Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture Book

i have blogged countless number of times about a video that has been well dispersed in the online community by now. but i was buying some highlighter and sticky notes in national bookstore when i bumped upon a copy of randy pausch's last lecture. i didn't know he came up with a book. well, i actually, i could have downloaded an audio book from torrent but it didn't feel right. he left jai three kids to take care of. they'd need the royalties although i'm sure he left them a significant amount of money but still... they're all below 6 years old. anyway, i advise those who were moved by the lecture to buy one themselves. there are a lot more insights and advices in the book. Buy it and read it!

immortality... take it! it's yours!

when we lost in the finals of ecoknowmics, our professors comforted us and uplifted our spirits by telling us, "don't be disappointed. at least we made it to the finals." This is at least true for our Dean and I would like to think that the rest of the faculty shares the same insight. During our Industrial Organization class, Dr. De Vera told us that one way of accepting defeat is by asking ourselves, in 10 years, will this matter? what about 20? a hundred? (I'm not saying that it wouldn't matter if you won but think about it.)

so i was thinking of immortality or at the very least, the capacity to leave something behind that would outlive us. something that would well exceed our lifespan. A lot of people have left significant contributions in this world and they are always and will forever be remembered. so i was thinking, what could i do to leave something behind? something that will not be constrained in the memories of those that i love? when your funeral comes, people won't talk about your grades or earning capacity or anything. they will talk about the person that you are. problem is, sooner or later, those people will also die and with them, stories about you will fade.

thinking about death at age twen-teen (i refuse to admit i'm no longer a teenager) is a bit peculiar, i know... but there is something in me that wants to leave bread crumbs or ass prints of myself so that i would be present long after i'm gone. it's not necessarily about having my own statue or museum but some contribution to mother earth that would MATTER! something that will be of help... something that will be beneficial for others....

ok. so i was thinking about this when i decided to watch randy pausch's the last lecture. i actually watched bits and pieces of it cause i have to study for econometrics. i might watch the whole video over the weekend. either after the ecodev test on saturday or on sunday since i decided not to join the debate competition. randy pausch exemplifies exactly what i am talking about. i am almost sure he would outlive a lot of best-selling authors such as robert kiyosaki, stephenie meier and even j.k. rowling. this is not to be taken in the literal sense because the great randy paush died of pancreatice cancer months ago but he would mostly be remembered by a lot of people because of the nature of what he has done. he has inspired a lot of people to live their dreams and live their lives well.

i want to do something that will leave my footprint in this world... immortality through impact... is that too much to ask for?














apparently, you gotta earn it... =)

when you find your niche, stay, dominate and then conquer other niches!

well, this entry will be very brief because i have to read several articles for our eco dev paper after this. i am really impressed by the way our Fil-Chi businessmen have dominated a certain industry and have gone on to expand and diversify their products to other sectors so as to have other income-generating vehicles in cases of downturns in any specific industry. i think this is probably a mantra in business. look for your niche and then expand. look at how donald trump dominated the real estate industry and he now goes on to ice, clothes and jewellery lines.

i am really impressed. lesson learned.

Musings on Title and Function

After having two lectures with Dr. Villegas, I have been rather curious about a lot of stuff in society and individuals-in general. During our class he mentioned that girls are naturally born entrepreneurs because the housewives are the ones who look for ways to stretch the budget. In short, the wife tries to maximize the use of whatever the husband brings home to the table. Thus, we have Red Ribbon and quite a number of stores built by women to supplement their husbands' income.

Now, Dr. Villegas said that guys have this tendency to care about the title even if what actually happens is actually quite contradictory. The husband of Red Ribbon's founder quit his job and became company president. However, isn't it true that the wife does the operating function? But who the hell cares when your calling card says CEO, right? I say this because I have realized that it could be true. I remember my grandfather (who was a brave colonel in his lifetime) would do the laundry and ask my grandmother to hang them outside so the neighbors won't think he is "Under the Saya". Even though he kinda is cause he does that every time the maid is gone. HAHA! I guess what we could learn from here is girls are to be taken care of. They are just too delicate to be treated badly. I bet I'll be one heck of an "Under the Saya" too. I can't even stand a girl crying. Can't be stern. I'll give in because of a simple frown. Ok, I should stop talking about this.

The other side of the story here is in the setting of the Corporate World. I mean, people tend to have such dignified titles but at the end of the day, their functions are pretty much basic (for lack of a better term). I mean, people would love being called specialists or managers or even SVPs, etc. but honestly, I would rather be just a shareholder since they are the ones who rake in the cash anyway. Interesting huh? I mean just look at the winners of the apprentice. How can you hire such young people to executive positions? How could Ivanka who is only 25 be an SVP (well, she is an heiress) but still! I'm quite certain the title SVP today is not as demanding as the SVP back then. But hey! It's good for the workers' esteem. They're happy. They give good results, shareholders are happy so what the heck? Let us all be happy. =)

COSTS

Ok, so I'm listening to our Advanced Microeconomics class lecture last Friday and our prof (who happens to be my personal mentor) gave us a really interesting insight. We were talking about costs (from a marginalist perspective) and he digressed to expound on the topic in real life (as is the case most of the times). During the first few years that we have her on earth, we incur pure total costs for our parents. We eat, study, splurge and pretty much expend our parents' income whereas we hopefully generate income in our remaining years. So if we are to live for 63 years, our first 33% of lifespan would be pure expenses then hopefully, we use the remaining 67% to be productive. It is really interesting! So I guess the ultimate question would be, when would the break-even point be and would we yield a higher rate of return than what our parents (or elders) spent on us? Would we generate a decent ROI?

So, there. The diagram looks somewhat like this:


Pure total costs Lots of Revenues
___________l_______________________________________
21 years 40 or more years

Adidas Philippine Jacket

I'm posting this for a friend:

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FRONT

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Blah.....

Our Microeconomics professor gave us an interesting insight. Sometimes we wake up and feel like, OOMPH! We are energetic, ecstatic, ENERGIZED! Whereas in some mornings,we feel like, BLAH......... Well, that is what I am feeling right now. BLAH........

We have so many stuff to do for school. I am so overwhelmed! Although it may not seem like it. The stoic Asian that I am! I wonder why I don't show that much emotions... Hmmmm....

Anyway, Got to work on my IO! I'm not even fully prepared for MathStat yet...

BLAH.......