This past weeks discussion...

So, I've been thinking a lot about change these past few days since we discussed it in class.  It got so bad that today, after doing it for friendship a week or so ago, I googled quotes about change.  There are a bunch of sites out there, but here is one that I pulled a few from if you're in the mood for a nice quote-pick-me(you)-up.

I'm not sure why, but I've always been okay with change and would actually go so far as to say that I live for it.  Since graduating high school I've lived in about 7 different states, attended 4 different colleges, had probably 20-30 different roommates, and have changed jobs about 10 different times.  Aside from the job thing, and maybe some of the roommates (just kidding if any of you all find this ;)), most all of that changing was done by choice.  I often sit and talk to myself, a lot more than I should probably admit publicly like this, about why all of this happened the way it did and what types of changes I'm going to try to make in the future.  At the time it may not have been the easiest thing to do, but I do feel like changing and starting over as often as I have has done a lot for me.

I find it interesting that all of this changing has taken place in my life since I grew up in an area that is probably one of the least 'change-friendly' that I've seen in my travels.  I laughed out loud when I saw the quote below, and immediately thought about some of the people I met when I was growing up here in Kutztown.

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something."  ~Woodrow Wilson
This is, after all, a pretty old-school Pennsylvania Dutch area, and I wonder if that attitude had anything to do with shaping me to go in basically the completly opposite direction.  I guess I'll never really know, but I think it has something to do with not wanting to settle.  Good or bad, I feel like I should always do more with what I've been given and have always been afraid of complacency.

Before my colleagues and I started at the SBDC we had a reading assignment that we eventually discussed.  I wasn't able to find a direct link to the article, but if you click here you can request it via an inter-library loan if you'd really be interested in reading more.  It talked about German entrepreneurs and what characteristics made them successful.  One of the major characteristics related to success from the study was product-line change.  In fact, product-line change was more of a sign of success than the other two variables that were measured in the study, early-stage business planning and pre-entry knowledge of the type of business they started.

More than anything I suppose this large amount of rambling about change is me hoping to convince myself that all of this change in my life will eventually lead to something great.  I do believe, though, that we all need to be on the lookout for change in a positive direction, especially as managers, and do whatever we can to get others to understand the value and perspective that change can bring.  Below is my favorite quote from my search.  If you've made it this far I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
 "The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me.  The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them."  ~George Bernard Shaw

Being an entrepreneur and/or rich by age 25...sounds terrible

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about where this MBA is going to take me.  I've had tons of conversations with people that have gone through the program, teach in the program, and are looking at my decision to be involved in the program from the outside.  Don't get me wrong, I definitely feel like the education I'm getting (yes, I guess this could be considered sucking up yet again) is worthwhile.  I guess it's just tough to see the forest for the trees sometimes, especially when there are no defined rewards upon completion of this type of journey.  That being said, and even though it's the second cliche that I'll use in as many sentences, I suppose the real value to be had from this program is in the journey and the people I'm going to meet on my way through it.

All of this thinking has led me on a constant search lately for inspiration in the world of business, entrepreneurship, etc. to keep me motivated about where I'm going to try to go (and I suppose am actually in the process of going right now) in the future.  I thought that the first one would be pretty interesting to fellow MBA students since the article is all about people starting their own business while in school.  Some of their ideas are really pretty interesting, all are successful, and a lot of them have to do with technology so I thought it was pretty appropriate.

The second article is about people who became millionaires before the age of 25.  This one makes me a little ill, mostly because my age 25 ship has long-since sailed, but is another great article about how people became successful and tips they have for we hopeful entrepreneurs/business leaders in the making.  Happy reading, let me know what you think, and let me know if you have an amazing idea and need a partner...hahaha.

Job Satisfaction..."the degree to which people like their jobs"

As I've said before, thank goodness that I took the advice of the Professors that I have this semester and picked topics for the papers that I'm writing that are interesting to me.  I can't imagine having to go through 10-20 articles, books, websites, etc. to find worthwhile information on a topic that I had no interest in whatsoever.

Since I've been in the restaurant industry for the last few years, and since I saw Dr. Weyant's paper hanging in front of the MBA offices while I was waiting for a meeting one day (yes...cheesy, brown-nosing opportunities exist in blog form, too), I decided that job satisfaction in the restaurant industry would be an interesting topic to address.  If nothing else, I feel like it's something that needs to be addressed since turnover can be as high as 75-100% depending on the restaurant sector that you're researching.

