One real estate agent known to get screwed

Last night’s NBC Nightly News had a story about the accelerating slump in the real estate market. Janet Shamlian interviewed a real estate agent in Georgia who talked about commissions not being as much as they were in previous years.

The audio portion of Shamlian’s report did not mention the agent’s name but for those of us who paid close attention to the television screen, we wonder if maybe this guy has a penchant for getting screwed in areas other than just real estate business transactions.

How would you react if you don’t know this man and he were to walk up to you, introduce himself by extending his hand, and then announcing his first and last name? Or let’s say you walk into his office, call out his name in a room full of agents sitting at their desks, and he stands up and yells “over here?”

This reminds me of what we learned in business school about the power and consequences of branding.

Wall Street Journal looking to hire a proofreader

The Wall Street Journal is looking to hire a proofreader. How do I know this? Not becuase I have seen the job posting anywhere but because the quality of the writing is becoming less and less refined.

 

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article by Yukari Iwatani Kane and Christopher Lawton about the expected continued growth in the sales of television sets.

 

“Looking for a new TV for his girlfriend at a San Francisco Best Buy yesterday, Bill Hightower, a 57-year-old pharmacist, said the countries recent economic woes hadn't trumped the desire to buy.”

 

The error can be found in both the paper version and the online version. I have found so many such errors in the major American newspapers that I read that I am considering logging all of them on this blog as part of a series.

A visit to Kenan-Flagler

The man whom I voted for in the 1996 Republican primary for President spoke at Kenan-Flagler tonight. Steve Forbes gave the annual Witherspoon Lecture at Koury Auditorium. Some of the topics he talked about include the state of the American economy, the virtues of free trade, and how we can fix health care by introducing competition. But my favorite comments were the ones he saved toward the end. When answering a question from an audience member, he said that it is no coincidence that the most commercial nation on the planet is also the most charitable.

“You succeed in a free society by meeting the needs and wants of the people. Commerce and charity are not opposite but two sides of the same coin.”

It is this absolute dedication to economic freedom that I admire about Forbes. I had the chance to speak to him later in the evening at the Kenan Center reception. I told him I am a big fan and specifically mentioned a review he wrote in Forbes Magazine for a book about how Christianity and its emphasis on free will created the impetus which led to the success of capitalism around the world. I said I was so impressed with it that I mentioned it on my blog. When I told him I voted for him in 1996, he said (paraphrasing) “I wish more people had.”

Bond 22

The twenty-second official James Bond film will be titled Quantum of Solace.  Daniel Craig will reprise his role a second time as the famed MI6 agent and Judi Dench will once again play his boss M. The storyline takes place at present day but will continue from where Casino Royale ended, about a young James Bond who has recently earned his 007 status.

 

This is the most clumsy-sounding title of all the James Bond films ever, including the unofficial Never Say Never Again.  The only … ahem no pun intended… solace I have is that by the time it comes out November 7, I would have had yet another 24 hours full of 24. Speaking of which, now that Keifer Sutherland has completed his 48 days jail term, all that we need to start filming is for the writers to get back to work.

Marketing Disneyland in Hong Kong

Today’s Wall Street Journal had a good article on something that is studied in many business schools – how companies marketing a global product often have to localize it to make it more relevant to a local population. In this case, it is the Disneyland theme park in Hong Kong, which has never “caught fire” with the Chinese population. It looks like the management at Disney is getting the message and will begin to tailor its advertising and messaging to suit its audience.

 

“The Disneyland Chinese New Year campaign, which lasts until Feb. 24, features a logo with the kind of visual pun that only the Chinese might appreciate: the Chinese character for "luck" flipped upside-down (a New Year tradition), with mouse ears added on top. Inside the park, vendors hawk deep-fried dumplings and turnip cakes. The parade down Main Street, U.S.A., is being joined by the "Rhythm of Life Procession," featuring a dragon dance and puppets of birds, flowers and fish, set to traditional Chinese music. And of course there's the god of wealth, a relative newcomer to the regular Hong Kong Disneyland gang, joined by the gods of longevity and happiness, all major figures in Chinese New Year celebrations.”

 

I am just glad that the God that I rely on for wealth, longevity, and happiness, is not one that can be recruited by a multinational corporation for marketing purposes. Speaking of whom, where is that box where I have the DVDs of The Passion of Christ, VeggieTales, and the Chronicles of Narnia.

