Weekend with Boos

1937 6-29-10 (but will cover all dates since 6-25-10)

So… this is kind of awkward.  I feel like I'm 40 and out shopping with my new 24 year-old girlfriend, when I accidently run my cart into the back of my 2^nd ex-wife's basket and there's that moment of silence while she judges and condemns me for my debauchery and general asshole-ishness.  In short, I'm sorry I got lazy and skipped a few days.

Anyways so Boos came in Friday night.  We went out to club SOHO and partied with some of the French kids.  Soccer matches were on so the club was a little different than usual, but o well.  After that we came home and made a bed for Boos out of three large blankets and his mattress cover that he brought.  Overall it was probably more comfortable then my bed.

Next day we headed out to various parts of West Shanghai, including Xujiahui, and Cloud 9 at Zhongston Park.  Cloud 9 was actually quite a bit of fun, we did a lot of people watching and Boos got his head bitten off by this old woman who apparently did not like the fact that he glanced in her direction (she was some foreigner, a Chinese woman would never explode over something like that).  We also saw parts of a talent show as we were walking around the mall.  Some of it was pretty bad, but there was this one guy that was able to do some pretty intense dancing in high heels, entertaining to say the least.

After that we headed down to Nanjing Road so that he could see all the lights and stuff.  It was pretty cool, extremely crowded though, especially when we got to the Bund.  Having Boos around was cool because he could sometimes translate all the little things that I was oblivious too.  Such as the fact that when I decided not to buy a pair of chopsticks it apparently marked me as someone who did not know anything about Chinese culture.  *shrugs* There are nationalist in every country, I try not to hold it against them.

Let's see the next day we got up and headed over to Pudong where we got some sightseeing in, and we also went to the aquarium which was pretty spiffy.  Apparently it boasts one of the longest underwater walkways in the world at 150m.  Sadly it was so cloudy I didn't bother taking him to the top of any cool buildings because we wouldn't really be able to see anything anyways.  We did however explore the Shangri-la Hotel which was cool as usual.  Later the night we went out with the Frenchies again to score some grub.  As usual the restaurant was out of about three or four of the things we ordered.  This has become almost comically common.  Afterwards we call it an early night for we wanted to wake up early for the Expo on Monday.

Did I mention that it was pretty humid for the last three days?  Well it all came together in the form of a wonderful rain on Monday, which also was the same day we went to the Expo.  But deterred we were not!  Nor were 450,000 other people.

All and all it was pretty cool.  We looked around at all the countries pavilions and even got in to see Vietnam's and Israel's.  The only reason why we got into Israel's was because  when we went and asked two white guys they happened to be Israelis and let us cut in line, essentially cutting our 3 hour wait into 30 mins.  FYI 3 hours is the average waiting time, with South Korea's being about 6.  Next time I go I'm definitely waiting to get into the Singapore one (sorry Dad).  After the Expo we rushed home, Boos backed his bags, and I saw him off to the airport. Yes I know you may be disappointed by my recount of the Expo, but I'll have another chance to talk about it when Dad comes.

All in all we walked about 35 to 40 hours (maybe more) in 4 days.  I'm still recovering.

Today was pretty relaxed luckily, though I was rather peeved that I got to walk 30 mins in the rain and my socks didn't dry in time so I got to walk home in wet socks/shoes.  I also got a new project.  I'll be researching competitor's technology and reading up on their patents, whoo!!  You should take a moment to find a patent and try and read it… its fun.

Oh so on Friday I created another painting, not really sure how I feel about it, though it's the first one where I messed with depth:

Not really a post but a brief aside

I'm alive, dropped Booz off at the airport 3 hours ago. Very very tired. I'll see if I can take some time tomorrow to type out what all happened over the weekend, but right now I just really want some sleep.

I'll post a picture to... I don't know, make myself feel better for being lazy.

Battle of the Birds

2049 6-24-10

Chirp chirp chirp chirp… CAW FUCKING CAW!!!

Snapped awake from the fog of death's kinder sister, my mind searches
for a grasp on time and soon finds it coming to grips with the 4:00am
mocking pixels playing across the screen. The mystical fog still
swimming amongst my brain's wrinkles and the mental energy needed to
come to grips with this reality send a series of dangerously combined
synapses into a fully fledged firing squad.

