Habla Español? Benefits of Being Bilingual

I have recently taken it upon myself to learn Spanish. I have always wished to be fluent in another language, but have never dedicated the time to actually learning it. Sure, I took two years of French in high school, but I remember very little and never put the language to use. With America's Hispanic population steadily increasing, Spanish just seemed like the best language to try and learn.

So why learn another language? There are several reasons, but perhaps the most important are:

• You need something to differentiate yourself
• Creates an opportunity to expand your network
• Creates more job opportunities
  

Having a bachelor's degree today does not create the same opportunities having a bachelor's degree twenty years ago created. It is commonplace to have a college education. It no longer sets you apart from other people. I propose that having international experience and/or being bilingual will set you apart...for now. In the future, I believe that it will be commonplace to be bilingual as well.

Being bilingual allows you to expand your network into other cultures. It enables you to communicate with even more people. Since deciding to learn Spanish, I have become interested in getting to know others who speak Spanish and have begun to create a network in Spanish speaking countries.

Some jobs require that you be bilingual to even qualify for the position. Take two job candidates who graduated from the same university with the same GPA and virtually were all the same academically and had similar work histories. Take those same two candidates and review their resumes. Both appear to be equal on paper except that one speaks another language. Perhaps the candidate who does not would better fit the position, but if an employer had to hire based solely off of the paper resumes, the bilingual candidate would receive the position hands down. Being bilingual differentiated him from the other candidate.

At this point, you are probably asking, "How do I learn another language?"

• Enroll in a language course
• Join a language club
  
• Purchase books and read up
• Download podcasts
• Listen to music, watch movies, etc. in the language you are practicing
• Locate others who speak the language
• Purchase software such as Rosetta Stone
• And many others ways!
  

It will take some time, but I am convinced you will be pleased with the end results. Dedicate time each day to studying the language and use it whenever you can. There are opportunities that come about when you are bilingual that do not arise when you are not. Being bilingual will benefit your overall personal life as well. After all, you will learn a lot about a new culture and will have more experience with diversity.

Take Some Time to Just Be

The business world is often hectic and full of stress. Taking a break from that chaos is essential to a person's sanity. "The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it." While keeping up with work and making sure every business need is met is essential to operating a successful company, you must realize that there comes a time when you must separate your business life from your personal life. On top of being able to separate the two, you must not feel guilty for taking time away from work. There is nothing wrong with being a work-a-holic...except for the part that being a work-a-holic means you have an addiction. Instead of being a work-a-holic (which has a somewhat negative connotation) try being dedicated to your work. The difference is that you realize there are times when it is ok to take a breather and your personal life is a priority that fits in above your professional life. Never let business become more important than your family life.

So exactly what does it mean to "just be?" I will break it down for you.

1. Just: adverb; actually, really, positively
2. Be: verb; to exist
   

Put the two words together to come up with...drum roll please...really, to exist. But how does one simply exist? Can you ever really do nothing but exist? This, I cannot fully explain. It means something different to everyone to "just be."

Steve Harrop...24 Lipper Award Winning College Professor? Isn't That An Oxy-Moron?

Southern Utah University is the home of the coveted Steven D. Harrop Investment & Service Learning Lab. The Business Finance majors--such as myself--refer to it in short as the "trading lab." We use this lab on a daily basis as six groups of approximately five students manage a portfolio beginning with more than $23,000. Each group sold all of its assets and closed out their accounts last week. I am proud to say that my group made the most money of all the groups and our class made the most money out of any class in the history of this investments program. While the goal of the class is not to make money, it still feels nice to know that we did. The objective of the class is to beat your benchmark (ours was the S&P 500). I am also proud to say that all but one of the groups in our class beat our benchmarks. The task of beating a benchmark is difficult even for well-seasoned portfolio managers. So how were a bunch of junior and senior finance students at such a small university able to do so well? I will tell you why: Dr. Steve Harrop.

Never have I met an individual who cares more about the education of the upcoming generation than Dr. Harrop. SUU is one of the only university I am aware of in which undergraduate students are given the opportunity to invest real money and manage a portfolio of assets. Dr. Harrop personally donates the money students use for the investments course. He only has two rules restricting what assets students are allowed to purchase: no options contracts and no futures contracts. Other than that, students are on their own to apply the investments principles learned in the Investments I portion of the class to invest the money and pass the class by beating their benchmark. I know I speak for the entire class when I say that Dr. Harrop deserves the credit for preparing us to be investors.

