Week 3- One thing I don't want to be when I grow up!

Nothing sends me into a rage so harsh that my bile ducts go into overdrive like having to deal with salesmen. I abhor sales as I view most jobs and careers with the word “sales” in it as something only the worst of humanity actually enjoys doing. Now those reading this might be saying to themselves, “But Brad, you are an insurance salesmen are you not?”

To them I say yes but what I do does not involve the normal paradigm as to what a sales job typically rotates around, which is a lack of ethics and the willingness to shake down every one they come in contact with including their very own mother if needs be. The industry terms of “rebuttal”, and “up-sell” sends me back to a couple of the first jobs I ever had where the name of the game was to push something on someone so hard and so fast that they didn’t even have a chance to breathe. If you have never experienced this phenomenon then please consult via telephone with a telemarketer selling an infomercial product of your choosing. After spending forty minutes attempting to make a simple purchase of a zit cream or that pressure cooker you saw will have you wanting to jump out your nearest window.

I have been a telemarketer who has sold a variety of products ranging from long distance phone service to pro-actively up-selling a catalog of products to unsuspecting victims just wanting to get their zit cream. I hate this world and hate those who thrive in it because they have no respect for you or me as a consumer and as a human being.

           Going back to my current job however, will have me coming off as a hypocrite in a sense because I am an insurance salesmen and I really enjoy my job. What I enjoy most is that it is the antithesis of all the other sales jobs that I abhor. I work for a reputable company whose culture really is looking after the customer and does not just use fake empathy as a sales tactic. In addition to that I am not constantly belittled and treated as the scum of the earth if I am not “killing it” one day, or week. There are legalities within insurance that make manipulation illegal and I adore that about the industry. Most importantly I help to inform everyone I speak with on just what their auto, home, renters, or dwelling insurance does and what they are paying for which just gives me the warm squishes. I love being able to help and educate the consumer because what I sell is not only important, but I can very much save someone from loss and pain by showing them what that extra couple of dollars a month can do for them.

Week Three- Case Study On Magdalena Yesil And Why She Makes Me Mad

This week in one of my classes I had the opportunity to discover and learn a little about entrepreneur that has been very blessed in her field because of her passionate work ethic which included always studying relevant information in her field. Below is a little tidbit about her:

Magdalena Yesil
This Turkish-Armenian entrepreneur sold her company CyberCash (a pioneer in eCommerce) to Verisign. Now she's an angel investor and partner with US Venture Partners (USVP).

Long story short, this woman has been living the “American Dream” in “Silicon Valley” by doing what she loves best. What she does best seems to be starting new companies and getting them off on a good foot in the technical industry. She thrives off of it and she’s been very successful and happy doing it.

Now while her journey in life might be uplifting, inspiring, and give hope to people, I on the other hand could not help but to look at all of my flaws and the characteristics she has that I wish I had but lack. This has induced feelings of envy towards her and shame for my shortcomings and yes I know better to allow these thoughts to invade and “blah-blah-blah” but tough, I know what potential I have wasted in my life and I have yet to forgive myself for my past.

In addition to this negative self-reflection however came another emotion that you the reader might not care for. That emotion is anger. You might be asking yourself why and I will tell you. The “American Dream” in 2016 is almost extinct and has been for quite some time now.

I remember growing up being told, “You can be anything you want” and believing that until I became an adult. Well not everyone can be president or an astronaut, the majority of us will end up working jobs we hate or at the very least can, “Put up with”. Magdalena is in a very, very small percentage of the US population that is able to really do what she wants and achieving the ever elusive “American Dream”. Why I am angry is because for every one Magdalena, there are thousands of others with the same imagination, talents, fortitude, intelligence, and drive but will end up anywhere between “flipping burger lane” and “boring office job avenue”. That is just a fact jack and there is nothing that can be done about it because if everyone was a Magdalena, no one would ever be able to get a delicious, greasy hamburger.

On one final note to drive my point home, I would like to share some lyrics from a song titled: "9-5ers Anthem" by a Hip-Hop artist who goes by the name Aesop Rock.

We the American working population

Hate the fact that eight hours a day

Is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn't us

And we may not hate our jobs

But we hate jobs in general

That don't have to do with fighting our own causes

We the American working population

Hate the nine to five day-in day-out

But we'd rather be supporting ourselves

By being paid to perfect the pastimes

That we have harbored based solely on the fact

That it makes us smile if it sounds dope

Someone I Look Up To- Abbie Hoffman

“It's embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best-Sellers list.”

Abbie Hoffman
on his success with Steal This Book

While Abbie Hoffman may not be so much be someone I look up to these days, when I was younger I wanted to be a lot like him. What made me look up to him was his book titled “Steal This Book” which as the title implies, meant you stole that book and did not buy it. In fact when the book was published he very much advocated people stealing the book because he didn’t write it for the money.  Because of this attitude he ended up having his book not only historically stolen, but it because a national best seller. I love this because the irony is thick enough to choke on and shows the true character of the man for good and ill. He was a rebel with both political savvy and charisma and looked up to what he was able to accomplish within the “hippie” subculture.

