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Dear MightyAtom-Hyung,
How do you deal with getting older in life?
When you were young you obviously wanted to get older to be able to do things (drive a car/drink/ be independent etc...), but when you get older you'll be restriced to do things. I'm 22 years now and when I watch a show with older people, Band of Brothers for example, I realize they were young once as well and probably more in shape than me at my age.
A few weeks ago I got my first "serious" injury in my life while snowboarding (strained my knee) and wasn't able to continue snowboarding for 3 weeks. (Went snowboarding anyway 4 weeks later, but I realized I wasn't invincible anymore). The problem is it will only get worse. It kinda makes me sad since I don't want to be restricted by age, but I know it's unavoidable and out of my control.
P.S. Love your blogs, gives me more motivation to don't live my life on cruise-control, but instead try to do something with it.
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hyung!
I have finally registered here after lurking for many years just to say that you are awesome.
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On February 27 2011 07:23 Regression wrote: Dear MightyAtom-Hyung,
How do you deal with getting older in life?
When you were young you obviously wanted to get older to be able to do things (drive a car/drink/ be independent etc...), but when you get older you'll be restriced to do things. I'm 22 years now and when I watch a show with older people, Band of Brothers for example, I realize they were young once as well and probably more in shape than me at my age.
A few weeks ago I got my first "serious" injury in my life while snowboarding (strained my knee) and wasn't able to continue snowboarding for 3 weeks. (Went snowboarding anyway 4 weeks later, but I realized I wasn't invincible anymore). The problem is it will only get worse. It kinda makes me sad since I don't want to be restricted by age, but I know it's unavoidable and out of my control.
P.S. Love your blogs, gives me more motivation to don't live my life on cruise-control, but instead try to do something with it.
At some point in my life, I used to think this too. But you have to realize that this point of view is arbitrarily saying that aging is not a "good" thing. Yes, our bodies our more frail, yes our minds are not as sharp, but we get so much wiser as we get older. And to me, wisdom is priceless. Any kid can go pick up a snowboard and learn to be good, but how many older people do you know can actually age gracefully and take stride in their life lessons learned? That is why I constantly strive to learn as much as I can from my experiences, and why I am content with the simple things in life. We are who we are, and I embrace that. Relevant picture and quote from random picture thread:
On February 26 2011 13:27 Trion wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On February 26 2011 12:42 Triscuit wrote:That actually makes me feel really sad. Sorry, I don't have anything else to contribute. User was warned for this post Quote from Reddit: I see a lot of people calling this "sad" or "depressing." I'm neither old nor young, and it just makes me smile. I'm already beginning to understand.
When you get older, it's like you hold a secret. Younger people don't know it, can't guess at it. It's who you really are. When you look in the mirror, she's right there, the 14-year-old who had her first kiss backstage during rehearsal for her first high school drama performance. The 17-year-old with the freshly-shaved mohawk she tried to hide from her parents, who moshed in the pit with the boys. The 20-year-old, knees knocking together as she gave her first poetry reading at her University in front of a bigger crowd than she'd expected. The 21-year-old who was the toast of the town, who danced up on the bar, who drove fast and smoked too much and wore short skirts and cussed like a sailor. Long legs, bleached hair, rubber dress, you'll always see that girl. Even when you're 40. Even when you're 60, probably. And it's not sad. No, it's fucking great. Because you lived,and that's more than a lot of people can say.
And your face gets lines on it, and your hair starts turning white, and people look at you like they look at everybody else, because they don't know. But you do. You know where you've been, and what you've done. You see all of your faces in that face. And you may feel a little nostalgia. But you don't feel sad. Because you have lived.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 26 2011 18:55 gchan wrote: This is somewhat related to every other blog you've posted, but how did you find your calling in life (professionally)?
