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?

Ahhh, pomp and circumstance. Enough to inspire some, bore most.

i took this at convocation for the Marriott school.

Seth Godin spoke at the Omniture Summit Benjie and I went to recently. This is from his blog:

“

On self determination

I posted this eight years ago (!) but a reader asked for an encore.

…are we stuck in High School?

I had two brushes with higher education this week.

The first was at a speech I gave in New York. There were several Harvard Business School students there, invited because of their interest in marketing and exceptional promise (that’s what I was told… I think they came because they had heard that Maury Rubin would make a great lunch!).

Anyway, they asked for my advice in finding marketing jobs. When I shared my views (go to a small company, work for the CEO, get a job where you actually get to make mistakes and do something) one woman professed to agree with me, but then explained, “But those companies don’t interview on campus.”

Those companies don’t interview on campus. Hmmm. She has just spent $100,000 in cash and another $150,000 in opportunity cost to get an MBA, but…

The second occurred today at Yale. As I drove through the amazingly beautiful campus, I passed the center for Asian Studies. It reminded me of my days as an undergrad (at a lesser school, natch), browsing through the catalog, realizing I could learn whatever I wanted. That not only could I take classes but I could start a business, organize a protest movement, live in a garret off campus, whatever. It was a tremendous gift, this ability to choose.

Yet most of my classmates refused to choose. Instead, they treated college like an extension of high school. They took the most mainstream courses, did the minimum amount they needed to get an A, tried not to get into “trouble” with the professor or face the uncertainty of the unknowable. They were the ones who spent six hours a day in the library, reading their textbooks.

The best part of college is that you could become whatever you wanted to become, but most people just do what they think they must.

Is this a metaphor? Sure. But it’s a worthwhile one. You have more freedom at work than you think (hey, you’re reading this on company time!) but most people do nothing with that freedom but try to get an A.

Do you work with people who are still in high school? Job seekers only willing to interview with the folks who come on campus? Executives who are trying to make their boss happy above all else? It’s pretty clear that the thing that’s wrong with this system is high school, not the rest of the world.

Cut class. Take a seminar on french literature. Interview off campus. Safe is risky.

-Seth Godin

“

GoOd GravY!?!? Those companies don’t interview on campus?! Every heard of a phone book? Ever heard of doing something because you want to? I’ll probably never go to Harvard Business school nor have nearly the GPA that person does, but they can have it! I’ll gladly, enthusiastically give someone my high GPA, test scores, and perfect attendance for a shred of creativity and passionate pursuit of something I choose to learn.

once again, Mick helped

Last August I practice graduated by walking at commencement without having all my classes done. First day of school was today! After deferring a semester it really feels like I’m coming back to some kind of friendly organization after a long distant vacation.

American Heritage was very impressive today. It was so humorous and well-rhythmed that it seemed rehearsed.  Dr. Pope started off the class with the scene from Wizard of Oz where Dorothy accidentally melts the wicked witch with water. Sweet. He said it taught the principle of freeing captives or whatever. The flying monkeys are now free!

After introducing himself the professor asked the students if they had any questions – one girl asked “aside from family and professional accomplishments, what are you most proud of deep down and personally?” Wow. That was a hilariously good question with an answer to compliment it. His answer was that he and some friends in college beat the BYU “college bowl” (knowledge bowl thing) team and their name was “those darn quasars”. Nice.

BYU is a great place. Country dance is going to be fun.

Ethan

I may have mentioned Zinch in this blog before, but if not, they are a big inspiration for me as an entrepreneur. I was in one of the founder’s wards (geographic area of LDS church members) last summer, Brad Hagen. This last March I stumbled upon his younger brother’s blog; Mick Hagen. Since then I think I have read every post he wrote since 2006 and ate it all up.

He dropped out of Princeton to start this company and had no assurance that it would succeed other than faith and talent. There have been naysayers, but it will likely grow into something really big, multi-millions. He’s just someone who lives for the right reasons it seems to me, and he’s fearless. www.mickhagen.com is the blog.

So until recently Mick didn’t know I was blog-stalking him and we had never met. Since he’s opening an office in San Fransisco and moving away on Friday I decided to visit the office and meet him. Today Mick told me the gist of the Zinch story and answered some questions I had written down. Very cool and very intelligent young man (25!) as I expected him to be from reading about his life. We exchanged business cards.

Here is a “tweet” he wrote just a little while ago. Nice to be acknowledged by those you admire. I hope to be the same way when people approach me about business. Especially those with companies not as developed as mine (believe it or not that’s happened to me with my biz Parker Planners once or twice).

Zinch is a very innovative site that allows high school kids to get looked at by their dream college. It’s also a hub for scholarships. The students create a profile much like my space or facebook and colleges pay to be able to view and sort these profiles.

Love,

Ethan

Its decided. I’m out of here. Time to get a BS in Accounting from BYU and let it all be over including overweight female vocal performance (ain’t over till the fat lady sings). I was going to get a Spanish minor and drag things out until June or July or who knows when. Nay. No Longer. I’m pumped to move on to the next step and focus my energies on new things.

Parker Planners or bust.

Today H. David Burton gave the devotional address to BYU. He said that it’s better to be a “learner” than to be “learned”. Don’t you love talking to people who live as though they don’t know everything and love to learn?

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant

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.

Here we are in our blue foam glory.

