IBE the Journey - Part 02

(Continued from Part 01)

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From a wrist-band to a pint glass

As the main goal of IBE is “to sell something”, we needed to know what we were gonna sell first. It could be anything, which made it just so excited for me to imagine about the product. As creative as I had always was, I should come up with something so unique, so appealing that there never was before, and everyone would love to buy it, and buy it a lot. Now I think back about it, my creativity wasn’t big enough to keep up with my day-dreaming ability, as things weren’t going as I thought at all – again.

The first idea I got was to make T-shirts, but make them “combo”: there would be three different designs of the three parts of a mule, that when three people wearing them stand together the mule would appear. What do you think? My teammates didn’t think the idea was good, so it was given up.

As days passed by, the people were having ideas of typical products such as clock and flag; I came up with another “weird” idea: a wrist-band with a plastic ring connected to it, like this

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This idea of mine shared the same fate with my previous one, and at this point I was truly sad. If innovative ideas were not gonna be considered, then we would sell normal products; and anyone could come up with that so I didn’t need to try imagining anymore. And so, there was no more new product idea came from me.

After some time they had a list of about 10 products, including clocks, flags, playing cards, pint glasses, stickers (wth?), T-shirts, (normal) wrist-bands, and some other things. We then tried to conduct a survey of customers’ opinion. Each person stood at a place on campus and asked people passing by which ones they would like to buy. It was the first time I actually did a survey so it was rather nice. I felt awkward with the first few people and then got used to it. However, I felt much more comfortable when I saw the people I already knew before. There was a huge and scary American dude with a scar on his forehead walking by when I came to him. When I was just starting, “Hello, I am from the IBE…” he said, “I am in a hurry,” then walked away. I felt like I was disturbing people like how those shampoo marketers used to disturb me back in Vietnam a long time ago. But that’s just how marketing worked; I needed to be more shameless about it. During a couple hours I had asked so many people that I couldn’t remember. Then on the next day, I came to a friend of mine and shoed him the survey. He said, “You asked me yesterday, it’s still ‘C’ and ‘E’.” I didn’t remember asking him, kinda embarrassed but that’s ok.

The results of the survey led us to the top five choices: wrist-band, T-shirt, playing card, pint glasses, and flag. Since there were five teams in the company, each would do some research about one product and then we could compare among them. Our team’s product was… wrist-band. Since I couldn’t get my unique wrist-band approved, I at least tried to make the typical wrist-band somehow unusual. And so the new idea appeared: wrist-bands that are glow in the dark! Yes, glow-in-the-dark, baby. I could see in my head how awesome glowing wrist-bands were. I could wear them in any dance party, and my hands would shine along my break-dance moves (Step up 2, that’s right). How did my idea turn out? Nowhere, as you may guess. I already knew what my role in the company was not: I was not going to be a decisive factor. Any thought that I had by days and nights thinking would not be acknowledged. Then why try?

Eventually the final product was the frosted pint glass. I didn’t even know what a “pint glass” was, too much for the notion of being “frosted”. However, when some company officer showed the pictures of the product, it didn’t look bad at all! Maybe their ideas were just better than mine, sure.

So the next step was to design the glass, which was more clearly stated as: which UCM logos would we put on the glass. I soon forgot my question of “why UCM logos but not something else”, and joined them to see which ones were good. I would love to have something small at the front and something bigger at the back (come on, it’s not even a new idea I just created, it’s a basic for many things!). I could care less for the small part, and I wanted the picture of the tower at the back. The Friendship Tower is our college’s symbol; you can see it on UCM flag, walls and other places. But my idea was once again refused. “The tower is ugly!” they said. So in the end, the product we were gonna sell was a frosted pint glass, with two UCM logos on each side, a product that I had absolutely no contribution. Oh my, how in the world I could sell something I didn’t have any passion about, I wondered.

The thing is my life had been worse than that, so I wasn’t totally disappointed. Somehow I managed to learn to love the glasses, and found for myself some confidence of selling them. As I understood myself a bit more, I wouldn’t hold such a dream like “being the best seller in IBE history”. I would simply do my best to sell as many as I should. Until then, I would at least achieve something and show it off with my girlfriend.

(to be continued...)
Part 03

IBE the Journey

IBE stands for Integrative Business Experience, one of the most important programs for my management major. It’s a four-hour period in three days a week from 9am to 1pm and it’s not just long. It’s huge and it’s like nothing I have even got into before. For many reasons, it makes this semester (fall 2009) become the toughest semester for me until now. So I’ve decided to write about it, believing this will be an interesting story for me and for those who read it.

