Thoughts that are too nerdy to post elsewhere

I am a young higher education professional passionate about sharing valuable resources with others. My interests include technology products, multi-disciplinary practices, and talent empowerment. This blog was created to pool together the things that get me excited in my professional life.

[theyoungwon]

If the mind is the hardware.. culture is the software.

Geert Hofstede

[theyoungwon]

This made me feel like a proud mom

[theyoungwon]

“Don't ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, but what problems do they want to solve. This changes the conversation from who do I want to work for, to what do I need to learn to be able to do that

Jamie Casap, Google Global Education Evangelist

[theyoungwon]

Let's not forget the original definition of passion: Are we willing to suffer to live out our passion?

[theyoungwon]

Reality

"Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us." - C.S. Lewis

[craigtowens]

The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.

Gaylord Nelson (via tblaberge)

[theyoungwon]

Milton Hershey School

“Milton Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in 1903 with the innovation of putting milk into the chocolate bar. The company prospered, as did all the dairy farmers in the surrounding countryside. When the Depression hit and business fell apart, Hershey committed to not lay off his employees. Instead he created his own public works projects in the town and put the employees to work building houses, an amusement park, and a hotel. 

Toward the end of his life, he and his wife (who were childless) founded a boarding school for orphans to give them practical life skills within a supportive community. The trust that runs the school owns a large portion of the company stock, so today the school is funded by dividends and stock appreciation.

..To be a Christian in business, then, means much more than being honest or not sleeping with your coworkers. It even means more than personal evangelism or holding a Bible study at the office. Rather, it means thinking out the implications of the gospel worldview and God’s purposes for your whole work life--and for the whole of the organization under your influence.”

- Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor, p162-164

One of the freshmen I advised this past year at the Wharton School was a proud graduate of the Milton Hershey School. This excites me so much because the Hershey’s stewarded their profits and influence to create new products to serve customers. The school fully operates with trust funds, allowing students from low-income families to receive access to a well-resourced education, at no-cost. What an inspiration and example.

[emotional-algebra]

“If you stopped yourself every single time you were about to say, “I have to” and changed it to “I get to,” it might change your entire experience.”

Kristin Armstrong (via yesdarlingido)

AMEN.

(via chinhannah)

[theyoungwon]

Story of Deloitte's former CEO

Jim Quigley is an oddity in the corporate world of high finance. His peers tend to be graduates of leafy old Ivy League schools – Wharton, Yale, Harvard, et al. Quigley earned a B.S. degree from – ahem – a state school. And that advanced degree? Didn't get one.

Maybe he lacked the Ivy League education and the MBA, but he believes he gained an advantage during the formative years of his career from a source no one would have considered. From age 22 to 32, he held a number of lay positions in his church that required him to work side by side with men who happened to be brilliant businessmen. While Quigley's peers were golfing or watching TV, he was spending Sundays and at least one night a week observing and helping CEOs organize, administer and lead church congregations.

He learned how to hold effective meetings, prepare agendas, delegate, help leaders be more effective and motivate those around him through means other than money or promotion. During those 10 years, Quigley estimates that he spent more than 3,000 hours working outside the office with successful CEOs augmenting his professional education while performing spiritual duties.  "I was competing in a firm with 3,000 partners to be CEO," says Quigley. "I had better training than the people I competed with. Part of that was watching leaders in the church exercise that role. I got my advanced degree from church."

Source:  A student of leadership: Former Deloitte CEO Jim Quigley never forgot his roots

[theyoungwon]

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing

Benjamin Franklin

[theyoungwon]

Now that I’m done with grad school

Anyone have book recommendations? I would love to read some books in my season of funemployment! Currently on my list:

- Moneyball

- Every good endeavor

[theyoungwon]

[theyoungwon]

Why college completion is an issue

I am less than 50 days away from graduation. It’s surreal that soon-after, I can finally do what I felt called to since 2009, when I spent a summer in Detroit through my first missions experience. 

I was skeptical of how much I could really learn in such a condensed program. Though I may have only touched the surface, I’m thankful for experiences like our comprehensive exam that forced me to reflect on some of the key issues I have learned about in grad school

[theyoungwon]

15 things that make me happy

1.       Flaky pastries and Asian buns

2.       Finding emoticons that perfectly capture how you feel at the moment

3.       Unintentional puns--or intentional ones :P

4.       When conversations unknowingly include lyrics from a song or movie

5.       Friends that understand what I’m trying to say without me even saying it

6.       Seeing dots connect in my life, or in the lives of others

7.       Thinking about transformation - past stories that put me to awe, future hopes

8.       Lift chair fellowship and snowboarding runs

9.       Intimate conversations that happened in my Mazda

10.   Hearing the swoosh of a basketball going through a net

11.   Seeing different people’s strengths come together to create a product that’s so much better than what one could have done on their own

12.   Being around people who know what they’ve been created to do--and seeing them joyfully live it out :) 

[chinhannah]

Shia Le Bouf ladies and gentlemen. Our God indeed does work in mysterious ways.

[theyoungwon]

Love letter

This semester I am taking a class at the Integrated Product Design program at Penn, called Needfinding. The class is composed of students mostly from engineering and business, along with a couple anomalies like me from education. The class doesn't have any direct correlation to my graduate studies, but I was drawn to it due to its interdisciplinary nature.

We've had some interesting assignments so far that help us to identify needs in people's lives. One of the assignments is to write a love letter to a brand, so here it is!

Dear Zipcar,

Happy Birthday! I hear you are turning 15 years old this year, and got an invite to your birthday party in Philly a few weeks ago. I really wanted to go, but had a school engagement I was already committed to--I hope you understand.

I still remember when I first fell in love with you as a college senior at the University of Michigan. I had happily lived the first three years of college without a car, but heard that Zipcar was offering a special promotion, where I could sign-up for $25 and receive $25 in driver’s credit. I am not sure if I would have given you a chance if it had not been for the promotion. But I sure am glad I took that chance in 2009 so I could rent a car for a quick 60 minute run to the grocery store. I never really needed a car for more than a few hours to take care of errands, so an hourly car rental service was perfect for me. I also love that I never had to worry about parking or gas, since it was all covered in the hourly cost.

When I started working full-time in 2010, I had to buy a car for my 90 mile commutes to work every day. I was very reluctant about paying large amounts of money to own a car, such as auto insurance, regular maintenance, and gas, but had no choice since there were no other options for me to commute from Ann Arbor to Detroit every day. I sold my car when I moved to Philly in 2014, knowing the stressors that parking in an urban setting could bring into my life.

While I miss my Mazda from time-to-time, I am happy that moving to Philly has allowed me to come back into this relationship with you. I love that you are always available, conveniently located, and reasonably priced. You thanked me every time I would tell a friend about how awesome you are, which I know made you different from others; all 11 friends of mine who signed up are very satisfied, and I also got $100 in driving credit for telling them about you!

I’m so thankful that you’ve taken me back, and will continue to be a fervent evangelist of Zipcar to anyone who does not want to commit to the onus of full car ownership.

 Love,

Your #1 fan

[theyoungwon]

"Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."