My Featured Journal Entries
As I was washing my grandpa’s truck over the weekend, I was thinking about our upcoming events and just how important they are. On the same token, my mind kept swirling around the TED talk we had earlier about the “why” we do things. I went back over the weekend and watched one about humans obsession with perfection. The answer to perfection lies within ourselves the video showed, and I tried to think of that with the class. As a class we all see this need to be perfect, do the best we can for the CEO name, our schools, etc. Perfection for all of us is different, and that to me explains why we all talk about doing things differently. While our common goal is to be perfect, we often struggle to find a common ground. Perfection is also something we know it is nearly impossible to complete, which is why our goals often personify our biggest weaknesses. Take a minute to think about what perfection is in your mind. Now compare that to your biggest weaknesses. The TED talk really inspired me to find a weakness in my life and exploit it and be better. I feel like CEO challenges us to do the same thing, and that is what makes it great. For example, I am extremely jealous of someone like Abby. She has all of the confidence in the world doing pretty much everything. I am good with speaking and that stuff but not a whole lot more. Abby challenges me to just have more confidence. Tristen challenges me to be more focused. There are more but the common thread here is in CEO, the TED talk, and my personal life, they all challenge me to never settle for anything other that perfection, no matter how long or hard you have to work.
02/19/2017
I really feel like this was make or break week for our entire CEO class. Between dodgeball not going as planned, Living Sauk Valley falling off the rails, and the chamber dinner looming closer, we had to really buckle down and make sure we were getting everything done we needed too. The week took a lot of self-discipline, something that was a very common theme in our book report talks. With Le not being in class this week, I really took it to heart just because I did not want her to have to worry about us. The people I was really impressed the most with this week was Tristen, Kody, and Karley. Tristen, in Evan’s absence, really took over and commanded the dodgeball group in an uber-effective way by being encouraging and inserting input by commenting on other tournaments he had been to and what he did and did not like about them. Karley stood out to me because she was willing to accept her idea as a non-success and swallow her pride for the betterment of the class. I knew Kody was a workhorse the moment I met him, but he put in some overtime this week man. Between our dinner script and us working on replacement businesses for Living Sauk Valley, his determination to not accept defeat came through this week. These are the kind of characteristics it takes to be in CEO class. Not everything is going to be easy and fun all the time and knowing that is what separates successful businesses and entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful. This week was a really good week to answer the question “what is CEO really about?”
01/08/2017
"While I was at the 89th National FFA Convention and Expo, CEO managed to travel with me in so many ways. While at the career fair, I visited the Wahl clipper booth and got to talk to new PR employees that wanted to know how I knew about the new headquarters and they did not. I do not know how much you guys know about the FFA but the town is listed on the bottom of the jacket so they knew I was from the area. As soon as I told them I was in the CEO program at WACC, they were amazed. Further along in our discussion, they explained that they never thought of agricultural kids being in a program like this, they thought my blue corduroy jacket seemed to fit my lifestyle better than dress pants and a shirt. I think that the ag perspective that Kody, Madi, Faith, Tristen, Dylan, Natalie, and I bring to the class has helped us a lot and broadens our connections. Plus, the owner of Fresh Kutz in Rock Falls gave me a free haircut at the Wahl booth, so that was cool. Also we got to tour various businesses in the Indianapolis area, and you could tell that CEO changed me by the questions I was asking compared to everyone else. We visited a hydoponics farm and while others were asking why they were growing lettuce and kale 11 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium, I was asking about the business model and how the business came about. That and I got to speak to the manager personally about the cash flow process and how the business became the way it was. Those questions and social skills were not present at my first two conventions, and I have this class to thank for that."
10/23/2016