EMBA Survival

Speed Reading

My classmate, Rob Jefferies, sent this out...

 I had a few inquiries last weekend on what tools I have used to increase my reading speed.  The following are two books that I would recommend. I have used the first book personally and a close friend of mine has used the second one.  If you were to spend 20-30 minutes every other day during our summer break you could possibly double your reading speed.  I've seen about a doubling in my speed.   Speed reading really helps in lighter reading like IT, ethics, and marketing texts but it will not be huge help in Finance etc.  I can't recommend doing this enough it has really helped me out.

Breakthrough Rapid Reading  by Peter Kump (Paperback - Nov 1, 1998)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBreakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump%2Fdp%2F073520019X%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1187920273%26sr%3D8-1&tag=wwwrobjefferi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

Triple Your Reading Speed, Fourth Edition by Wade E. Cutler (Mass Market Paperback - Jul 2003)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTriple-Your-Reading-Speed-Fourth%2Fdp%2F0743475763%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1187920273%26sr%3D8-2&tag=wwwrobjefferi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

 

Making a little time for myself

Yesterday, I went to the gym and worked out with my personal trainer for the first time in weeks.  I'm pretty soar.  I'm so glad I did it - I feel much happier and better about myself.  I didn't at all feel like I had time to go to the gym; I feel behind on everything for school and even work.  But it's times like these when I'm totally underwater that I need to focus on my basic needs.  Somehow I'll get everything else done.  First things first - I need to take care of myself.

During the week-long intensive pre-term bootcamp, Prof. Al Napier suggested that we all maintain whatever exercise regimen we were currently maintaining.  I thought - that's not possible: at the time I was spending 4.5 hours/week in the gym.

Dropping to zero was not my plan.  I'll be happy if I can get back to 2 hours/week.  It doesn't seem like much, but it's so important.

I hadn't seen Al since the bootcamp back in July until last weekend.  He teaches Entrepreneurship to second year students.  But I ran into him on my flight back to San Antonio.  I think running into him nudged me into remembering his advice and helped get me back on track a little.

How to answer a simple yes or no question

There are basically 5 appropriate responses:
"Yes, you are correct."
"No, you are not correct."
"It depends..."
"I'm sorry, I can't answer that question."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand your question."

Here's how not to answer a yes or no question:
"Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla."

If I ask you a binary question, please don't answer me with a paragraph.

Team 8 was Great

Last semester, I was fortunate to be on a great team with some fantastic people.  We were team #8: Seema, Faycel, Thomas, Bob, and myself.  These folks are very smart, motivated, nice, and fun to work with.  We accomplished a lot, worked well together, and laughed a lot.

A notable achievement was our victory at the Ice Cream Game, where our team sold more of the virtual product that we made than any other team:

That's us at the top :)

Here we all are at the end of the semester smoking victory cigars:

I miss working with them, but I don't miss them because we're all good friends now and will definitely keep in touch.

mail at school

It used to be that opening your mailbox was a fun part of the day.  Sure, there might be bills or unwanted coupons and such, but there was always the chance of receiving a nice surprise.

Opening your mailbox at school will evoke a completely different kind of anticipation.  Might you receive a surprise?  You bet ;-)

Semester I - done

I haven't had a chance to blog as much as I had hoped I would this first semester.  With the workload, I feel guilty about blogging and not studying.  I have good news about my grades.  I did much better than I thought I was going to:

                           

Data Analysis	A-
Financial Accounting	A
Organizational Behavior	A
Leadership	A+
Leadership Communications	A
Managerial Economics	A-
Strategy	A

I didn't get grades for Team Dynamics or Negotiations yet - I think those continue into the 2nd semester.  I think they are pass/fail anyway.  I'm not exactly sure, isn't that funny?

Here's what I do know.  My GPA is 3.92.  A+'s are more than a 4.0 and A-'s are less than a 4.0.

With work and school and commuting I felt behind all semester.  Given that, my good grades really blew me away!

Rice business plan competition

This is one of the reasons I'm entering the Rice Alliance business plan competition:
http://www.wallstrip.com/2007/11/16/11-16-07-wallstrip-chat-robert-kalin/

Draw your own conclusions.  Here's the scoop: http://alliance.rice.edu/alliance/RBPC.asp

I have other reasons, you know, like boredom.   Cheers.

I've been studying the wrong foreign language

http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/12/04/book_jim_rogers.html

Nonprofits, board seats, and self-funded EMBAs

I ran across a surprising story about a student that paid her entire $100k+ EMBA tuition at Kellog out of pocket.  She was working at a non-profit.  What was surprising is post-graduation, she stayed in the non-profit world, but managed to boost her salary enough to make the EMBA a worthwhile investment:  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_43/b3956601.htm

A few of my friends, neighbors, and coworkers have board seats at non-profits.  The #1 thing non-profit boards are looking for, I'm told, is the ability to raise money for the organization.

If you want to serve your community via a non-profit board seat, get good at raising money.  For those of you that already have solid fund raising experience, you will be highly sought after.

Operations Manager needed

DataCert has an open position for an Operations Manager.  DataCert is one of the fastest growing companies in Texas.  As you know, companies that are growing quickly tend to be a good career opportunity (stock options / promotions.)  Good luck!