Big Dreaming

      My latest assignment in corporate financing fuels my argument that this course has very little to do with corporate finances so much as it has to do with personal finances. Anyway, this task required us to pick an asset we would like to save for over the next five years. Well, I don't imagine I'm too different from the rest of my lower-middle class brethren (if I'm even in middle-class anymore), so the thought of saving any kind of money for any reason was already one that was beyond me. For this assignment I had to use my imagination. You know me by now to know I imagine myself to be quite filthy rich. In my filthy-richdom, I chose this luxurious mansion in Boca Raton, FL to be my future investment. Do I pick 'em or what?! This four-story home looks out over a beautiful ocean (note the sun deck on the roof), has 5 bedrooms and 6.5 baths, an in-home theater, gym, 4-car garage (yanno, for the rides I keep close while the rest are safely tucked away ^.~),THE WORKS! 

   

You know who wouldn't want to live here? The Grinch! That's who! That guy is so content to live in the freeze tundra of Whoville. You know who else? The man I married. DOH! I'm not saying that the powder-white slopes of the northwest don't have their appeal, but year-round cold is certainly not my cup of tea. I'd rather wake up to the sound of waves crashing on the beach, and the sight of hotties with oiled bodies in swim trunks and bikinis. My yacht? It's at the port! And when I want to take a week away from the masses, I jump on that liner and go deep-sea fishing or diving, or skiing, or para-sailing! Why? Cause that's what you do in paradise! Sure you can do all sorts of stuff in the snowy mountains, but for the most part--you just freeze your ass off! Who digs being frozen? Not this gal. 

    So back to this assignment. It really got me thinking, wow, what big dreams I have. The house is currently listed at $7.5 million. Pocket change right? Let me write up a check right now! Haha I wish! So now I have to figure out what I'm going to do to make that kind of money in my lifetime. Short of some heavy criminal activity, I'm fresh out of ideas, because I know that even with the degrees I'm pursuing, that kind of money is going to remain a figment of my imagination. Squatting suddenly sounds interesting. Right? No, squatting is an all around disgrace. I feel sorry for the people that have no other option, as well as angry towards the people who are in the wrong. More than anything, though, I am mad at our country for letting this happen. 

     Not to brag, but this family has managed to hold on during this economic crisis. But many others have not been able to hang on. Unemployment rates are still ridiculously high (not that everyone on unemployment is actually pursuing anything, but still); the nation is torn by hatred and drenched in excuses from racism to political representation. It's a sad time to be around in what's supposed to be the greatest nation in the whole world. I'm just saying! There's still potential though--still hope for us to turn this country around. Still a chance that people like me could live in a mansion like that. However, it means more of the people in this country need to open their eyes and really see what's going on. Quit clinging to the excuses your fed, or the excuses you come up with for accepting this country the way it is. Things are all wrong right now. Only the people can demand changes. What changes will you demand? I for one will demand--from myself--a higher standard of living. That means having the right education, the right job, the right motivation, and the right goals. This is just big dreaming now, but when I hold myself to it--it'll be big reality. What are you holding yourself to?

It might not be about the money

So last night I mentioned an idea after a brief conversation with a fellow interviewee. This idea has me torn. As you know I aspire to be rich. Originally, my thought on richness involved luxury cars, yachts, frequent fancy parties, and the celebrity-type lifestyle. I'm not a shallow person--I just want to be. ^.~

The idea I had really put these desires into question. In fact, this proposition would seriously be more along the lines of "doing-good-things-for-others."  While the idea of that is not totally without its self-fulfillment, I hate to think that a course of action in such a way will ever lead to me being the rich and powerful person I aspire to be. Awww nuts! What the heck am I to do with this?

What value would you place on someone if they were trying to convince you that you, too, could be successful in everything you want? By that I mean, can a really rich and powerful person be an inspiration? Or can they only be envied? Who stands before the filthy rich listening to them say things like "here's how to be successful;" without thinking, yea, easy for you to say--you're already rich. Obviously, I'm ahead of my game. I haven't even landed the first job in my field of choice. Marketing--in case I haven't mentioned. BUT, I'll get there. No doubt.

What's my idea? Well, I can't really expose that just yet. It would take a lot of money to initiate such a large project. I don't have any, nor do I know anyone (personally) that has the resources. Not to worry. I've jotted down some notes. Daringly enough I've even jotted the workings of a business plan. Mostly, I was just calling into question the ability to be inspirational while being completely focused on self. Selfish--I know. But if I said otherwise, I'd be a liar. What's worse? Being selfish, or being a liar? The end result is that I'd like to use my earned riches to do some good in this world. So who's selfish now? If I could do some good without having to be rich, I certainly would. Let's not fool ourselves, though. Money is the driving source of everything we do in this world.

