Finding people that I connect with...

As a principle-centered person, you try to stand apart from the emotion of the situation and from other factors that would act on you, and evaluate the options. Looking at the balanced whole - the work needs, the family needs, other needs that may be involve and the possible implications of the various alternative decisions - you'll try to come up with the best solution, taking all factors into consideration.

As proactive people, we can begin to give expression to what we want to be and to do in our lives. We can write a personal mission statement, a personal constitution.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight. It takes deep introspection, careful analysis, thoughtful expression, and often many rewrites to produce it in final form. It may take you several weeks or even months before you feel really comfortable with it, before you feel it is a complete and concise expression of your innermost values and directions. Even then, you will want to review it regularly and make minor changes as the years bring additional insights or changing circumstances.

But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

I find the process is as important as the product. Writing or reviewing a mission statement changes you because it forces you to think through your priorities deeply, carefully, and to align your behavior with your beliefs. As you do, other people begin to sense that you're not being driven by everything that happens to you. You have a sense of mission about what you're trying to do and you are excited about it.

Benoit Mandelbrot

The question I raised in 1967 is "how long is the coast of Britain?" The answer is...It depends on the size of the instrument used to measure length...As measurement becomes more refined, the measurement length will increase. Thus, all coastlines are of infinite length in a certain sense. But of course some are more infinite than others.

Proactive people make love a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others, even for people who offend or do not love in return. If you are a parent, look at the love you have for the children you sacrificed for. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions. Proactive people subordinate feelings to values. Love, the feeling, can be recaptured.

Another excellen way to become more self-aware regarding our own degree of proactivity is to look at where we focus our time and energy. We each have a wide range of concerns - our health, our children, problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war. We could separate those from things in which we have no particular mental or emotional involvement by creating a "Circle of Concern".

Master and slave: if labour becomes objectified (alien, torturous), then he is the subject of another person who rules over him.

private property comes from alienated labour.

the political economy is cold and heartless. ingrateful to the workers.

aphorism - a very concise way of expressing a general truth. or wise observation often in a clever way.

religion is an expression of suffering and a protest against suffering...

consciousness comes from working materials, practical activity.

nature is therefore his work. man, unlike animals can contemplate in the work he has created.

proletarian revolution working class should act in solidarity towards world revolution and support working people in other countries, rather than following their respective national governments.

they outnumber the capitalist pigs.

labour is subordinate to commodity. alien, independent of producer. the more he produce, the poorer he becomes. the worker becomes a slave of his object.

worker makes labour essential to physical object. his existence.

capitalism is alienating people from their work.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

In more than 25 years of working with people in business, university, and marriage and family settings, I have come in contact with many individuals who have achieved an incredible degree of outward success, but have found themselves struggling with an inner hunger, a deep need for personal congruency and effectiveness and for healthy, growing relationships with other people.

An improved version of MarketPlace, (marketplace.uchicago.edu), and online site where students can exchange and sell anything one uses in college from textbooks, books, furniture, to apartment leases.

The present system is rather inefficient in the sense that old posts are not immediately taken down once the item has been sold.

In addition, there is no formal way of categorizing or listing the listings in an even more coherent and efficient manner.

Furthermore, sellers often clump or bundle together all items that they want to sell under generic listings, thus, and in effect, eliminating the possible and potential buyers to view the particular listing for a particular good.

This will first and foremost require software and IT skills to build a program that builds upon and improves the objectives of marketplace.uchicago.edu

Product development:

1. Build a template page for use.
2. Test the user-friendliness, reliability, and efficiency of the web design among a selected sample of 300+ students.
3. Or, if

I myself don't necessarily have any experience that is solidly related to business. However, I do believe that it is also not necessary to own or manage a business in order to be an entrepreneur. For me, the spirit of entrepreneurship is loosely defined as bringing new and fresh ideas into action. It has always been interesting to me that special note-worthy stories of successful entrepreneurship were inspired by noticing what was missing or could be improved on in people's daily lives. My favorite examples are, and perhaps coincidentally internet-based services: Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and Facebook. But the key to building a sustainable business or enterprise relies on the continuous effort to bring entrepreneurship skills to the forefront, which is adapting to constant change, and adapt to the dynamics of a growing industry, business, and consumer base. Likewise, this capability to do so is an inherent quality of an entrepreneur: undertaking accountability for a certain amount of risk. This will ultimately guarantee the longevity of the initial aspiring start-up of the entrepreneur.

What experience I have that I would say is the most entrepreneurial would be my most recent summer. I spent almost the entire summer (3 months) in Hong Kong, doing various volunteer work. Without the usual constraint of a formal internship, I was given many opportunities to learn as much as possible, as well as networking along the way. I had taken my own initiative to do so, and was rewarded with a very self-enriching summer vacation, where I did some research assistance work for an Economics professor at the University of Hong Kong, as well as doing some volunteer work for one of the candidates who was running for a seat in the Legislative Council election held last September in Hong Kong. Working in a campaign team taught me about leadership skills and teamwork, and that even the most capable person in the world must work with others in order to achieve something greater. Relating this to my participation in an election, I discovered that (and especially in the political arena), the most-deserving candidate doesn't necessarily win, because it is a system that favours elitism rather than meritocracy.

My goal for this class is to learning more about the process of becoming entrepreneurs, studying cases of entrepreneurship, and eventually applying these principles in my post-college life.

Even if I don't end up opening or running a business in the new future, I do feel that the skills and experience I will acquire from this class will prepare me well in my career, because it also involves leadership, teamwork, and management skills to maintain a venture and realizing aspirations and identifying the opportunities to do so.

Taking one entrepreneur as an example: this summer, I campaigned for one of the candidates in the Legislative Council election in Hong Kong. He was a chartered engineer by profession, but has now since retired, devoting much of his time serving as the board member of various NGOs, including the 'Professional Commons', a think-tank council dedicated to promoting sustainable development in Hong Kong. What I admire most about the person I worked for is utilizing his entrepreneurship and professional experience on worthwhile projects, and spending his retirement or leisurely days in this manner.