I haven’t posted in a while… and well… I don’t have much to post. School is just chugging along, nothing interesting or out of the ordinary to report. I felt I owed this blog a post though just given how long it’s been. I’m not sure why you would find this interesting but here are my deliverables until the end of the semester:
Entrepreneurship - Analysis of a Start-up (individual assignment), Nov 29
Corporate Financing - Presentation on Ford’s decision payout via dividends (group assignment), Dec 4
Management Science - Two case questions (group assignment), Dec 5
Real Estate Economics - Final paper (group assignment), Dec 5
Entrepreneurship - Business Plan (group assignment), Dec 6
Corporate E-biz strategies - Industry Analysis (individual assignment), Dec 8
Then I have exams on December 10th, 12th, and 20th.
Anything you want to know? I find my passion for blogging on here or my personal blog has decreased significantly due to my tumble blog. It’s a lot more day-to-day, personal, and unfiltered so most won’t find it interesting.
Wallstrip posted a very funny video today. It’s about assets that make money and assets that depreciate. You’ll learn some good old biz terms and understand why gold digging really shouldn’t pay with business minded people.
I’ve recently found myself thinking back to my last year of high school. It was University acceptance time and I was getting nervous. My two safety schools had already given my my acceptance but the School I really wanted to go to still hadn’t made up their mind.
My guidance counselor had me in for one of our regular meetings and I shared with her my fear of not getting in. She paused and looked at me. A small smile developed and she said:
Riz, don’t worry. No matter which student comes in here, with whatever aspiration, for whatever school, they all come back and tell me that they couldn’t be happier. It didn’t matter if they get into their first choice school or not.
I walked out of there thinking “crazy lady!” Lucky for me I didn’t have to put that theory to the test; I got into Queen’s, did really well, met lots of wonderful people, and had the time of my life.
The reason I’ve started thinking about high school again is it’s that time of year at Rotman: Second years are all freaking out to get into Investment Banking and Consulting and first years are worried that their marks won’t be high enough to get into Investment Banking or Consulting. I’ve found myself telling everyone not to worry too much about it, that they should just do their best, and repeating some version of what my guidance counselor told me. Quite often I get the “you’re crazy” look.
Over my life I’ve had many triumphs and failures. As I look back, I don’t think I would have been much happier if I had turned my failures into triumphs: Got the girl, didn’t get the girl; got the A, got a not-so-A-mark; scored the goal, scored on my own net; got the job, got a big “you’re a loser buddy.” It hasn’t really mattered to me as far as how happy I feel today… at least that’s the best that I can tell.
My “first year buddy” recently called me on this thinking and I remembered Dan Gilbert’s TED talk. I love TED talks and Dan’s is one of my favorite. You can buy his argument or not (there are some people in the comments section who don’t buy it) but it’s a talk to watch.
Don’t worry be happy now Do doot do do do do do do do do doot do , doo do do do do
Just an FYI. Paul Masson, Adjunct Professor at Rotman, was on TVO 2 weeks ago and gave a lecture on the failure of the IMF. The show page and the lecture audio are available from here. I haven’t listened to it yet but I plan to in the next few days.
Microsoft Corp (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) is talking to Facebook about an investment in the company that could value the fast-growing social network at $10 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Monday.
I’d guess that it’s another one of those crazy rumors that someone is spreading to make a couple of bucks today (MSFT on Google finance). IMHO there is no way that Facebook is worth that much and Microsoft can’t be that crazy. I did a back of the envelope type valuation of Facebook a few months ago to try to give myself some perspective on some of the crazy valuations that others were throwing around. The range (although large) in my mind was between $2 billion and $4.5 billion…
Howard Lindzon appears to agree but I’m not too sure about the whole buy RIMM thing. MSFT and RIMM don’t seem to be very compatible companies given that: RIMM operates with very few layers of management vs Microsoft’s craziness, RIMM works with a lot of non-microsoft technologies (J2ME, lotus, and Linux) vs Microsoft’s “not built here syndrome,” and from my personal experience the cultures would just clash.
The orientation camp is over and I think it went pretty well. The events I ran went off without a hitch. Today (Monday) I’m still yawning at 10am—oh so tiring.
Glad to have met so many of you first years, please feel free to fire me an e-mail, post a comment, or harass me in person if you need anything. I’ll post photos in the next week or so but my laptop is on the frits right now so I can’t download any pictures off my camera. Also, a huge shout-out to the PSO people at the Casino night. Thanks for coming out.