In the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a leader, or president. President Thomas Monson we also call a “prophet” just like Moses or Abraham in the bible. It’s a bold claim, we know, but that’s really what we believe.

He came to BYU today and spoke to us in our weekly devotional. It was great, he’s really funny for being an 82 year-old retired printing executive. Today he spoke about other prophets that have lived in the past 60 years and told us a more human side of them. Their favorite food, favorite quotes, foibles, and so forth. It was a great experience to be there.

Here’s what it looked like.

This is our Y group! They were one fun bunch of freshman and we had a good time. Didn’t get any dates out of it . . . dang. Hey, they were born in 1991, is that bad?

Y group is what they call New Student Orientation at BYU. It’s a few events that happen the week before school starts where 2 group leaders (Eric and I) show you around campus as well as take you to some really fun activities like concerts, dances, and other neat presentations about BYU. At one of the events the Young Ambassadors performed a lot and a football player told of his conversion from being a Ute to a True Blue BYU Cougar! Also Jerico Road performed, if you’ve ever heard of them.

Y group meant a lot of free meals that week. Bless you, new students.

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).

This is Mary Li, April Lin, and Ethan Parker. Today was April’s first day in the United States.

Don’t worry, she actually smiles a lot and we had a great time today. Culture thing in pictures. She’s now a 20 yr old Sophomore at BYU and not Mormon. My friend Mary volunteers with the international office on campus and asked me if I would drive them around today to get some things done. We got groceries, a student ID, a laptop, a pillow and some other stuff. She looked very lost in the grocery store. Poor girl said something like “all this food is so American, I don’t know what to get” in Mandarin to Mary.

Mary was in her same position 2 years ago and now speaks excellent English as a very active Latter-day Saint. Great experience!

Eric and I are doing orientation at BYU. We are the group leaders for a list of about 30 freshman and are very excited to help them out. We both love BYU, this place is very unique. BYU is known for being inexpensive and to many it may seem like they are stingy with scholarships. What most people don’t know is that the LDS church subsidizes each student’s tuition to the tune of about 70% with tithing funds from the church (that’s volunteer donations given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and BYU’s Provo campus is the third largest recipient of tithing funds of anything in the church. #1-Temples and meetinghouses, #2-Missionary Work, #3-BYU.

We had training today, good times. We found some interesting name tag fun:

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:

Deseret News

From the Ensign

Today my talented business partner Benjie got married. Big day! It was in the Salt Lake Temple.

The reception was amazing: #1-not in a basketball court of an LDS church #2-sweet-action honey BBQ chicken skewers, ohhhhh yeah #3-dancing and no “line” where the poor bride and groom have to stand there painfully greeting people for like 2 hours #4-rock on with the roof-garden venue at Noah’s in Lindon! #5-character-drawing artists!!! yeah!! Best reception ever.

The music was fabulous, they had Tony Bennet, Michael Buble and others. Cotton candy, too!

Here is Eric and I. Naturally I’m whaling on a guitar and Eric is riding a dragon. Not sure if I really look like that, you be the judge.

Oh yeah, I graduated from college, too. Eric and I doing a leap.

I’m ‘o done gra-gee-ate with some kinna edu-kashun this week!

Pretty exciting! Finally the quest for a bachelor’s degree is over at barely the age of 24. O happy day. It started with a year at Arizona State followed by three more at Brigham Young University. It began with Industrial Design and ended with Accounting. It commenced with me wanting to make cool products and lots of money, it ended with a man wanting to make a real difference for good to as many people as possible . . . . . uh . . . . and lots of money.

BYU’s accounting program is fabulous because of the people in it, not just the reputation. It’s known all across the business world as being # 1 or #2, but also for having hard-working graduates with real integrity. Visionary professors and administrators have worked for two decades to make the program what it is today. It’s Dean, Kevin Stocks, was just named the President of the AICPA, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is a good man and gave a devotional at BYU.

I must say that it’s tempting to say that any man can be “self-made” and “make it” in this world. It’s true, any man or woman with a brain and a will can make a living, even a great one, and survive. I am now realizing how much I value education. When I spoke to the Micro Business group a few weeks ago it dawned on me that the major reason for any career success of mine is surely the wonderful people I met on college campuses. It’s not the name or the degrees that matter, but the compassionate intellectuals that swarm this country’s universities. You have to seek out and find them, but they are there.

I met my business partner, Benjie, in the junior year of our accounting degree. He has totally changed the potential and future of Parker Planners.

Conclusion: School rocks! Obtain the best schooling available, because you’ll meet great people there! Get good grades for the simple purpose of being able to surround yourself with tomorrow’s Edisons, Carnegies, Luther Kings, and Lincolns!

Love,

Ethan

I am one final away from finishing my first independent study class this summer. Alright! And it’s only half way through July! On the bright side, I also got more than half way done with my second class – all today! It was amazing. I can’t say the scores have been perfect, but hey that thing is more finished than not. Just a few more lessons then I go take the final exam. Now I have to order more classes, that will be a joy.

Independent study classes are a blessing and a curse. The academic work may be a little easier, but oh man that self-motivation thing is a beast. I would highly highly reccommend being accountable to someone or something before you take on the personal struggle that is – Independent Study. Choose the ones with all quantitatively handed-in assignments. They are much easier to finish. REL 122 Book of Mormon is a good one, or Political Science 202 is also like that.

I only have like 4 more after these! Yes! Hello STATS, ECON, PLYCS, and AMHER!

Love,

Ethan