Nope, not for me but for other people. We’re looking for someone to help out around Parker Planners so I’ve been reading resumes and interviewing people these last few days. It’s fun, I love being able to see how creative people are and how they react to things. Most business stuff is very not fun so I’ve tried to keep things interesting for the interviewees.

First I asked them what they thought was the funniest you tube video out there. Then we would watch part of it together. I got some interesting responses, oddly of all the videos I had only seen one before. Then I would ask them if they played guitar, only one taker there but he played Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” which was inspirational, he was actually a pretty good singer.

Then came the art project test. I had them look at my website (the prepared ones had already studied it beforehand) and draw me a new one with a blank piece of legal size paper and a bag of markers provided by me. I wasn’t judging their artistic ability, but rather their ability to have fun with something new and stand behind their ideas.

After that it was pretty much a discussion of their schedule and if they were a fit for the company. Good times. Today I let the lucky winner know they will be a part of Parker Planners and thank the rest for applying. It’s been really hard to decide because everyone is so qualified for the position. We got mostly PR majors this time.

The biggest thing we need help with right now is contacting college bookstore buyers in preparation for the trade show we’re attending in Houston at the end of the month.

Good ole Ford. I think school is a great place to meet cool people. The more quality the institution, the cooler the people. It’s too bad you have take the occasional beating from a small-minded professor as a trade-off.

Who’s excited for the new year?! I really am. I love throwing things away. Taking down last year’s goals, reevaluating, and setting new ones breathes all kinds of good into my soul.

This is the year my hobby becomes a profession.

I’ve been working on Parker Planners for a while now. You can look at it so many ways. Our percentage growth has been great since we started but some would scoff (and have! ) at the dollar amounts. I’ve had it on the side all through school at BYU since my mission. I figured I had to finish school because that is a regret a lot of people carry. I have to say that it brought some relief to graduate but not tons and tons. Don’t be a “grass is greener” person. It’s never that green, guys. Progress brings happiness, not handouts or dumb luck (misfortune disguised as fortune).

BYU is a fabulous place and I’m glad I went there. I wish I had known what ivy leagues were before my senior year of high school though. A classmate of mine went to Princeton and used to tell me about the private concerts from nationally acclaimed artists, how his roomate was the prince of Spain, and stuff like that. Even if it takes me another 10 years, I want to be at an ivy league for my MBA. Hey you who wants to be in the Stanford GSB class of 2017, let’s be friends and I’ll SEE YOU THERE!!

Here’s a commercial I just finished for Parker Planners. I hope it can make a few people laugh, a few people join the facebook page, and a few more find a planner that is very useful for them.

This is a great video on education. I still want to go see that waiting for superman video.

Mike has a science project due next week so we worked on it yesterday. He had to burn 3 hunks of wood and measure which one caught ablaze first and how tall the flame was. It was so much fun. When was the last time you burned something for recreation? I recommend it. Embrace your inner pyro now and then.

Today I also met with my partner in crime Nick. He and I are working for Zappedy, inc. out of Palo Alto, CA on a deal-of-the-day kind of website. It’s like Groupon.com for mid-size cities. The idea is to have one krushingly good deal per day where you get a big discount on a restaurant, recreational thing, etc. We’re still in the super early stages of it all- wish us some luck!

Here’s a video glimpse of fire fun.

YES!! My long lost love is now found and we may all rejoice together. My high school Spanish teacher was both effective and eccentric. We sang this song in class and it forever emblazoned in my mind three monotone women agreeing with some soft-spoken Latino dude. What joy it brings me to share it with you now:

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: