3 posts tagged “school”

So in case anyone hasn't paid attention at the sporadic posting this summer, I've been taking some night classes which have taken most of my 'free' time.  I only have a couple more weeks to go then I'm done for now though... so yay for that.

Anyways, for one of my projects I had to make a 'fake' business plan and I have to do a presentation for it as well, and I'm having a hard time picking which presentation template I like best... haha  So there are 3 choices.  Also I am bad at narrowing down font choices.  Please let me know what you like best.  I will be making a logo that matches the template (in theory).  Also, please let me know if the slogan/catch phrase is stupid lame, cause I think it's hilariously cheesy/lame in a good way... haha

Anyways, the business is an event planning business... It will do any kind of party or business meeting, but will also do itineraries and arrangements for day trips to specific places focused on fun/adventure/outdoors (aka, an amusement park, the zoo, hiking, white water rafting, camping, etc... group trips mostly)... so it's kinda event planning, but also kinda a specific branch of travel/tourism.  So basically, I'm not going for the cutesy flowery wedding planner look, i'm going more for.. well, funky/professional.  lol  That said, Option 2 is still cool, cause it's not overly flowery.

Option 1 - Green Dotty

(btw... I totally LOLed when I realized the office assistant dude was on the pic... oops... hah  Yeah, I'm one of those rare people that LOVES the office assistant... they're so cute!!  Usually it's the cat or dog... haha)

Option 2 - Flowers, but not really

Option 3 - Darker Green

Recently I subscribed to blog updates of Tim Ferriss, the author of The 4-Hour Workweek.  I haven't yet read the book, but I do own it.  I just have to find 'time' to get to it.   So far his blog has been great, mostly because he doesn't update every day so it doesn't get annoying in the inbox, and also because so far he's had mostly interesting things to say.

I've always been quite intrigued by the concept of time; such as time travel, time passing, awareness of time of day and so on.  I HATE wasting time.  As such, I can't sleep with a ticking clock in my room because the ticking simply reminds me that time is passing and I can't sleep.  That's another story.   Anyways, imagine my glee, especially with my current frame of mind (explained further down), when I came across today's entry.  Also, some of you may remember that I was previously a stock broker, so I certainly could relate to the concept of comparing time with investments.

To make a long story short, Tim says he received the following email from a David Kutoff (CEO of MPC, and I have no idea who he is...lol), whom he met recently at a party.  I thought it was really interesting, and wanted to share.  It's a bit long, but worth it.

Bear with me, this is somewhat rough at the moment — my initial quandary was whether time, like currency, could be invested to produce a compounding effect. After a bit of thought, my conclusion is that the value of ones time could experience a significant gain, and perhaps a compounding effect over time, given an investment of [that present-state] time in knowledge, skill or other capacity, and a reinvestment of future gains (just like currency).

Money and currency — accumulated excess money — represent one part of your capacity to transact in the marketplace, and can be exchanged for help from others in the form of products or services, including “things” like consumables, depreciable and appreciable assets. Similarly every action you take, whether it be transaction-related or not, requires the expenditure of some amount of time, which is roughly fixed for all of us (say 10,000 working days between the ages of 22 and 62).

Much like currency can be exchanged for appreciable assets that can grow with a compounding effect over time if the gains are re-invested, my theory is that time can be thought about in a similar way, which may lead to more effective action.

To put this in terms of your thinking from your book, lets say you work 40 hours per week simply performing tasks requested by your employer, none of which produce any additional future potential for generating income for yourself.

This is the equivalent of spending your money on consumables or living expenses. It’s single use, and gives you no real future gain, aside from whatever currency you might earn in the moment. Now, you decide to outsource 50% of your tasks to India, producing the same outcomes with 50% of your time. You just doubled the value of your time compared to before (less the additional expense for the help). Now, with that free time, you get more rigorous about working out, studying, and building your networks. You increase your energy, skill, and capacity working with others and manage to produce yet the same results that were taking 50% of your time with only 30%. If you keep reinvesting some of your time in additional gains in your capacity to act, you can theoretically have a compounding effect with the value of your time (rather than time itself). Just like investing currency, the earlier you start this process, and continue to invest in your capacity, the more time your capacity has to compound, and the greater outcomes you can produce during your lifetime.

