Someday I'm going to...

I've been thinking a lot about "Someday." It seems like so many of my days are spent thinking about someday when they should be spent making someday today. Recently I graduated from BYU with honors. I am so happy to be done with that milestone in my life. It was a long time coming and it always seemed to exist only in "someday," but now it's real. Someday has become today for me in that regard.

Another "Someday" that has materialized for me was getting married. Right after I returned from my mission, marriage existed only in "someday," but now it is today and I even have a wonderful little daughter!

Owning my own home was another thing that existed in "someday," but has now come to fruition. Someday's start as dreams then through hard work and determination, become physical reality.

Every time I see a Wells Fargo ad with someone holding up a sign that says something like, "Someday I'll own a home," or "Someday I'll have a law degree," I start to think, what would be on my sign? What is it that I dream about accomplishing? Here are some things that would be on my sign (in no particular order):

• Someday, I'll have an MBA
• Someday, I'll have our house paid off
  
• Someday, I'll own a successful business
• Someday, I'll speak Mandarin Chinese fluently
• Someday, I'll be a scriptorian and teach institute classes
• Someday, I'll watch my kids grow old and give me grandkids
• Someday, I'll travel the world with my wife
• Someday, I'll be a missionary again with my wife
• Someday, I'll feed hundreds of starving children and provide life-saving medicine to hundreds more
• Someday, I'll drive a Toyota Avalon
• Someday, I'll serve my country honorably

The objective now is to transform these "Someday's" into todays!

As my life progresses, I would like to be able to say the present tense of that list:

• I have an MBA
• I own a successful business
• My house is paid off
• I speak Mandarin Chinese fluently
• I am a scriptorian and teach institute classes
• I've watched my kids grow old and enjoy grandkids
• I travel the world with my wife
• I am a missionary again with my wife
• I feed hundreds of starving children and provide life-saving medicine to hundreds more
• I drive a Toyota Avalon
• I serve my country honorably
  

I love this talk by President Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In it he said this: "How fragile life, how certain death. We do not know when we will be required to leave this mortal existence. And so I ask, “What are we doing with today?” If we live only for tomorrow, we’ll eventually have a lot of empty yesterdays. Have we been guilty of declaring, “I’ve been thinking about making some course corrections in my life. I plan to take the first step—tomorrow”? With such thinking, tomorrow is forever. Such tomorrows rarely come unless we do something about them today."

What's on your "Someday" list? How do you plan to get it on your "Today" list?

A Positive Mental Attitude

I hate those times when I can feel myself becoming cynical. Do you ever feel that way? It's like a terrible burden that just keeps getting heavier and heavier until you finally realize what it is - a cynical mindset. I have never considered myself cynical and I sure as heck am not going to allow myself to become one now!

As I searched for blogs on the topic "Positive Mental Attitude," I found this post that I thought was interesting. It is the 5 Myths of a Positive Mental Attitude.

Several years ago I read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. It's a long-time, best-selling classic, and if you haven't already heard of it, you should read it. It can change your life. Anyway, when I read it I felt such a thrilling feeling, the kind of feeling you have when you know you have been created by God for a purpose and that your purpose in life is full and exciting and that you can fulfill it. That's the reality of life, and that's the thing you are continually reminded of in "Think and Grow Rich."

Just to give you a taste of what I mean, here are some excerpts:

• "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
• "No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality."
• "Remember that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they 'arrive.' The turning point in the lives of those who succeed usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their 'other selves.'"
• "A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits."
• "Success requires no explanations. Failure permits not alibis."
• "Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence."
• "The value of decisions depends upon the courage required to render them."

We need to constantly take stock of our lives and recognize the positive influences and the negative influences. Then we need to strengthen and further wrap our thoughts around the positive influences and shun, hinder or eliminate those negative influences in our lives.

Some examples of positive influences in our lives could be (in no particular order):

1. Our relationship with God and the influence of going to church.
2. Our relationship with our spouse, kids and family.
3. Reading good books such as The Bible, the Book of Mormon, the classics in literature and art that teach moral and spiritual lessons.
4. Prayer
5. Meditation
6. Association with good friends/neighbors who have an inspiring or positive impact on your life.
7. Involvement in service/charity oriented activities such as community organizations, church and civic functions, etc.
8. Physical exercise.
   

Some examples of negative influences in our lives could be (also in no particular order):

1. Any kind of drug or alcahol abuse.
2. Association with friends who do not uplift nor inspire but who harbor a bad attitude.
3. Pornography or any obsession with low and degrading filth.
4. Extreme political views without tolerance for those with differing opinions.
5. Isolationist or anti-social behavior such as "hermit" style living.

These are the things to watch out for. But by strengthening the positive and shunning the negative, we can feel greater inner peace and calm the turmoil in our hearts.

McCain Hit A Home Run!

Sarah Palin is the absolute perfect choice for McCain. She's better than Romney in that she's not flip-flopped and yet has had executive, turn-around experience. She's going to get a lot of Hillary Democrats because she's a woman. She's so conservative to the core it's not even funny (she's a total pure conservative, not a "conservative" that lets spending get out of control and allows the government to balloon in size at astronomical rates).

The Democrats are afraid, very afraid. They have absolutely NOTHING to use against the McCain-Palin ticket. Biden is a joke, Obama is an even bigger joke and the only thing they can do is continue running their tired old whiny messages about businesses being bad and the government being the answer to everything. They'll also try to push their hallow garbage about "change" without ever clearly defining the changes they intend to make.