Dr. Harrop is dedicated to giving students the opportunity to gain a "hands-on" experience no matter what the monetary costs and time costs are to him. Let's be honest, we all know Dr. Harrop is not teaching at Southern Utah University for the money. He does it because he cares about the students. As a finance major, I am certainly glad he cares so much about the success of our generation because I am now better prepared for my future career. And if he isn't selfless enough by donating $250,000 for the students to use, he then invited us all to his house for a party at the end of the semester and he had an awards ceremony to celebrate the success of our class. So the lesson to be learned here is similar to the movie "Pay It Forward." Dr. Harrop had a very successful career and now he passes his intelligence on to us for our success. Not because he has to, but because he is selfless and truly cares about the education of us finance majors at SUU. As Dr. Harrop would put it, "I'll take off my shirt and show you my scars!" And that he did. He shared his successes and his mistakes with us. After I become successful in my career, I wish to share my experiences with others for their learning benefit as Dr. Harrop has with us. Thank you Dr. Harrop for a great year and your willingness and dedication to teaching us!

Speech: The Best Tool for Sales

The first video demonstrates the differences between a powerful speaker and a boring speaker. Although the content of both speeches are interesting, it is all about the delivery and the skills of the presenter. If you think for one second that developing skills of speech do not matter, think again. Obama was not elected because of his political experience. He had a way of motivating the nation. McCain on the other hand, had a way of putting everyone to sleep and no one could bear to listen to what he had to propose anyway. Not much more can be said about the matter because the video demonstrates it better than I can describe in words.

The Bill Whittle video is just a video I enjoy, but it shows his incredible presentation skills. I had the opportunity to see Bill Whittle as a guest speaker for my class and let me just say, that man could sell a Chocolate Popsicle to a lady wearing white gloves on a hot summer day. I could walk into a presentation he was giving beginning with the completely opposite views of what he was speaking on and he could convince me that my thoughts were wrong. Being a good businessperson requires that you have good communication skills and can sell your product or service. Nobody wanted to buy what McCain was offering, but everybody wanted to buy whatever Obama was offering.

Socialnomics 101...Enroll Now!!

After taking an entrepreneurship class and discussing each class session the importance of web presence and using social networking tools, this video completely reinforces everything I have learned about social networks and the power of the internet. I have since decided that maybe universities should add a course for business students that focuses on how to gain better web presence and how to effectively use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, for business purposes. A company lacking web presence is limiting the number of people it can reach as well as which market segments its message will reach.

Think about your personal Facebook account. How many friends do you have? And how many friends do each of those friends have? It is so easy for information to be spread through Facebook. A simple status change notifies all your friends that P90X is "kicking your butt." I saw this generic Facebook status several times on pages of my friends and finally decided to ask one of them what on earth P90X was. My friend then explained to me that it was an exercise and dietary program. Her review of the product was simple: it is difficult, but it works and I love it. Needless to say, I will be starting the P90X workout program in a week. Gaining a presence on a social network is as simple as starting a page and inviting your friends to "Like" whatever business your page is about. If people are satisfied, consumer reviews on these social networks will spread on their own.

We had a guest speaker in our entrepreneurship class who talked in great detail about the importance of gaining web presence. He said that people are much more likely to visit a website with a video than those without. How many people will visit this website because it had a video? Maybe you did. There is simply no substitute for the internet and tools you can use on it to market your business. Create a website and perfect it. Join social networks and create pages for fans. Word of mouth--or rather word of tweet or Facebook posts--advertising will happen on its own if customers are pleased with your product or service. Use websites such as deepbluemarket.com for help in internet marketing. Remember, the web is worldwide. You can essentially reach almost every market you wish to through the use of the internet. There is no substitute for the internet.

People Are Your Most Valuable Asset

Customer service is key to running a successful business. Employees need to be enthusiastic about their job and treat customers with respect. I like to use experiences from my own life so I will use an example of excellent customer service I encountered the other day and contrast it with a bad experience.

From time to time I like to eat lunch at Lin's grocery store in Cedar City. There is a lady in the deli that helps me nearly every time I am there. She is always genuinely kind and cares for each customer. It is easy to see that she loves her job and always treats customers with the utmost respect. She made sure my every need was met without requiring me to ask for everything. I thanked her for her help and enjoyed my meal while observing her help other customers from a nearby table. It was the same way with each customer. The woman helped each customer and went above and beyond to make sure each was satisfied. I can assure you that she treats people outside of her job in the same manner because she has spent every day treating people like that.