The confusion

My first feeling about this program was that it’s so strange, so new, and yet so confusing. From absolutely out of nowhere we students were told that we’d make a real business on the very first day of the class. “Doing real business” means setting up a real company, having loan presentation before the real bankers asking for money, and working with real vendors to be selling some real products. It was a bit too “real” for a student like me, who had been only listening to lectures, reading textbooks, and writing papers (if they weren’t real, then were they all fake?!) Moreover, all of the people around me seemed really excited and confident, leaving me to be the only one who didn’t know what’s going on. My biggest question at the time was, “Did I miss something?”

Soon after that we were set into 15 teams, and then the teams were grouped into three companies. My 11^th group had six members and it’s still six until today. The group belonged to the company “West” (the other two were “Central” and “East”). “West” was the temporary name, and the real name was yet to be decided later, when we have decided the actual product to sell. Each company had a meeting for an hour after the class in separate rooms. And the first meeting was the peek of my confusion. There were 29 people in my company, and most of them didn’t seem any friendly or nice at all. What worse was the way they conducted the conversation didn’t appeal to me any bit, and I was totally discouraged to contribute any opinion (which was rare if you know me). Those days were hard, and I kept wondering if this was what I wanted to do; if I’d have to work with unfriendly people like that – for my whole life!

I then went to see my advisor, to tell about my worries. She said that I wasn’t expected to know any of these “real” stuffs before, and I would be taught all that. I also shared my thoughts with my mother and my girlfriend, which eased my confusion somewhat. But nothing had ended there, more like everything had just begun and the adventure ahead of me was still too big.

The first great failure – or was it?

One of the first things we had to do for the company was to have the hierarchy, which means to have people filled into positions, such as President, Vice President, etc. The method was: self-nomination and votes. Knowing myself and knowing the uneasy environment of the company, I nominated myself for the Marketing manager position. My opponent was Jeremiah. Who the heck is Jeremiah? I didn’t care, must be some random guy, I thought, having no idea how much insignificant myself also was.

So I put some effort preparing the speech I would give in the next meeting. Using what I had learned in my Business Communication class before, I thought of some arguments to protect me from my disadvantages (such as being non-American, etc.) I was pretty confident, because even though they may not like me much, I would beat my opponent since he shouldn’t have prepared anything beforehand like I did. My girlfriend would be so proud of me.

But all what I pictured in my head was not true at the very least. In the meeting, I realized that Jeremiah wasn’t “just a random guy”, but one of the most involved people during the discussions. But his toughness was yet to reveal later, as we got to wait for the President and other higher positions first. One candidate for the President was a girl that I thought to be too lame. The way she looked at people, how she only read from some paper when having her opinion about something, made her become a very inadequate person in my opinion. So I voted for the other person, a strong guy with a bright face and a responsible attitude. But then the lame girl got the seat, only because many people in the company knew her more than him! The same situation happened for other positions: whoever I thought to be more able didn’t get voted. Then it was my turn finally.

I went out of the room for Jeremiah to give his unexpectedly long speech. Besides being international student and all, I didn’t know any single person in the company; I clearly knew my chance wouldn’t be high. Any rational person would choose to give up doing such a hopeless thing. Unfortunately I wasn’t smart, so I thought that win or lose didn’t matter any more, but if I gave up, I’d regret it forever. I gave my speech anyway. It wasn’t a satisfying speech, but I am now always glad that I did it. We two candidates then were waiting outside for the others to discuss, which of course mainly about my opponent. It was quite a long time and when we got in, we were told the victor. Jeremiah became our Marketing manager, and even though already anticipated all of this, I was a bit surprised and sad that I lost. The candidates couldn’t know who vote for whom, but I wished I could know if there was any person did vote for me.

But now I am not sure if it was better off for me if I have won. Jeremiah later on appeared to be a much capable person for the position than me for various reasons that I may mention later. Sometimes love and determination still need some rationale. So I should just do my best always, and leave the rest to God. “But what am I gonna tell her now?” I wondered.

(to be continued…)

Part 02

Ngày qua lặng thầm

Làm sao anh biết được đằng sau buổi sáng chói chang kia sẽ là một cơn mưa lớn. Mưa từ trên kia rơi xuống hay từ nỗi nhớ trong ai lắng đọng lại thành? Mưa rơi hoài rơi mãi, từ trưa đến tối mịt vẫn còn mưa. Anh về đến phòng, đọc xong một chương sách gần 30 trang, khi đóng sách lại vẫn thấy nhớ em vô cùng.

