My vision towards the Future

The task was to come up with 3 to 5 goals as visions for my future. I have several goals... some of them are a little bit realistic, but others are not impossible but REALLY hard to achieve. At least for me...

1) My first vision is to finish school. Yeah, I know that is the same goal for all of us, but mine is a little bit more. I want to finish my BBA, go for a Masters to complete and take the CPA (become certified) and then go for my PHD to be able to teach Accounting or Spanish at college. Currently I'm a junior and have completed my Associates Degree in Arts. I also have a scholarship and am trying my best to have good grades to keep it, because with all the education I desire to get it is TOO MUCH MONEY to invest.

2) My second vision is complimentary to the first one. After I get my CPA I will like to open a business. My father has always been a great influence to me in that business sense. He has open and close several businesses in his lifetime. He has had good and wealthy times as bad times. I would love to have the gods he has to just go and open it, but I am afraid. I want to open a tax office. I haven't even started my Auditing classes yet but I want to open a business. Probably if I was in my origin country I would have done it already, but this big city intimidates me a bit. Even though I am in-love with it. Hopefully I will do it someday, hopefully not that far away.
I don't picture myself working in a company. I have done so, but I try and still can't see myself being old and working for somebody else. I know that you have to start somewhere, but I still don't see myself there. Maybe not a tax office but a business, perhaps with my husband and not alone. But it is a HUGE ambition I have.

3) I want to have two more kids. I love children and my daughter is my life. I am very old fashion in the sense that I enjoy big families. It is a vision because at the moment I am not working and a child is a HUGE investment. I am not working now, because I don't have anybody to take care of my baby. I could put her in a daycare, but I am petrified to think that somebody can hurt her. Unfortunately nor my family or my husbands family live in the US. I am waiting for her to start talking to be able to put her in one of those places, like that she will be able to tell me if something is not going right (hopefully she will tell me). I think my biggest problem is that I don't easily trust in people, specially with things related to topics as important as my family.
That is the reason having more kids is a vision. If I do, it will interfere (actually delay) big time with my professional ambitions. My husband wants one more (because of money), but I want 2 more minimum. I don't come from a big family at all.

Those are the most important goals I have, the rest are just material things that money can buy. Things like a house for the family, cars, and trips. You know... I want to live the American dream, assets and debts.
I know it may sound as a fantasy or so, but those are my most important goals in life. Personally and professionally speaking.

Was it the right choice?

The assignment was to come up with a proposal to improve the grade and method used on the previous MGT test. Among the methods available to handle conflict we have: 1) Compete to win, 2) Avoidance, 3) Compromise, 4) Accommodation and 5) Collaboration.
I can honestly say that Compromise and Collaboration were the methods I chose during the decision making process. Compromise in the way that I was able to listen and respect all the ideas involved during the process, including mines, without distinguishing between each other. What I mean is that I was not checking who had the lowest or highest grade to listen and consider suggestions. We were all equal at that point. We were all trying to come up with the best possible plan in the given time and as fast as possible. Collaborating was the other method I used. After a group of ideas were selected and placed on the board to study them out, the negotiation started. We were asking and checking with Prof. K about our options and up to what point he will consider our choices.
I think I chose these two methods because I think I am a person that doesn't "go with the flow" that easily and I am always looking for something else. Sometimes a little bit annoying. I listen what people have to say, analyze and then come up with my own point of view. I don't give up with anything I do (knock on wood).
Perhaps "compete to win" could have been another of my choices to handle conflict. On the test, the essay part was were I got more credit from. Also, I do believe that it is important to learn how to write and communicate in business situations. I could have opposed to what the majority wanted by demanding an essay for the next test but I didn't, at least not the entire period. By choosing the method, I could have had a more desirable result for me as opposed to the entire group. As this was a class activity, the entire group had to decide the best for all.

Leadership

"Leadership skills required" is a phrase that I've been listening for quiet some time and repetitively. Whether it is applying for a job, or applying for a scholarship, or just in class; it has come to my attention in more than one occasion. But, what do I understand about leadership? How important is it in life? and, how do I learn this kind of skill?
Recently in class, the Professor allowed his students to formulate a plan to help us improve our grades after a test. He suggested to divide the class into smaller groups to work effectively and come up with a positive plan. One of my classmates got up and suggested writing all the ideas on the board. By doing this we will be able to come with more ideas than working in smaller groups and also working them out faster. See, he came up with leadership skills. For me, to have leadership skills is to be able to guide, to influence other people, to be an example to others, to be able to show the rest how to do something. It is exactly what my classmate did.
Not long time ago, I was filling up a job application. Under the requirements for the job it mention the need for being able to posses and practice leadership skills in the job. Why if I was not applying for a managerial position? Later, I learned that leadership is a key business "differentiator". All companies are looking for ways to develop their products or services, their relationships with other businesses, and the market share as well. In order to fulfill all these strategies you need to become somebody else and not just another one from the group. Sometimes I think that leadership is some sort of ability you are born with, not necessarily a skill. But if I didn't born with it, how can I exploit myself to achieve those qualities of effective leadership? Confidence and charisma are some of its qualities, therefore they are very important in life. Without confidence I will always be scared of trying better choices personally and professionally. Without charisma I won't be able to behave with people different to me.
Leadership is a fundamental behavior that I must try to learn all the way through life.

Dropping Tweety

The Exploring Management in modules textbook clearly specifies the importance of the planning process. Well, planning is fundamental for everything in life; ans I am sure many agree with that. We had an "egg drop" activity on our MGT class a few days ago. When my team and I got together to analyze what we had to do, we actually came out with a plan to win the challenge. We didn't really mention the steps necessary to come up with a plan. Even though we read the chapter and came prepare to class, nobody went through the process step by step. I think that was our first mistake.
The first step is to define your goals and objectives. No problem with that, our goal was to release a "protected" egg from a desk to the floor; and our objective was to get those 5 points Prof. K was offering for such accomplishment. The second step is to compare where you are at the present with your objective and to determine your resources. We approached to the desk to see the materials, we measured and calculated how much of the resources we were going to get. We had 8 straws, some tape and we were allow to use the scissors. The third step is to develop several alternative strategies to come up with a positive result. We actually came up with an idea, we drew it in a piece of paper because it wasn't clear enough for everybody. We exchange different questions that contributed with an idea. I think that our problem in here was that we got stuck with the first alternative and not really with many changes to it. The next step is to actually make a plan. We did!!! I was the one who wrote down every step and what we used. The final step was to take the action and evaluate results. We took action but Tweety didn't survive. Unfortunately it scratched. We were so excited because we were so sure that it was going to work out but, it didn't. So, we took action but after wards we didn't discuss what went wrong. Another mistake.
Probably if Prof K gives a second chance to try it again, we wouldn't do it right because we didn't talk about what went wrong in our plan. It was fun though.... but we didn't get those points. :(