Whether by the Force or by sheer physical exertion, I find my katana
reassuring my palms that the world was still definable. Launching
myself off of my balcony, to hurtle towards the fine green fingers of
the foliage beneath me with my loyal Scooby-Doo boxers fluttering in
the moist morning air, however, was not part of the definition that I
had been trying to grasp, but the show must go on.

And the show landed me in the thick of Triad Grackles. A little slow,
my mind paused to ponder why these birds were smoking and wearing
smart suites. My hands never were good at pondering and since idle
hands are the Devil's play thing these righteous hands set to work.
Grackles generally get a bad rap, but this group was quite generous,
for they let me borrow all that was theirs. I borrowed their beaks,
their claws, their wings, and what they had for dinner the night
before. But it wasn't until I was back in the kitchens that I truly
appreciated their hospitality, for their newly laid eggs, and their
juicy hearts were the perfect way to start the day. As I sat enjoy
the meal, I reflected on what I had learned about myself this day:

Anything that wakes me up at 4 is expediently processed into the "I
wouldn't mind if you ceased to exist" category.

I would later paint Mr. Wong.

Painting My Peanut

2105 6-23-10

So some people when they're bored use that time to be productive.  That's fine for them, but for me, well… I like to paint peanuts.  So most of the day was spent painting my peanut, and it was a long arduous task indeed, for it took quite a few strokes.  I also talked to Deanna and Hanna, and then whipped out another profile picture of myself.

sssllloooowwww day

2016 6-22-10

Wow it was a really slow day today.  Even Niko said that it was unusually slow.

Also Trent figured out why I'm waking up so early.  I forgot all about daylight savings time, so now that the sun is coming up really early I'm waking up at the same time.

Let's see spent some time planning things with Booz.  Sadly both of my Chinese friends (Yiyi and Leo) are really busy this week and can't hang out with us which rather sucks.  But we've made plans to go to an art opening and will probably go hang out with the Frenchies at a club the same night.  We'll also be going to the Expo on Monday.  And I'm sure we'll be doing all kinds of other crazy crap as well.  I'm looking forward to it.

Relaxing

2034 6-21-10

Did stuff today, pretty unexciting.  I've started working out every morning (I desperately need to, I've grown way to soft, and I'll be starting an intense workout schedule when I get back to Hendrix), it's pretty easy, just wanting to get back into it: 175 jumping jack (75 at the beginning, 100 at the end), 15 push-ups and 30 sit-ups.

So confirmed with Boos on his plans, he'll be coming this Friday evening, super excited.  We're going to have a blast.  I need to start setting up some stuff for us to do.  Some of the Frenchies are getting plans together as well so we may tag along with them.

I also talked with Deanna some today.  She was studying for a Chem test, but we still had a lot of fun talking.  I even taught her how to convert [HO-] to pH!!  Man… all of those years of Bullshit Training finally paid off.  So I felt pretty proud of myself.  And before you get all smartass on me, yes it was the correct way of doing it.  So that whole business is going well enough.  There's certainly potential here, but there would be certain logistical business that would need to be dealt with.  All in due time I guess.

The weather has steadily started creeping up; it'll probably be in the 90s sometime this weekend.  I'm wearing my long sleeve shirt for like the last time I think.  Maybe I'll drag Boos into a brief shopping trip while he's here cause I'm lacking t-shirts.  ^_^

My Life is Simple

2157 6-20-10

So listening to other people's problems has made me realize how simple I've made my life.  There aren't any skeletons in my closet (they usually chill in the hot tub), no love triangles, no weird midgets with meth problems that happen to have very awkward photos of me, and no complicated relationships.  In short I avoid complication like the cooties of old.

The name of the game today was applications.   I spent a lot of time cruising websites and submitting applications to a few companies.  Of course I probably should have realized that on all of these applications I have my cell phone number on them, and currently it's sitting turned off somewhere in my room.  I'll have to go back tonight and contact them and say to please put a note that I won't be able to answer my phone for another month or so.  Hopefully it won't be too big of a problem.

One company that I was really surprised that I started applying to was Luckeed Martin, which is a massive weapons and space development company for the government.  But they had a ton of financial analyst positions specifically for recent grads, and several of them even required top secret security clearance… which is kind of cool.  Though I never really ever pictured myself working for the government, but I guess it really doesn't matter much.

Anyways I'll be largely holding off on sending out any more out until I get back to Dallas.