I cannot justify supporting a "community organizer" (what the heck is a "community organizer?!!") and a senator who's mouth won't stop flapping, whether it's productive or not.

I am honored to support a war hero and a governor with impeccable integrity for President. I am excited about this election and believe that we have what it takes to win big!

The Democrat's Dilemma

Ever since Obama clinched the nomination, I haven't been very optimistic about McCain's chances in the general election. People have become disgusted with Republicans mostly thanks to the Bush administration and many Republicans have practically abandoned core conservative values. A democrat win in November seemed all but clinched - until John McCain.

The Democrats dilemma in this election is that they like John McCain! Obviously that's not what they're saying now, but, as McCain ads are pointing out, Democrats have always liked John McCain. It was the Republicans that have had problems with McCain! Democrats always saw him as a stark departure from the Bush administration and always praised him for it. Well, that's now coming back to bite them. John McCain has a ginormous archive of footage of Democrats praising him, his patriotism and his skill at working across the aisle.

Thanks to Mitt Romney, the Republicans are united and are fully in line behind McCain. The Democrats, however, have all but splintered off into Hillary Democrats and Obama Democrats. And now the Hillary Democrats are defecting to McCain! Isn't it wonderful!

McCain's chances are good and Obama has a hard road ahead of him.

While studying PR, I've had the opportunity to analyze (both in and out of class) the PR campaigns of each candidate and the two parties. Putting it lightly, the Republicans are vastly more united, competent and sophisticated at public relations (in all its forms, from message framing to overall communications strategy) than the Democrats. From Frank Luntz to Karl Rove, the Republicans understand extremely well how to craft messages that appeal to voters. The Democrats on the other hand struggle to find unity and an effective way to convey their ideas. And it doesn't help that their ideas stink. I mean, how can any person frame the practice of abortion or higher taxes in a positive light?

The Democrats have a big dilemma and I doubt their situation will improve much going into November. I'm not totally counting Obama out though, if he successfully ties McCain to the Bush administration, he'll win. But I doubt McCain will allow that to happen.

Wasted Societal Intellectual Capital

There have been many times recently when I've wanted to be an economist. The thing about economists that I'm particularly jealous of is their innate ability to spot inefficiencies. Well a few days ago, I had a moment when I thought like an economist. I think I've spotted a glaring inefficiency: college graduates who choose (for financial reasons or otherwise) to not pursue a career in their field of study during college.

Think of this, a student goes through four years of rigorous course work only to graduate and enter a career in a field totally unrelated to his college major. A career in which his college credentials were unecessary except for the notion that he has merely obtained a 4-year degree.

Consider the costs of this scenario:

1. Opportunity costs to society for 4 years of lost productive labor
2. Cost of student loans for the graduate
3. Cost to state and private institutions which subsidize the college education
4. Opportunity costs to individual for 4 years of lost full-time wages
5. Training costs to organization or company which hires the graduate
   

Consider the benefits of this scenario:

1. Individual gains increased societal stature for completion of a 4-year degree
2. Individual gains advantage over others without a 4-year degree

From a purely objective point of view, the benefits do not exceed the costs.

Now consider the benefits of a four year degree:

1. Individual gains immense knowledge and skill in his or her field of study
2. Individual gains increased societal stature for having obtained a 4-year degree

Consider the benefits of a graduate who enters his or her field of study as a career:

1. Societal capitalization on the stockpile of intellectual capital
   
2. Individual does not have to learn a new skill

Financial concerns aside, it is a matter of wasted societal intellectual capital when one decides to forsake his field of study for a career in a different and unrelated field. In many ways, it is a waste of four perfectly good years to study a field which one never intends to work in and contribute to later on.

The Long Tail

Ever since I bought an iPod Nano, I have been fully immersed in podcasts, audiobooks, video podcasts and the like. Today I watched a lecture by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, speak on his idea of the internet business model he calls "The Long Tail." I got the video from UC Berkely's iTunes Store site.

For a thorough explaination on The Long Tail, see the Wikipedia site here.

The best part of his entire lecture was the concept of the internet as an Abundance perspective on business whereas companies of the previous century were all built around the Scarcity perspective. An example which explains this well is the difference between a major TV broadcast network such as NBC and YouTube. With NBC, it is the editors who decide what shows people will have an opportunity to watch and at what times. They are in a sense constantly trying to predict mass consumer appeal of each show they produce. This is the model of distribution where the few dispense to the many.

Conversely, with YouTube, there is an over abundance of content, time and topics to browse. Without the constraint of channels, frequencies and editors who attempt in vain to find content with mass appeal, YouTube shatters the barriers to instant access and gives ultimate control to the end consumer. Ultimate control to the end consumer! What a powerful concept, one for which the internet is renowned.

This brings me to my point: the entreprenuers of the 21st Century understand that in order to truly gain mass appeal, they must shatter barriers between consumers and producers. They must give end users ultimate, or near ultimate, control over their experience.

Netflix, Amazon, iTunes Store are other great examples. How much more abundant in inventory and end-user control are these outlets than their brick-and-mortar competitors, Blockbuster, Barnes and Noble and the local music store?!

The businesses of the 21st Century obey the law of the long tail - more end user control and an over abundance of inventory!