Có phải anh đang sống, có phải anh đang cố gắng không… Hay tất cả là một giấc mơ? Giấc mơ này có em, cho nên dù có bao nhiêu sự không vui ập đến thì những giấc mơ trong anh vẫn đẹp. Anh nhìn thấy tương lai. Anh tìm thấy sức mạnh. Anh cảm thấy hy vọng. Khi tiếng chuông đồng hồ của công việc vang lên hờ hững kéo anh ra khỏi những giấc mơ một cách phũ phàng, anh biết giấc mơ sẽ còn mãi đợi anh. Giấc mơ này sẽ không tan. Không bao giờ. Thế nên anh lại phải dứt đi sự quyến luyến (mà cảm thấy như bỏ lại cả một phần của anh đấy), lại lao vào những thứ mơ hồ gì đâu, chẳng biết có phải để rồi sự mệt mỏi lại giúp anh quay về trong cơn mơ…

Nhưng sao mọi ngày anh vẫn ngồi đây, ăn, ngủ, cười, nói. Sao giữa bao người chen lấn chật chội anh lại thấy sự cô đơn còn đó…

Everything doesn’t seem right without you.

Mưa tạnh. Bất ngờ y như khi mưa đến. Sự mừng rỡ trào dâng trong anh, không quên mang theo vài niềm nuối tiếc. Phải có mưa thì mình mới thấy hết mưa thật tuyện vời, và khi cơn mưa dài qua đi mình cảm thấy quyến luyến. Nhiều khi khó khăn lớn lại mang theo niềm hạnh phúc còn lớn lao gấp bội.

Rồi những ngày mai sẽ còn dài thật dài, và nỗi bình yên vẫn còn phảng phất xa tầm tay với. Nhưng cuộc sống là như vậy mà, phải không em?

Bởi vậy nên thường thấy, ngày qua với anh cũng lặng thầm.

Related in Love

I have had some serious disagreements with my mother. They were intense enough that it took a while for each of them to be solved. However, our relationship is really good, one of the best relationships I can possibly have.

When I think about it, if one of those arguments occurred between a boyfriend and a girlfriend, it’d likely lead to breaking up. Any beautiful love may be killed off that easily. This is nothing special, things like that happen everyday everywhere. But then, why it is so different comparing with the relationship of mother and son?

The difference is that mother and son are related.

That’s only it! Because the two are families, they cannot really “run” anywhere but stuck with each other forever. This gives them the chance to understand and forgive one another. And later on, the relationship will be appreciated again.

How nice it would be if lovers’ relationship can be like that. People will be able to overcome any misunderstanding and be together forever. Then what we need to do is to consider ourselves related! This relation may be more meaningful than even marriage. Married couples can get divorced and that’s it. Being related means believing that lovers are ought to be together forever no matter what. And that’s not unreasonable at all. Just like how God put a mother and a child together, the relationship, the love He puts between lovers are not any less valuable. True love brings people together, make them need each other and care for each other, and for goodness’ sake, it is significant too!

So let whoever in love be related. It’s worth it, isn’t it?

Some footnote: I’m talking about true love. Surely those such as abusive love or ignorant love don’t need to be considered here.

Origami Extreme - Part 4!!!

Hello, it’s been more than a year since the last time I posted something about Origami. Well, stuffs like this are time-consuming and I am pretty busy as a business college student. Somehow I’ve managed to have another collection completed. So here we go,

PART 04: THE WINGED WORLD

DAEDALUS by Gabriel Alvarez. There is a whole story about Daedalus. The model is one of my favorite. Easy to make. Not easy to make it look good.

AIR MAIL by Hojyo Takashi. : )

BUTTERFLY by Michael LaFosse, one of the best-looking butterfly models ever.

FAIRY by Kimura Yoshihisa. The white energy orb is not included.

SICARIO by Mario Netto. Hard to explain why it’s here.

HEART WINGS by Nguyen Hung Cuong. Yup, another Vietnamese model, and I personally think this one is the best among so many heart models.

PEGASUS ver.2002 by Fumiaki Kawahata. One of the most difficult pieces ever. But the beauty of the final result was astonishing (for me).

WINGED LION by Kozasa Keiichi. Yes, it is a lion with wings, even though its head looks so much like a bird. =.=’

FLYING PIG by Nagata Sohei. So adorable! It always reminds me of my little brother. ^^

Bonus:

PENGUIN-KUN by Kimura Yoshihisa (the author of the Fairy above). Well, this chick is really cartoonic, and it’s hard to take good view for a picture, but actually it’s really cute!

Okay, that’s it. Hopefully you’d enjoy this. I’ll come up with the next collection… some day. Thank you.

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Related topics:

Origami Extreme!!! – Dinosaurs

Origami Extreme – Part 02!!! – Convention

Origami Extreme – Part 03!!! - Dragons

Origami Extreme - Part 05 !!! - People of Humanity

Origami Extreme - Part 06 !!! - Dogs

Origami Extreme - Part 07!!! - Cats

Origami Extreme - Part 08 !!! - The Little Birds

Ở bên kia của thế giới

Mình đang chat với nhau thì em dừng cái rụp. Anh liền nghĩ ngay là em lại có nhã hứng nghe anh gọi tên em một cách đầy lo lắng, hoặc muốn nhìn xem phản ứng của anh thế nào. Nhưng rồi em dừng thật, đột ngột quá, vội vàng quá.

