Grades

This blog started off as an assignment for an entrepreneurial assignment, as you can see by my lack of posts for the last few months. However, I have realized that expressing yourself in alternative ways may be beneficial. Hey, you reading it may help me realize something (and comment!) that I would not have realized on my own.

This blog is about the importance of grades. In any aspect of life you get a grade. Although you get a physical letter grade in course work during school, you are graded informally (or perhaps formally in a review) in work as well. If you slack, your position may be threatened.

I wouldn't say that I'm an overachiever; however, I do need need to do very well. I'm always aiming for the A and highly disappointed in anything less than a B+. I'm not sure what your personal views on grades, but those are my personal goals.

To do well, I put certain pressure on myself. I have always been a procrastinator, but in order to make it through this semester I knew that I had to break that habit. I believe that I have broken the habit for the most part, but, with help of external factors including illness and family issues, it is still very difficult for me to keep up. This, as one can imagine, brings about a great deal of stress. But what if I'm stressing over things that don't matter in the end?

In the real-world (whatever that is), what counts as important? Do bosses see the whole picture or the end result? Do they care if I have about a 3.5 in college? Do they care what I get on my case study that I'm writing? Do they care how well I can write a business plan (I have two to write this semester)? Do the professors care how well I do? Do they care whether I write a thesis? Do they care if the thesis is published? (Yes, I am currently working on one.) Do these things that are currently giving me stress really matter in the end?

I am working in groups with many of these projects and I will always do my best, if for no one else's sake but theirs, but does it benefit me in the end?

I guess you could say yes. Writing case studies, business plans and thesis's benefit me greatly in the long-run. They contribute to my knowledge and experience in the business sector. I wish to pursue business consulting, and this could include working (and perhaps creating) business plans. By writing my own case study, I'm looking in-depth into a company and learning from them, an analytical tool that will be very useful for my business ventures. The thesis will add knowledge to the field, making me an expert in that particular subject. The literature I read will help me understand a topic better than I had previously. It will pave the way to helping me become an academic as well a business woman. I know these are all very useful things, but should I stress?

What if I don't get it done? Then its not done. Stressing about getting it done doesn't make it get done any quicker. Honestly, it is more likely a distraction, something that takes up time. It isn't productive. My professors do not assign me these projects to be evil, they assign them to challenge me as a students, as well as a person. Tasks are not impossible. I can do it. The thing I have to remember is all I can do is my best. Stressing over the grade does not help.

Tipping Point of Studying Abroad

Could it be that I tipped a traveling epidemic among my friends? It seems that ever since I went abroad, all my closest friends now have plans to study abroad. There are two going abroad this summer- one to Galway, Ireland and one to Greece and Turkey- and then there are two going abroad next year, one to Paris, France for the Fall and one to London, England for the Spring.

I knew that these people were interested in traveling before, but only one of them mentioned the prospect of studying abroad. Could it be that since they saw that I was able to go abroad for the semester (and survive!) that it gave them the courage to try it too?

These are the people who I spoke to the most while I was abroad. They are the ones that I shared my experiences, the hardships as well as the good times, and they saw that it wasn't that bad. I am more independent that most of them, however, I have no doubt that they will LOVE their time in Europe. Then perhaps I can convince them to come work abroad with me... hmm.. :)

Ps. The picture is of my sister in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Its That Time of Year...

Finals.

You say the word and college students cringe. And yet again, they're here. Its time to freak out.

How is it that no matter how much you try to prepare that they always sneak up on you? In most of my classes I've been keeping up with reading and have started to study for these tests weeks ago... yet when Monday hits I know I'm going to be in trouble.

Could there possibly be a better system? You have tons of papers and small tests throughout the year, which contribute to the stress, but why have every single class you take have a big project or test at the same time? And the silly part of it is that the most emphasis is given to this assessment. Do the faculty really think that you're performing your best when you can't help but think about those other four courses that you've either just taken or are about to take in a couple of day or a couple of hours?

I say no. Down with Finals!

Optimistic Side of the Entry of Goliath

Ok, two in one day... within a couple of minutes actually... but I just needed to comment.

What do you do when the place you wanted to start a business is being taken over by a hospitality Goliath? I just found an article in Suffolk Life that there will be this gigantic project that will take place in Riverhead, only a half hour away from where I want to open my hotel. This project is going to be huge. According to the article it includes eight separately themed resorts, a 350-foot indoor ski mountain, hotels, a fitness center, a man-made lake and 2,500 timeshare units.

How is a little dinky hotel supposed to compete with that?

I am hoping that this may turn out to be a good thing for my business. I am not quite ready to open up a business, but hopefully this large project will bring up tourism in the area. There seems to be skepticism on whether the project will ever happen, but if it does, Presiding Officer of Holbrook, Bill Lindsay, believes that it will result in a huge economic boom. There will be more of a reason for businesses to spread out east, and customers may want to rediscover the quaintness of the towns by the wineries while enjoying the benefits of the new amenities nearby.