I am at a point in my life where I am comfortable with myself and I understand myself (25 years old). I know my strengths, I know my weaknesses, I know my maturity level. For me, the most important aspect of a career is that I am looking for a challenge, looking to constantly be able to learn a lot, and looking for peers who are equally ambitious and talented, Coming from an accounting background, I definitely felt a shortfall in the challenge part and peers of equal ambition. My thinking is investment banking, but I am only thinking that because it will give me the most flexibility in the future (I'll get broader industry exposure, develop useful general skills, be able to build a strong network, etc). I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
It was a long road to find my professional calling in life. I think the biggest thing that contributed to it was the exposure and in depth explanation of a number of ascending career options. Now, when I was looking to be a professor/theologian, up to that point, my contact with other professional careers was extremely limited to just doctors and lawyers.
When I first started my masters in business, I remember going through the company websites of all these companies I had read about in Fortune and I was like, that is interesting etc, but its hard to really understand what was the actual job.
When I started to work for the Korean gov't agency I did grant and technology assessments as well as negotiations and I loved it; I was considering to do my Masters in law and go on to be full time international gov't negotiator, but what changed my decision was a visit from a close hyung of mine. While he was only 2 years older, he was wildly successful on the sales side of a major stock brokerage and was making about 400k a year. At the time I was in complete awe and thought making even 80k was quite exceptional. But he basically explained everything about his job and took away my lack of understanding and make it attainable.
Shortly thereafter I decided to go on the private side and by this time I knew I wanted to try to be a management consultant. There is only one firm I applied for, PwC. At the time I felt, wow, this first is so above me and when I got in, it was one of the happiest days of my life and I really really loved my job, but then something changed in that, what I thought was personally unattainable became something easy and comfortable.
Now, I worked hard, but I was fucking great at my job, I loved it. Now other consultants were just good at their job, very professional, very smart, but in terms of pure passion and results, I was a cut above my peers and I think it was because I was so damn hungry at that point to prove myself. Here I was coming from the public sector, leaving a job with 100% job security and doing 3 times more work for 40% less pay.
So I started doing consulting for companies with 5, 10, 50, and 100M in revenue per year and I met the CEOs, CFO and such and while I had learned a lot of technology related industries while in the gov't, I started learning everything under the sun as a management consultant as well as accounting, auditing etc because I was an add on to an accounting division rather than a pure consultant division team. But since I was good at my job, I realized that some of these CEO's couldn't strategically counter a zergling rush, let alone formula a strong strategy for some of the issues they were facing and I thought, gee, I could do this and fuck I'm better than this CEO with a 100M annual revenue company.
So things I thought were limits kept on getting dispelled until I got scouted by Pokerstars UK, and then I climbed the corporate ladder crushing a couple of retards along the way and basically established the entire Asia mainstream poker market and made tens of millions of dollars for my firm from just a few hundred thousand in just three years. And even when I got offered the ceo/head of marketing role if I stayed on for a couple more years, it wasn't enough now. I did prove to myself I could make in the 50-100M range with a lot of hard work, but I could do it; so I thought fuck it, I'm quitting and I'm going into private equity.
So I took a gamble as I didn't have a finance background and my networks, while strong weren't strong in that field and while I had a great verbal offer, it didn't pan out and my health took a nosedive from the amount of work and travel I had done to get to my cushy corporate position. I had managed to make a base salary that was close to the half M dollar range, and it still wasn't enough. But I got shut down hardcore here. So I had an option; go back to my cushy corporate job,or accept an entry level finance job and 'reapply'; and so I thought, fuk this,I'm gonna get my own set of investors and make my own company. I spoke with all my friends and wife and they said, 'FUCK YOU! GO BACK YOU CRAZY FUCKER, do you think you're really going to take over the world, your the most powerful man in online gaming in Asia and you work with SJM'
And so I thought for about a week on it; weighted the pros and cons and then asked the one person that I knew would give me the answer I seek, Elky. So I asked him and he said, 'For sure you can do it!' and that was it. And it has been fucking tough, but its nearly worked out now moving over from high end corporate executive to tiny CEO/equity holder. Thing I love most about it is that the higher up I go, the more I can do the thing I love, which is business strategy, as I take on all the accountability and the responsibility of the entire business process.
