I’m gonna wreck it. This is the opening line for Ralph every single day as a character in the video game. And he is tired of being bad. So he wants to know if there’s a way for him to be a good guy, a guy that most residents in that building appreciate. He starts his journey.

This is a movie I watched last night. Of course all of the characters are from video games. Since I was little, there are always good and bad people in all the stories: fairy tales, cartoon shows, comic books and video games. Every time they show up, there’s always a feeling of cold and darkness: You know they are the bad guys that you don’t like. Everything they do is to destroy the happy life of the main characters. I wondered why they need to do that, why can’t they leave the prince and princess alone. No one likes to take a picture with them in the theme parks. I guess in this movie, Ralph is the same: a guy who tries to destroy the building and none of the residents likes him. He lives by himself, has never been invited to the building for party, and gets checked by securities every time. He must be tired of his job and life. He wants to be recognized by other people, not just those in the “bad guy club”. There’s one line in the movie caught my attention: when the bad guys end their meeting with a prayer, they said:  I am bad but that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There is no one I would rather be, but me.” How powerful. You are who you are. Don’t ever try to change yourself. Maybe the world will not stop spinning just because you change, but the people around you are not the same. You could be the very crucial part of their life. Change is good, but you need to know your role and do well in your job.

Lesson from an animation movie

As most of you know, I came to America in 2008 to start on a chemistry career at Washington University in St. Louis. The Vice Presidential debate was held on our campus, between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which made me interested in the way politics works here. (The noise from the reporters, however, did make it harder to take midterms…)

While the VP debate itself seemed kind of average, I watched in as Barack Obama and John McCain debated. Something about Barack Obama was very interesting – his “Change” platform had more energy behind it than McCain’s. I was very interested in seeing what change this would bring about.

Fast forward four years to 2012. Much of my life has changed – my education path changed once, and my city of residence changed twice – and I’m happier because of it! However, I’ve had some time to observe the people around me, and I’m just not so sure that people’s attitudes have improved. In fact, I feel like Americans have a lower morale than before.

At the same time, there was a noticeable economic downturn here in 2009, which likely led to that feeling among Americans. So how much is the President responsible for that? There is a lot of disagreement on this subject. Some people stay that it was the President before who did this. Others say that the current President has had a long enough amount of time to take more responsibility for the way the country is now.

School has taught me a lot about leadership, and just how much one man can do when he uses good leadership techniques. But, somehow, I don’t know how much one man can really be blamed with the status of a whole country declines. I do know that the President made promises in 2008, and I don’t think he has delivered on all of them in his first term. I guess I’ll know in 2016.

Today in entrepreneur finance, Dr. Petty invited the founder and Chief Ozone Officer to give us the pitch for an investment opportunity. But of course, this is not a real investment for us given the fact that she’s asking for one million dollars. But this time, we get to be the sharks.

This is a very interesting company. The name almost sounds cheesy to me. I remember last year when the flyer was posted in the hall way, I asked around and no one has ever heard of a chief ozone officer. The first idea popped up in my mind was, can I be a Chief Fruit Officer (CFO)? Though I didn’t have time to think deeply about this question or study this company, this year the class requires to learn more the business model. The reason behind this “ozone” concept is that this company is targeting reusable bags and other environmental friendly products made from recycle plastics. By using each of the products, you will see on the package about how big the footprint you are taking. Besides the traditional balance sheet provided by the entrepreneur, Blue Avocado also provides how much potential pollution they are able to prevent based on the sale of each year.

Being an “investor” in this class, I agree with the concept, but not the business model. While the reusable bags are given away or sold in stores for a dollar, I don’t know how many people will go and buy a bag at $9.99. Plus if the company’s target is to make the bag more durable, then this is not a business that will sustain since the customers will not come back to buy another one if the bag is really that good. For a moment, I really want to say something like the guys in Shark Tank: “I’m not going to add value in your business. For this reason, I’m out.” But, oh well, I’ll just enjoy the class and the good feeling of being an “investor”.

Searching through several companies’ requirements for the new hires, most of them stated: must be able to work without supervision. It’s very interesting to me that companies will seriously list it as one of the requirements, though in my mind it’s a basic qualification to be successful in any job.

