Think about it, what would you do? Honestly, I was as confused as you might be, but a decision had to be taken. On one side, I knew about the Varsity meeting a couple of months ago, but on the other, I had thought of nothing to uptake the responsibility of not attending the BlendZ sale, neither working harder before the sale, or being in charge of cleaning, for instance, after the sale. So it all goes down to the initial idea of prioritizing. |
Prioritizing perhaps can be perceived as one action, one strategic movement most organized people will consider to be easy to manage. But I am organized--more than you'd think I'd possibly be--and yet easy is far from what I'd consider it. Prioritizing, in a world that moves at 100 km per minute, is not just a technique you'd be advised to implement, it is a necessity-- tasks, meetings, a friend visiting from New York, or even an urgent phone call from you mother for technology urgencies -- so many it'd be impossible to fit into a 24-hour scheme. It's the art of picking which enables those great --not good- decisions. The wise mentality that allows you to select from the pile of cards one that tackles the number one priority in your to-do list. Nevertheless, if having two "number one priorities", one would need to be selected; were in that case, offering yourself to cover-up for the undone work -- the one that was not selected -- in any other way, would be the unerring initiative to take. Encountering this type of situations might be quite a routine, especially when stress and school assignments have been piling up; but after 3 years of having a packed-schedule, I had never felt such pressure to prioritize one activity over another; I had two "number one priorities". ----- A QUICK ANECDOTE ----- The first constant BlendZ Thursday sales was up to group one; my group. A sale that would consist of having a specific marketing campaign potentially related to any upcoming event -- selling during break, lunch, and even including deliveries. However, another meeting, one that was announced 4 weeks ago, was taking place the same date and at the same time: Varsity Club meeting. As small as this commitments might sound, both where equally important. On one side, I couldn't miss out BlendZ sale: we were working as a team and everyone needed to be there to support each other, an important role had to be completed, and more importantly, if I actually believed in BlendZ, which I 100% do, I had to uptake the responsibility of taking the business to the best possible position enabling the small slow steps to success. At Varsity, a planning committee was needed to organize intramurals, Friday BBQ, the new new members induction requirements. But pressure was arising as I noticed that whether I selected BlendZ over Varsity, or Varsity over BlendZ, my strong reputation, which I've been trying to maintain, would be negatively affected. Prioritizing is not only about selecting the most important event, either if it's an urgency or a one-month in advanced announced activity. It's all about trying your best to act responsible and attend, if possible, to the events that you've compromised to, and in the case that there is no chance you will be able to, there needs to be an innate feeling of your own to cover up the work that others have completed in your absence.
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What if there was no information available? If the world was encapsulated on a closed box with restricted learnings for every single user? It's easy to conclude that everything would break apart, it would be a structural disaster with reduced creativity and abundant limits. But sometimes, there is so many aspects of life to learn about, that you don't even have the time to remember the most important ones, either because you are carless and let it pass by, or because you try to capture so much of a little event that short-term memory activates and "information" becomes num. As important as it is to have an accessible world to every type of data --from straight to the point facts to personal feedback for improvement -- , it's worthless if you can't remember parts of texts one hour after acquiring the information, or even when given feedback is a mind explosive, and you can't use it to improve and reflect upon your mistakes. With this said, there is one word that ties up information and usefulness: SYNTHESIS.
need some kind of revision. One of the most important pillars at BlendZ is culture. Culture embodies the business into a working space that takes into consideration not only our profit, but the experience and quality product that our customers receive. This has allowed us to build up a certain tower where we pile up different comments from our customers, ratings to our product, major leakage's from our business, and even small details as the set-up of the tables when preparing smoothies.
At the end, it all comes back to the same idea of 'unchunking' chunks. Taking all those possible factors that have popped up throughout the day and compressing them into one single thought. I'm proud to say that we are reaching a point of the ride where people stay impressed by how 17-year-old entrepreneurs have come up with such a powerful initiative with the one and only purpose of serving the community. I hope to keep cheering up for BlendZ, yet, I still have an empty plate, because as all masters say: "There's always space for improvement"
It's a stereotypical thought to consider students as learners who look for the easy way out; learners, who don't complain when they have nothing to do; learners, who avoid pushing themselves to the highest step of the ladder. Yet, in certain cases, as genuine as this thought might be, it is undoubtable that there's also THOSE types of learners who seek for the hardest path and aim for the highest step of the ladder -- with the one and only purpose to challenge themselves and to find a valuable purpose in learning. "The BIG difference between successful people and unsuccessful people, is that successful people do what unsuccessful people don't want to do" It's uncertain as to how many people ignore the power of education, there might be some who view it as an obligation, and others who take it as an opportunity to succeed and achieve their goals in life; in the IA, our culture of excellence leans towards the second option, and that has led BlendZ to a point in the journey where BS* is NOT allowed. It all comes down to the innate feeling of fearing failure. It's an idea that makes problem solving the opposite of solving, instead a situation with complications. But as hard as it might be to recognize that there's a leak in the system, there's no other way out if you are looking at the bright side of learning, improving, because at the end, as I've learned in the IA, it's all about taking limits as a motivation to exceed expectations.
Yes, exactly what it sounds like. We, students, the ones who are normally searching for the simplest and quickest way out, where personally --with no obligation-- aiming for the rocky road, the complex way to challenge ourselves to a better result and an empowering business. There comes a time in life where things get complicated, and it takes responsibility and initiative to take those breakdowns as part of learning, using them as intrinsic motivators to switch the batteries on and keep on growing as a person and as a company.
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It’s not only about setting up the table and preparing the posters to announce that there will be a sale going on, for instance; it branches out to a million small jobs that joint up to have a superb performance. But as 17-year-old entrepreneurs it was not too late notice evident errors that showed up in BlendZ Halloween smoothie sale. The planning method used was not enough to have a polished system a day before the event. As confident as we as a business where about the sale we had planned, at 7:30 am of the next day we noticed thousands of small specific details that where missing out. Not to say that the sale was a complete failure and a disaster, it’s just the single idea that we could have done much better; not only to sale out, which we did, but to work efficiently and purposefully as a team, which we didn’t. Many roles where available for the team to uptake, but we chunked up with some of them ignoring others that where essential. This lack of good planning and missed communication between BlendZ members, led to a
Before the event day, we had had a lot of planning time to organize the day and have everything ready, precisely, for this not to occur; it still didn’t work out as we expected. Although it was hard to plan the event, especially because this time we were doing deliveries throughout the day and we had two simultaneous stands, there were errors that we shouldn’t have let pass by. But as always, there’s a positive side to the story: we had an amazing time, our customers enjoyed the smoothies and the Halloween treats we had for them, we sold out, and all the problems that we were able to reflect upon after the sale have definitely given us a valuable lesson that we will keep in mind during the next event; there needs to be more planning, a better organization, and an active team that seeks for innovative solutions when there’s a problem. H A P P Y H A L L O W B L E N D Z
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Barbara AveggioCurrently a Junior at the American School of Lima. "The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail" Archives
June 2015
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