I was actually worried about attracting more, new and younger people to the area and this could be just the thing to do it. Hopefully this competition will actually be a blessing.

It Now Seems Doable

I'm making progress. What seemed so unsure, so insanely large, is now seeming doable.

I'm talking about my project. I have to make a business plan. The main problem was that there is so much I didn't know about what I wanted to do in the business. I'd like to own a hotel, but I've never worked in one before. Sure, I have stayed in a few, just like most of us, but I have never worked there. I don't know what type of supplies the "hotel suppliers" supply. How often do you have to buy new sheets? I can't imagine keeping the same ones for too long of a time. That gets kind of gross no matter how well you wash it.

I don't know the first thing about hiring a person. I don't know what their salaries should be. Its hard to guess without working there. Thank goodness that I have the option of supplementing my project with a plan in order to work my way to where I want to be- my end goal of owning a hotel of my own.

I'm starting off much smaller and much different than what I thought. I found this cute little bed and breakfast online at a reasonable price where I am interested in opening a hotel. Its out on the eastern end of Long Island, right by all the vineyards, where you feel like you're staying somewhere a few dozen years behind the times. It's quaint. It's one of the place where I grew up. Its a place I know, a place I like to visit, and so a great place to try my luck in the hotel world. However my lack of experience is still at my disadvantage, and so before I sink my teeth into this adventure, I plan on spending a few years working in a hotel, and maybe a little while in consulting in small business. The consulting position is what I am recently looking into.

There is a small firm in which I would love to work with this summer. They specialize in turning small businesses into more successful businesses that will run without the sole proprietor nursing every step. I feel I can learn a great deal from the position. I am hoping that I will get it.

After that, perhaps next year or the summer after I plan to get a position in a hotel. Since I have no previous experience I will try my best to work my way up from the bottom. Doing so will give me the knowledge I need to manage those people, knowing what it is like to be them.

After taking this time, I hope to branch out into my own. I hope to make contacts through my experiences that would be able to help me along the way. This is an outline of my plan, although only the bare bones. It is indeed doable, all I need to have is patience.

Quit thinking, Start doing.

I think too big.

Do you see how ahead of myself I've been getting? I have big dreams, but I don't know how to get there. I'm a dreamer, and I just want to do- get to the end product, but I often don't realize what I have to do to get there.

I met someone yesterday that opened my eyes to the fact. He has big dreams. He wants to be a senator. How does someone get to be a senator? I do not know, but I'm sure he does. He bases many of his decisions around it. He doesn't step out of line because it may be spread all over the news a few years from now. He knows where he wants to go, and he has a track to get there. How does he have the patience for that?

I have goals... but I suppose that more than anything I just want to live. I want to explore and travel and experience life. (Wow, I sound like a hippie.) However, I do have big aspirations as well. I'm not pretending that I will be doing exactly what I think I will be in the next couple of years. I go down the road that life takes me. I have so many interests that maybe along the way my aspirations will change. I will discover something that I may want to do more. My whole life will swing towards that. Is it right to be driven so much towards something that a. you have blinders on and miss the journey or b. get where you want and then think, "Now what?"

My new friend put it very well- It depends on how you view life. He & I are very different people, and our lives will be determined accordingly.

A Boutique Hotel

Under the Sun-- What a wonderful name for a boutique hotel.

If you do not know what a boutique hotel is, I will tell you. Wikipedia defines it as an intimate, luxurious, and usually quirky hotel that differentiates itself by providing personalize accommodation and services/facilities. This seems right up my alley.

As I have said earlier, I love to travel and I am simply fascinated by different cultures. By doing a boutique hotel, I would be able to attract different types of travelers and design each room to different cultural specifications. I could have a feng shui living space, a modern accommodation, an old-fashioned looking room... anything that I would want, tied together of course by a similar color scheme. I could have it all. It would be so much fun. It also would make my hotel more interesting. There would be a reason to come to my hotel... many cultures will feel at home while they are visiting a new country.

I hope to attract many international customers. This is very likely since the low exchange rate of the dollar is attracting visitors from many places throughout the world. With a bit of research I can figure out what they want, what they expect from a hotel, and market it to them (most likely through the Internet). Every step forward I have gives me 10 more questions! How do I attract international customers. What type of words do they search in order to find a hotel. Where would be a good spot they'd like to visit. (California seemed very popular as well as New York, however there was an odd portion of the Irish people I've spoken to that said they visited somewhere atypical such as Tennessee.) Do they want a similar experience as they get at home or do they travel to get something different? How accurate can I be? Is there any rule that I cannot copy other hotel designs? Is it possible for there to be a consistent, natural flow if there are so many themes? I want my hotel to be like a quilt, flowing but each square very different, not like a basket of mismatched socks, aka chaotic and unpleasant to go through. How is that achieved in these boutique hotels?

Back to the research!