I can't always get what I want
Enough said.
God sent me a sign at Kilowatt (a bar in the Mission) via a Rolling Stones song.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
So Proud of team Freestylez
A text message I sent to Karla today:
"WOW my kids ROCK! Tonite's VC mtg is 1 of the reasons I love BUILD!"
You should have seen this team seven weeks ago. They were in shambles! They had 2 new team members. They drastically changed their business model and product. They had no mentors to guide them. They were basically a wreck with no direction, and only a looming meeting date with a Venture Capital Advisor in 7 weeks.
And for some reason, they clicked. After a talk with them, after straightening up their business model with them, after doing some guerrilla mentor recruitment, after coming into BUILD 2 and sometimes 3 times a week for their business, they somehow clicked and made it all work.
Every sophomore (E2) BUILD team meets with a Venture Capitalist (their VC Advisor) to present their funding request for their start-up. The VC advisor then determines whether the business is feasible and either awards or denies them the requested funding. Sometimes the VC advisor even awards more funding than was requested.
Well tonight, Freestylez, a ragtag bunch of 5 sophomores, quite possibly my favorites, blew me away by how professional, put-together, and prepared they were for their meeting with Adam, their VC advisor.
During my drive home, I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear because of how good I felt about their presentation. They really pulled it off. And near the end of the meeting, Adam, their VC advisor, asked them about what college they wanted to go to and what they wanted to study. Each of them responded intelligently and sounded so mature.
Yet another reason why I love this job.
"WOW my kids ROCK! Tonite's VC mtg is 1 of the reasons I love BUILD!"
You should have seen this team seven weeks ago. They were in shambles! They had 2 new team members. They drastically changed their business model and product. They had no mentors to guide them. They were basically a wreck with no direction, and only a looming meeting date with a Venture Capital Advisor in 7 weeks.
And for some reason, they clicked. After a talk with them, after straightening up their business model with them, after doing some guerrilla mentor recruitment, after coming into BUILD 2 and sometimes 3 times a week for their business, they somehow clicked and made it all work.
Every sophomore (E2) BUILD team meets with a Venture Capitalist (their VC Advisor) to present their funding request for their start-up. The VC advisor then determines whether the business is feasible and either awards or denies them the requested funding. Sometimes the VC advisor even awards more funding than was requested.
Well tonight, Freestylez, a ragtag bunch of 5 sophomores, quite possibly my favorites, blew me away by how professional, put-together, and prepared they were for their meeting with Adam, their VC advisor.
During my drive home, I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear because of how good I felt about their presentation. They really pulled it off. And near the end of the meeting, Adam, their VC advisor, asked them about what college they wanted to go to and what they wanted to study. Each of them responded intelligently and sounded so mature.
Yet another reason why I love this job.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
EPA Sunset
This is the northeasterly view--towards the bay--outside of the BUILD headquarters in East Menlo Park/East Palo Alto.
Monday, October 24, 2005
New Logos!
I just got the logo designs for our new businesses. They are so awesome!
Tajima Creative, this design firm in Menlo Park, volunteers their time and money to design all the logos for our teams every year. They came out beautifully, and now the students just have to choose which one or which variation they like the best.
I'll have to post them up here when they're finished.
Mobile blogging
I'm trying something new and maybe it'll make me post more. I'm mobile blogging (moblogging) from my treo. i think i might migrate from pmachine to blogger. And in any case I'm going to post milestones and events from my Youth Business Incubator on this site now.
I love technology!
Saturday, March 26, 2005
"Experience" Update
Work I dislike the most is probably the work that I am least suited for. It's a good thing that I have this time right now to be able to explore things that I like and don't like about certain aspects of work.
So let's examine where I'm at with the goals that I set back in January.
The Restaurant Industry is not for me
I quit Islands a while ago after working there for about 4 weeks. It was painfully dull work, albeit in a very fast-paced environment (which was different and interesting for the first week). Everything about it was just mind-numbing. In general, the people I worked with were not intellectually stimulating and nor were my tasks. I did learn, however, that it takes a lot of anal rententiveness to run a restaurant. But my biggest gripe about working in the restaurant industry is that the FOOD is the most important thing in the world. Your life revolves around food and serving food to customers, and that's all anyone ever talked about. I don't want my life to be like that, where the most important thing is whether or not table 65 received their order in 7 to 10 minutes, or the people walking through the door were greeted within 30 seconds. That's just ridiculous. I can find a handful of other things that are more important during the lunch hour than whether or not Baja tacos come with sour cream or salsa or both...