Consulting Lecture

6-19-10

I was up at 4 am… again.  Essentially that's 8 hours of sleep in 48 hours.  :(

Went to a lecture today by one of Rollin's MBA professors and former McKinsey manager, over all it was pretty good, though no really new information, except for reinforcing the fact that I definitely am going to need a plan B.  Afterwards the Frenchies and I shared a beer or two with him under the Mao Statue.  He'll be around for a couple of weeks so maybe I'll take him out to dinner and pick his brain sometime.

Anyways I'm out.

Deanna

[In order to protect the identity of people who probably will never read this blog, names and… some other things, have been changed in an obvious manner.]

2122 6-18-10

Wait wait wait don't look at me that way.  I know what you're thinking and I can talk about whatever I want on my blog, so you can just shove it. 

But before I begin, apparently I have not been "FUNNY" enough for some people.  Some people, who have alcoholic sounding names, think that my writing should be entertaining them, that my writing should make them chuckle.  Well your life must be a bloody sitcom cause my life is like a damn monologue read by Hawkings.  Make that sound funny bicth.  ^_^

Anyways now that I've said my piece maybe I can get on with writing about my wonderful day.  And it was wonderful thank you for asking.

It didn't start off being wonderful though, it started off at 4:30.  That, my friends, is never wonderful.  I have never, in my entire life, ever gotten up at 4:30 and said "Kevin, today is going to be AWESOME," never.  No, today was a day of relationships; the good, the bad and the German.

First off though, summer has started to set in, and the pure humidity in the air could keep a magikarp alive (if you don't know what that is, and you're my age, a serious piece of your childhood was left in the dust, go back and fetch it).  I also got invited to Robots new video game, currently in Alpha phase, which is awesome.  There are advantages to being connected to the video game industry, and no I can't get you in, don't ask.  No I won't even be writing about it, because well… I can't.  I would like to say that I can't because I'm sworn to secrecy and ethics and all of that crap, but actually its cause my laptop can't meet the minimum specs and I also can't connect to their network in China.  O well I'll play it when I get back.

Anyways so I spent a good deal of time today talking with my high school friend, Banna, on Skype about her relationship with her boyfriend.  Summed up, she's pretty needy, and he's really… not.  She loves him tons but isn't getting the attention she needs.  Maybe they can change… but I'm skeptical.  But best of luck to them, they are in fact cute together so I hope it works out.  And having someone so career focused could be good for her.

She then introduced me to Deanna for the first time.  Yes the same girl that I talked about last time, you know where I said she seemed pretty cool by her description, well now that I've spoken to her I found out that's not true at all.  She's tremendous.  I feel like a little school boy talking about his first crush, it's like, all I can do to not hit that caps lock button and go to town.

Before I continue I figure I better explain what Skype is.  Skype is a video/audio/text messaging program.  Well internet connection pretty much rules out video and audio so that leaves me with text.

"Oh Kevin, you can't possibly get to know someone merely by sending text back and forth!?"

Ya, screw you too, my generation is rather apt at it, and since this ain't my first rodeo I've perfected it to a bloody art.  Not to mention my great aunt got married to some schmuck without ever meeting him, and only ever corresponded by snail mail, so don't tell me it can't be done.

*breath in, breath out*

So we chatted back and forth for awhile, talking about plans after college ect.  She'll be working in Austin for the government, creating policies and auditing company to make sure they comply.  It actually sounds pretty spiffy… and I like Austin.

But we joked around a bit, laughed, all good.  And get this, I flirted, and she flirted back!!  Ya I know, I'll let you clean up that brain matter behind you later.

"Everyone flirts, dude, what's the big deal?"

Have you ever seen me flirt?  Picture a rhino trying to hump a giraffe, it's awkward, it's messy and someone's going to get hurt.

Alright, I could just keep going but I'll stop there.

After I got back I went to dinner with Flinsi, who told me about her problems.  She's kind of dealing with some loneliness issues.  I wish I could give her some advice but her incase and Banna's as well… I'm just kind of inept.  I love to listen, and I'll try and help.  But my advice usually makes people feel worse about a situation.  Kind of something I should work on.

So I'm about to drop like a sack of wet noodles.  You've got brain matter to clean up, I've got two pillows pretending to be sirens.  Let's call it a night.

Cleaning, True Blood Trang, and a Girl Named Deanna

2044 6-17-10

So I think I have a bit more to talk about today.  Nothing super, just a few basics.