This seems extremely relevant to me now, especially since I have returned to school part time (night classes), and am eager to return to school next year for a full time program.  Every day at my current job, and the jobs I've been working the past little while, I have felt like they are NOT producing "any additional future potential for generating income for" myself.  Basically I'm going nowhere, and the jobs are not benefiting me in any way with increasing experience, skills, knowledge and so on.  I've been thinking about this a lot recently, enough that I've been looking for another job (also because I'm barely able to pay the bills, and that kinda freaks me out).  I have always thought that having a job to pay the bills is not enough.  I want a job/career that is useful, interesting, and quite frankly, I want one that allows me to be independent, and do the things I want to do.  Yes, I realize that's a lot to ask.  And yes, I am a college graduate already, but it's obvious I am no longer working in a related field.

If I CAN go to school next year though, I will finally be investing in my future again, something that has been missing for a long time.   If I "spend the time" to get further my education I'll be gaining skills and knowledge; I'll be increasing potential for future income and happiness (hopefully).  The only problem is finding the money and income to get to school in the first place.  Right now that is my only hurdle; and I hate it.

~ ~ ~

“Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely”
~ Kay Lyons

I missed some good opportunities for updating.  Good as in I may have actually had something of interest to blog about (like a random rainbow I saw in the sky while I was driving to visit my parents, which wouldn't normally be out of the ordinary except that there were hardly any clouds, and it's the middle of winter), but alas, couldn't bring myself to sit and blog about it.  Now of course those events and emotions have passed to the back of my mind for one reason or another, and simply don't need to be rehashed.  However, I'll still say what's 'been up' because it's interesting, to me at least.

I went back to school this week!  As in CLASS.  As in sit there for 4 hrs (well, scheduled 4 hrs, but we got to leave a 1/2 hr early.  I like my teacher already!) trying to stay awake while wondering if this is actually going to get me anywhere in life.  I haven't been to school in almost 5 years.  For the last year or two I've been aching to go back, so this is fantastic for me.  I love it already.  I was so excited, though the entire day (it's a night class and didn't begin until 6pm) I was freaking out from nerves or something.  I had the day off (because I don't work Wednesdays anymore, by choice), so the entire day was free to wallow in my self doubt.  What am I doing?!  I'm going to get lost!  Where do I park?  What if I'm late?? What do I bring?  What do I WEAR!?  etc etc.  I took a trip to the college in the afternoon to calm myself and find my classroom without having to worry about being late for class, so that helped a lot.  Especially since I saw a random guy walking out of the college who was beatboxing at random.  That totally made my day.

Anyway, the first couple hrs of the class were horrible, because we were being 'taught' the most BASIC of things, but in the last 1/2 of the class I felt I was actually learning things, so that was great.  I missed learning, and feeling like I'm advancing my knowledge and filling my mind with potentially useful things, rather than things that I could not care less about (which is often what happens at work).

Other than that, I've also got some new fish for my fishtank.  I got a clown loach a couple of wks ago, which is really cute, but hides alot.  It's like a small catfish, with tiger stripes!  haha  Yesterday I picked up a few 'silver tip tetras', which are really cute because they school together like so:

Scott and Annak (my brother and sister in law) came over last night with Jasper to visit and watch a movie (Office Space, which is great).  It was fun.  For the occasion I taught myself (with the assistance of online research) how to make devilled eggs!  They were quite good if I do say so myself.  I didn't have a nice finishing cap for the filling, so they look kinda gross and bloopy, but they weren't (gross that is, I admit they were 'bloopy' looking)!  Either way, I'm not posting a pic because of the grossness.  :P

I WOULD like to post a pic of the cute outfit that Jasper had on though.. hahah I bought it for him at the mall a couple weeks ago.  We thought he looked like an Ewok, which was WAY TOO f'ing cute for me.  hahaha  Babies are great in that smiley stage.

Anyways, other than a few extra things, that's about it.  Now I'm off to watch the totally predictable but avoidable anyways Academy Awards, in which I remind myself every year that I want to work in the movies.   sigh.  I was almost on my way there too.  sigh.

P.S.  Hello to the new people in my Vox neighbourhood.  :)