So I quit... actually I walked out after talking to my bosses about how ridiculous they were being (longer story).
But I think the most important lesson I learned from working at Islands was that I do not want to open up a restaurant anymore. For the longest time, one of my life goals was to open and run a restaurant. Not anymore. No thanks.
No offense to anyone who works at a restaurant, because there are definitely some good quality people in the industry, but the majority of the people, especially upper management people, that I came across, were tools and didn't know what the hell they were doing. So not only did I not want to be working with people like that, I also don't want food service to be my life.
The school system sucks, but I love the kids.
A day after I walked out of Islands, I got a job working as an afterschool science program instructor at Mad Science. I found Mad Science on craigslist and in Entrepreneur magazine after reading about its franchise model. I've been working as a Mad Scientist for a few weeks now, and absolutely love it! It's something that I would do for free, but fortunately I get paid $25 an hour for it. It's not bad for playing with kids and doing wacky science experiments after school.
The company itself leaves something to be desired, but that's because they're wildly disorganized, and I'm not running it. And since I don't get paid to clean up their mess, I just worry about the teaching. But so far I love it, and we'll see where I go from there. The nature of it is part-time because it's an afterschool program, which fits because I'm taking classes right now.
After months and months of being in the application process, Clark County School District FINALLY got their act together and finalized my application, so on March 14-15 I attended the substitute teacher orientation, and now I'm officially a school district employee. However, since this week (March 21-25) was Spring Break, no classes were taking place, so I have YET to attend any classes!
I do have to comment on how ridiculously inept the school district is. It took FOUR MONTHS to finish the application process, and during the orientation, I met other people who've been in the process for 6 and 7 months. AND there's supposedly a teacher and substitute shortage in Vegas! You'd think they'd get their act together and make the process faster. But no. Even during the orientation, there were MORE hoops to jump through, more paperwork to fill out, and more offices to visit until everything was finalized. Again... inefficient, disorganization, and ineffective.
So I don't like the systems, but I love working with the kids. I missed them!
Re-visited Goals for subbing:
-Find out as much as I can about the needs and wants for students, parents and teachers.
-Search for any needs that are NOT being met by the school systems.
-Educate myself about the area (because really don't know anything about Vegas and the people that live here and what kind of city they live in).
-See how the school system deals with the increased pressures of the NCLB Act.
-Make some money!
Goals for Mad Science teaching:
-Explore their business model & see how the model can be applied to a different field/subject.
-Make some money!
-Network with interesting people who may be interested in the same things that I'm interested in.
-Pick the brains of the owners of Mad Science to see why and how they started the franchise.
Taking classes are surprisingly different when you graduate
I don't know if it's just me, but I have noooo motivation for the classes I am taking! Maybe it's the community college environment? I don't know what it is. But out of the 4 classes I'm taking, there's only one that I really study for (Japanese class, and I don't study that much for it). Japanese is really fun, and I think i'm getting an A in class!
My 2 real estate classes are interesting, only because my professor is interesting and sometimes talks about interesting subjects, but the classroom is filled with bumbling idiots, so I feel like the professor has to dumb down a lot of what he is talking about... Again, it's probably the caliber of the community college classes.
And instead of taking an art class like I wanted to, I decided to take an 8 am child psychology class because all the art classes were full. Boy, was that a bad move. Did I not learn from my mistakes? 8 am? What was I thinking? I thought the class would be interesting because I wanted to learn about children, but again the caliber of the class was ridiculous. The professor lectures off of overhead slides with blocks of text in 12 point font. And he JUST READS them. After suffering through a couple of those classes, where I essentially learned nothing, I decided that I would much rather sleep than waste my time. He was singly one of the most ineffective and inefficient teachers I had ever encountered. It was truly ridiculous. I could have taught him a thing or 2 about teaching, but alas, I don't want to embarass him. Perhaps I'll talk to the department head about things he can do to improve.
Things to remember in the future: when you have a degree already, and taking the classes has no bearing on anything else except your pride (and even that doesn't count for much), take classes that are interesting. Only the ones that truly interest you are the ones worth taking. I don't know how I will fare now that the semester is halfway over, but perhaps I can salvage my grade in the child psychology class a little bit. But who knows.
CCSN Goal:
-Don't fail! I can't believe that's a goal!
