Your nuts! Self Marketing and Creativity.

When was the last time you had peanuts? I'm not speaking of the overly salty kind you find in a blue can at the grocery store, I'm talking about the baseball stadium peanuts; you know, the crappy 35 cent bag peanuts with the shells still on them. Let's take a good, hard look at those, shall we? Interesting how alot of things in life come in pairs, isn't it? Two eyes, two ears, two peanuts in a single shell. Sometimes, we get one of those mutant three chambered peanuts, but those are about as common as finding a teenager with work ethic (read: four-leaf clover).

Now that I think about it, the average American teen is the peanut equivalent to one of those freaky mini-peanuts inside the single chambered shell, the kind that somehow taste like charcoal and dirty linoleum instead of the normal peanut flavor. You know, the worthless ones. Anyways...

The point is, marketing and creativity are like the two nuts inside a shell. You can't have one without the other, for if you only have one, it's probably is going to suck and taste all poopy. Marketing isn't reserved for business professionals, it is widely used by people in all walks of life, even though they aren't aware of it. To be honest, it really should be used to gain an advantage over the next guy.

"What is this guy getting at"?

People like attractive people, people also like kind, courteous, generous, and even funny people. Heck, people like people who are intelligent, take care of themselves (read: wears deodorant), and/or even just try to do the best that they can. When was the last time you wanted to befriend the mean old bag lady from the grocery store? Or how about the pompous expletive-head that sits next to you in class? Certainly not the super smart-yet-smelly kid in class either. You see what I'm getting at yet? Sometimes, however, we just aren't personable, typically because we have low self-esteem or we have a fear of interpersonal communication (not me, I'm no emo-freak), or we never had anyone tell us before, "you stink like an old towel".

Two guys interview for the same job; one is in a suit and tie, smells fresh, looks like a million bucks, and has a Bachelor's degree pertaining to the job at hand. The other guy has the same degree, but wears shorts and a t-shirt instead. Who gets the job? Duh.

Two guys interview for the same job; one is in a suit and tie, smells fresh, looks like a million bucks, and has a Bachelor's degree pertaining to the job at hand. The other guy is in a suit and tie, smells fresh, looks like a million bucks, and has a Bachelor's degree pertaining to the job at hand. Who gets the job now?

The correct answer to the second one is: whoever paints the prettier picture. This is where creativity takes a turn; whomever can make themselves look like the better person will typically be victor, with all other variables remaining constant. Do whatever you can to better yourself in the eyes of your peers, however unfortunate, this is how the world works; regardless of how immoral it is, these are the unwritten rules, and to survive, one must play by and take advantage of these rules.

Society isn't how we wish it to be, and doesn't always base it's decisions on someone's credentials as it should. If one wants to truly be successful, one has to exploit these taboo-yet-legitimate unwritten laws. Successful people don't sit back and whine when society isnt how they see fit, they step up and go after their goal, adapting and evolving to suit their needs to secure their success.

Face reality and take advantage of it!

Me fail English? That's unpossible!

So it's Friday, and there is one more week of school left, for this Summer I session. I am only taking one class, English 101, considering that a several month course is now being crammed into 5 weeks of study; any more classes and I may not have enough time left over to even think, let alone study for anything truly challenging.

Interestingly enough, however, I seem to be one of the few students in my group whom has actually finished all of the required coursework in a timely fashion. One would think, "ok, I have 7 days to write a 3-5 page essay on my favorite song... cakewalk", at least this is what I thought. By the following morning I already had my rough draft finished, ready to focus on streamlining the essay and fix the ever perplexing works cited page; MLA citing is comparable to rocket science as far as I am concerned. Lo and behold, come Monday morning, the due date of the essay, I was one out of 4 people to have their essay turned in on time. And the word of the day:

pro⋅cras⋅ti⋅nate

–verb (used without object)

1.to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.

–verb (used with object)

2.to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.

I remember being at that age (I am 24 now), fresh out of high school, ready to take on the world one nap at a time. Why accomplish anything when it isn't really your goal to begin with? When your parents are breathing down your neck to go to college, you simply do whatever it is to appease them and get them off your back. We have all been there before, and it certainly isn't anything new... I subsequently dropped out of college to pursue my career of fabrication and welding; hello recession.

Six years of my life magically drifted by, and I was none the wiser. I had less money in my bank account than I did fresh out of high school and I certainly didn't get any more schooling under my belt. My priorities have changed, and now I am goal-oriented to get though medical school, to eventually become a radiologist. I am excitedly taking school one step at a time, and can't wait for that next batch of boring, or rough "required" classes, for sometimes you need to walk through the wolf-infested forest before you can get to grandmother's house.

Time you wake up guys, focus focus focus!

Cliffs: American teenagers...