“Act as if”

Earlier this week I came home one night and opened a very nice letter from my friends at American Express. It thanked me for having been a credit card customer since I was in college, talked about the additional benefits of upgrading my membership to becoming a Rewards Plus Gold Card member, and offered to waive the $150 annual fee for the first year in the event I convert.

When I first read the letter, I chuckled at the logic of sending this offer to a card member who rarely ever charges over $100 a month onto his credit card. Then I looked at the picture of the Gold Card with the Roman centurion portrait and thought it would be nice to have the card just to decorate my wallet. But would it be worth the subsequent consequences to my credit score just to have a status symbol on my wallet?

One of my favorite scene from the movie Boiler Room shows Ben Affleck’s character motivating a sales team by telling the salesmen to use the “act as if” approach to closing a sale. His examples were to “act as if you are the CEO of this company” and to “act as if you have a ten inch …,” well you get the idea. It made me realize that just because I am an MBA grad without a job doesn’t mean that I cannot act as if I am the most successful member of the Class of 2007.

But instead of signing my name on the form and sending away for the card, I did something more clever. Attached to the letter was a cardboard replica of an actual Gold Card and I detached it and put it in my wallet. So the next time I pay for a drink at Lucy’s, I am going to open my wallet in such a way as to make sure all the cuties at the bar see the fake Gold Card and then proceed to talk to them as if I am the CEO of my own company. As for following Ben Affleck’s other suggestion, maybe the bartender will sell me a genie that can help me in that area. (If you don’t get the joke, click on the link.)

Welcome back

Greetings from Chapel Hill and let me say, it’s great to be back. I left Chapel Hill in mid November, spent the next four weeks in Hong Kong/China with my parents, came back to the States andspent the next three weeks with my parents. I arrived back at Chapel Hill last night.

Three weeks is the longest I have gone without blogging and I do appreciate all the readers who continued to check back every so often. The reason for the lack of communication has less to do with not having anything to write and more to do with not wanting to share some of the things that I went through – at least until I have had the appropriate opportunity to mentally sort out and understand my thoughts.

When I was in Hong Kong I interviewed over the phone with two American companies. Both had product manager positions. One is a financial services firm that was in the news recently because of the sub-prime mortgage situation and another is a company that sells business intelligence software. The one with the business intelligence software company went very well and I was granted an office interview. Right after I returned to the United States, I had an office interview with that company in McLean, Virginia. I thought the interview went pretty well but was informed the following Wednesday, the day after Christmas, that I would not be receiving an offer.

After getting the news, I closed my laptop, went to my room, closed door, and cried. I have never cried before because of a job I don’t know why I did that. I think it was mostly because when I was in Hong Kong I didn’t spend too much time worrying about the job search, after I returned I focused mostly on preparing for the office interview, and getting the news brought back the reality that I’d have to return to North Carolina and continue my job search.

So that’s where I am today. I am back to my normal routine at Chapel Hill and things are beginning to get scary. At least once or twice a day I get scared when I think about the different ways this job situation can possibly unfold. I worry about the assumptions that perspective employers will make because I don’t have a job. I worry about finding a job that’snot all that different than the one I had before business school. Last but definitely not least, I worry about never knowing for certain that I will be able to recoup the $200,000 investment (tuition plus two years of foregone salary) over the remainder of my working life.

It’s hard for me to focus on my job search with all these thoughts flying around in my head. One of the things I have since realized is that I have these worries mainly because either I temporarily don’t realize that God is in control or I have trouble seeing how this could actually be part of His plan. What I have been praying about over the past year has been not anything different than what I had been praying for during my first year in business school, and that is for God to put me in situations where I can be of use to Him and for His plans for my life to prevail. With the struggles that I am going through, it’s hard to see that. It’s almost as though He’s playing a game of chicken with me, He’s purposely withholding certain key things in my life to test the extend of my faith.

One thing that about my life that I am really I have is this recent trip to Hong Kong. Shortly after we came back I was having lunch with my parents and my father said this was the best trip ever. My mother then said “that’s because (my first name) came with us.” So I guess you can say that every cloud does have a silver lining. I just wish I could find more for my particular situation.