Real Estate is a commitment
If there's one thing I've learned from my real estate classes, it's that getting into the real estate game is a huge commitment. My professor often compares it to getting married. I don't know if I'm ready for that.
A. Usually, if you want a mortgage loan, you need a steady job and steady income. A new startup is not usually seen as "steady."
B. If I want to start a business, then I can't be having mortgages that need to be paid.
It's kind of a double-edged sword. It's either one or the other. Unless... I was a real estate investor. But that's just a thought.
What's next
As my imaginary May deadline approaches, I wonder what the future holds. I'm slowly beginning to like Las Vegas, and I'm officially over the culture shock.
I've discovered what I like doing by discovering what I don't like doing. Is life just a process of elimination till we get it right? I'm tired of waiting and eliminating. I just want to start already with the one thing that I'm meant to be doing.
So let's examine where I'm at with the goals that I set back in January.
The Restaurant Industry is not for me
I quit Islands a while ago after working there for about 4 weeks. It was painfully dull work, albeit in a very fast-paced environment (which was different and interesting for the first week). Everything about it was just mind-numbing. In general, the people I worked with were not intellectually stimulating and nor were my tasks. I did learn, however, that it takes a lot of anal rententiveness to run a restaurant. But my biggest gripe about working in the restaurant industry is that the FOOD is the most important thing in the world. Your life revolves around food and serving food to customers, and that's all anyone ever talked about. I don't want my life to be like that, where the most important thing is whether or not table 65 received their order in 7 to 10 minutes, or the people walking through the door were greeted within 30 seconds. That's just ridiculous. I can find a handful of other things that are more important during the lunch hour than whether or not Baja tacos come with sour cream or salsa or both...
So I quit... actually I walked out after talking to my bosses about how ridiculous they were being (longer story).
But I think the most important lesson I learned from working at Islands was that I do not want to open up a restaurant anymore. For the longest time, one of my life goals was to open and run a restaurant. Not anymore. No thanks.
No offense to anyone who works at a restaurant, because there are definitely some good quality people in the industry, but the majority of the people, especially upper management people, that I came across, were tools and didn't know what the hell they were doing. So not only did I not want to be working with people like that, I also don't want food service to be my life.
The school system sucks, but I love the kids.
A day after I walked out of Islands, I got a job working as an afterschool science program instructor at Mad Science. I found Mad Science on craigslist and in Entrepreneur magazine after reading about its franchise model. I've been working as a Mad Scientist for a few weeks now, and absolutely love it! It's something that I would do for free, but fortunately I get paid $25 an hour for it. It's not bad for playing with kids and doing wacky science experiments after school.
The company itself leaves something to be desired, but that's because they're wildly disorganized, and I'm not running it. And since I don't get paid to clean up their mess, I just worry about the teaching. But so far I love it, and we'll see where I go from there. The nature of it is part-time because it's an afterschool program, which fits because I'm taking classes right now.
After months and months of being in the application process, Clark County School District FINALLY got their act together and finalized my application, so on March 14-15 I attended the substitute teacher orientation, and now I'm officially a school district employee. However, since this week (March 21-25) was Spring Break, no classes were taking place, so I have YET to attend any classes!
I do have to comment on how ridiculously inept the school district is. It took FOUR MONTHS to finish the application process, and during the orientation, I met other people who've been in the process for 6 and 7 months. AND there's supposedly a teacher and substitute shortage in Vegas! You'd think they'd get their act together and make the process faster. But no. Even during the orientation, there were MORE hoops to jump through, more paperwork to fill out, and more offices to visit until everything was finalized. Again... inefficient, disorganization, and ineffective.
So I don't like the systems, but I love working with the kids. I missed them!
Re-visited Goals for subbing:
-Find out as much as I can about the needs and wants for students, parents and teachers.
-Search for any needs that are NOT being met by the school systems.
-Educate myself about the area (because really don't know anything about Vegas and the people that live here and what kind of city they live in).
-See how the school system deals with the increased pressures of the NCLB Act.
-Make some money!
Goals for Mad Science teaching:
-Explore their business model & see how the model can be applied to a different field/subject.
-Make some money!
-Network with interesting people who may be interested in the same things that I'm interested in.
-Pick the brains of the owners of Mad Science to see why and how they started the franchise.
