Class Summary, Nov 8

This week we only had one speaker: Reagan Pollack of WorldMusicLink. He was more of a businessman than most other people we've had, and he had some good advice for people planning to start a business. He recommends we use our class mates for feedback, since it's free and they're always going to be there to help. He also recommends we know a little bit about everything, so we can follow along wherever we are. Apparently a lot of the things he's used haven't been the main things taught in CST classes - his extraneous knowledge has come in handy. A phrase he likes is "think digitally, act analogically". This means we should think through all the possibilities, but only take small steps. I guess it's similar to the phrase "tread lightly".

Reagan and our instructor both mentioned the Marina Technology Center, which is a group in Marina that gives startup funds and space to new companies. If I was starting a company, that would be very useful.

We spent a fair amount of time talking about the book Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Those seven habits are:

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win-win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw (upgrade your physical, mental, social, and spiritual health)

1-3 help you succeed by yourself; 4-6 help you succeed when working with other people, and #7 helps balance them all out and keep them going.

The assignment for this week includes a few more things (besides the weekly reflection). The first is to establish our big goals in life. I'd say my biggest goal is to get a secure job in the computer industry. I don't really care what part of the industry I'm in - I do have a specific area in mind, but if my career happened to veer off in another computer-oriented direction, that would be fine. There are other "big goals" in my life, of course, but I'd say a good career is the most important one to me right now.

The second other thing is to plan toward our futures. Ha! That's what the ILPs are for; that's what this class is all about. As Berj of the EOP office says, I've got my plans pretty well laid out. All I have to do is follow them. I haven't secured a position for after I graduate, but I think it would be silly to do so now, since I've got about two years of college left. The industry will change by that time. How much more planning could I possibly do?

The third thing to do is to sharpen our saws - to find a way to improve our physical, mental, social, and/or spiritual health. I think I'm improving on several of those fronts. My social health is definitely improving, mostly thanks to living on-campus for the first time. All this semester I've been meeting people and meeting opportunities. I plan to continue to do that in the upcoming semesters. The more I sharpen this saw, the better I'll get at sharpening it. I am sharpening other teeth of the metaphorical saw, but those are more personal things, and this is enough writing for one blog post.