First off I found my first roach, I'm not happy about this.  I had assumed for some reason that since I was on the 14^th floor they would not be able to reach me here, but apparently I was wrong.  Anyways it was only a small one and quickly dealt with, so at least it wasn't one of those MotherShip Cockroaches that look like they're the carrier ship for all of roach kind. *shudders*

That at least prompted me to do a deep clean of my bathroom.  As well as do my laundry which since I had missed my normal Monday routine due to classes all day I was falling way behind on.  Also doing laundry is rather weather specific here since you're forced to dry them outside.

Boos officially made it into Beijing and went through a five hour placement orientation for his Chinese classes.  Apparently his dorm is really nice, which is rather surprising to me, maybe he's in some elite college or something.  So tops off to him.

Since he won't be back till the 20^th I've volunteered to help his girlfriend Trang move into her apartment at A&M around the 16^th.  We may then have a True Blood watching party, which is why I've also invited one of my high school friends Hanna.  Hanna now goes to SMU but she use to go to A&M and I figured that she could help show Trang a few places.  Also it's just generally a good idea to have witnesses around when you're hanging out with your bestfriend's girlfriend.  Not that Booz is the jealous type, I just prefer to cover my bases.  Trang's roommate will also be there, so I think I'm good.

Speaking of Hanna, she has a master plan to hook me up with her "bff" (that's best friend forever, to those out of the loop), Deanna.  Hanna gave me a low down on her and she seems awesome (natural scientist, confident, non-religious, wholesome, etc (see mommy I can learn about people without facebook as well ^_^ )).  Going into consulting basically shuts down any chance of me having a stable relationship, but I don't have a job offer yet and so I'll take all the relationship help I can get.

Anyways I'll keep nosy people abreast on the situation.

Just Another Day

2135 6-16-10

Not really much to say today.  I basically focused on rewriting my cover letter and resume.   It's pretty close now to be completed.

Boos arrived in Beijing today, I'm looking forward to his initial impressions.  Did I tell you he named his blog "BoosInBeijing"?  What a copier.  Oh well I've stolen a number of his ideas as well, what are friends for after all.

Anyways that's really it, kind of a lazy day.

Leadership Class 6 and Revamping my Resume

2100 6-15-10

Boos is on his way to China, which is super cool.  He should be touching down sometime shortly.  I'll see him in about two weeks which will be awesome.

Let's see, finished the last leadership class.  I'm currently working on revamping my resume and cover letter; I'll then be meeting with the teacher tomorrow to go over them.  It's weird working on a document that'll literally have a pivotal role in the rest of your life.

Hehe my leadership sent me an e-mail with comments about my leadership log:

"If I can offer some insight, I'd like to ask why you're freaking out now?  Isn't that a little premature?  Why not wait until you know you have reason to freak, and then, if you feel you have reason to freak out, you have a choice.  Freak out or take some action.  I suggest the action.

 

I'm recommending you don't put so much pressure on yourself."

 

Well… I read this while working on my cover letter and was kind of wanted a break so I sent her a little reply:

 

"So much to do.  Time has ticked and the moment arrives and then Time has tocked and the moment has departed.  Men who have gone so far, Women who have achieved dreams, People who have worlds.  Driven by the Primal Instincts of competition I seek my place.  Freaking out is merely a manifestation of the odds.  Like a wild Stallion of old, I hope to harness such rawness to ride forth or be bucked into obscurity.

Tick
Kevin
Tock"

 

Boredom brings out the strangeness within me, and the bad… well whatever it is you want to say I scribbled down.  O well, I enjoy it.

 

Nighty night, I still have a bit of editing to do.  Hope all is well in your lives.

Leadership Class 5 and Presentations

2143 6-14-10

In case you were paying attention there was a class 4 it just happened to be on the day that I skipped.

So today was one of those days consumed by our Leadership class.  We spent a great deal of time dealing with international cultural awareness which… well is exactly what we spent a lot of time in with all of our classes.  O well.  We also did our presentation, which was rather odd.  Our Chinese students in our group who were so worried about talk for four minutes ended up going on and on for like over 10 minutes each.  I was kind of impressed, though I started really worry about time constraints.

Let's see I also ate lunch with our teacher and her husband.  They helped give me some perspective on the whole "branding issue" and Dr. Bach gave me some specific help on my resume and cover letter.  In short she thinks I'm "unique" enough without needing to convert my cover letter to the new style.  She was kind enough to offer to meet with me on Wednesday to discuss the changes again, which means I going to spend most of Tuesday after class working on those two documents.  Currently I have 35 companies on my list; I'm already shuddering at personalizing each of these.  Mistakes tend to get made when you start churning out that many, so I'm going to have to really pace myself.