I have today off and am trying to use it effectively. The to do list is:
Get my laptop fixed. I think it’s a hardware problem so I’m off to the Apple Store.
Get a good start on job applications. Yes RIM is sending me an offer but I don’t know the details of it yet and I haven’t decided on if I’m willing to live (”full-time”) in Waterloo.
Clean my apartment. It is a mess since I haven’t unpacked from my move back from Waterloo.
Do some of the required reading for the first week of class.
I have decided (again this year) to avoid most info sessions. I’m still not sure if I’m shooting myself in the foot but: there are so many to go to, I don’t like fighting with my classmates for “air time” with the recruiters, and I’m not sure how effective I’ll be at saying “something that catches the recruiters attention” rather than “something that turns them off.” For example, I was told by the recruiter from RIM that asking about the NTP case is a way to get short listed into the “doesn’t get it” or “is asking canned questions” pile. She also says she remembers only “a coupple” of names out of hundreds. It’s hard to stand out in such a talented crowd that I think I’d rather just play video games. Counter arguments?
In other news, I found out that the school used one of my blog postings at the taste of the MBA. This is both wonderful and scary at the same time.
p.s. I’m thinking of giving a first year access to post their experiences on my blog. This will allow you (the reader) to see all the changes that Rotman has made between the last two years. The school is really great at listening to feedback and continuingly improving the program; I think it’s important to show this. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any first year student interested in using my blog as a platform to share your experiences? Why?
Came across a post (original source Bloomberg) talking about the leagalization of mark-to-make-believe:
Then there’s Level 3. Under Statement 157, this means fair value is measured using “unobservable inputs.” While companies can’t actually see the changes in the fair values of their assets and liabilities, they’re allowed to book them through earnings anyway, based on their own subjective assumptions. Call this mark-to-make-believe.
Yay to legalized Enron. I just marked-to-market my gym shoes since the stinkyness level indicates their value has increased. My net worth is now somewhere in the $2 trillion range. That’s a huge net income this year, luckily taxes are only on realized gains.
I’m currently reading the Art of the start which has a lot of great quotes which I’d like to share:
I never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Innovation often originates outside existing organizations, in part because successful organizations acquire a commitment to the status quo and resistance to ideas that might change it.
- Nathan Rosenberg
(My personal Favorite)
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote… Genius. I am not selling anything, nor am I working my way through college, so let’s get down to cases. You are a rabbit, and I am going to eat you for supper. Now don’t try to get away! I am more muscular, more cunning, faster, and larger than you are… and I’m a genius. Why, you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten. So, I’ll give you the customary two minutes to say your prayers.
- The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
- Aldous Huxley
There are very few people who don’t become more interesting when they stop talking. (Man… I have to shut up more)
- Mary Lowry
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
- Henry Ford
Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I’ll waste no time reading it.
-Moses Hadas
Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.
- Blake Clark
For certain people, after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex.
- Gore Vidal
It’s not what you know or who you know, but who knows you.
- Susan RoAne
I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
- Blaise Pascal
Nature, which gave us two eyes to see and two ears to hear, has given us but one tongue to speak. (I really need to shut up more)
- Jonathan Swift
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
- Samuel Johnson
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are mighty bloodless substitute for for living.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Great quotes. Great book. A lot of the content is taught in more formal and riggerous terms at Rotman. Some of the advice is counter to what we learned in b-school simply because what you learn in b-school applies mainly to big biz. Finally, some of the advice hasn’t come up (yet) in b-school. I recommend this book–it’s a fun read and has great stories throughout.
There are a few things that are very scary to MBA students in their last year… The scariest is probably economic downturn which will tighten company expenditures and make them less likely to hire new grads. Here’s the S&P500 (from finance.google.com):
*Ok, yeah, I’m probably jumping the gun here. We have a long way to go before all this hits the fan but we’re taking some good first steps
Update: I found this detailed and compelling argument about why housing is pooched in the states. In addition there’s a great graph of inflation adjusted housing prices from the NY Times. Does this really look sustainable if income isn’t increasing?
A few of us went and did the Steam Whistle brewery tour. Picture:
The Geekery really kicked in during the tour when the guide was describing the different stages of production and we calculated the bottleneck of production kept them to 12 million bottles a year (max). This explains why they’re expanding.