Taking classes are surprisingly different when you graduate
I don't know if it's just me, but I have noooo motivation for the classes I am taking! Maybe it's the community college environment? I don't know what it is. But out of the 4 classes I'm taking, there's only one that I really study for (Japanese class, and I don't study that much for it). Japanese is really fun, and I think i'm getting an A in class!
My 2 real estate classes are interesting, only because my professor is interesting and sometimes talks about interesting subjects, but the classroom is filled with bumbling idiots, so I feel like the professor has to dumb down a lot of what he is talking about... Again, it's probably the caliber of the community college classes.
And instead of taking an art class like I wanted to, I decided to take an 8 am child psychology class because all the art classes were full. Boy, was that a bad move. Did I not learn from my mistakes? 8 am? What was I thinking? I thought the class would be interesting because I wanted to learn about children, but again the caliber of the class was ridiculous. The professor lectures off of overhead slides with blocks of text in 12 point font. And he JUST READS them. After suffering through a couple of those classes, where I essentially learned nothing, I decided that I would much rather sleep than waste my time. He was singly one of the most ineffective and inefficient teachers I had ever encountered. It was truly ridiculous. I could have taught him a thing or 2 about teaching, but alas, I don't want to embarass him. Perhaps I'll talk to the department head about things he can do to improve.
Things to remember in the future: when you have a degree already, and taking the classes has no bearing on anything else except your pride (and even that doesn't count for much), take classes that are interesting. Only the ones that truly interest you are the ones worth taking. I don't know how I will fare now that the semester is halfway over, but perhaps I can salvage my grade in the child psychology class a little bit. But who knows.
CCSN Goal:
-Don't fail! I can't believe that's a goal!
Real Estate is a commitment
If there's one thing I've learned from my real estate classes, it's that getting into the real estate game is a huge commitment. My professor often compares it to getting married. I don't know if I'm ready for that.
A. Usually, if you want a mortgage loan, you need a steady job and steady income. A new startup is not usually seen as "steady."
B. If I want to start a business, then I can't be having mortgages that need to be paid.
It's kind of a double-edged sword. It's either one or the other. Unless... I was a real estate investor. But that's just a thought.
What's next
As my imaginary May deadline approaches, I wonder what the future holds. I'm slowly beginning to like Las Vegas, and I'm officially over the culture shock.
I've discovered what I like doing by discovering what I don't like doing. Is life just a process of elimination till we get it right? I'm tired of waiting and eliminating. I just want to start already with the one thing that I'm meant to be doing.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Revenge of the Right Brain
I read an excellent article in Wired about how our society is shifting from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, where left-brain thinking is going to be less important that right-brain thinking.
I've been feeling this all along, and I think the author, Daniel H. Pink, definitely echoed many of my sentiments.
"Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent. "
"Now that foreigners can do left-brain work cheaper, we in the US must do right-brain work better."
"From the mainstream embrace of such once-exotic practices as yoga and meditation to the rise of spirituality in the workplace to the influence of evangelism in pop culture and politics, the quest for meaning and purpose has become an integral part of everyday life. And that will only intensify as the first children of abundance, the baby boomers, realize that they have more of their lives behind them than ahead. In both business and personal life, now that our left-brain needs have largely been sated, our right-brain yearnings will demand to be fed."
The article doesn't say that people with largely left-brain kind of jobs will be useless in the near future. And it doesn't say that people who are more apt to use their right-brains will be living the high life either, it just says that this societal shift will mean that traditionally left-brained activities--those of the routine, computational, and rational--will need to be supplemented by traditionally right-brained activities. The notion of "high concept, high touch" is one that our society longs for now because in this day and age, where generally speaking, Americans are living a ridiculously abundant lifestyle, people are drowning in their own material things, and are thristing for things that spark the right brain. Think massage parlors, beauty spas, designer clothes, yoga classes, meditation, art classes, evangelism at work, and the list goes on and on.
I've been thinking about this same thing ever since spring of 2002 when a successful massage therapy clinic owner came to speak at my entrepreneur class at USC. He was then trying to explain why his business was booming because of the Information Age's lack of touch and love. So people have to receive that touch and feeling of love from places like his massage therapy clinic, which then feeds the right-brain.
Are people ready for their right brains? I don't think so, but maybe we can do something about it. Pick up a hobby, something you've long since forgotten about that you did in high school or college or even elementary school. That's probably the last time you even used your right brain.
To read the full article go here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/brain.html?pg=1&topic=brain&topic_set.
