Ashley Qualls fan

Believe in yourself because nobody else will do it for you! It is very important to be confident and independent in life. If you don't think you can do something, you're the equivalent of a toddler that is dependent on others. Grow up and take charge of life.

One of my heroes is 17 year old Ashley Qualls. She epitomizes what I believe in, that if you have a vision and follow it with passion then you can do anything. Here is my favourite quote from her:

I believe anything you believe can happen- Success can come if someone truly believes in themselves and the goal/object of their desire. I think anyone can do anything they want, anytime.

She is so vivacious and says it like it is. I love it.

I Love Being Creative

Working in an office or most other jobs in the world, for me, are very tedious. There is no sense of accomplishment. I feel like a robot doing drudge work.

For me, really, the only way I feel like I accomplished something great is to do something creative. In the past that has always been artwork like painting or writing something good. The problem I always had with this was I couldn't see how I could make money off of art. I wasn't talented enough in art to compete with the Michelangelo's of this world, and even if I could write pretty good, why would someone pick my book out of the millions of books out there?

I still would like to write a novel one day but not right now. Right now I've been focused on my own thing and it's feels energizing to do something that can combine both artistic achievement with financial rewards. I have truly changed my mind from that of an employee to that of a confident entrepreneur.

And it feels great.

People Hate Their Jobs

Well it's official, it's not just me saying it, apparently everyone else is saying it as well.

In an MSNBC piece from February 2007 titled Americans Hate Jobs More Than Ever, it says:

Americans hate their jobs more than ever before in the past 20 years, with fewer than half saying they are satisfied. The trend is strongest among workers under the age of 25, less than 39 percent of whom are satisfied with their jobs. Workers age 45 to 54 have the second lowest level of satisfaction (less than 45 percent

Apparently 20 years ago, job satisfaction was at about 60% and now it's a lot lower.

In a seperate article from a Careerbuilder survey, it was found that 84% of US workers are not in their dream job. They defined a dream job as something that was fun (39%). Making a contribution to soceity came in second (17%) and money came in third (12%). These results don't surprise me, as money in itself is often not the problem, for me it's been doing something that was either very stressful or a work environment that was boring that led to my unhappiness.

Interesting to note that 17% of respondents said that they wanted to be a "princess" when they were kids. So assuming they were all girls, 17/50 = 34% of all women. Firefighter was #1.

I feel like I'm playing the Family Feud. =)

What's interesting about the fact that most people 20 years ago liked their jobs is that it seems like they still do. In another article they say that over 90% of people over 60 enjoy their job. I wonder if it's because they always liked their job or if they got used to it. Probably both. Also, people who don't like working have most likely retired by then.

In this article, they say that only 7% of employees enjoy being told what to do. Surprise Surprise. 93% prefer to be asked questions by their supervisor. A good leader is supposed to ask questions.

I have met supervisors who ask questions very aggressively to the point where it's not really a question, but is said more like a statement. It goes like this "Would you mind running the reports right now?" That's not really a question since you can't really say no.

A question to me is more like "what do you want to do right now...project X or task Y? Which type of things do you prefer doing?"

In a seemlingly contradictory survey, it states that 86% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs.

The article is misleading, as the title uses the word "enjoy" but the article uses the phrase "satisfied with their jobs". I think those are 2 very different things.

The most important factors contributing to more job satisfaction in descending order of importance are holding a job with high prestige, being older, being non-black, and earning more from a job

What they mean is that statistically those are the most highly correlated variables. I think it's quite sad that prestige is the #1 factor here. But it might be misleading; the answers here differ a lot from the above polls because this poll is not asking people "What is your dream job?" or "What would you love in a job?". It doesn't even say what they question was. Maybe "satisfied" in this poll was meant as in "not hating it". Statistics can be very manipulative and I don't really believe this one considering how most other polls disagree with it, and just by simply observing and talking to people, very few people I know have a job that they truly love.

Entrepreneur: Love What You Do

I honestly believe that the only way a person can be successful as a business person is to love what you do.

And you should already know deep down inside things that you're good at.

It doesn't have to be specific at first, but generally things that you're interested in. For example, I'm a very creative person, so I know I could do many things that provide creativity. Your interests in life do not have to be one specific thing.

When you love what you do you will put in time. And you will enjoy it a lot. Maybe not every minute of it, but overall yes, you will enjoy it because you're living life with passion.

If you really like something, then you will find a way to make it successful. The internal drive and determination is all it really takes to see something succeed.

It's daunting for many, no one to lead you, but you have to believe in yourself. I find inspiration in other people in similar fields. I look at their bios, or I try to communicate with them online, or I read some of their quotes on their philosophy. These things act as inspiration that yes, it can be done. I may not be doing exactly what they're doing, but if I can take something away from it, anything at all, then it has helped.

I'll Make $1 Million in 6 Months

What is the goal?
I started this goal approximately September 24, 2007. It is what I call a Passion Project. This will form the main basis for the reason this blog exists, atleast for the next 6 months. The ultimate goal will be to make $1 million profit by March 25, 2008, and as a general point of reference, to make $250,000 by Christmas 2007.

Why am I starting this?
This is the one goal that has always felt rather elusive--financial freedom. There are other goals that I haven't reached ofcourse, but all the other ones feel relatively easy to me. For example, I do not have a girlfriend at this particular time, but unlike in previous times, I don't feel desperate because I have gained so much confidence and social skills that it would be stupid and irrational for me to believe that I can't get one. Honestly I would just have to spend a day or two going out chatting with people and it would be done.