These days I don’t look up to him for the more unethical situations and philosophy he advocated but I still look up to him for bucking a corrupted system that needs to be fixed. Under all the hippie dippy stuff in the book I like how it advocated for looking after the little guy and having charity for one another, enough to turn it into a lifestyle (even if it was a misguided one).  Lastly I believe we need more people like Abbie Hoffman in the world to challenge the status quo but do so ethically and with a purpose to help us all become better people in a world where corruption rules. As an entrepreneur, I would want to be the Abbie Hoffman for my own cause.

To keep in the spirit of the man, here is a free PDF version of “Steal This Book”

http://www.semantikon.com/StealThisBookbyAbbieHoffman.pdf

                                

Week Two- Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and “What I Want To Be When I Grow Up”

        This week’s entry I would like to focus on “what I want to be when I grow up”. To start off I just want to state just how envious I am of those I’ve known in my life who have always known what they have wanted to be when they grow up.  Even if they’ve never achieved it, they have at least known and most have made an actual attempt while I never have.  Honestly I hate being asked this question for two reasons:

1. I have never believed in myself enough to think that I could achieve my dreams.
2. I have been so down on myself for so long of my adult life that I don’t even really know what I want to be that doesn’t sound like a pipe-dream at this point.

This was so much easier in childhood because I hadn’t been stomped on by life yet and thought I could achieve anything, even fictional things. I remember the first career I ever wanted was to be a “Ghost Buster” and I can guess that I don’t need to tell you why that didn’t happen. Later I wanted to be a Top Gun pilot and fly F-16’s which was fueled by a love of both the movie “Top Gun” and that my dad served in the Air Force on the flight line.  As I got older I ended up needing glasses and that killed that dream.

A little later I decided I wanted to get into law enforcement with the ultimate goal of either becoming a detective or leaving and starting my own private detective business. I also within that same realm thought seriously about joining the Air Force like my father to become an MP to get the experience needed. This never happened because as I started moving towards that goal I started suffering from horrible panic attacks to the point that it disabled me at the start of high school. I would soon after be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder with depression to boot. In addition to this my heart was broken by my supposed high school sweetheart and all of this helped me to start down a path of substance abuse and depression so deep that it enveloped almost the whole of my 20’s.

In my 20’s I could only seem to find work doing telemarketing, customer service, and technical support. I abhor this line of work and never saw myself in it. Today I work in insurance sales for a great company.  While I am good at this and have gotten good at working on phones, it is not what I want to be when I grow up and at 34, I feel like my options are extremely limited.
What I really want to do now is teach Seminary or Institute.
To be continued…



For Class:
1. Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?
His parents allowed him creative freedom and that cultivated confidence and imagination.

2. Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?
It is critical for someone to not only enjoy life, but to set goals and have the drive to achieve them.

3. Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.
So I think I explained most of my childhood dreams in detail already the one I didn’t, was to become a Ghost Buster. I know that the obvious answer here is that I can’t achieve this dream because it is fiction. But I could attempt to any number of other fields ranging from being a paranormal investigator to a “fortune teller”. While one maybe a fun hobby, the other one would just be me flimflamming people out of their money.

A video clip from Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVIvHKTNsqg

Week 1- Introduction

For those of you stumbling upon this blog I want to give you a little background information:

This blog was created for a college class in pursuit of my Bachelor’s degree in business, (I haven’t narrowed it down any further than that). My professor has asked this journal/blog be created based off the idea that a successful person is so in part because of reflection and review of information learned and life experience revisited. Personally I agree with the idea (Hence why I have two other blogs) and have hopes that this blog will help me to be successful in not only my educational goals, but also my current career in insurance sales.

In preparation of this blog I was asked to read an essay titled: “Your Entrepreneur’s Journal” by Jeff Sandefer for the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence.  A key point I took away from this comes from the sub-heading titled: “Journaling to See the World Differently” in which Jeff states that keeping a journal like this helps you to internalize “one of the most important habits of a successful entrepreneur—relentless curiosity.” I like this because not only is this a principle that I can take away not only for this aspect of my life, but in all aspects. I also appreciate that this essay has helped to give me better tips in staying on top of my other blogs as they act as journals for my other thoughts and experiences.

This should be an interesting assignment/experiment for me because I never thought I would be in school for a business degree. I’ve never really saw myself in the “business world” working in a corporate environment. I’ve never once had a desire and yet all of my working life has been in in this environment in one form or another. I view this world to be corrupt and self-serving. The proof is in the pot, and a prime example of this is the former stockbroker and trader Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street). My hope at the end of all of this is taking what I’ve learned along with my growth spurts and applying it to help as well as serve others.