Ugh… let's see, ya nothing else.  Later.

Working on my Cover Letter and Resume

2002 6-13-10

I spent most of the day working on this issue of "branding" myself.  If I can't solve this identity crisis I can basically kiss my chances of consulting good bye.  So I've been crawling around the internet looking at various things and absorbing different ideas.  One I liked was instead of writing out this long winded cover letter, actually go to the employers website and copy down the requirement for the job and then in a graph go point by point and give examples as to how you match this criteria.  I'll give example later on in the post and I welcome your feedback.

Mmm let's see I changed the beginning of my resume as well.  It's been my "objective" which I always thought was rather stupid, obviously my current objective is to do whatever job I'm applying to, and it seemed kind of like a waste of space.  So once I read that very same thing in a recruiter's blog, I changed it as a space to brand myself.  Here's what I have for now.

CONTRIBUTION

Utilizing a variety of experiences, I see the big picture in order to provide clients with synchronized strategic planning and execution.

Anyways so that's now the very first thing after my header.

Anyways so here's my coverletter v2 for BCG (I'll be interested in seeing how blogspot handles my formatting):

I'm interested in applying for an Associate position at the BCG Dallas, San Francisco, or Singapore office.  You're recruitment webpage lists 5 essential skills for being successful at BCG, let me explain and give examples of how I have demonstrated this skill set.

 

·         Path Finding	·         At Blue Bamboo, the company was going through a branding crisis and was unable to decide how to position its company; this caused many of its objectives to be rather ambiguous.  By creating the content for their Company Introduction and brainstorming with their CEO and Director of Operations I helped the company decide upon its direction based off of its unique product line and current reputation.
·         Curiosity	·         Working with Kim Hall, we were constantly asking questions about our clients accounting procedures, trying to understand their thought process, how best to change the system to match their needs, and tracing problems within their system so that they could be eloquently and permanently solved.
·         Leadership	·         As the founder of the Hendrix College Culinary Club my leadership skills have been stretched and strengthened. I started the club my freshman year bringing together a team of like-minded associates to construct and plan the club's foundation and future.
·         Impact	·         Interning at JWA Financial Group, they had just Schwab's PortfolioCenter, but were unable to import in two years of data.  I dove in, familiarizing myself with the new system and began updating/correcting client portfolios.  Later I would write a manual for future users as well as train the other two interns on its uses.  This freed up their talented employees and once again provided their clients with accurate and timely feedback on their investments.
·         Join BCG	·         My passion for strategic management consulting has led me to BCG's doorstep.  With my professional and educational background I have the diversity to connect to clients, and bring a broad knowledge of varies industries and skills.  Coupled with my knack for problem solving I believe I can bring real value to BCG's clients.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding my experience, education, or goals. I look forward to speaking with you.

 

I also met with the Leadership Class presentation group.  We're using my idea of putting a chair on the table to talk about how knowing one's self is like the four legs and seat of a chair, supporting the actual leader.  Anyways I'm rather proud of the idea because it ties in the word "chair" which our group was given as part of a creativity exercise.

Same Leader + Different Situation = Different Leadership Style?

a)      What: As leaders should we try and change our leadership style based off of new situations?

b)      So what:  Well this kind of leads away from the idea of our "authentic" leadership style doesn't it?  I'm not sure I could lead a group of artist the same way I can lead a group of engineers.  Shouldn't the leader adjust to the group in order to maximize their productivity?

c)       What now: I think in order to help my arability I should continue to try and get as much experience as I can interacting with different type of people, and if possible work with them to solve a problem.  That way I can better tailor to their needs as a contributing member of a group.

Company Outing

2037 6-12-10

So I went on a company outing today.  I know, I know, what with the title of the post being "Company Outing" I'm sure you thought I had gone and done something entirely different.

Woke up, went to work, chilled there for an hour, and then we all got into a giant bus and went to a local BBQ restaurant.  We used forks and knives.  After three months of almost never using forks and knives it's rather weird to suddenly eat Asian BBQ with them.  I sat across from Mable (a tech support woman who's in my English lunches) and taught her how to use them.  She's sweet, but when I asked her what she likes to do she replied "watch TV"… pretty much kills any conversations with me.  Not saying I don't watch "shows", I do, but when someone asks me what I like to do I certainly wouldn't say that and nothing else.  She likes to watch "24" and "Grey's Anatomy" by the way, I'm not sure if that means she only watches those or she only told me those because those would be the only ones I recognized.

