I finished a book by Malcom Gladwell called The Tipping Point a little over 2 years ago and today I finished his next book “Blink”. Both very good! Here’s one of the ideas from Blink:
In the early 20th century women were discriminated against in the classical music scene. It was thought that they didn’t have the lung capacity for brass nor the hand strength for strings. Less than 5 percent of musicians were women. Then something very simple but profound happened; they did blind auditions. The performer would walk on stage via carpet (so heels wouldn’t clink) behind a sheet so those listening could only hear the music, not see distractions. By the end of the century about 50% of those performing in the nation’s major symphonies were women.
Cool, huh! How you sound should be, after all, the only determining factor in a symphony orchestra. If you’re singing pop you should probably be a hottie with a body who can shake it all over, but if you can wear black and be still then hey classical is for you!
Gladwell spoke at Harvard Law about 2 years ago and proposed we practice criminal law using this principle. Surprisingly he was well received. The author was trying to correct the injustice of racial prejudice in sentences. It’s a fact that black convicts are 27 to 54 times more likely to get jail time for drug offenses than equivalent white offenders. Great idea I say. Why not level the playing field?
Stanford is a hub for innovation and every year they have a “Mystery Object Video Contest” of sorts. They announce a random object and then you have 5 days to create the most “value”, documented by video. The value could be humor, service, fund raising, etc.
Many of you probably don’t know about this, but 2 years ago Parker Planners sponsored this same contest at BYU. It was a ton of fun and we even got Deloitte the accounting firm to sponsor us! These groups of students had only 5 days to think up, write, direct, film, and submit their videos. Great job to them says I! We had about 9 submissions, here were the top 2 and then an honorable mention. The winner got $500.
This is my American Heritage TA. Way to get into your job, man. Today he played the role of Washington in the Constitution debates. Our class was divided into States and we debated representation and presidential election. This scene is depicted in the movie “A More Perfect Union”. Good stuff! One a side note,ever seen Mr. Smith goes to Washington? It’s a must see, what a great flick.
Eric and I went to a car show last Saturday with our parents. My dad used to take us to car shows all the time as kids, that’s probably part of the reason we were all such gearheads. I loved car shows, you get to sit in neato cars that you normally just read about. This is Eric and I chipping away at some snow to get a close parking spot!
It was fun but we ended up yoinking another one anyway.
I got some board gear and am ready to hit the slopes. My bro and I went to Canyons already and we’re probably going to hit Sundance a few more times this winter because it’s only 20 min away.
This is with family on the sledding hill. Fun stuff sledding with nieces. Those girls are wicked cool.
My good friend Janie Thompson says that as a nation “we’ve let old man Satan just take control of Hollywood”. To a large degree I think she’s right. As one of my accounting professor’s said, “PG-13 means about 13% of those movies are worth watching”. I agree whole heartedly with that, too! For the most part I think movies are painstakingly calculated and engineered to get you to watch them and gradually descend into a mire of filth, darkness, and slime.
Sounds like I’m a big movie watcher! Since my mission I think I’ve set foot in a movie theater 4 times.
However, The Blindside is actually worth watching. I was surprised. It depicts a happily married couple that talks about things and can come to agreements. They decide to let a rough young man stay at their expensive home out of love.
What? Bro? No way. In n out, dude. Dude, in n out. Its soooo good.
Ever heard this conversation? Exactly. Probably not, because you’re not from Utah. If you are, you’ve heard this a thousand times. Why do people love IN-N-OUT so much? Maybe they visited California once and they don’t have it in Utah so its cool. It tastes ok, true. I’m not saying IN-N-OUT is McDonald’s bad, just not .5 mile long drive through-lines good.
Today was the grand opening of our soon-to-be beloved:
My buddy Thanh and I got up and went to the gym this morning. What a perfect way to start the day.
John Hunstman gave a devotional address to BYU’s student body today. I love his life story, and read parts of it once in a book called “Winners Never Cheat”. He grew up as a farm boy in Idaho and eventually became and international business icon. I love how he got financing for the first business he started.
He says at first the banker just blew him off and wouldn’t give any money. He had many failed attempts at getting a bank loan, but finally Jon just wore him down and was given a meager pittance. He mentioned that the principle to learn from this is that you have to live your own dream and not let other people decide what life you’ll live. I love it. That’s probably what most people don’t get about entrepreneurship.
A lot of people still think that if you’re an entrepreneur you’re made of magic and play all day while getting paid large sums of money. They don’t know the countless sleepless nights, doubts, vision, polite head nodding when people ask you if you’ve ever thought of this or that or give you innumerable pieces of worthless advice that come along with blazing your own trail in the world.
