Public Speaking Seminar

I've begun my meteoric rise up the public speaking talent spectrum. Today I took a 3 hour public speaking seminar. I gave two speeches, both on the merits of living in New Jersey. In the first I was rather stiff, standing in one place, and shifting my eyes quickly but not making sustained eye contact with many people. In the second speech I exaggerated my movements, walked back and forth a bit, and utilized rhetorical questions and pauses during the speech. I feel like I've increased my personal effectiveness by at least 2%!

Main take aways:
It is okay to move a bit (this makes me seem less stiff)
Look at many people, but hold eye-contact for a few seconds
Speak slowly and utilize pauses
I can be humorous

Priorities

Classes began this week. Most of the professors made excellent impressions, and I think I will enjoy academics here. Presently I am listening to some songs I recorded over the past year. Part of me wonders whether I should just pursue the rockstar dream. Tomorrow is club day so I'm hoping to join the rock band here or at least find some people to start a band. Wish me luck. So much to do - so little time. I should follow the advice I've been given several times:

Write a list of four areas you want to focus on at business school and put it in a place you can see it every day. The list can change but always must be restriced to four. My current areas are... public speaking, finding career focus, staying physically fit, singing in a band.

Managing teams and ruling small-island nations

We first-years have just about completed our orientation session here. We took a couple of short classes, including one on managing teams. In an exercise that asked us to rate how we would respond to various management situations on a scale from very autocratic to very participatory, my score judged that I was the most autocratic decision-maker in my class. Not surprising considering the creative writing story I wrote in Junior High about a boy who makes a lot of money in the stock market, buys an island, and then proceeds to found a country and rule over its inhabitants.

Unrealistic upon reflection, but only because the boy did not take my orientation class. Had he, the story would have played out differently. The boy would better handled certain situations along his path to ruling the island. He would have been sensitive to instances in which team participation could build buy-in and enhance the chance of successful implementation of his plans. In order to develop his cronies' abilities and competencies, he would have sometimes allowed them to participate in decision processes. Of course, in situations when he had all necessary information, time was critical, and buy-in was less important, he may have acted as autocratically as I tended to do in the exercises. However, his increased sensitivity to the optimal way to lead given various situations would have been evident and he might have ruled over not one, but many islands.

I'm off to a rafting trip tomorrow, and then the quarter starts Monday. Splash!

Changing the World

On Friday, the charismatic CEO and founder of Capital One gave a moving speech here about leadership. He touched on several themes, including: 'Don't give up in the face of others' skepticism.' He told the story of his father, who was a physics professor, trying to determine the accuracy of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The very quest and the test he ultimately devised to find out the truth engendered doubt from many scientists. When asked if he was discouraged, the professor remarked that he didn't know whether the experiment would work, just as other scientists did not know. Only nature knew, and he was determined to hear nature's take. Although he has since passed away, the professor's experiment is being conducted today, 45 years after he thought up the experiment.

Another theme of the speech was that leaders inspire others by communicating a vision straight from the heart about changing the world. He mentioned the example of the owner of a KoolAid stand who proclaims confidently that his stand will change the practice of retailing in his community.

This speech and an MBA ethics class I'm taking now have me thinking about how I want to change the world. Here are a couple of ideas/propositions:

1. Most businesses do provide societal benefits and improve peoples' lives by productively investing resources, providing returns to shareholders, providing livelihoods for employees, supporting supplier businesses and by providing value to customers.

2. While providing such value, many businesses' core operations do not impact global society's most pressing issues, those problems which cause the greatest amount of suffering (poverty, lack of education, lack of healthcare, war, environmental degradation, etc.).

3. Companies can profitably invest capital to contribute towards solutions for such problems, albeit possibly at a lower return than if invested in other areas. A career devoted to such companies might not maximize lifetime income, but could still provide a high level of income, and more utility/satisfaction for me or you, than other potential options.

4. The institution of business is in a better position than other entities to solve these problems due to discipline that leads to sustainability and scalability of operations.

One might argue that businesspeople who aim to maximize positive impact should earn as much money as possible and give much of it to NGOs. However, due to proposition #4 above, businesses are better equipped to create such impact than NGOs. The goal is to create businesses that have profit motives aligned with impacting the world's most serious concerns. Any ideas???

In other news, I've discovered that wineries are fun, and that I am evolving into a real Californian: I eat turkey sandwiches simultaneously smothered in mustard and mayonnaise!

Romanian Pres

Before today, I had never had the experience of watching a head of state speak from a distance of about ten feet. His excellency, Traian Băsescu, the Romanian president, spoke at school today and I showed up super early to get good seats. Turns out that I was so early that there were only half a dozen people in the room when I entered. Five students and an older looking man who was clearly Romanian standing around and awkwardly introducing themselves to each other. The Romanian man introduced himself to me and for a moment I thought that the President of Romania was one of the most nervous seeming people I'd ever met.

Of course, this was a case of mistaken identity and a silly assumption on my part. The room filled over capacity, and the real President entered with bodyguards, aids, photographers, and a standing ovation. He spoke about the need for international support to clean up the greater Black Sea area... to prevent the flow of drugs, arms, people, and terror funding. This is not a problem of just of Romania but he said it would come to haunt the rest of the EU and America if little action is taken.

Everyone clapped when a girl of about nine asked a question during the Q&A. Her's was more concise and intelligent than those of many of the adults.

Ahh... we have so much to learn from children and presidents!

First blog entry ever

I've just started an MBA here on the West Coast after living my entire life out East. I hope to record here my experiences, impressions and ideas mostly as a reflective exercise for myself, but also so that others might understand what it is like to pursue an MBA in California (I can't believe I live here). I've decided to keep this blog anonymous, so even if you suspect my identity, please help me in this endeavor.

Especially among such impressive classmates. One classmate designed a major country's strategy for fighting disease in the developing world, several have founded and sold multimillion dollar companies, and best of all... one knows everything there is to know about one of the world's most important products - toilet paper. Speaking to him made me realize how strange it is that most of us know so little about products that impact our lives in very important ways.