It was an eye opening experience when I hopped on the subway for the first time going into New York city during morning rush hour.   It was hard enough trying to get into the train without having the door closed on me and when I finally got off, people were literally pushing me while I was trying to figure my way out to the right exit.

This is very interesting because its not like I never lived in major city.  Its because I got adjusted to the southern suburban life.  I grew up most of my life in Seoul, which is the capital and one of the major city in Republic of South Korea.  The people there are just as bad or if not worse in the subway or even side walks.  People will bump into you without saying anything.  One of the reasons why I was not afraid of New York City drivers was because I learn to drive in Korea.  Most foreigners think people are rude but its just part of the city life.  If you're not coming from another major city and it can be an eye opening experience.  My parents live their whole life in the city of Seoul and I remember they had such hard time adjusting to quiet suburbs of Fairfax, Virginia when we first moved out here.  However, now they complain about the headaches, traffics and crowded streets whenever they visit New York City or Seoul.  Just like how I was adjusted to the suburban life of Louisiana, my parents were adjusted to the suburban life of Virginia.

I remember I use to have hard time understanding when southern people spoke too fast.  Especially when their accents were heavy and I could barely make out what they were saying.  However by the time I moved to New York, I missed hearing southern accents and when ever I ran into tourist that our from south made me just smile.  Its quite interesting how we can adjust to certain culture and environment when we relocate.

In Korea, its common for same sex to hold hands and walk down the street and no one will ever think that they are gay or lesbians.  I remember when I lived in Korea while I was young that I use to do hold hands my friends.   After living in the United States for over a century, I visited Korea and remember being very uncomfortable when an old friend tried to grab my hand.  In fact, I pushed him away asking him to give me space.  We both laughed but I would have punched him if we were back in the States.

Who is this guy?

What makes people blog?  What gives them motivation to take time out of their precious lives to write about their daily thoughts and activities?  To start this off I have to be real honest. Me being honest, I just want to let you guys know (who ever is out there in the internet space world that is reading this) that I'm not exactly the blogging type of guy.  I remember ever since I was a little boy in elementary classroom that I was not good at keeping a journal or writing about my daily thoughts and activities.  I always knew that it was good practice of putting your thoughts and experiences by keeping a journal but I guess I just had other interests.

You might be asking why is this guy doing blogs all of sudden?  Well this happens to be a class requirement, which will be part of our grade for the semester, but please don't run away because I will absolutely do my best to keep this up and I will try to make it interesting for all my visitor/followers.

So, who is this guy?  To introduce myself, I'm from everywhere! okay thats little exaggerated. I was born in Seoul Korea 1983, moved around all over South Korea (thanks to my father who was an officer in the ROK Army).  Than in 1994 my parents sent me to Puyallup, WA to spend the summer with my cousins family which ended up being more than a summer.  I spent total of 2 1/2 years in little town of Puyallup and went back to Korea in 1996 and did not return to U.S. till late 2002.  But this time it was with my parents, when I returned and we moved to Fairfax, VA.  A year after I arrived in U.S., I joined the U.S. Air Force and shipped out to Texas where I did most of my training and after training I got stationed at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana where I spent most of my time in the Air Force.  I had opportunity to travel to Germany and also did a short tour in UAE.

What brought me to NYC? After successful time I had in the Air Force I was ready to take on new challenges and to see more of the world. It was bit of everything from ambition to motivation of wanting to be successful.

Currently, I am a Intern at JP Morgan and a upper-junior at Baruch College pursuing degree in Finance and Investment looking to graduate in Spring 2012.  I'm still currently serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserves in McGuire AFB in New Jersey.

I think this is a good start for now.  Please feel free to leave any feedback on any advice on how to keep a good blog.   Next week, I'll share little about the title of by blog.  Till then, take care!