If having self confidence and strong sense of identity and work ethic is magic, and if doing something you love is play, then maybe we are made of magic and get to play all day.
Too many people look to others to decide their fate for them. They take a test to tell them their passions, ask an advisor what they should major in, and take a fearful failure’s word for it when it comes to doing something creative or hard. “Oh, you can’t start a business unless you’re a super genius who is already a millionaire” or “no, that idea won’t work, besides, someone has probably already done it”. Put a cork in it, fearful failures. Don’t try to put a shade over someone’s sunlight. Just because you have long, sinking regrets in life doesn’t mean you have to belittle those that try harder than you did.
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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
I was visiting our neighbors next door and in comes Eric, funny phrases a blazin’ and says “come quick! The pizza fell down the well!” He was right. So tragically right. It fell past the oven grates right to the oven floor. Here’s a pic of the damage. Yes, it was still good. Mmmmmm $0.79 pizza…..
Speaking of things being stuck down wells, here’s a piece of Simpsons where Bart pretends to be a kid stuck in the well. Celebrity Krusty gathers famous people to sing for the imaginary kid in the well. Kinda funny how it takes a post as long as this just to explain one of our inside jokes.
Now that you’ve enjoyed that, you can see what the Simpsons was parodying. Yes, Michael Jackson’s trusted and true “We are the World” thingy with lots of celebrities most American youth wouldn’t recognize:
Oh Kenny Rogers, you are one silly former chicken maker.
This post is going to be a lotta what I did today. Luckily I had the trusty phone camera handy to catch it all.
Just before heading out with my super business partner to take care of you know what, my brother Ammon called from Afghanistan. He’s so cool. I don’t get to talk to him too often.
Here’s our planner display in one of our retail locations! This morning Benjie and I dropped by to refil an order.
Mike, my new roomate and Parker Planners Sales associate. Good man, good man. He’s got business cards and everything. Mike went out to battle the world today. Brave soul.
Ye olde Ferrari and Lambo right were they were a year ago. Benjie used to detail both of these cars, so we checked ‘em out on campus per a rumor. This year’s SEOY-Student Entrepreneur of the Year- award will go to the coolest student business. Final event takes place Friday, Oct 2 on campus at BYU. The cars belong to one of the Co-Founders of Ominture, a former BYU student.
Poor Chadder’s. An In’ n’ Out copy surely going to sink to a watery grave after the real thing opens in Orem. Food’s not too good. Eric said he doesn’t like those darn fries because you have to eat 8 of them at once to get a decent fry bite. “I hate those darn fries. Darn those fries!” said he.
I had high hopes before I ate the burger. Eric agreed with my analysis above after munching sub-par fries.
This leafy leaf bug brightened up the day. Looks like a leaf, huh? Also looks like the moon’s surface behind him.
Eric and I saw some music on campus with a couple ladies tonight-pretty fun! We then took some silly pictures and texted them to each other as we roamed around. Coldstone was next- we got to finish off this gift certificate I had along with using Eric’s Starving Student card discount thing. We basically got a 1/2 gallon of coldstone goodness for about $4. Sweet!
I don’t know why its called that, but its a fun place by Utah Lake along the Provo River. Here is a picture of me jumping to catch a ring, it was cool! They put you in a harness, you climb a tree, jump to get the ring, then lower you to the ground and you think about how cool it was. The BYU 4H mentoring program through Utah State University did it for us. Its the thing I mentor Mike through.
Every year BYU does a spirited activity involving wholesome young people and large amounts of blue foam. This year was no exception and it was a blast! What mucho fun! They had two enormous slip-n-slides set up with blue foam being constantly poured on them. At the bottom of the hill there was a moat of 2-feet deep foam you could play in. Eric and I wrestled and slid in it a lot. Oh yeah!!!
Our skin was dyed quite blue afterward but we got hosed off and joined the community shower afterward.
You know how sometimes you see a piece of art in a museum and you say to yourself “hey, I could do that!” and wonder if you really could? Well, we did. For our group activity in my singles ward, we decided to make a group art piece. Everyone brought a random object and we all worked together to be as creative as possible for about 25 minutes. Here is the result!!!!
Here is piece # 1. It’s playful, fun, and juvenile. That’s why we put it near a bunch of kid’s drawings. Maybe it won’t get taken down as fast?
