The Essence of Greatness

Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the best basketball player ever, and could arguably be the best athlete ever. However, it did not start that way. As a sophomore in high school, Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity. He could have just given up the sport of basketball right then, after all he was a very talented baseball player. But he didn't give up. He let his failure lead to his success. After an unbelievable worth ethic, he later succeeded in high school and got a basketball scholarship at North Carolina. During his freshman year, even though he was a freshman and had to play on a team led by future NBA star James Worthy, Michael still tried his best, making the game winning shot in the championship game. Even when he made it to the NBA, he still had many struggles. He was the third pick in the 1984 draft, where he was widely expected to be the top pick. His team failed to win the NBA championship the first five years in his NBA career, getting shut down by teams doubling and tripling him. Eventually, through an incredible desire to win, hard work every day of his life, pushing himself beyond what he even dreamed possible, he became a legend. He stayed true to his character, and built his life on true principles of hard work, integrity, teamwork (or symphony/synergy) and helping others. By living life on principles, and helping others, we can achieve the success we want. Just like it is shown in the book "Winners never cheat", helping people, staying true to our values, and hard work will bring you true succes and happiness in life. "There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." -Michael Jordan

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Who should we trust now?

I have been spending some time this week reading over the influx of articles detailing the potential shutdown of our government and I can't help but draw connections to some themes we saw in this movie in class. I am certainly not the first person to make a comparison between our government and a large corporation and right now I am feeling like we need new management. We stand on the precipice of having a severely hindered government and I can't think of a time we would be more vulnerable. The entire issue that is causing us to face this possibility is... you guessed it, money. We have both of our parties blaming eachother that their spending habits are irresponsible and in the end the people that suffer from this most is us. As I read about this whole situation I start to get a bit frustrated with each of these parties we have elected to avoid this type of situation and then I remember that I, just like everyone else in the country of voting age, can't get mad at these people. We really can only blame ourselves for putting these representatives in a place where they can make the act of creating a budget for our government a political spectacle. All the while as I read about all the name-calling and political maneuvering, I find myself reminded of the management of the companies we saw in the movie like Lehman Bros. I really worry about the future of the nation and certainly the shape of our economy when we would allow our government to pull a stunt like this when we are just barely starting to pull out of this recession we have been in for so long. It seems similar to me like we are basically being kicked while we are down. We have the potential to lose billions of dollars both in national deficit and as lost wages for all the government workers that may find themselves on an unwanted furlough. And of course lost wages translate to lost money in our economy. We have got to start electing more fiscally responsible representatives or I fear this recession has only just begun.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Huntsman for President?

I have seen a few people drawing connections between our current economic situation and the political leadership that allowed such things to happen. This is further echoed by the movie that we watched in class. When I read about these things I can't help but think about how hopeless the whole situation feels. We simply need to find a way to dig ourselves out of this slump. I think it's great that a lot of the people that are responsible for the crisis have been identified and hopefully in some due time they will be held accountable for the damage they have caused this country. At the same time I was reading about some of these people online I found yet another article about Jon Huntsman Jr's presidential ambitions. This article athttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/03/22/huntsmans_enviable_record_makes_him_competitive_109309.html, makes mention of how admirably Huntsman was able to manage the economy of this state. Making Utah one of the three most fiscally sound states in the union seems a pretty amazing accomplishment to me. The overall attitude of the population of this country right now seems bent on finding some way make ourselves financially competitve with other countries in the near future and I can't help but fear that, when people are allowed to create a situation where they are basically stealing from the masses in America, we are in real trouble of losing our place as the richest nation on earth. It's interesting that Huntsman seems to already be garnering so much support as a potential candidate in 2012, because it seems that people are realizing that there is real need for a leader who understands the need for financial responsibility as a nation. It seems to me like it would really be a step in the right direction to allow someone who has lead this state with such an impecible record to take a stab at doing so on a national level. So much of our cultural identity seems to hinge on our perception that we are always going to be the richest nation that I think we really need to start identifying ways we are going to retain that status.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Response to Post Three attributes we must develop on our own/ sharing our skills the correct way.

 Thank you for bringing this video into our forums. As I was listening to this video I also found myself thinking back on our classroom discussion. Particularly I was intrigued by the message that several of these characteristics seem like they would be innate qualities in most candidates for a particular position at a company. The real key, as was discussed in class is bringing these traits to light in a meaningful and positive way. I also really liked the combination of passion, initiative, and resourcefulness. It stuck out to me that these qualities really seem to be strengthened by each other. For example one could demonstrate resourcefulness to a boss at work by combining passion and initiative by going out of their way to help solve a problem a coworker is having without any obligation to do so. These traits seem like they would help you to stand out from others as well if you are able to find a way demonstrate these qualities

Capturing innovation

The books A Whole New Mind and Business by Design both focus on finding objective ways to bring innovation to the workplace. What struck me is that there is a very strong, common theme - This innovation is by its nature something that can not be easily captured. Some businesses like Ideo may be experienced veterans of the design process, but their expertise is more of a guiding light than a blueprint. Others like the designers of the Aeron chair have similar success, but lack a rigid process for achieving it. This of course begs the question, how can we students bring innovation to the jobs we will have, or have now? Will the perspective we gain be enough to bring about a real change in the world, or will we depend partially on luck or talent? Can we capture innovation? - Chris Valdes

Study Abroad - Lauren Bagley

In class we have been talking about what a great opportunity it would be to go on a study abroad to get a better understanding of other peoples culture. Last semester i actually signed up to do a study abroad for Art in Germany. We are planning on leaving this summer in June and spending a month there coming back in July learning about the history of Germany as well as the art and culture. Now it inst a business study abroad, but i know that i will be able to learn a lot about the culture, and what it is like to live a college student in Germany. Talking about this in class and seeing all of the pictures got me really excited and i can not wait to leave and get out there!  (:

Global Vision

In class, we've been talking a lot about global vision. Buying and selling items across the globe. I've never realized how big of an impact something can have on the world, that is happening elsewhere. If the Unites States starts having financial problems, then the jobs that have been outsourced will be the ones to be laid off first. The rioting and revolutions going on over in the Middle East have been affecting oil prices. This causes all of the prices around the world to increase, and in turn causes everything else to increase in price. Business owners across the world have to learn how to have an edge on all of the events happening in the world. If they don't they will fall behind, and lose customers. I've never really thought about things like that until the past few days in class, and it's made me realize how important it is to have global vision in the current market.

Dylan Lewis