When I first got into graduate school, I was told by a senior fellow that now I’m on my own. It’s no longer study for someone else or your teacher will check your homework every day. It’s about do it on your own initiative. Grade doesn’t matter much in graduate school, especially in science majors. What really matters is whether you are able to conduct the experiment and get the results to publish on the top journals. And in fact, how much you learn through reading papers will decide how good the experiment you end up designing to get the result. This is not only true in science, but also in business school. How much you read, follow the market and learn from your peers will decide what result you’ll get in general. I can’t say how much time you stay in the breakout room is proportional to your grade, but it’s somewhat related.

And it’s not just about study; it’s also about work. This is not just the problem of employees, because everyone likes to relax. This is the problem of how to define your reward incentive. If you are rewarding your best employee with more work because he can finish faster, then no one is going to work hard. On the other hands, companies like Google or Facebook give their employees the right kind of working environment and achievement is project based, employees have more incentive to finish it faster. I read about how Bill Gates thinks about hiring. He said I would hire the laziest people because they will come up with the easiest way to solve the problem. Though you can’t take his word to an extreme, it’s clear help companies to evaluate their reward system from another perspective.

Only one class next week! Yes, you hear that right. From today, I’m officially starting a short break in this semester, thanks to the New York trip.

For those of you who don’t know about this part of the curriculum, all the general MBAs will go to New York City for a week in the fall semester, usually in the first core, for a leadership summit. It always starts with an Amazing Race in the city and followed by several days of seminar, panel interview, case study, political debate, etc. We went last year and it was an awesome trip, especially with the Cardinals championship part :P.

So this semester, the new bees are going next week and we don’t have any core classes because the faculties will go with them. With only entrepreneur finance left, I hope next week is going to be a week to catch up with school work and job hunting. Several outside classes’ projects also need to be accomplished. However, it is going to be a lighter load week starting with the Sea World trip tomorrow. Several of us are going to Sea World on Sunday and do a sleepover tonight at a friend’s house. It’s really been a while since we can sit down and just talk with Baylor game on TV. And this very diversified group has never been closer before (By saying that, I mean we have American, Indian, Mexican and Chinese). It will be a very relaxing night and fun day tomorrow. Now I just hope the weather will be not that hot. (BTW it’s so weird that at the end of Oct, Texas is still at high 80 to low 90 degrees).

Let the road trip begin!

Wed and Thu, two presentations back to back for two core classes. We thought about making some jokes in the presentations. Each one is going to be the last one in that particular class. And thinking about we usually don’t present in accounting and QBA, this is the last chance to talk in front of the big group, all our core classmates.

We always think about getting out of Waco. I used to call it in the middle of nowhere and the only activity here is movie. Though I still think movie is the only entertainment, I start to slow down my steps and look around the campus. It’s still as pretty as I first came. In late Oct’s warm weather, the campus is composed with flowers and greens. The new indoor tennis center is almost done and the stadium is under construction. There’s a brighter than ever future in Baylor. Working on Graduate School’s Facebook management allows me to read so much about Baylor, undergraduate and graduate. The cool things about this long history school shows up every day in the news and give me more than enough stories to put on social media.

After about 50 days, we’ll graduate from here, with a title after our names. The emails we receive from the department is no longer about class registration. Instead, it’s everything about graduation. I know I’ll miss this place, miss the people I work with, study with, and hang out with. Someone told me before that college is the place that you can say any bad words, but you’ll never allow anybody else to say a single one. I laughed, but it is so true. It will be somewhere that means so much to me and there will always be a special corner in my heart.

After waiting for a long time, finally the Little Sheep hotpot in Dallas opened! And that is a must-go restaurant in Dallas now, at least for me!

For those who have never heard of hotpot before, here’s a brief introduction of this amazing food. There are two kinds of hotpots in China, one from Beijing, one from Chongqing. The one from Beijing is the one I’m more familiar with. It looks something like this:

The pot in the middle has soup base in it, boiling all the time. And the waiter will give you very thin cut lamb, beef, seafood, vegie and other raw food that you’ll need to put into the pot and let them cook there, right in front of your eyes. The soup base is mostly very faint flavor and you’ll be given a dish of sauce to dip in the cooked meat for flavor. On the other hand, the hotpot from Chongqing is different. The soup is most likely to have flavor already, spicy or non-spicy, or even half half. Then same raw food will be offered, but this time, after cooking, no sauce is needed because all the flavors are in the soup. And here’s a picture:

So long story short, the restaurant we went is a chain store. Before this one in Dallas, they only have one in Texas, which is located in Houston. Being so famous and very popular in China, Yao Ming used to go there very often for dinner. When finally this one opened about two weeks ago, I can’t wait to go and try. We showed up at 8:30 and been told that we need to wait for possibly half an hour. Yes, that’s how popular this place is. But the food is just amazing that people are waiting there with great patience. Go try it if you are in Dallas, I bet you’ll love it!