On the other hand, there is a local place my friends and I like to eat at. I will not mention the name of this place I will just refer to it as "The Forever Diner" which is what my friends and I call it. We like to eat there, but only if we have a few hours to sit down. The food is good, but the service is terrible. Drinks are rarely refilled without having first asked for a refill. It takes a long time to have a waitress come take your order even when there is no one else in the restaurant. By the time your food finally arrives, you have nearly forgotten that you were at a restaurant. The only reason we continue to return is because we enjoy the food and even though the service is slow and inefficient, the workers are always kind.

These two instances demonstrate great customer service and poor customer service. There will be times when no matter what you do, someone will not be satisfied, but it is your job to be sure you do all you possibly can to restore the customer as close to his or her previous level as you can. Difficult customers are always going to be dissatisfied no matter what you do, but patience is a virtue. Remember that without customers you have no business. Try to put yourself in the situation the customer is in and ask yourself what you would need to feel whole again. Recall instances when you were dissatisfied and how it changed your view of the business and then recall an instance when someone gave you better service than you expected. Treat your customers with the same level of customer service you would expect and even better customer service than you would expect to keep them loyal to your company. The trivial golden rule of treating people the way you wish to be treated works in business as well. Once a customer is lost, it is nearly impossible to get them to return, so do everything in your power to satisfy every customer you can. They will appreciate the services they receive, keep coming back, and tell their friends. By keeping one customer happy, you keep their business and gain new business as well.

"Luck Is Where Preparation Meets Opportunity"

I love one line quotes, proverbs, long quotes, poems, etc. There is so much insight to them. In particular, one of my favorite quotes is the title to this blog entry: "Luck is where preparation meets opportunity." It was first said by a Roman philosopher known as Seneca. What a profound statement. It completely redefines what the word luck has been known to mean. Since I have a fascination with words I would like to break this down word by word with some help from dictionary.reference.com, give definitions for each word and in what form each is being used. I would then like to analyze what it means and how it applies in a business sense.

1. Luck: noun; good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance
2. Is: verb; state of being, to exist
3. Where: noun; a place; that place in which something is located or occurs
4. Preparation: noun; any preceding experience considered as a mode of preparing for the future
5. Meets: verb; to come into the company of
6. Opportunity: noun; a good position or prospect, as for advancement or success

Basically, the quote completely contradicts the very definition of luck which is that it is completely based on chance. The quote is saying that luck is not really luck at all and disregards the fact that such a thing could even exist. Interesting, because the quote is a logical fallacy--although I would have to consult my Joseph Spider book to be certain which logical fallacy it is. (Although I have pointed out that it is a logical fallacy, I am sure that throughout each of my posts there are plenty of logical fallacies to be pointed out, but we will ignore those for now.)

The reason I like this quote so much is because it is essentially the reason this blog exists. In a business sense, there is no such thing as luck. Only opportunities. Although, opportunities contain a component of luck in that it is left to chance whether or not the opportunity will arise, the opportunity itself is not left to chance. In the context of the quote, luck would mean that everything happened simply by chance, not only the opportunity. Luck would mean the success or failure would have happened whether or not you were prepared. It is nearly impossible to credit luck when something works out in business. An opportunity arises and you are either prepared for it or you are not. It very well may be that you prepare along the way, but you certainly must have had more preparation to begin with than you thought. So the only real part of luck that has to happen, according to the quote, is the luck that an opportunity will present itself.

Spend time preparing yourself to be ready when opportunities arise. Know your strengths and the strengths of the people on your team and work with those. Leave as little to chance as possible.

Dress to Impress

This picture is of some of the Microsoft Corporation's employees in 1978. Obviously, knowing what I know now, the answer to the question of if I would have invested in the company is, "YES!" But, let us time travel back to 1978 and show me this same picture and ask me this same question and my answer would be, "NO!" Why? Because the way a person dresses is vital to how people view that person and how seriously the person will be treated. Not a single person in this picture is dressed in professional business attire that would convince me based on first glance that their business would be worth investing in. Showing up to an interview for The New York Times in fishnets and go-go boots is surely not going to land you a job. If you wish to be taken seriously, you must appear to be worth someone's precious time. Especially in interviews, dress says a lot about a person. You are more likely to obtain a position with a company if you come to the interview polished than if you show up in sneakers and jeans with holes. Granted, dress is not everything and will probably not ultimately decide whether or not you receive a job offer, but by dressing to impress those you interview with, it will be easier to convince the interviewers of your genuine interest in obtaining the position with their company.