Here it is up close. As you can see, the action man is parachuting down to safety atop the CD coming out of the milk jug. It symbolizes Utah’s heritage of fearless pursuit.
This next one is called “Hope”. Let’s just hope no one notices that the tag says “Harrison Fine Arts Center” rather than “Harris” oops. It does inspire hope, though, look! —–>
Here it is in all it’s glory. One person brought X-ray paper, another: CDs. Another: a frisbee (the base) and yet another: a flower and one more brought pot holders. It’s mystery is only exceeded by its power.
On a serious note I do think its kinda cool! The CDs are growing, then break (tragic moment to be overcome) then it gets higher and becomes a flower!
Normally I wouldn’t embed rock into my blog, but this is quite appropriate at a time like this.
Great date, huh? It was. Last Friday Eric and I doubled and played some Tennis, went to Brick Oven, and played some Scrabble goodness. Lotsa fun. Then we went back to our apartment where we played with the giant load of accounting stuff that Eric and I got from a job fair I recently went to.
Here was our scrabble board. We played where you can make up words as long as the definition is cool!
These people were on campus as I walked by. They were just holding hands with the statues like this and got excited when I said I wanted a picture. Who knows. I was able to email it to one of them, though, because of this fancy phone (palm pre).
If you haven’t heard that name yet, you’ve missed out on one of the world’s truly great people right here in Provo. Today is her 88th birthday and she’s as spry as ever and full of songs and jokes. Yesterday I went to visit and take out the news paper recycling and we sat down and talked for a bit. I feel lucky to know her. Here is how we met:
September 13, 2006 my dad and I drove my 1986 VW Jetta from Ventura, CA to Kaysville, UT. It was a gift from my dad’s cousin in Valencia marking the end of my LDS mission. The next day I started classes at BYU. I was still getting used to Provo and had no idea where anything was so I used to drive to class and park in nearby neighborhoods. One rainy day I was headed back to my car when I saw a nice lady walking in the rain with an umbrella. I said “Hi, how are you?” -she looked excited and walked up to me with a reply “Did you say hi, Janie?!?!”. I’m sure I looked a little confused while shaking my head.
I asked her where she was going in that kind of weather and she mentioned that she was headed downtown to pick up some typewriter ribbon. I offered a ride and off we went. I didn’t know they still made typewriter ribbon! She was so kind and honest in the way she spoke.
After we got there she said I didn’t have to wait for her and that I could just go back home. I was going to take her up on the offer, but thought that just wouldn’t be right. Rain, she’s old, I guess my conscience wouldn’t let me. When I was about to drop her off she offered to have me over for dinner that Sunday. I accepted. From then on we had a deal where I would do some yard work or chores around their house and they would feed me. She lives with her sister and brother-in-law and a grand-niece. She also offered to give me two tickets to the Homecoming Spectacular at BYU in a couple weeks. I thought that was cool, and it was if you’ve never been.
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Corny phrase, yes. Janie has made my experience at BYU something totally different and special. I really feel like I am a part of something great because I know Janie and have heard all of her amazing stories about how she started the Young Ambassadors, performed with Tony Bennet, founded Lamanite Generation (now Living Legends), did over 2000 shows in her career and jammed with Glenn Miller overseas in WWII. She also served on the Young Women’s General Board for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 16 years.
Janie’s testimony is rock solid, too. She really has helped me stay on the right path since I have been home from my mission. Being accountable to her makes me live at a standard much higher than normal.
Last summe the city of Provo asked Janie to to a musical she wrote about 20 years ago called “We the People” and I got to be in it. It was also part of a documentary BYU recently did on Janie’s life entitled “Performance of Faith” that has been on KBYU a few times. The picture below is of Janie and I last summer. I hope she doesn’t mind (but probably won’t ever see it!) I have embedded a video of a song she performed at the closing banquet for the BYU football team from the 2006 season. It’s just an example of the hundreds if not thousands of great and super cheerful songs she has written over the years. This was a special serenade just for me in her living room, I wasn’t invited to the football thing.
If you’ve ever heard me talk about her or met her, that probably means we are really good friends. Read about her if ya like:
And this is why. Call me an NRA Planet of the Apes right-wing nut job Charlton Heston gun-raiser, but le ‘ol 2nd amendment is mighty fine with me. Why change or abolish it?
In what other country can you worship as you please and go shoot something afterward? In church last Sunday a young man from Switzerland bore a powerful testimony about America. He did wonderfully in reminding all of us how great this nation is.
Since my mission I think I’ve set foot in a movie theater 4 times.