Third game, 8-0!

Studied in Wash U, I seem to have no choice for being a Cardinals’ fan. Every time when there’s a game in downtown, it’s always so crowded on the Metro Link. Though I’ve never been to the stadium to watch a game, it has been such a big deal in town that everyone talks about it. So I’m not a “real” fan.

But it’s always fun when you have a competition. I didn’t really start to watch baseball game until I’m in Baylor. Given the geographic location of Baylor, there are so many die hard Rangers’ fans in the program, including our professors. Last year Cardinals and Rangers were in the final competing for the champion of World Series and there were so many arguments going back and forth. When we went to NYC for the leadership summit, one question given out during the amazing race was who is cheering for the wrong team for World Series. And of course, that would be me and another friend who is from St. Louis. However, on the way back that night, Cardinals won the last game and took the championship back home. Until now, I still use the same theory to tease other friends.

But this time, Rangers is not in the postseason. With no one to joke about, it’s less fun. Still I begin to seriously follow the Cards and believe it is a strong enough team that even without Pujols, we can still make it. And we did. Now it’s the third game and we won. Now I just need to get my finger crossed for the next game and trust the team will do its best to win. 12 in 12, that’s the record. I’m pretty sure I’m rooting for the right team and the best team, from day one I landed in St. Louis.

Let’s go, Cardinals!

After the long exam on Wed and suffered from short of sleep, finally I have a short break today.

This semester until now can only be described as “overwhelm” considering the work load we have on our plate. But at the same time, we are trying to have some fun and enjoy the time we can spend with each other. Within two and half months, we can end up anywhere in the country, or even the world. Friendship just suddenly becomes so time constrained. With the leaving of healthcare program to their residency, I already have less friends to hang out with. And now, we are going to say goodbye to each other, to the program, soon, really soon.

Now looking back to the first time I came to interview, the friendship already started. I met so many people and later when we met again, we said hey, I knew you. Then to summer IMS, the hottest season in Texas, we spent so much time together in the study room, helping each other. When the fall semester began, more friends joined in the big team and we all cramp into one small breakout room, practice the talk, do homework, discuss the upcoming exam, or just chat. No time is better than those moments, tired, but enjoining a feeling of fulfillment.

Now on Thursday night, we decide to have a dinner together. Two hours just chatting and joking brought in so much relaxation after a long and busy week. Suddenly I was hoping time can just freeze at this moment, not forward, not backward, just now. The smiles on our faces are so precious, because you know these are the people you can trust, no matter when, no matter where you are. My dear friends, let’s enjoy this moment, because tomorrow, there will be new tasks waiting for us 🙂

After came back to Waco on Sunday, October rolls in and so does exam.

While spending most of the time preparing the first midterm for entrepreneur finance, I know there are also a lot of follow-up from National Black career fair needs to be done. I took some time to organize all the flyers or information sheets I obtained during the fair and stacked them based on urgency level and put all the business cards into the new business card holder “sponsored” by Nationwide Insurance. Each of the card or contact information is a lead, to a networking opportunity, to a connection, to a job, or to a career. I don’t know how many of the cards can lead me to a job, but let’s give it a try, shall we?

Next step is what you hear most during the job fair: go apply online. Sometimes when I heard this, I think, this is over. But now it doesn’t seem like the same case anymore. Several companies clearly said that they don’t accept any paper resume. And if you don’t apply online through the system, they can’t interview you. Application process changes so much from last year. There are a couple of times that I need to step out to the internet café to apply, just for the further conversation with the company. But now after the fair, it seems like the only thing I can do is still to apply online and then notify the contact I made during the fair.

If job application is quadrant two activity, important but not urgent, then what I need to focus on now is absolutely quadrant one activity, important and urgent. The exam tomorrow is called “a day of reflection” by the professor. Though I’m not a big fan of memorizing things, it’s not my choice. On top of the financial aspect, I guess I need to spend time tonight to remember half of the book. Long night is waiting for me 🙁