I've been feeling this all along, and I think the author, Daniel H. Pink, definitely echoed many of my sentiments.
"Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent. "
"Now that foreigners can do left-brain work cheaper, we in the US must do right-brain work better."
"From the mainstream embrace of such once-exotic practices as yoga and meditation to the rise of spirituality in the workplace to the influence of evangelism in pop culture and politics, the quest for meaning and purpose has become an integral part of everyday life. And that will only intensify as the first children of abundance, the baby boomers, realize that they have more of their lives behind them than ahead. In both business and personal life, now that our left-brain needs have largely been sated, our right-brain yearnings will demand to be fed."
The article doesn't say that people with largely left-brain kind of jobs will be useless in the near future. And it doesn't say that people who are more apt to use their right-brains will be living the high life either, it just says that this societal shift will mean that traditionally left-brained activities--those of the routine, computational, and rational--will need to be supplemented by traditionally right-brained activities. The notion of "high concept, high touch" is one that our society longs for now because in this day and age, where generally speaking, Americans are living a ridiculously abundant lifestyle, people are drowning in their own material things, and are thristing for things that spark the right brain. Think massage parlors, beauty spas, designer clothes, yoga classes, meditation, art classes, evangelism at work, and the list goes on and on.
I've been thinking about this same thing ever since spring of 2002 when a successful massage therapy clinic owner came to speak at my entrepreneur class at USC. He was then trying to explain why his business was booming because of the Information Age's lack of touch and love. So people have to receive that touch and feeling of love from places like his massage therapy clinic, which then feeds the right-brain.
Are people ready for their right brains? I don't think so, but maybe we can do something about it. Pick up a hobby, something you've long since forgotten about that you did in high school or college or even elementary school. That's probably the last time you even used your right brain.
To read the full article go here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/brain.html?pg=1&topic=brain&topic_set.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Everyone says, "Get experience!"
Even my barber said to get some experience before I jump off the diving board and start something. But what exactly do they mean? What if the industry that I wanted to be in didn't really have any easy access to jobs? I mean, the economy is pretty crappy as it is, and jobs in Las Vegas are pretty much all reliant on the burgeoning tourism industry, so experience is kind of hard to come by. So I've devised my own plan:
Experience a restaurant
To satisfy my curiosity about the restaurant business, I walked into a new Islands Fine Burgers & Drinks restaurant, and walked out with a job. It's actually a funny story, I went out to buy some Christmas presents (yes, this was all pre-Christmas), and noticed that the Islands just opened (it's the first one in Nevada, compared to the 42 already existing in California). So I walk in dressed in scrubby sweats and a beanie, fill out an application, coincidentally am in time for a group interview, and get hired right after the really easy interview. I'll chalk it up to the fact that they just opened, it's kind of a no-brainer job, and I rock...not really because of my super overqualifications, which in fact, they don't seem to care about at all.
Anyway, for a couple weeks (i just finished training last week), I have to fill the role of expediter (glorified title for quality control) before I can actually serve because I have no restaurant experience. I guess Bachelors of Science degrees don't really mean much in the restaurant industry.
So far, the job is easy, except for the standing up for 6 hours straight and working with idiots. But it's definitely not easy on my wallet because of the ridiculously low pay... it's kind of like the restaurant industry's way of welcoming me ("here's a tip, Rey, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen"-type of welcome). I've only actually worked 4 days, but so far some people are really cool and some others are really NOT cool. Take my bosses for example...not only do I feel like I can do a better job than them, but they seem really really clueless. During training I asked one of them a question and he turned to me with the blankest stare and said, "I don't know," and walked away. Talk about leading by example. Hmm, my first impression is that the best and brightest apparently don't go into restaurant management...sidenote: I wonder if that's part of the reason why 90% of new restaurants fail within the first 5 years? Everyone else i work with (that is, hosts, servers, and back of the house folks), seem to just be in it for the money. It's just another job to pay the bills.
If I were to own a restaurant, I'd make sure it had some heart and passion in it. Not like this bullshit, cookie-cutter, "let's open a restaurant by the book in every major suburb from here to New York"-type of restaurant (I'm referring to TGI Friday's, Chili's, Macaroni Grill, Mimi's Cafe, etc. etc. you get the point). It just seems like the managers and owners are just doing it for the money, which trickles down to the lowly workers who then also are just in it for the money. Hmm, which leads me to believe that maybe the whole restaurant industry is just all about the money?