I took Dr. Weyant's advice and looked for references that are commonly 'referenced' in the scholarly journal articles that I came across and stumbled upon an awesome book on the topic by Paul Spector called "Job Satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences." 

Mr. Spector states that "Job satisfaction is the degree to which people like their jobs.  Some people enjoy work and find it to be a central part of life.  Others hate to work and do so only because they must."  That statement alone took me a few hours to digest as I thought back across my 'working life' about myself and all the other people I've worked with and what category we would fall into.  What category do you all think you fall into with your jobs?  Are you here in this program because you don't feel like you have enough satisfaction in your past jobs, or even your current job? 

I've always prided myself on being a person that not only enjoys their job, but tries to work as hard as I can each day that I'm there.  I used to tell people at my last job that work is at least 80% verb and 20% a noun.  I guess that's just because I was lucky enough to enjoy what I did, even though I may have complained about it a bit more than I probably should have from time to time. 

The best sources for scholarly and peer-reviewed references...at KU, that is

I wanted to put this up sooner to help everyone out a bit that might not have used the search tools available here on campus yet, but I've been about as busy as all of the rest of you lately and just didn't get the chance to until now.  I actually promised Jess that I'd do it yesterday and didn't get to it, but hopefully the fact that I'm doing it at 10:15 on my birthday can make up for it :).

If you've never used the sources available to us on campus I know how frustrating it can be to get the information you need to write a paper like the one we have coming up.  I was talking to a few people in my group about it a few weeks ago, and I know how some of you feel about getting an ID card.  Even though it is a bit of a pain I would recommend that you do it if you haven't already.  It makes using the search services from an off-campus computer easier, lets you gain access to all-night computer labs (which might be the only reason I actually got mine), and probably does a bunch more stuff that I'm not all that sure of yet. 

If you don't have an ID card, or a network ID set up on campus, you can still access the databases available to KU students, however.  You have to go to the library and get a temporary card that gives you a generic name and password that allows you to access the information from off-campus. 

Once you've got the card, or if you have an ID card already or are on a computer on campus, I recommend using the ABI/Inform Complete database from this list.  I could have walked you all through the steps from the KU library home page, but it's just much easier if you go straight to that link.

Once you're there you can begin searching away.  The only thing that you need to remember to do while you're searching for this particular paper is to make sure that you check the box for 'Scholarly journals including peer-reviewed.'

Feel free to comment if you're having any troubles, or if you have any other questions that you think I might be able to help you out with.  Happy searching, reading, and writing!! 

Self-managing beer club...

Some friends of mine and I, many of which I used to work with at my last job, got together this week for the first installment of what is going to be our 'beer club.'  We plan are planning on meeting once every two weeks to try new beers we've never had, sample each other's home-made brews (which I plan on starting as a hobby some time very soon), and just enjoy each others' company if only for a few hours.

 

As we were sitting around talking about what we have all been up to the conversation eventually turned to what I've been doing with all of my time in school recently.  So as to not lose my audience's attention, which may or may not be a problem I have due to rambling from time to time, I glazed over most of it pretty quickly.  I did mention, just like I usually do when I talk about school, that I was writing my own blog now, and one of my friends suggested that I blog about what we did that night somehow.  Since I think it relates pretty well to these case studies we've been doing lately, and I enjoy reminiscing as much as I can about the much smaller amount of time per week that I get to spend with these amazing folks right now, I'm taking my friend Lea's advice.

 

One of my last places of employment had quite possibly the best example of a 'self-managed team' that I have experienced thus far in my working years.  I was lucky enough to work with a bunch of amazing people there, but myself and two of them in particular were one of the best teams that I've ever been, and will probably ever be, a part of.  We always got each others' back, picked up each others' slack if one or two of us was having a bad day, and used each of our strengths to produce the best results for each shift.  We actually changed the way that we got tipped out on the days that we worked together from an hourly rate to just splitting it three ways because we respected each other that much and all felt that we each deserved an equal share for each shift that we worked together. 

 

The only issue that eventually broke it all up in the end was management deciding that we should add more people to the team without figuring out a way to supplement our compensation.  I've always felt, and still feel today, that you should reward your top performing, self-managed employees with the best opportunities and compensation possible.  I wish that it had worked out, and management had shared those views, so that we were all still there because I haven't felt that level of teamwork and comradery since playing sports in high school.