Ở cách xa nhau là như thế đấy, phải không em? Anh cảm thấy buồn thật buồn, cố nghĩ xem mình có làm gì không phải không, không biết có gì lien quan đến… thằng roommate không. Rồi anh lo quá chừng, không biết hay là em có bị gì không, ở đấy có vấn đề gì xảy ra không. Tự khuyên bản thân là mạng em bị rớt như mọi khi thôi, sao anh vẫn thấy mình bồn chồn quá thể.

Những lúc ấy anh chỉ ước ao có thể gọi cho em một chút thôi, hỏi xem có chuyện gì không. Những nỗi nhớ tích tụ mấy ngày qua, sự vui mừng khi gặp em phút chốc qua, giờ dội hết lại vào anh làm anh buồn thật nhiều.

Mỗi người một nơi có bao giờ dễ dàng đâu em? Những phương tiện liên lạc dù ngày một nhiều nhưng với anh chúng chẳng hơn một sợi chỉ mỏng manh sẽ đứt bất cứ lúc nào. Uhm, vậy nên phải tin tưởng lẫn nhau, để khi không có cách gì liên lạc thì mình vẫn thấy nhau thật rõ ràng. Anh biết rằng em sẽ lại sớm xuất hiện, lại làm anh cười nói như bao lần, và sự lo lắng sẽ biết mất tiêu như bao điều vô ích khác.

Uhm, công việc và bài vở vẫn còn ngổn ngang này, anh lại phải bỏ qua nỗi niềm này nọ để tiếp tục chiến đấu. Thế là anh lại cảm thấy mình như những nhân vật kiệt xuất trong tiểu thuyết, ôm gọn tình cảm vào lòng với đôi mắt lạnh căm. Phải thế chứ, phải làm cho sự xa cách này hữu ích chứ, phải không em? Anh không biết tương lai nào sẽ dành cho chúng ta, nhưng anh biết chúng ta đã và đang trải qua những điều tuyệt vời đáng để nhìn lại.

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Y: Em xin loi nhe.

Y: nay nha em bi cup dien.

DK: uhm

I'll be rich

For me, “to be rich or not to be rich” is not a question. I will be rich. And of course, I am talking about being financially rich, or, have a lot of income. The idea seems perfectly fine, so many people working every single seconds just for that. The only problem is, oddly enough, I am a Christian.

Mrs. Chapman (in case you don’t know her, she is a great person) has discussed with me about the matter of being rich. She says that we Christians don’t need to have a lot of money. What we need is being wealthy in love and some other noble characteristics. She talks about her husband, how he doesn’t have a lot of money and she has to eat a lot of beans, but she feels extremely happy living with him. I think it is great to be like that. Awesome story indeed.

Then last week, I went to the church and the pastor mentioned a verse. It’s Matt. 6:24,

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

So basically a person has to choose either God or money, and a Christian should be rich in his/her soul and mind instead. It’s funny how such a common sense like this is not so easy for me to accept. What I have in mind is different.

I think money is really useful. I don’t have to tell how many physical things we can buy with it (in case we have enough, yeah), but money can really help us to archive those other things also. For example, love. Money can’t buy love, true. But money helps maintain it. I have seen quite a number of couples have their loves given up because of financial issues. Money can’t buy life, sure, but it provides the access to be healthy, as one can pay to go to the gym and hire a professional trainer. Then can money do anything about faith?!! Tell you what, if I didn’t have enough money to go to Montana, then how could I know Christianity? How long would it take for some American missioners to get to see me and convince me somehow? I do not say that I believe in God because of money. But at the very least, I think money has helped me to get to Him faster.

I am sure there are many Christians think like this some time: “If I don’t have to work until (whatever) o’clock, I would go and help some people with something.” What I see here is that if people don’t have to work for money, they can work for other things, to be better Christians. But then, the lack of money keeps them from all of the opportunities and they get busy all day making money. I believe that if a person doesn’t have to worry about money, he/she can think and do something else. That’s it, I learn business and learn about money, not so that I will think about money all the time, but to be able to not worry about money and be able think about other things. This is my way to be free from money and to serve God wholeheartedly.

Besides, with a lot of income, I can provide a good life for myself and the people I love. For me, it is really sad if my wife wants to buy something so badly and I just can’t get it for her. It’s also sad if my son needs $300 to join the basketball team and I can’t afford it. And I feel bad every time I go to church, because I cannot put more than $10 into the plate as I am still a poor college student. I don’t think money can make people nicer, but it really can help nice people to do all the good deeds that he otherwise cannot.

So bare with me if you find this post offensive or inappropriate. Share your thoughts with me and I may learn something good from you. Once again it’s me, Anh the exchange student.