Most recently in one my classes, I made the joke that people should start getting evaluated on their grades by successfully passing through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) line at a major airport during peak times with a short time span between getting in the TSA line and reaching their gate. I love to travel, but I cannot stand waiting in the security line and board the plane. It seems that people have lost their commons sense skills. A few weeks ago I was traveling from Chicago to Oklahoma City at one of Chicago's major airports, and a family was standing at the front of the boarding lane when clearly their boarding group was not even called. When other boarding groups were being called, they just stood there without barely moving. I was clearly agitated that the people working the counters would not say anything. Ladies and gentleman commons sense go a long way in the airports. If your boarding group is not being called or even close to being called do not block the way for others because for a few more dollars you can purchase priority boarding if you need to be one of the first to board the plane. If it were up to me, college students would need to pass a common sense test. I would set them off to a major airport (e.g. New York's JFK, Chicago O'hare, Los Angeles International Airport, or Atlanta) to fly domestically from one major airport to another. I would then make the student go through security at peak times and give them one of the middle boarding groups where the plane are filled with first-time flyers. Students would be evaluated on their patience, politeness, and if they have any common sense. For a bonus, they could fly to an international destination where they have limited ability to speak the language. And let's not forget its a resume line for real world experience. Where else would you get a real world experience dealing with people who forgot common sense and manners? Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk
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College can be summed up as four years of countless all-nighters writing papers on a topic you don’t care for, binge-watching a television show that has no plot, and endless amount of energy drinks to keep you up during boring lectures from a professor who is out of touch. And yet college students want to continue the lifestyle by going to graduate school right after graduation. But how can you tell if graduate school is really worth the investment? Read more http://millennialmagazine.com/is-graduate-school-worth-the-time-or-money/ Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk I am a young professional, a Latino and a member of the Millennial generation. But growing up in a household where neither of my parents graduated from high school nor had adequate financial literacy, I did not know what it meant to invest, save or appreciate the power of a dollar. Read more http://blogs.hrblock.com/2014/02/27/the-financial-diary-of-a-hispanic-millennial-what-ive-learned/ Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk In my start-up experiences, and I've had my fair share in my 20's, the one key ingredient that start-ups need to have are a coherent working team. Yes, execution is important and yes ideas are worthless but if you don't a team that can work together during the bad times, especially when no paychecks are going around, having a well-established team goes a long way. I remember my first time at a start-up the main reason for the collapse wasn't the product or the execution but the poor handling of team management. One of the main co-founders was such a control freak that everything and anything could not have been done unless it was his way. The three of us who took part in the business plan competition that won our first round of capital either quit or got kicked out, I was the one who got kicked out. Two other start-ups I was part also failed because of the lack of teamwork. I remember the first meetings were filled with happy thoughts but as soon as work needed to get done communication diminished and daytime jobs along with excuses took priority. I recall how in an online magazine start-up, the principal founder was so upset about our first online magazine issue that he talked to me for an hour of his displeasure, and we never worked again on making another issue because everyone else had other things to do and could not get over the fact that the issue did not come out his way. Starting the next Facebook or Snapchat is difficult enough but finding the right chemistry in a group is even harder. How many mainstream startups have you heard where the primary funders broke up? Does Facebook and Twitter sound familiar? This blog post was not meant to downplay anyone I worked with because each start-up brought something valuable to the table, but the main challenge was building a team chemistry that would take the start-up to the next level. So when you are building your start-up make sure your team has chemistry because that's what will get your start-up from nowhere to somewhere. Mr. JEducator, business, and blogger on things that matter in life. Follow @joseful Yesterday I wrote a post about companies giving people with start-up and gig job experience the opportunity to work for their companies. The reason for doing so is because there are just times when no matter what you do you just happen not to find the right niche in the gig economy thus having to make money working for someone else. In this article, I am focused on a person building an entrepreneurship career regardless if they are part of a start-up or working for a company. Innovate at all times Every day I find new ways to innovate myself because I am a product that has to sell myself to the market and be ruthless in my pursuit of having the customer want to buy my services. For example, when a client wanted me to create an online professional development course with a zero dollar budget I had to innovate in what training I had in online education and resources that were low cost or free. If you are not innovating, someone else will take your place. The same in