 

Since we don't work together anymore the next best thing is starting this beer club once every other week to hang out with each other and drink great beer.  If you're into beer the restaurant that a bunch of them work at is called 'Tap and Table,' and its got one of the most ridiculous beer selections that you'll see in this area.  I'm a huge fan of the La Chouffe (and Mc Chouffe for that matter) if you end up going and need a suggestion that I can't imagine anyone not liking.

 

Managing Myself...not as easy as it used to be

As far as things that some people who I consider really good friends would say that I shouldn't admit openly in public, on the internet, etc. I would guess that admitting that the only CD I listened to for a straight 3/4 months or so when I lived in Arizona was John Mayer's CD 'Room for Squares.'  I could give you some of the reasons why to attempt to justify it, but those reasons would probably fall on deaf ears after reading the previous statement.  I understand...i've obviously been down this road a time or two.

Anyways...one of the songs on the CD is called "Back to You," and I always liked it for the message just like I do with a lot of other music that I've listened to in the past.  The last line of the song says, 'Doesn't it scare you, your will is not as strong as it used to be?' 

That line has resonated with me for the last few years in a couple of categories of my life, mainly because I feel like my 18 year old self would beat the heck out of my 30 year old self for some of the things that I let my self get away with now (and almost justify).  One of those categories is how I treat my body, and I recently decided that it was high time to quit smoking.  I'm definitely doing it for myself, because I shouldn't have ever started in the first place and have always been pretty darn healthy otherwise, but another big reason I'm doing it is for the people in my life that I care about.  There's the one's that hate that I smoke (and still can't understand how I ever started), the one's that don't know what that means yet (because they still can't quite say my name), and the one's that are probably a few years away from arriving.

Insert pictures of people I'm talking about here:

Since I've been talking to a lot of people about the fact that I'm quitting lately, as I'm a bartender in a smoking establishment, I was interested the last few days in doing a bit of research about how long it really takes to break/establish a habit.  I've found some research that says that it takes about two weeks, but there is also some out there that says that the average time is about 66 days/2 months.

I haven't smoked an actual cigarette for a week, so I guess I have a ways to go to making sure that I have acually broken a habit that will lead to managing my life more effectively.  I guess right now I have to take it the same way Bill Murray did in "What About Bob?"  Baby steps...

Teaching Entrepreneurialism...my first scholarly research paper

So...I've done papers for classes other than the sciences, but I don't think that I've really ever had to put together the types of papers that are required of us this semester before.  Hence, why I haven't blogged at all this week, and why I started writing this one at 3:30 in the morning as I was still try to put the finishing touches on a paper that was due today.

 

I will say that I'm glad that I picked a topic that was of sincere interest to me, which all of my professors this semester have wisely suggested, or it would have been a rough road from research to conclusion.  I chose to do this paper for Dr. Rhoads class on the effects of educational programs on entrepreneurialism.  I know a few of us have talked about the kind of crazy people entrepreneurs are supposed to be in our blogs before, and I wanted to find out if there were a lot of people doing studies that supported programs that encouraged us to be/turned us into crazy people at the university level.  Sure enough, a good amount of the research I found suggested that there are a certain set of traits, sort of, that entrepreneurs possess, and that those traits could be groomed and cultivated with the proper training programs.

 

I think it's an interesting proposition to profess that you can teach someone to be an entrepreneur at the university level, since most people believe that certain skills/characteristics possessed by entrepreneurs are one's that are unable to be taught.  I do believe that a lot of the skills that I've developed, however, that are pointing me towards an entrepreneurial career have very much been influenced by the very fortunate upbringing and educational experiences that I've enjoyed up to this point.

 

On a related note, November 15 to 21st is global entrepreneurship week, which I just found out since I am a follower of the Kutztown SBDC's Blog.  You can click here to be taken to the article on the Kauffman Foundations website that describes what that week will be all about.  We are actually going to be doing a lot of work to improve our blog over the next few weeks, and I think it would be worthwhile for a lot of you to check out (click here to be taken to the site).  If you're interested in becoming an entrepreneur, and receiving some of that education that I just talked about for free, definitely keep us in mind over the next few weeks.  We're going to be constantly looking for ways to impove, too, so feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions in class.