So now I'm considering what to me is 'rich.' Is it the focus on being a positive role model and influence on the world (yes--I said world cause I'm just that bighead--now back off), or do I really want the sexy lifestyle of fast, luxurious cars, and big mansions, bikinis on the bow of my 80ft yacht? Maybe it's not about the price tag. Just Saying.

The First Interview

So here it is going on 9pm on a Friday night. I'm home, trying to finish up my corporate financing assignments. Honestly dreadful. I said I want to be rich--I never said I cared about what to do with my riches. Something happened, though. Today I had a rather successful job interview with a great company. Surprisingly, my interview did not last but maybe 3 minutes at the most--no lie. I'm probably like most people who walk into interviews with their hearts pumping and terrified wondering what questions will be asked. In fact, I didn't sleep much last night. I kept trying to prep myself on intelligent responses. Funny thing about me--I hate talking about myself. Give me a product to sell, and it's as good as in the bag. When that product is myself, though--we're talking a whole different ball game.
 
Today was not completely like that though. I got to the interview about 35 minutes early. I anticipated for getting lost in Atlanta, plus traffic. The GPS also doesn't take my lead foot into account. But shh! Anyway, there was only one other person (a gentleman wearing a fantabulous suit) in the lobby. Seeing this guy totally took me down a peg, but the more I looked at him, the more I saw what I had above him. By the looks of it, I was younger. While he sat, obviously convincing himself how awesome he was (and no doubt he isn't awesome, but you could tell by his face that he was rehearsing in his head) I was watching the sports station on the lobby TV (it was some bloopers show--absolutely hilarious). I also moderately engaged with the (exceptionally sweet--she called me 'honey') receptionist. One of the executives made a point to come out and demand the receptionist call someone and basically tell them they failed to get whatever position they applied for because they did not do what was asked of them. Of course by this time, it appeared that the entire line up of interviewees (about 20 other people--of which only 3 were men) had arrived. So obviously all of us were sizing each other up--trying to determine what made ourselves more special than the next person (who was likely saying the same exact thing). I think my being there as early as I was paid off for this very reason.

The gentleman I first waited with went first--and he went with a male interviewer. The woman who spoke to the receptionist called me in immediately following (aww crap! I got the possibly mean one!). As we were walking into her office, I could hear the men in their interview laughing it up like old buddies at the bar. Please go easy on me, please go easy on me. Before I could get comfy in my seat the fireballs of questions started coming. What did I have to offer the company? What were my strengths? What needs improvement? How would I rate my competitiveness? Where do I see myself in 6 months? 3 years? Each time I answered, she was quick with her pen to circle things on my application and jot down notes (which I couldn't see because I left my darn glasses in the car). Basically, she left no time for me to think about the amount of nervousness I might have had. In fact, I can't recall if I was nervous. I focused on maintaining eye contact and keeping a smile (not a totally idiotic one, either).

Before I knew, she was telling me about how they're asking candidates to come back on Monday for the 2nd stage of the interview--an all day interview--1:15pm-8:15pm (omg, should I pack a lunch? err dinner?). So of course I'm wondering if she's just telling me this to drop me like a sack of potatoes--I mean we've only been in this room for literally three minutes--and she just has to be vile, right? She goes on to say that she would like for me to be there. Well of course I said yes. And that was it! 'See ya Monday!'

I made my way out to the van, updated FB/Twitter statuses, called the hubby and told him the good news (that he couldn't go to work Monday because I needed him to stay home with the kids). As I was pulling out, I noticed one of the other interviewees coming out. Curiously, I asked her how she did and if she felt confident in her interview. She said the same woman told her that would call her and let her know. Well, I'm certainly not one to brag, so I simply said, "yea that's what she told me too." We briefly chatted about the quickness of the interview and bid each other farewell and good luck with future interviews. Anyway, today I certainly got a kick to my confidence considering that I made it to step 2 so quickly. I also got a quirky new idea that put my aspirations into question (that's my next post). In the mean time, I wonder who my competition will be. How excitingly fast-paced (my favorite speed)!

Outsourcing--What's the problem?