More on that later, when I actually work more and find out more about this whole restaurant thing.
Goals for working at Islands:
Experience the school system
As I've known for a while, I love working with kids, and whatever I decide to do, I need to involve kids in my life. A good way to find out what kids these days want and need is to get into the school system, so I applied to be a substitute teacher at Clark County School District (CCSD). All I'm waiting on is for my references to send back their references, and for CCSD to get their act together and get me an interview. According to a Las Vegas teacher that I spoke to, subs are very highly in demand.
And as I've found out before, I wouldn't want to be a traditional teacher for any long term period of my life because I think the school system is just ridiculous. I don't like the fact that schools are for the masses in a one-size-fits-all type of way. Kids fall through the cracks and just are not interested in education and learning the way they should be. And I definitely see some sort of opportunity there.
In addition, with the No Child Left Behind Act decreed by our supremely idiotic leader, G.W. Bush, schools and school districts will be pressured into making sure all their students pass the proficiency tests. Rather than focusing on actual learning and beneficial education, a lot of emphasis will be placed on these meaningless tests that teach the children nothing. And as usual, the first thing that gets cut from school budgets is everything and anything fun, especially art and performing arts, like band, choir and drama. I wonder how the students of today will fare as time goes by... we'll just have to wait and see.
Goals for subbing:
Find out as much as I can about the needs and wants for students, parents and teachers.
Search for any needs that are NOT being met by the school systems.
Educate myself about the area (because really don't know anything about Vegas and the people that live here and what kind of city they live in).
See how the school system deals with the increased pressures of the NCLB Act.
Experience art
I'm planning on taking some sort of art class at CCSN starting this semester. I've never taken an art class before, so I feel like if I want to get into this business, I should at least know how they go. I've always been in the mindset that art should be freely expressed and not in a "this is wrong/this is right" setting. Art is so subjective, who says a teacher can say whether something is a good piece of art or not. As long as it comes from the heart, it's all good. I'm sure I'll be surprised by what I learn.
Goal for the art class: Experience something new, and get some contacts in the industry.
Experience the real estate business
In addition to the art class, I'm going to be taking a couple (hopefully if I can get into the classes) of real estate classes at CCSN. The real estate business in Vegas is booming, and I want a piece of it. This is more of a long term type of goal, but I would like to eventually start buying and investing real estate.
I hope these next 6 months provides me with enough experience to start acting on something. It will at least keep me busy while I figure things out and finally shake the culture shock and settle back into America.
- Experience a restaurant
- Experience the school system
- Experience art
- Experience the real estate business
Experience a restaurant
To satisfy my curiosity about the restaurant business, I walked into a new Islands Fine Burgers & Drinks restaurant, and walked out with a job. It's actually a funny story, I went out to buy some Christmas presents (yes, this was all pre-Christmas), and noticed that the Islands just opened (it's the first one in Nevada, compared to the 42 already existing in California). So I walk in dressed in scrubby sweats and a beanie, fill out an application, coincidentally am in time for a group interview, and get hired right after the really easy interview. I'll chalk it up to the fact that they just opened, it's kind of a no-brainer job, and I rock...not really because of my super overqualifications, which in fact, they don't seem to care about at all.
Anyway, for a couple weeks (i just finished training last week), I have to fill the role of expediter (glorified title for quality control) before I can actually serve because I have no restaurant experience. I guess Bachelors of Science degrees don't really mean much in the restaurant industry.
So far, the job is easy, except for the standing up for 6 hours straight and working with idiots. But it's definitely not easy on my wallet because of the ridiculously low pay... it's kind of like the restaurant industry's way of welcoming me ("here's a tip, Rey, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen"-type of welcome). I've only actually worked 4 days, but so far some people are really cool and some others are really NOT cool. Take my bosses for example...not only do I feel like I can do a better job than them, but they seem really really clueless. During training I asked one of them a question and he turned to me with the blankest stare and said, "I don't know," and walked away. Talk about leading by example. Hmm, my first impression is that the best and brightest apparently don't go into restaurant management...sidenote: I wonder if that's part of the reason why 90% of new restaurants fail within the first 5 years? Everyone else i work with (that is, hosts, servers, and back of the house folks), seem to just be in it for the money. It's just another job to pay the bills.
