This Essay Contains My Rules [1]
So, hypothetically, if I will work towards the top of some ladder of success and get there, the obvious question for me is what then? I would think, “I just finished the work-really-hard stage of my life, what do I do now? What is the next role for me to play?” As much as I’m in love with the idea of reaching new heights and being at the top of a chain of command, I don’t want to be at the top without purpose. A lot of people want to be at the top, so it’s not like I can just wish myself there. Getting to the top will take a lot of hard work and time, so all that hard work and time has got to mean something. In games, if you get stuck on a level, then all your time and energy is going to waste. If that happens, you need to try harder or change characters or do something different to clear the level. There is no such thing as stagnation, not in games, not in life.
A True Path to Success [2]
So with this in mind, I want to start my life today with one very specific goal. Most people “give back” when they’ve established some sort of financial stability in their lives; whatever I do, I want to “give back” as I acquire financial stability. The problems that exist in the world - disease, poverty, the environment, terrorism… etc. – don’t just put themselves on hold, so there is no incentive to put the solutions on hold, but the world continues to do so. I must lead the world out of such beliefs, and the only way to lead is by example. As soon as I thought about this, I just froze… My consciousness, it seems, had ceased; my soul and my mind separated. I’m just a college student for crying out loud! This is a major step up, but faintly, my enthusiasm and motivation to succeed came back when I heard a distinct ‘POP!’ Then, again, ‘POP!’ Once more, ‘POP!’ The three magic questions -what, how, and when- had popped into my mind, and simply ‘reset’ my entire system! In the game of life, I had just been awarded with a second chance; a chance to change my role from ‘just a college student’ to a ‘global catalyst.’
This World is Mine to Heal [3]
However, even by R.P.G. standards, this role change is a bit extreme! I had to set up small manageable goals to work towards. This leads me to the first step in my ladder of success. Instead of completely stepping away from my role as a college student, I will embrace this role and utilize the tool of education towards my advantage. I’m enrolled as full time student at the University of Texas at Austin, and I’m able to take advantage of vast array of opportunities available to me through the McCombs School of Business and the Plan II Honors Program within the College of Liberal Arts. These colleges offer a variety of different courses that will help me reach my role of a global catalyst. Primarily, the variety of business courses (management, accounting, supply chain… etc.) are so rich and the professors are so knowledgeable that all I have to do is sit in such a classroom and absorb the wisdom. It’s “an assemblage of learned men, zealous for their own sciences…” [1]. I might even be able to start an entrepreneurial venture before my senior year. People follow results, and I’ll show the world my worth with my Plan II senior thesis. It’s a required course to graduate, and it provides me with a grand stage to exit my student role with a bang! Sort of like Henry Ford’s marketing strategy when the production line just started, “You can have any color you want as long as it’s black” [2] You have to be able to sell your product regardless of what people are buying. I will be able to showcase my vision and articulate upon a topic of my choosing so as to enlighten my community. These results will be my tools and my foundation with the help of which I will inspire the planet.
The First Production Line [4]
So, I got to thinking about the most valued tool in the game of life. The obvious kicked me in the head. The world values material objects, intangible objects, and most importantly, the ability to acquire, move or showcase these two objects at will, and this ability is made possible by money. Furthermore, the material and intangible objects are often constructed as a means to acquire money, so the most valuable tool in the world is money! Yet there’s also a popular notion that time is money, so in order to get people to follow me, I need to prove to people that I’m worth their time. Meaning I need to pay attention in my reading and writing courses. When people interact with me, I need to have enough rhetoric to comprehend their speech. My answers to any questions they might have need to concise, and everything must be well unified. I must also hold the utmost standards with regards to ethics. I know it’s hard to believe, but it all comes from my World Literature class. These are the highlights of how the course helped me, and I don’t think it’s detracted me from my goal at all. Another valued tool in life is perspective or as my M. I. S. professor would put it, “It’s all about mental models.” If you try to learn, you will. Learning seems hard, but it’s just a mental model, sort of a discipline that must be developed within complex adaptive systems of life’s M.M.R.P.G. Eventually with that mental model, I’ll develop my worth as a leader; I will engender a sort of following, and people will want to do some great things alongside with me, and that will is essential to fulfilling that one very specific goal that I started off with today.