I'm not a product guy, I'm never going into industries where its a 'blue ocean' (no competitors in a new market segment), rather I'm also going into extremely competitive markets, the red seas of death, but this is what I love. Send me in and I'll kill everyone and make it a peaceful blue (but lifeless) ocean ^^
Investment banking is not a clear step from accounting; and the freedom you get is more from the size of the paycheck than real business networking, but for anyone in professional business, investment banking is probably the highest level of challenge you can achieve aside from private equity. I say, if you can get in, then go for it, go big and if you're single then don't think too much it because at the end of the day, its not like investment bankers or consultants are super humans; not its just that they go for it and its not a matter of not being satisfied, but wanting to be the absolute best you can be in your professional career.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 26 2011 19:16 Shizuru~ wrote: O Mightyatom, how did u first get associated with TL.net? love all your writings so far, u and rekrul should author a book together about the life and times of both of your exploits in korea.
Elky and Smuft got me involved about 2004 ish as we were all living together and they were still playing SCBW. I'd love to write a book with Rek, but since we'd have to talk about it and likely would end up going drinking instead, it would never get finished. ^^
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ALLEYCAT BLUES49468 Posts
On February 27 2011 18:54 MightyAtom wrote:Show nested quote +On February 26 2011 19:16 Shizuru~ wrote: O Mightyatom, how did u first get associated with TL.net? love all your writings so far, u and rekrul should author a book together about the life and times of both of your exploits in korea. Elky and Smuft got me involved about 2004 ish as we were all living together and they were still playing SCBW. I'd love to write a book with Rek, but since we'd have to talk about it and likely would end up going drinking instead, it would never get finished. ^^
lol,I thought as much.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 26 2011 20:05 HeavOnEarth wrote: I don't need your help anymore! My life is eZ. i stomp kk thanks a lot for your help before <3
personal question: is it better to be a jack of all trades or master of a few. I have many hobbies.
It looks as though it is a simple question, but I'd like to define a bit more:
There are things you know (industry knowledge) and how you do things (the process).
When you specialize in what you know, you're level of diverse process ability is low, but your execution is excellent.
When you know many different things, you ability to process must be advanced in two ways: ability to frame work your process that it creates associations among the many things you do know and from there it creates value from diversity OR you've picked seeming different things to know, but they all have the same process.
For instance for Specialization: You know everything about build computers, so anything related to computers, you can fix or maintain as effectively/efficiently as possible. You can make things work as they are or continue to do so. But you have a certain place on the value chain.
This makes you a necessity for any business or process to get done properly or with perfection. As long as you have specialized in something rare or needed or in demand, you will always be in need. But in order to be a true specialist you must have the singular knowledge or technique that others cannot easily replicate or aquire, otherwise, your specialization is not significant enough to be considered a specialization and just a focus.
For diversity in knowledge: You know a lot about many things, and you can see how even though it is diverse, how they can add or help one another, so you're more focused on the functionality of things and their process rather than fixing or maintaining something. So this is good for complex social situation where there are many interactive variables and newly introduced variables/changing landscape. Leadership requires this.
Or
You know a lot about many things which are fundamentally the same thing but in different industries such as airplanes or cars or boats, but which is basically mass manufacturing of large machinery, now you will need to know how to manage the production line, the sourcing, the marketing, the labour, etc. This is more along the lines of a strategic nature where by it seems as though you are a jack of all trades, but you're really a specialist in the process of the business fundamental of mass transportation manufacturing. So this is very good for set-up of new type of products using the same specialized process techniques. So good for start-ups, new business, etc.
The thing is: when most people compare 'specialization' to 'jack of all trades' they fail to assume or give credit that the 'jack of all trades' is also an expert as well, but its not an expert in the areas of general knowledge, but ability in associating processes or process application on a number industries (which share the same type of process).
So if you want to be needed: be a specialist, but fucking really specialize. if you want to be an executive: go process association if you want to be a start up, set up guy: go process application
All are good, but people have a natural tendency to graviate towards one or the other, but I wanted to define it more because I think that 'jack of all trades' has a negative rap because we assume that the knowledge is superficial, then in fact the knowledge in the functionality/application rather than in of itself.
^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 26 2011 21:24 DISHU wrote: any black people in Korea lol I wouldn't think so and how are they treated the same as Caucasian or worse ?
