Mike Kind - The Last Lecture

Key # 1. If you learn from someone else's mistakes, you can learn from failure. It's how you respond to the failure. Failure IS the key to success in almost every situation.

Key # 2. Opportunities are vast and unlimited, so keep your eyes open! Observe and stay alert for new ways of doing things. Be open to a "Eureka!" moment.

Key # 3.Refine and define an idea. Transform it from a good idea to a great idea - that works! Fix a problem or a glitch that people have gotten used to.

Key # 4. Increase the cirle that influenced you for the better. Spend time with people that sow wisdom into your life. You can learn from thier experience. You can grow from taking advice and go further faster.

Key # 5. Think Rocky Balboa. Do not quit. When you've tried everything - take it and learn from it. Never throw the towel in.

Key # 6. Don't stop learning. Your brain needs to be trained just like the rest of your body. If you stop working out, you get weak and incapable of endurance. Stop learning - you get more and more incapable of learning. You can learn something new every day.
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The one key that stands out to me the most is to increase your circle of influence. I have experienced success in this area already. I always find that when I sit down with one of my mentors, I leave encouraged, a little wiser, and a little more confident than when I first came in. Its all fine and dandy to spend time with friends - preferably the one equipped with a better attitude, but you need to schedule in time with people you admire and look up to. I would encourage anyone, that when you find someone you admire, to get into a friendship with them. Have them influence you for the better. It really helps. Trust me.

The Apprentice

The show opens, and there is so much conflict between the team of apprentices, and nobody can find common groud. There is a lot of problems with one of the women, Audrey. She brought some personal problems to the show, and they are biting her in the butt. The challenge of building a miniature golf course is presented to the two teams by Mr. Trump, and they head out on their ventures.

Audrey turns out to convince her team "Net worth", that she is strong enough to be project manager, and begins to put people in charge. She has made a decision not to make any decisions so that is anything went wrong, she could point the finger. She would not give clear direction. In the end, the team made just over $300.00.

The other team, "Magna" is run smoothly and clear direction is given out. They marketted wisely and got a lot of attention. The team successfully made over $500.00.

Heading to the board room, "Net Worth" gets a little "ratted out" for their low presentment of the business. Audrey, Craig, John and Angie argue and defend themselves. Audrey blames and points the finger away from herself. Audrey is fired, and the team is down one person.

I learned from this that teamwork and excitement for the job are very important. Leaders and managers must be passionate about the program - so passionate that she could have picked up the slack. She needed to take responsibility for the downfall of the project.

Eswaldo

Master Moves is a product that balances you, builds muscle and tones your whole body with one move. Eswaldo has come to try and get $300,000 for 30% of the business.

He came in with no experience, but only the ability to sell the product. All the dragons thought that the investent asking was too high a risk. His evaluation was way off. All of them had ducked out, and as Eswaldo walked away, one of them offered $300,000 for 100%.

I don't know if that would be an offer worth accepting, but I personally would invest in it, simply because it looks like a great product. I would firstly want to see how much bark is behind the bite in this fitness breakthrough before I invested in it.

Uro Club

Dr. Floyd Seskin is trying to get support for the "uro-club". The "uro-club" is a device that helps older men relieve their bladder pressure on the golf course. He wanted to get $25,000 at 51%. He had sold 3000 of these "uro-club".

One of the sharks decided he'd offer Floyd 70% for $25,000. Floyd was happy with the offer, because he simply wanted the product to be out there. He is a doctor, he doesn't need the money, he just wants to see something in his life, spread its wings and fly.

Uro-club is still successful, surprisingly to me. It has no relation to me, so I would not have invested in it.

Pork Barrel Spice Rub

Brett Thompson & Heath Hall

Pork Barrell is a barbeque sauce company run by these two men, who are also politicians. 50k for 10% was their initial offer. However, their first concern would be their initial job, not the company. They were hard working, but spread thin. All but one of the sharks ducked out of offering anything at all because of these reasons.

The last shark standing offered 50k for 50%. Both accepted the offer. I honestly don't think that they would have gotten another offer, and they were willing to give it a shot.

I wouldn't have offered to support them. I don't honestly think their heart was in their product, and they wouldn't invest everything they had nor take risks for the sake of the product. They didn't have enough passion to impress me.

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Education


Education is a very important step in any individuals life. With the stress on the economy, many people are choosing to upgrade in order to get better paying jobs in order to be more successful. With close to 12 million people enrolled in post secondary education the future is looking promising. Enrollment at less expensive junior colleges, trade schools and online universities is also on the rise, particularly since student loan financing is still in short supply. Education is also a great investment in the future as it is always needed. Their will always be students to teach.

Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture.

Randy Pausch's last lecture was interesting, and a messy array consisting of words of wisdom - armed with a successful name behind his advice. He talked about the importance of being happy, and having fun while learning. He compared this to asking the crowd whether they were a "tigger or an Eeyore". He mentioned that arrogance was a limiting factor - a thing that he learned from experience earlier on in his life.

He told the class listening that you need to listen to what your mentors and teachers say, and you also need to pay attention to what your friends, and fellow students say to you and about you. One thing that I thought was awesome was how he said that every brick wall is a chance to prove your determination. He said that we needed to raise the bar higher for ourselves and keep trying.