If I were to own a restaurant, I'd make sure it had some heart and passion in it. Not like this bullshit, cookie-cutter, "let's open a restaurant by the book in every major suburb from here to New York"-type of restaurant (I'm referring to TGI Friday's, Chili's, Macaroni Grill, Mimi's Cafe, etc. etc. you get the point). It just seems like the managers and owners are just doing it for the money, which trickles down to the lowly workers who then also are just in it for the money. Hmm, which leads me to believe that maybe the whole restaurant industry is just all about the money?
More on that later, when I actually work more and find out more about this whole restaurant thing.
Goals for working at Islands:
- Recoop the money that I spent buying special non-slip shoes, bermuda shorts, and special certificates.
- Become a server and see what all the hype is about.
- Make some friends.
- Find out if this industry is really for me, and what about this industry I like and don't like.
Experience the school system
As I've known for a while, I love working with kids, and whatever I decide to do, I need to involve kids in my life. A good way to find out what kids these days want and need is to get into the school system, so I applied to be a substitute teacher at Clark County School District (CCSD). All I'm waiting on is for my references to send back their references, and for CCSD to get their act together and get me an interview. According to a Las Vegas teacher that I spoke to, subs are very highly in demand.
And as I've found out before, I wouldn't want to be a traditional teacher for any long term period of my life because I think the school system is just ridiculous. I don't like the fact that schools are for the masses in a one-size-fits-all type of way. Kids fall through the cracks and just are not interested in education and learning the way they should be. And I definitely see some sort of opportunity there.
In addition, with the No Child Left Behind Act decreed by our supremely idiotic leader, G.W. Bush, schools and school districts will be pressured into making sure all their students pass the proficiency tests. Rather than focusing on actual learning and beneficial education, a lot of emphasis will be placed on these meaningless tests that teach the children nothing. And as usual, the first thing that gets cut from school budgets is everything and anything fun, especially art and performing arts, like band, choir and drama. I wonder how the students of today will fare as time goes by... we'll just have to wait and see.
Goals for subbing:
Find out as much as I can about the needs and wants for students, parents and teachers.
Search for any needs that are NOT being met by the school systems.
Educate myself about the area (because really don't know anything about Vegas and the people that live here and what kind of city they live in).
See how the school system deals with the increased pressures of the NCLB Act.
Experience art
I'm planning on taking some sort of art class at CCSN starting this semester. I've never taken an art class before, so I feel like if I want to get into this business, I should at least know how they go. I've always been in the mindset that art should be freely expressed and not in a "this is wrong/this is right" setting. Art is so subjective, who says a teacher can say whether something is a good piece of art or not. As long as it comes from the heart, it's all good. I'm sure I'll be surprised by what I learn.
Goal for the art class: Experience something new, and get some contacts in the industry.
Experience the real estate business
In addition to the art class, I'm going to be taking a couple (hopefully if I can get into the classes) of real estate classes at CCSN. The real estate business in Vegas is booming, and I want a piece of it. This is more of a long term type of goal, but I would like to eventually start buying and investing real estate.
I hope these next 6 months provides me with enough experience to start acting on something. It will at least keep me busy while I figure things out and finally shake the culture shock and settle back into America.
Friday, October 22, 2004
De-mistifying the journey to startup
So I've been debating with a few people on whether or not I should actually post my business concepts and ideas on the web for anyone out there to read and/or potentially steal.
And after some back and forth banter and some thought, I think that if someone really wants to take my idea, then go for it. It will only spread the ideavirus more. Please tell them where you got the idea from, too.
Anyway, this site will be maintained to chronicle the journey from my original business conception to the actual start up and hopefully success of this business. Right now, I am viewing this stage as a baby's conception. It's a magical moment with a baby is conceived, so why can't a business be the same way? Well, it is, to some extent, magical when the idea slaps you in the face, especially when it's been starting at you for 12 months straight.
More details to come on the actual concept when this site gets up and running! Stay tuned...
And after some back and forth banter and some thought, I think that if someone really wants to take my idea, then go for it. It will only spread the ideavirus more. Please tell them where you got the idea from, too.
Anyway, this site will be maintained to chronicle the journey from my original business conception to the actual start up and hopefully success of this business. Right now, I am viewing this stage as a baby's conception. It's a magical moment with a baby is conceived, so why can't a business be the same way? Well, it is, to some extent, magical when the idea slaps you in the face, especially when it's been starting at you for 12 months straight.
More details to come on the actual concept when this site gets up and running! Stay tuned...