Very few and treated much worse when it comes to employement and social considerations; of course if you are black or white and you are just walking down the street or are in the subway, same thing, but getting hired much harder, getting married, much harder, but if you are in and friends, then same thing.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 26 2011 23:12 MrHoon wrote:why is yonsei so much better than koryo? LOOLOLOLOLOL + Show Spoiler +jk ty for the drinks you and rekrul bought last TL korea meet Real Question: Im 21, all my friends are graduating from college now and unfortunately for me I'm still terrible at my major and ever since I was a kid all I wanted was to be a cartoon artist yet that dream is so far away from me now. I'm now kinda panicking because I don't know what the hell to do with my life and I'm afraid Im going to hate my job in the long run WHAT I DO
Continue to do cartooning on the side, but realize what is about cartooning that reflects your natural disposition of skills (creativity, wittiness, art) and then look at careers out there that are similar to that skill set such as the advertising world or game content artwork;
when you've been focused on one area so long, and finally decide or realize that its not for you, or not going to happen, its natural to panic, but you just need to get more information on other types of jobs that fit you natural skill set. And any job, you can hate, but nowadays everyone changes jobs all the time, just make sure you learn the most you can out each job experience.
And the reason why Yonsei is so much better than Kodeh is because its not better and so they can follow our leadership better and be good workers; as you know our president is from Kodeh.
KODEH FIGHTING!
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 02:02 Snuggles wrote: So what is your definition of success Mr. MightyAtom?
Be the best you can be without any regret in life.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 02:13 ghrur wrote: Who's your favorite author? What are the fundamental experiences you think one should get out of college/university life? Will you teach your son to be super-competitive and let him be acclimated to the competition in Korea? How do I stop procrastinating? T_T That is, how do I set up an environment where it's structured around work?
favorite author general: Paul the apostle and Jurgen Moltman, fantasy: Raymond E Fiest (riftwars) Sci fi: Piers Anthony and Frank Herbert (dune) Business: Jeffrey Fox, Jim Collins
You need to make a balance, you can't fuck up your GPA but you need to find how to be productive while not having someone direct you life, and to increase your social awareness of how others really think and to be open to learning from that diversity, but also knowing how to have a really freaking good time.
I will let my son play sports and rugby and study whenever he feels he wants to and take him on business trips with and lots of travel and teach him about business and everything under the sun. If he choses to try to be competitive in academics, I want it to by his own volition, and not by my stress, but I dont want him chained to a desk, if he goes to Ivy League or oxford, its because he got in with a Rugby scholorship.
To stop procrastinating; make clear deadlines for yourself and fill up your time more (when the task will get done and how long it will take, you need to clearly STATE THOSE TWO THINGS ALWAYS); we procrastinate because we have too much time on our hands OR for the first time in our lives we don't have someone dictating our schedule, so then get an organizer and use it every day (if anyone doesn't have a work/task organizer as professional you're fucking retard and you're more of a fucking retard if you organize by the priority of your email inbox). ^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 04:10 PetitCrabe wrote:Show nested quote +On February 25 2011 13:33 MightyAtom wrote:On February 25 2011 12:51 StorkHwaiting wrote:On February 24 2011 15:07 MightyAtom wrote:On February 24 2011 14:31 Smuft wrote: What is the difference between a typical Korean women compared to a typical North American women in terms of how they relate with men? Ah Smufty, ok, 1. Korean woman will generally concern about the man first and not expect equal treatment in bed 2. Both are very passionate in bed 3. Korean women will try to look pretty for their man, Westerns not as much 4. Korean women expect to be pampered and not to pay for anything, western women are willing to dutch and even take care of the man, but of course even if a western woman says they want equality through equal paying of costs, they usually can be convinced to accept to be financially taken care of. 5. Korean women know that a man's strength comes from controlled silence, but western women don't see it as such and thus would mistake that for being passive, when in fact they are very nearly close to death but don't realize it as such. 6. Both will nag you to death 7. Western women wont' have as high of material expectations and don't need to be as pampered, but if you do pamper them they will quickly take it for granted. For a Korean girl, they will know that they are lucky and will protect you from all other women and even friends until you are married. 