Anyways the food was decent, and plenty of it.  Afterwards we headed over to a local park where we played a series of games, Tug-a-War, Hula-Hoop, Three-Legged-Race, and Trivia.

I was pumped for the Tug-a-War; after our team was beaten twice, and I was dragged on to the ground for a good couple of feet, my enthusiasm dwindled.  Trivia was also funny because it was all in Chinese and so what Niko would do was wait until everyone had decided which hula-hoop to stand behind (indicating their answer), and then calmly walk over to stand in the front of the line which had the most people.  Needless to say, with almost no Chinese under his belt, he was right nearly every time.

Let's see, oh I scored dad a room.  Nina is leaving the 19^th but her room is rented out till the 31^st so I got it from her for 60RMB ($8.75) a night for 5 nights.  Score!

Alright I'm insanely tired, have a good night.

Going Native

a)      What: Our company went on an outing today and I took some time to observe and talk with our CEO, Trent.  I think an important part of Trent's leadership style is his love for the culture that he's in.

b)      So what: It's quite obvious that the employees in the company truly respect Trent and I believe it's because, unlike most foreign management, Trent has fully committed himself and his family to knowing and understanding the Chinese culture.  He's working on his Chinese, he has some of his children in Chinese schools, and he respects the Chinese culture.  All of this lends him creditability to his workers and a appreciation for his effort.

c)       What now:  Finally something I can actually work on.  Improving my ability to understand and show my appreciation for others cultures.  While I would never describe myself as hostile towards another culture, I'm not really jumping in with both feet either.  I'm more like a silent (it is possible for me not to talk, I swear) watcher that just sits and analysis the situations happening around him.  This doesn't lend itself well if I want to manage people of different culture because it comes off as indifferent or uncaring.  Greater effort in outwardly assimilating while still keeping my core identity and values would go a long way in making people of other cultures feel more comfortable around me.

 

More NAGing, Club Sin, and Yes I Missed A Day

2303 6-11-10

Ya ya I skipped a day, sue me.  Sorry I got an e-mail from one of my new contacts, N.A.G. business; I'll continue writing this post in just a second…

Well, that was a little bit depressing.  In summary "you're work experience looks awesome, sadly our clients want people that have specialized in a certain area so they can solve specific problems."  Which is the exact opposite approach to how I thought, I wanted a more general understanding of business so that I can see how all of the pieces fit together, hence my experience in accounting, marketing, investments, etc.  He suggested looking into more local firms (though some of the ones he listed actually over very competitive pay), use my work experience somewhere else to string all of my other experiences under one roof, and apply to these other firms after grad school (which is one of the reason why I wanted to get into these firms in the first place).  But if these firms want me to super specialize on something, I need to find something else, I want to be able to see the whole machine, not just a single cog.

It's a rather large bitter pill for me to swallow.  Luckily I have a large amount of over self confidence and blind stubbornness to wash it down with.  I haven't even applied yet, I'm not going to give up, though I have started creating several back-up plans that I would be just as happy with.

Anyways I've got a reply to write.  Went to Club Sin last night because Louie asked me too, it was alright, kind of a sausage fest, and it was weird only have three people I knew (and not very well at that) in the entire club.  Despite my late night, my body of course kicked me right out of bed at 6:30, plenty of time to leave for work at 8.

Other than that I've spent an absorbent amount of time reconnecting with my network, and looking around at the job market.  Lot's to think about, lot's of scheming and planning to do.  Nighty night.

Selflessness (if it exists)

a)      What: One of my German friends recently organized a charity drive here on campus to college used clothes for children in rural China.  Long story short it was a great success.

b)      So what: A leader is not required to be "selfless" but at the same time they have to be willing to give a great deal of themselves to their team and the organization or objective knowing that they may never get that returned.

c)       What now: It's hard for me to say that I can't be selfless, I can think of specific examples of when I was (or at least that's how I've chosen to remember the moments), and yet I've ingrained into myself how to see opportunities that present themselves which makes it a little hard for me to ever think of myself as doing something "selfless."  I'm not exactly sure I want to change this about myself, nor how I would even be able to.  On a side note I'm beginning to notice my posts really lack any form of a conclusion or development, sorry.