     It hadn't really dawned on me years ago, a single thing about business. My dad had a great sense of business (for a born and raised New Yorker). Of course, times have changed dramatically, and I've matured (in a sense) enough to know there are certain aspects of business that just go hand-in-hand. One of the topics that frequently comes up in class is outsourcing. This discussion usually leads me to believe that I'm surrounded by slightly-less-intellectual-individuals.


      The instructor starts the conversation with a question that opens the door for ignorance to shine, though (as if that's justifying the responses). The question is: "How do you feel about outsourcing?" Immediately, it's met with ideas of foreign speaking service representatives with names like "Steve," "Mike," and "Jen." Let's stop right there, I have not once spoken to an overseas representative who had more than a one syllable name--have you? Anyway, ignorance beams like a ray of sunshine on Hollywood Beach. "I can't stand outsourcing, I want someone that I can understand," "Those greedy companies are just looking for more ways to save a buck and lessen the quality of their products!" Sigh. O.k., deep breath. Sure there's a ton of comments spewing from those who think they have a grasp on how business works, but I think I've demonstrated enough. 


     First, folks--wipe the ideas of greedy, corrupt, and ill-performing companies out of your itty bitty heads. I'm sorry, that's kind of mean. Oh well. Not every company is about greed and corruption. Just because a company does well does not make it a bad company. Why do the majority of people believe this to be the case? Anyway, being slightly more savvy than some of my peers (I seriously will not say all of my peers--it's unfair--they don't all show up to class), I dared to chime in with my own two cents. As gently as I can through limited text-based chat features, I explain my view on companies that outsource. Let me first say I adore large companies--especially the ones who haven't engaged in some kind of questionable activity. "Professor," I start, "considering that the main goal of a company is to develop and maintain its customers, I am completely baffled why my peers make the assumption that outsourcing is only for the criminal-minded. Outsourcing is a means of reducing cost, obviously, but it also provides the company an opportunity to focus on other activities." After a bit more wind of speech, I concluded with the points that most companies will pass the savings along to consumers, or use the regained resource to invest in new products; and further that not all outsourcing means sending jobs overseas. 


     To my disbelief, students were still compelled to argue that all outsourcing was a contributing factor to companies getting rich and swindling the consumer. At this point I'm thinking maybe I'm in class with the 99%ers. How annoying. I wonder what will become of these people who cannot unwrap their pretty little heads from the theory that rich people or companies have obtained their status by doing wrong. Is this our society? Perhaps the guilt of their own previous wrong-doings leads them to believe that everyone does bad things. Is there something wrong with achievement--specifically achievement through innocent actions? I'm not rich yet, but I imagine when I get rich my intentions will remain wholesome, or at least focused on building valuable relationships with consumers. I certainly hope not to have any of these people working for me. 

I've finally done it...

     I suppose my first post should be somewhat of a welcome. Once upon a time I was the person who vowed not to have a blog. Mostly this was because I figured I had nothing to talk about. How untrue that was. I basically never shut up. I have an opinion on almost everything. I maybe admit that it was more along the lines of "who would care to see my opinions?" Guess what I realized since then. It doesn't matter. There's a million blogs out there and this is just one more. Right?


     Mostly, I suspect I'll be talking about a lot of non-sense. I go to school--working on my Bachelors in Marketing. Why? Cause in my imagination, marketing/advertising/public relations is all tied to the big time. If it's not, someone please stop me now. Being a long time follower of NASCAR (and Tony Stewart more specifically), my end goal is to (one day) be involved in the promotion of NASCAR.


     Based on that, you can assume I am a bit of a red-neck, and you'd be about right. I wasn't born a red-neck. In fact, I was born in New York (the ghetto--well, one of the ghettos--of NY). I was swept away to South Florida not too long after (Ft. Lauderdale/Miami areas). I grew up in the sunshine state, and when I graduated from high school I ventured a little further. Not too far, though. I only made it to Atlanta, GA (ok, for real, my town is called Snellville, but it's close enough to Atlanta for me to still say I'm in Atlanta. Right?). I've been in GA for about 9 years now. So the twang and style of the red-neck has completely rubbed-off on me.


     I'm here with my husband and our three kids. I homeschool them through a great website (k12). You could say we've really embraced modern technology. You should know, I don't want to stay in this area of GA for much longer. I certainly don't want my kids wasting anymore of their time here. The only way out and onto the things that I believe in, and that I feel are the best options for my kids: get rich. I don't necessarily mean filthy rich, either. I don't necessarily need fame. I just need to do the something with my life that's going to put my family on top of our game. So that's what this is about. You interested in keeping up? Be my guest.