8. There are both the crazy and dramatic type (high maintenance on both ends), but the Korean woman will stop if the man gets angry enough, but the western will not or push it further. 9. Korean women are more likely to stalk you after breaking up, I'd say about 100% more chance as they tend to think of you as their possession as well. 10. Korean women will very intensely passionate immediately as soon as they decide you are their man, there is no first, second, third base if they feel you are there man; so many less sexual and relationship hang ups, but Westerns in general tend to have more hang ups and are more conservative in love making (but perhaps more animalistic and savage though) But for the most part, if you were to compare Korean women to western women, out of all the Asian women, i would say that Korean women are the most similar in temperament in their passion and aggressiveness. To be honestly, I think Korean women make the perfect lovers and wives, and general companions, but they will treat you like a possession as well. Cross them and they will have their revenge. What I like about western women though is they can truly be honest loving women who's independence allows them to be lovers as well as friends. I can't say that many Korean men are friends with their Korean lovers/wives. Lol wow such a good analysis. My long-term gf is Vietnamese, but born in the USA and she's Exactly like how you described a Western woman. Including the friend part at the end. You are good MA-hyung ^^ Vietnamese are very very beautiful and lovely women and I hear they treat their man well, but if you cross them they will main you. That is so true, Vietnamese women are nice, but if you fuck with them, they will kill you. Twice.
keke lol
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 04:16 buickskylark wrote: Do Koreans consider themselves the "best" of East Asia? Not without reason, what with the hallyu wave quickly engulfing global pop culture, but I sense that Koreans think they are the best in nearly all aspects.
We consider ourselves the best in the world with the exception of Americans (who we have a love/hate/respect/repulsed relationship with), Italians (cause they are like Koreans) and French (because they are so cool) and we don't think much about the rest of the world. In east asia, we have a chip on our shoulder when it comes to the Japanese because of the occupation, but this feeling is waning, in terms of chinese, yes, but not in terms of historical culture significance. But we don't even care about hallyu, cause most Koreans know that other countries watch our dramas, but its just on the news and such.
Cause when a typical Korean goes aboard, we are usually able to be rude enough to these non-Koreans in their own country to dispel any feelings of awe or coolness that we are Koreans and that is a good thing.
But its not that we actively think that, you need to understand that we are a society focused on the perfection of the individual such like the Spartans, we really don't care about other races or countries in general unless they have something clearly better than us (so we envy) or they are better than us in certain things that we consider that Koreans should be the best in AND we are always trying to expand the scope of things we are internationally the best in.
Literally for most Koreans we are not international people, we don't want to eat food other than Korean food if we travel abroad, we love our country and if no foreigners EVER came to Korea, we wouldn't ever care at all. We are a very egotistical race of people, not because we don't like people but we are all born into this spartan like culture of individual of trying to be perfect while trying to be true friends lol. But yes, we think we are the best in nearly everything as individuals, but not a society or culture, if you can get that. ^^ but its not because we look down on others, its because we think it is what our race's existence is to be the best in all things.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 04:25 PetitCrabe wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2011 04:16 buickskylark wrote: Do Koreans consider themselves the "best" of East Asia? Not without reason, what with the hallyu wave quickly engulfing global pop culture, but I sense that Koreans think they are the best in nearly all aspects. Honestly, I thought about this too. After reflexion, I figured that their incredible economic growth and booming culture makes them feel less "country-like" like most of the south-east asia countries. As a Vietnamese, I always had the feeling that Asians don't like to be "country-like". Once you are filthy rich and don't live in a bamboo house, you start to look down the others and feel superior. This applies to any Asian country, but since Korea is getting motherf*cking rich these days, they probably have this feeling ten-fold. I could be super wrong about this, it's just the way I see things Also, woaaah you grew up in Montreal? Awesooome, when you'll be famous and have your own sect I'll say that I grew up in the same city as you. What do you think of McGill? 50% of asians at McGill are Chinese and 49% are koreans lol, you guys are invading the world.
