Thanks Coach

Today I had the privilege of meeting Mike Montgomery, the head basketball coach at Cal. We're doing a paper on leadership for my.... leadership class, and we have to interview two senior...leaders and compare and contrast their styles. It's really more about social networks but dont get me started, this may be the most useless class that I have taken since Landscape Architecture 210 at Penn State (at least that was an easy A that i went to twice all semester).

Anyway, Coach Monty was pretty funny. Right after walking into the room and seeing 4 MBA students he responded, "It takes 4 of you to write a paper?" and later uttered "What no girls? You guys must not be all that smart after all".

The biggest takeaway from it is that people make a lot of assumptions about you and your skills just by your association. He mentioned that if he is successful, than when his assistant coaches go for jobs it's assumed that they know what they are doing. Kind of like you can have a complete (common sense) moron go to Harvard, yet everyone looks at the name and makes an assumption.

Coach said his advice is to latch onto a star and ride the coat-tails. Looking back on some of life's decisions, I think there is a lot of wisdom in his words. Now if he can only help me with my jump-shot...

Sensorship

Was out to breakfast with my girlfriend, and we were talking about the "moral police" who go to school in Berkeley. One thing leads to another and we eventually get on the topic of sensorship, which she can't stand, and how in europe violence on tv is more sensored than nudity which is the complete opposite of the US. She then said:

"No one has ever been traumatized by seeing boobs"

Priceless.....

Stuck in SFO

Title says it all... so im just putzing around. Went to a speaker event last night with Sandy Alderson, former CEO of the Padres and A's. He had some good things to say about leadership in general, but nothing really earth-shattering. From a baseball perspective, i found it interesting that Money-Ball actually pre-dates the Billy Bean era and that it started back in 80's. Apparently, Mark McGwire was the first guy selected based on those criteria. Nobody asked about steriods though.

At some point he talked about the Yankees as an example of a team that is able to go out and spend and asked if there were any NY fans out there. I was the only one (surprise). I then got booed by my colleagues. I then turned around, and in Morpheous fashion (with hand-gesters) just said "bring it on". Sandy then said i better be working on Wall Street to afford those seats. Oh Sandy, if you only knew...

The Clairvoyant Bum

In San Diego this weekend to chill with my buddy Mark and celebrate his big 3-0. Thought I'd share a moment on my to the airport yesterday. Was heading down to the subway when I saw a bum sitting outside with a cardboard sign and a cup for donations. Normally, I don't pay any attention to this but I liked what the sign said:

"What Would Scooby Do?"

I got a good laugh at out of it and tossed him some loose change, just for the entertainment.

Learning to be (Un)Ethical

I am starting to really get a kick out of ethics class. Going to school in Berkeley has given me an exposure to the most ultra-liberal environment in the country. There are many people here who want to save the world one tree at a time and are all about "Corporate Social Responsibility", whatever that bullshit means. I'm all about capitalism and to be honest a lot of this hippie shit is really getting annoying at this point.

So one would think that our ethics class would teach us how to be more responsible and play into the hands of the liberal base. Well, not so much. Rather it teaches us that you still need to act what's in firms best interest and how society is actually better off by colluding, bribing, and when its appropriate to pollute. this is rocking all these do-gooders to their core. And I love every minute of it. I think the overall takeaways of Ethics class are: Stop Being A F'N Hippie!!!

What I've learned is that all this CSR stuff is basically a PR move that carriers a tax-writeoff and how you can exploit it. We have a Hall of Fame for people who act most appropriately in a business sense and takes advantage of those who are too weak and unreasonably immoral. And after 4 weeks, guess who's #1 on the HOF list.... you guessed it (mwah) and I have no qualms whatsoever. Thank you Gordon Gekko, greed is good.

New meaning to the breast stroke

Had the following conversation today with one of my buddies, let's call him "Guy"

Guy: I think I'm gonna start swimming more, but I hate that American crawl stroke.
Me: Yeah I'm not a fan either
Guy: Why do you think that is?
Me: Cause I was never really good at it. I do the breast stroke well.
Guy: Yeah me too, know why that is?
Me: No?
Guy: Cause we're "boob" guys! Get it?!

(what a pun)

And these are the things that go on in business school...

The Devil Works for Hallmark

I'd like to thank my dad for reminding me it's been 24 days (magic #) since my last blog. So I have an update on that day which happens to be Easter Sunday (or as my girlfriend likes to call it "Bunny Day"). Note: this may get offensive at the end

I don't get this holiday. I don't understand the bunny. I don't understand the eggs. And no Dan, bunnies don't lay eggs!!! But that's all hallmark bs to sell more than they deserve to. And on that note... I'm starting to hate Hallmark. Cards now cost $6 and they are just g-d awful. I feel compelled when I'm giving cards to my parents, ladyfriend, brother for whatever occasion that I have to apologize for "it's a shitty card season again" Did they lose all their talent and decide to hold us hostage at the register? Sure feels like it, there has to be a better way...

So to tie in 24 and Easter, courtesy of Jack Bauer Facts:

" Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer 10 minutes. And he's done it twice. "

Just finished watching Season 2 of 24, and it's awesome. That show is so addicting watching on DVD, I just want more. Season 3 is on its way soon!!!