I am not content with working at desk jobs. There was a time not too long ago that I hated the office and felt like it was going to jail due to some bad experiences. I no longer view it like that anymore, but I certainly would get much more satisfaction out of life creating something I'm passionate about and succeeding in the business world, instead of droning in an office till I'm 65.

What am I going to buy with the money?
Ironicially, I'm not a materialistic person at all. Throughout my life, even as a child, I've been notorious for being a person who doesn't want to buy things. I've lived my whole life in a middle-class white-collar family, but for me, money is really only important if I either have a lot of it (millions) or none at all (barely scraping by). Whether I'm earning $40,000 or $80,000 a year doesn't really change my lifestyle very much. I'm not really one to indulge in a spending spree, and getting a luxury vehical like a Mercedes Benz instead of a non-luxury vehical doesn't really make much difference to my level of happiness.

If I use the money on buying anything, it would most likely be for travelling. I don't know if that counts as materialism. It's not really tangible, I would go because I like to relax and see the world. I find those experiences to be enlightening if you open your mind. The money would give me the opportunity and power to live a life where I can do what I want for the rest of my life.

Are there any rules or guidelines to this project?
One of the things about this is that it's not just about the money, it's also about doing something I love versus doing something that I don't really enjoy. If I make money doing something that I am not passionate about, then it will not count. This goal has nothing to do with getting rich quick like some sort of scheme.

It's about something similar to what Ayn Rand talks about in some of her books like Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I was introduced to her books when I read that NBA billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, read her book Fountainhead religiously. I'm not a big fan of her writing style, but I am a fan of her ideology of Objectivism even though I'm not really an idealist. She describes it like this: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." She also says that in order for this to work, Laissez-faire capitalism needs to be the framework.

How much start up capital will I have?
I'm thinking a couple hundred dollars at most. It's not really that necessary for me to spend money on this, because hopefully when I make a product that is great and use proper marketing, I won't have to. It's really the time and guided effort of my creativity that I put in that will determine if I can succeed. I truly go with the motto that life is what you make of it.

What are my obstacles?
I'm taking a senior level Accounting class at night that is very difficult and will no doubt take up a lot of time. I will probably be working at a full time job for the entire time of this goal. And there will also be a learning curve for me since this is the first time I've worked on this sort of project.

So what exactly is this project?
I cannot state the specifics as of yet. I would much rather have more of my work done before going into detail about it. One thing I can say is that it has to do with a LOT of creativity.

Conclusion
It's the first time that a guy like me who has always focused on school and working for somebody else, has decided to do something entrepreneurial. I might not have much to lose when it comes to money since there isn't a lot of start up costs, but I will have a lot to lose in terms of the lifestyle that I might not be able to have for the remainder of my life. That, in my own life, is much more important. Again, I do not want to work in an office and follow all those rules forever; life should be about being free, doing what you love, and using your head to see success.

Learn to Write with Left Hand

When you can do something new, it really helps cultivate a desire to achieve. I think this happens because you start to see how you can improve from being horrible at something to being good at it, and as they say "success breeds success."

How can you not be positive in life when you can see with your own eyes that you can improve on something so much?

When I learn something, it reinforces the reality that I live in, which is one where I believe I can basically do anything as long as I work hard and keep my eyes open to opportunities around me. One of the minor things I've done over the last few months is learning to write with my left hand.

I got kind of annoyed by not knowing how to use a hand that I've had all my life. Also, when I got fatigued with writing with my right hand, I figured it would be practical to start writing with my left, sort of like a back up plan.

When I started, like most people, my left handed writing was horrible. I could barely even write the fricken alphabet. It would take me a very long time, and every line was so squiggly you'd think it was written by a 3 year old. I obviously couldn't just write with my left hand only or else I would never finish homework on time (or not be able to read it). So I would do it on and off at first. After awhile I could do more of it, although still very slow and quite messy.

I remember a turning point a few months later.

I returned back from a trip where I didn't write anything with either hand, and was taking a night class. I was writing with my left hand, not as messy as before although still about 3 times slower than my right, but something very strange happened. I would like to know if this only happened to me, but my head felt strange whenever I wrote. It felt awkward...like a very irritating itch, but obviously one that couldn't be scratched away. It was like my brain had for the first time in twenty some years re-wired itself such that it no longer viewed my left hand as being a foreign object. I was still quite bad at writing with my left, but I really think that at this moment something just changed neurologically.

Most believe that being left or right handed is something you were born with. I have read that people who are right handed predominantly use the left side of their brain to write, but people who are left handed use both sides of their brain to write. Many studies have also shown left handed people as being on average much more creative than the average right handed person. Some studies also show a slight (10%) higher average earning salary for left handers.

I think that is why my head felt weird when I was writing with my left hand. I wish there was some sort of cat scan on my brain that day just to see what was happening. Anyway, I don't know if I'm ambidextrous right now, because I still prefer my right hand. As dexteric as I may be, I'm still about twice as slow with my left, although it has become much more neat.

One thing I want to say though, is that for me, the learning curve for drawing was much quicker. Within a month I could basically draw as well on my left hand, probably because drawing is all about visualization. When I draw, I tend to have a very sketch like style where I go over lines over and over again, so it doesn't matter if the precision is off by a little bit. Writing words requires precision that isn't needed in drawing. Have you ever noticed how people who are good at art almost always have terrible writing and yet many people who write very neat are horrible at art?

This was just a small example of learning something. I am in the process of learning animation, and in the future I plan on learning languages, work out more, and so on. My lifestyle is very forward looking and optimistic.