entrepreneurship if a business is not innovating some other company will take over. There's a Solution to every Problem Last night my father told me, "except death, everything has a solution, " and my dad is correct. There have been times when a student or co-worker quickly quits and says there is no solution to the problem. I then look at the problem and find a simple solution. For example, a student would say, "I can't find any resources for my peer team teaching assignment" and I would respond with, "did you use Google?" The student would respond with a no answer, and I would mention to the student to start using Google. There is a solution to every problem whether we like it or not so find the solution because innovative companies and successful individuals always do. Persistence The one word I would say that keep successful companies and individuals at the top is persistence. No matter how hard it gets or what the future holds persistence goes a long way. I wouldn't have been able to get where I am at if it was not for persistence. What lacked in the start-ups I was part of was persistence among some individuals. Persistence gets people through the tough times, makes them innovative, and can find a solution to the problem. The world is quickly changing and globalizing at every turn in every industry. Having entrepreneurial traits such as innovation, finding solutions, and persistence goes a long way in an entrepreneurial society. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk When reading over job classifieds on LinkedIn most of the jobs require some sort of masters degree and/or five or more years of experience. Let's not forget that job openings are either minuscule or non-existent so how than does a person gain experience if there are no jobs to begin with? Companies should start taking people who worked for start-ups or in the gig economy seriously and here is why. Working in a start-up or gig economy job will require the person to build customer relationship skills, leaderships skills, creative ways to gain customers, and most importantly patience. I cannot think of another job in the gig economy where being an Uber driver or TaskRabbit tasker would require patience with customers who may be impatient or rude. Or in the start-up world where there is no guarantee of a paycheck every two weeks. With that being said companies should also realize that job experience is going to come from non-traditional ways such as start-up experience and gig economy jobs and no longer from the typical 9 to 5 job that most have done away with. I've had several tries in the start-up world and there has been no better training that could prepare for working in a Fortune 50 company. I can tell you that having patience and building a strong team are critical factors in the start-up world that without them the start-up will most likely fail before even launching. Being in a start-up you have to continuously innovate and be persistent because if your not than there is no traction in the marketplace. And with no traction comes no money and with no money comes no job. Why wouldn't a company want someone with start-up or gig economy experience? If anything it shows that the person is hungry for success, ambitious, and willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. There are no safety nets in the start-up world or in the gig economy and that makes the person more creative, built tougher for the tough times, and be optimistic for the future. So companies I am telling you know if you want a person hungry for success, ambitious, and willing to go the extra mile for your company don't set aside a persons application when you see start-up or gig economy experience. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk As a personal finance advocate, educator, and counselor I am all for budgeting. However, I admit that I get extremely lazy when I have to go into an excel spreadsheet and plug in my income and expenses. I would lose track at times and forget to do it on a daily basis. I am sure many other people feel the same way when creating and maintaining a budget on an excel spreadsheet. Thankfully apps such as Mint and private banks do the budgeting for you. My private bank has a pie chart that categorizes my expenses and I can set limits on how much I want to spend per category. It even has personal finance resources for my convenience. If you are looking for an easy way to budget either get an app that does the budgeting for you or sign up with bank that has online budgeting tools associated with your bank account. The good thing about an online budget is that you have online access anytime anywhere and you don't have to worry about plugging in the numbers on a daily basis. Be smart and get online today and start your online budget. Mr. JEducator, business, and blogger on things that matter in life. Follow @joseful If you’re a sports fan you more than likely have heard of LaVar Ball, father of Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo Ball. All three kids are rising basketball players. The oldest, Lonzo, is a freshman at UCLA (University of California-Los Angeles) and projected to be a top pick in the NBA draft. Everyone is talking about the Ball family because LaVar Ball said that his son, Lonzo, is better than Steph Curry. LaVar even went as far as saying that he could beat Michael Jordan one on one, yes MJ the GOAT. Regardless of the antics I can’t help but to admire LaVar’s guerilla marketing skills with his brand, Big Ballers Brand (BBB). Guerilla marketing is a low-cost unconventional marketing tactic to yield maximum results. LaVar is using a serious guerilla marketing tactic because whenever you see LaVar on television you see the BBB shirt and hat and it worked because it got me to the BBB website to check out the gear. LaVar is using guerilla marketing to it’s finest to market BBB. Let’s just hope all the talking about his sons will produce results in the NBA. But if it doesn’t at least the world knows Big Ballers Brand. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk |
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