Example time. You are given a task by your boss to go out on the street and you have one hour to bring him back the best employee you can find. If the employee is a good worker, you get to keep your job. If the employee does shoddy work and is less than impressive to your employer, you will be fired. Let us now assume that you are simply a shift manager at McDonald's and you only need to hire a cashier. So, you set out with your task. How do you decide in only one hour who to hire? You will not have time to ask many questions so you are likely to only talk to those dressed nicely and who you believe would make a good worker and allow you to keep your job. You will make your decision of whether or not to even talk to someone based on your first impression because of their appearance alone. The way a person dresses can say a lot about the degree of professionalism that person will demonstrate. It is important to always dress appropriately. A good rule of thumb for a job interview is to dress one step above the accepted dress the person who obtains the position you have applied for will dress on a daily basis. Always be aware of what you are wearing says about you. It could potentially limit your opportunities or it could create new ones.

Morals Matter

In high school, I was part of the speech and debate team. I remember preparing a case one time in particular for my Lincoln-Douglas debate. The topic was something to the effect of "Should corporations be upheld to the same ethical standards of an individual?" Piecing together an "aff" case was a breeze, but I of course had a hard time trying to put together the "neg" case for this topic. How was I supposed to argue that corporations should not have to hold the same ethical standards as an individual when I expected a company to treat me the same as I expected an individual to? After brainstorming for quite some time on how I could create a neg case that would not be stating that corporations should not be held to the same moral standards as individuals, I consulted with my debate coach. He proposed to me that I should create a case saying that corporations should be held to a higher standard than individuals. I did just that.

The reason for telling this story is because practicing morals and ethics in your own life each day will help you to be ethical in all of your business dealings. Businesses have responsibilities just as individuals do. Companies are run by individuals and if individuals lack moral values, so too will the company. A bad experience will stick with a customer longer and will be spread faster than a good one. If you lose the trust of consumers you can kiss your business goodbye. People already have a tendency to distrust business. If the company consists of individuals who are unethical in their personal lives, consumers will conduct business with competitors whom they have more trust in because of their ethical standards.

At the very least, a business has the responsibility to act in a legal manner. It should abide by all laws. I argue that a business should not only practice in a legal manner, but should practice more social responsibility than that. It should treat its consumers with respect and never cheat them. A business should be honest and never try to deceive. If you do not practice these behaviors in your personal life, you cannot expect them to come about in your business. Having high ethical and moral standards are one of the most important things an entrepreneur should practice. You should hold your business to at least the same moral standards you practice. If your moral standards are lower than consumers deem appropriate, you will lose business. Some ethical decisions will be tough to decipher if they are ethical or not because there are no guidelines to what is ethical and what is not, but others will be easy. If you have been practicing ethical standards you feel are appropriate each day, it will be much easier to have your business be considered a trustworthy, fair and ethical business.

Can You Hear Me Now? Good!

Verizon, America's largest 3G network, has figured it out. Building a large network will be vital to your business success. It is not always about what you know but rather who you know. Social networks on the web are a great way to meet new people and provide a great channel of communication. It is important to be careful on the web, but these social networks can be of a great benefit when trying to build your network. Start small by making a goal to meet one new person each month that you can stay in contact with and that person could potentially provide you with valuable help/skills in the future. Then once you begin to learn how to network, try meeting a new person every two weeks. Business cards are a great way to swap information with someone and nearly everyone has a business card.

Keep in contact with as many people as you can as often as you can. Remember birthdays, names of children, anything you can about someone because in the future you never know who can be of value to you. It may be that the girl with glasses and stringy hair from the front row in third grade will have a skill set you will need at some point. By keeping in touch with as many people as you can, you create opportunities to enter their network as well. People that are in your network may have a network of people that you could not gain access to without that person. Somebody in your network will know a guy who knows a guy that can help you if you grow your network.

Having a large network will help you obtain employment and start your own business. Use your network often and tap into the networks of others; it may surprise you at what kind of contacts people have. Do not be afraid to ask around or to say hello to strangers. Strike up conversations whenever possible. The more people you have in your network, whether they are currently valuable to your or not, the better. A network grows exponentially. When you add a new person to your network, you are also gaining contacts with people that they know as well. Take every opportunity you have to expand your network and keep in close touch with those that will potentially be of value to you.