Love McGill, love Prince Arthur, love St. Laurent, love the old city and prince edward pier ^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 07:23 Regression wrote: Dear MightyAtom-Hyung,
How do you deal with getting older in life?
When you were young you obviously wanted to get older to be able to do things (drive a car/drink/ be independent etc...), but when you get older you'll be restriced to do things. I'm 22 years now and when I watch a show with older people, Band of Brothers for example, I realize they were young once as well and probably more in shape than me at my age.
A few weeks ago I got my first "serious" injury in my life while snowboarding (strained my knee) and wasn't able to continue snowboarding for 3 weeks. (Went snowboarding anyway 4 weeks later, but I realized I wasn't invincible anymore). The problem is it will only get worse. It kinda makes me sad since I don't want to be restricted by age, but I know it's unavoidable and out of my control.
P.S. Love your blogs, gives me more motivation to don't live my life on cruise-control, but instead try to do something with it.
^^ I am not growing old gracefully. I personally never liked the idea of growing up, I pretty much knew, even when I was kindergarten that being a kid was a good thing. but while you are getting younger, what I find is if you interact with older people or in a new environment like getting into the work force, getting married, having kids, you focus on other things;
Like feeling entry level, newly wed couple, young dad.
But I have always hung out with younger people as well and dress a bit younger than my age and I still keep in touch with some popular culture.
But keep in mind, the greater the age, the greater the things you can also achieve. Not everyone is a child prodigy, or 18 year old olympian, rather, there is still a whole life to achieve great things ^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 27 2011 15:12 where wrote: hyung!
I have finally registered here after lurking for many years just to say that you are awesome.
gam sah ^^*
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Hi,
If you had no son(s) but a daughter and she would be your only child, would you raise her in accordance to Korean standardized cultural norms, or would you raise her differently?
What i'm getting at is that you differentiate between western and Korean women - which model would you choose for your hypothetical daughter?
Also - what would be your dream for her at a hypothetical age of 32: a) President - single, no children b) First Lady - married, three children
Lastly, if you were given the choice before her birth - how would you attribute her "stats" if you had a sum total of 100% to distribute between: a) Beauty b) Intellect c) Artistic/Musical talent
Thank you for your time and for the effort you've put into this thread.
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The Mighty One, I have a question. You have the Mantra I AM A MACHINE.
When and How did that become your mantra?
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On February 27 2011 19:43 MightyAtom wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2011 02:13 ghrur wrote: Who's your favorite author? What are the fundamental experiences you think one should get out of college/university life? Will you teach your son to be super-competitive and let him be acclimated to the competition in Korea? How do I stop procrastinating? T_T That is, how do I set up an environment where it's structured around work? favorite author general: Paul the apostle and Jurgen Moltman, fantasy: Raymond E Fiest (riftwars) Sci fi: Piers Anthony and Frank Herbert (dune) Business: Jeffrey Fox, Jim Collins
Haha you read sf and fantasy? One day I will be your favorite author! :D
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I like the answer you gave for the success question. I feel like it's a question I want to ask anyone before putting any trust into their words. There are different answers but anyone who has their head straight in life will give the same or a similar answer you gave.
So here's another question.
What is your opinion on Multi-level marketing? Very recently a bunch of my friends have been exposed to it. Including one very close one. I've read into MLM and it seems to me that there's a lot mixed opinions about it and I just don't know whats the real deal about MLM. Personally when I had my own run in with a Rep from a MLM company trying to bring me into his business, I absolutely HATED it. I consider myself a pretty open minded person, but I was really disgusted by how superficial his little presentation was. He would make claims that he worked for "Global Ten" companies, worked for Allianz as some division head of so-and-so sector. He showed me video recording of his dying father, and a picture of his sister with his neice.
As to how much truth there was to his claims, I don't know, but after talking to another friend who met the same rep and heard different claims- there's probably not a whole lot. Because there's no reason to go from a job like that to a shitty rep in an MLM company.
Well anyways, if I go on I'll be just ranting and venting about how I hate that sort of marketing. I just want to hear a valid opinion from a business guy like yourself MightAtom.
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