I still need to know how I’ll accomplish that. As I mentioned, I am enrolled in the business school, and some of the biggest philanthropists in the world are entrepreneurs of some sort. My solution is to mix entrepreneurism and philanthropy into a new business model that has been coined by many as “Social Entrepreneurship.” The exact operation of the firm is irrelevant. Social entrepreneurism can be practiced by accounting firms to entertainment corporations, by small businesses to governments, or by manufacturing/producing firms to simple merchants. That’s the beauty of businesses that practice social entrepreneurship. Such businesses are engineered to cater a social problem of any sort. I don’t know what exactly my business will do, but that will be determined by surveying which industries have potential when I acquire the capital to bring my vision to reality. I pay attention in my business classes, particularly accounting and management, so that I can develop the skills necessary to run a successful business.
And now, I start thinking about which social problem I will help resolve. Without even having done anything, I feel like I’ve been given an enormous task already. I’m fresh out of high school; I just started establishing my independence and my identity away from my parents. The freedom to simply manage my time productively has been a handful, but now I’m wondering about how I’m going to define an enterprise which isn’t even in existence yet! In a way, this will define me, and “the freedom to define [that] is a challenge” [3]. I defined myself as an individual who goes beyond what’s required and tackles all the issues that need be addressed, so my socially entrepreneurial firm must reflect this quality. Just like that, I picked three social problems that I believe need to be addressed now. If life is indeed a game, then these three problems are the “Boss ” stages. The bosses that I have to beat are educational reform, poverty, and the environmental problems. They seem to be quite a handful, but I’m sure that I’ll beat them. However, when I will conquer these bosses is extremely speculative. Who knows what the future will hold? Maybe we’ll encounter an alien and intelligent life form that will help rid our environmental problems, or maybe I will have my entire plan for a business in actionable terms before this year ends. Wonderful and absolutely uncertain, the future is pure skepticism. Today is the only day that’s certain. So I try to learn something every day, even if it’s just one thing. In a sense it’s a mental model, a role and a perspective, and with an uncertain future, these roles and perspectives must be robust.
Everybody has Different Perspectives [5]
Adapting the mental model that life is a game does wonders to simplify its complexity. In the game, it’s just one role at a time and one stage at a time. I can be in college with a simple learn-as-much-as-humanly-possible mindset, and as soon as I switch roles to a business man, I can put on the let’s-solve-all-the-problems-in-society mindset. I hope to actually solve a societal problem using this MMRPG analogy. There are so many roles to play, but the most frequent of them are going to be the roles of the “giver” and the “taker.” I can use these roles to beat the three ‘bosses’ and to run my social entrepreneurship firm, so I need to play the game of life for a while. Get lost in the massively multiplayer environment created by it. We all have the freedom to experiment with different roles; this freedom is a challenge that will define who we are. If you want to play the role of “Master Chief,” you’ve got to put your time into the game. There are no shortcuts in life and the same goes for the MMRPG’s, and if you ever freeze up, just break your task into small manageable goals. To be successful in the game you can’t get stuck, you have to keep moving. A most appropriate quote of success comes to mind, so here’s the mantra by Conrad Hilton: “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit!”
Word Count = 1905
Word Count – Quotes = 1875
End-Notes:
[1] John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (Austin: Jenn’s Copy & Binding, 2009)166
[2] Al Ries and Jack Trout, Marketing Warfare,(New York: McGraw Hill, 1986), 4.
[3] Ram Dass and Paul Gorman, How Can I Help? (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 22.
Multimedia:
[1] http://www.drcherie.com/Books/if_life_is_a_game_these_are_the_rules_audio_book_large.jpg (accessed April 6, 2010).
[2] http://www.youtube.com/v/CijsH1mkCFI&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00 (accessed April 5, 2010).
[3] http://globalcatalystgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/world-in-hand.png (accessed April 6, 2010).
[4] http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/automotive-production-line-1.jpg (accessed April 7, 2010).
[5] http://canopicjar.com/Canopic11/perspectives1.jpg (accessed April 7, 2010).
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