Thoughts and Recycled Viralness

I was talking with Ashley the other day about vacationing. It seemed that everyone around us has, or is, going on vacations all the time. Take for instance my brother Nick. That kid has been everywhere. Not only that, but he travels all the time! He just got back from a trip, with some of his good buddies, to Mexico. Before that, he went on a cruise to Mexico. I am not bad-mouthing it, I am just jealous. Anyways, as Ash and I were talking about vacationing we got stuck on the principle of how to spend money.

My argument was that we spend as little as possible on the hotel, and spend that money elsewhere. Meaning that we would find a comfortable place to put our bags, and depending on the location, spend the money on activities. I think that the fun of the vacation is going places. That is why you left the house in the first place! My ideal hotel would look something like this:

Love Shack

It is not the best looking thing, but you get to spend your money on more things.

Her argument was simple. It was, if you want to have a fun vacation, you better put me in a nice hotel with an awesome pool.

Now honestly her argument is perfectly valid. When you vacation, you are trying to relax. You worked hard, now it’s time to hang out by the pool and enjoy the sun. Her idea of a hotel would be something like this:

Ash's Dream

So this got me thinking, how are Ash’s vacationing preferences, as well as my own, illustrated mathematically? Honestly, I have no idea what the answer is. I just want to jot some ideas down, and see what sort of feedback I can generate.

So to start, I will throw out some parameters that will be needed. They are:

• Probability of Winning the Lotto [L]
• Winnings From The Lotto [t]
• Savings Rate [r]
• Discount Rate [d]
• Wages Earned [w(ICON Health & Fitness)]
• Benefits (money to be spent on vacation) [b(r*w)]
• Time Frame
  • I will assume for all time before the vacation there will be 40 periods x ϵ [0,40]
  • The vacation will comprise of 5 periods x ϵ [41,45]

And from there, I have can put together (a simple) mathmatical equation.

Ashley’s Present Value of What To Save For The Hotel of Her Dreams = {e^(-dx)*(1-r)*w(ICON)+(L*t)} + {e^(-dx)*b}

You would have to integrate the first part of the binomial from 0 to 40. Likewise integrate the second part from 41 to 45.

Now, you may be asking the question, what does the expected utility for myself look like? It looks like this:

Tyler’s Expected Utility To Save For The Hotel of My Dreams = I DONT CARE, I WANT TO GO ON VACATION!

It feels like I have tried everything. I have made posters, shirts, slides, adds, events, but I am still not getting participation. I have to make this a success, but how? How do you go and try to make hard-work look fun? A cash prize? Check. Free t-shirt? Check.

The thing that I am coming to learn is that, this might be a growing thing. That despite my efforts, this event has to be built over time. That year by year, this brand must be built. It just requires nurturing, patience, a little water, and sunlight.

If you are a student at Utah State, come check this out. I guarantee that our judges, the New Venture Consulting Group, will make you a winner. They will take that passion and get you the money you need to start your business up. Why wait?

I have been thinking, ‘what can I be doing to get ready to graduate.’ So far, this has only provided me extra anxiety, and a bad case of ‘the runs.’

In all honesty, there is plenty that I can be doing. The first step that I have been looking at is, how long do I have left? I have been trying to give myself a good timeline detailing the classes that I need and what can I be doing with the rest of my time.

Speaking of open time, I have been researching internships. When I first starting thinking them, it was confusing how to really maximize the experience. For instance, it is hard to get a sense of responsibility and leadership when you have none. It really is quite silly. Well as I have learned, the responsibility is completely on you. You really have to make the most of your time by shadowing every action that you see take place. A professor of mine was instructing us to ‘really put yourself out there.’ Meaning, you have to be the one to ask.

Another opportunity that I have tried to make the most of is networking. As of right now, I am participating within three clubs, at Utah State. This is really a three-fold initiative. First, it is a great place to learn of additional fundamental theories of business, theories such as Lean management. Secondly, within these clubs are some of the best students here at Utah State. I am in the middle rubbing shoulders with them. My fellow peers provide deep insight to current topics of study. Also, it is a great way to get a boost into the workplace. Third, participating in clubs provides great opportunities in leadership roles. Currently, I am helping the Entrepreneur Club in planning Opportunity Quest.

In total there is so much more that I can/should be doing. The possibilities are endless.

I am in a class right now that is called Business Communications. At first I thought it was a English class mingled with business vocabulary. I heard that it was going to be a lot of busy work covering the basics of grammar. Well thus far it has proven to be quite interesting. Each day there is a student prepared lecture covering topics in which we students signed up for. From time to time there has been homework; sample readings, blog posts, and other things.

On Friday it so happened that as a class, we were assigned to do some reading on marketing ourselves. From the get go, it has seemed really interesting. Up until now, I have simply relied on what rolls off my tongue, in the heat of the moment, to market myself. This has usually yielded some interesting results. Some times for the better, other times leading to the demise of whatever credible perception that I had. Well as I read the assigned readings there were very interesting points that have stuck out to me. These points which I plan on working on.

One of the things that seemed to be universal, was that I needed to be consistent in having a clear foundation. Meaning, that I needed to organize what I wanted people to perceive in me. This can be very difficult, especially in our digital world. It is so easy to be misunderstood. Often when people can not read your body language it is remarkably easy to take something the wrong way. Another way to look at the originally mentioned point, is that I need to have a clear road map on what I want to become. I need to have long term goals running parallel with my short term goals. Furthermore, I need to be consistent with my branding. The example that I read talked about Nike. The author spoke how they market to create the image of a active lifestyle. If you were to suddenly see them market saying that they were a bunch of couch potatoes it would get youreally confussed. Thus, remain consistent with markeeting your image.

I read an article that I want to share.

What’s the Point of Bailing out the Auto Industry?