Kevin Kwak’s Blog

People tend to confuse one with the other. Self Interest is not the same as selfishness and should not be interchanged one for the other.

Let me try to describe the difference between the two in a business setting.
Self interest is when the entry-level employee plans ahead a step by step goal to pursue their career. They might sacrifice a thing or two (more like a dozen in some cases) to achieve their goals.

Selfishness are sycophants. Defined by dictionary.com, “a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.” Parasite is not the perfect word but we’ll move on. The sycophantic employee is a selfish employee that tries to make themselves look good at the boss’ expense. Who does he think he is. In ever company, the business has a policy, a governance, something present to enforce a hierarchy system. Business in the U.S. is no longer an “I” workplace, we’ve transitioned into a “We” workplace.

Although my blog entry was very broad and maybe unclear to some readers, if you care about your career, you just got to do what you need to do. Become that determined entry-level worker with a strong self interest to succeed. Don’t make an unethical mistake in your early career as it will backfire against you down the long career path. Nowadays, employers have access to e-businesses where they provide a thorough background history of an individual.

Both Dell, Inc. and Apple, Inc. took action to recall batteries from some of their notebook lineups. I didn’t give much thought to the news until the realization that I owned an iBook. Checked out Apple.com to see whether my iBook model and battery serial number qualified for the recall campaign, and what do you know, I’m getting my close to three year old battery replaced with a brand new one.

The reason for the mass recalls (1.8 million units just by Apple) from both retailers was that the manufacturer of the battery, Sony Corporation’s battery had some flaws with its internal parts. Several incidents occurred in which the notebook computer burst into flames due an to overheating issue. Click on the photo to link to the news story.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06231.html

I been using this sturdy little iBook G4 for more than two years. A flawless machine, never had a problem with the notebook. Over two years of moderate usage, the battery still holds up after a full charge. Quite the notebook and I didn’t expect anything less when I bought it.

Back then, I paid the student discount price for the 12 inch iBook. I really liked the notebook- very sturdy, five lbs., attractive price for a 12 inch, excellent display and color, and easy to use programs. After I made the purchase, the more I used the notebook, the more respect I had for Apple. I was slowly understanding why Apple has a strong user base. And to say the least, I got suckered in into their outstanding product marketing. Check their website and you’ll see for yourself.

BUT …. I decided not to buy a Mac again. Reason: 1) You can’t use Windows program. 2) See number 1. 3) See number 1 and 2. A lot of softwares that I use or plan to use are proprietory for Windows operating system and there are no ports available for Apple Mac. Compatibility was the main issue. Software developers focus their product developments for Windows based users because of the large market share and only a small percentage concentrate on the Apple market share because it is their niche market.

There is a software available for Mac (don’t recall the name as of this writing) that allows you to install and use Windows software within the Mac operating system. Neat software but the problem is that the program is RAM and CPU hungry, requiring intensive hardware power. As I was googling to find the name of the software, I came up with Apple Bootcamp. “Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac.” Sounds interesting but not enough to go back to a Mac.

Compared to other notebooks out in the market, Apple hardwares may seem high priced but like all Apple users, you just can’t argue with the quality, design, and the seemless implementation of the notebook. If you can cough off the cost, use basic programs like web surfing, chatting, video conference, and Windows Office, and expect a great quality and service, I recommend Apple Macs. The new lineups contain upgraded Intel Core Duo chip.

But if you have proprietory Windows-only softwares, go with a non-Mac. I can’t wait to get a IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad.

Real estate developers and investors play a different role and it will be a costly mistake if one confuses their role for the other. One of the developer’s job is to search for a vacant land or property to invest a set capital into that project. Once the due diligence is complete, they get the ‘go’ and start with their project. One of the investor’s job is to determine whether to invest their capital and calculate to see if they will earn above market value return on their investment. But if not, they move unto another project.

A few weeks ago, my brother contacted Subway to see whether this one location was a good candidate for the restaurant. But despite the heavy car traffic and attractive location, the Subway development firm rejected our proposal. Their excuse was short and simple: the demographic was not desirable.

I immediately sent off the e-mail reply but no response. Even if I do my own demographic research, I can’t possibly win over their decisions. The developers has the data and resource to calculate and determine whether the proposed location is feasible candidate for the restaurant. The developers gone down their due diligence check list and noticed that the location did not qualify for all the check boxes. Oh well. So in this case, the investors need to move unto another project even though the ROI was higher than the average return.

The fatwallet has been thinning a bit lately. I got used to it after spending the past five years buying books and textbooks. One of my long-term goal is to buy and collect my own set of library, an impressive collection of books pertaining to my career and interests. My collection is growing at a slow but an acceptable pace.

The local and the university library has most of the books I like to read and there are those hidden gems I want to acquire for my own. No matter how old those books get, it is worth collecting because the knowledge it contains are worth every penny. And the older the books age, the cheaper it costs to purchase unless they become very limited as to become rare to find. One book someone recommended became quite rare and as usual, the demand exceeded the quantity, increasing the sales price 20 times its original retail price.

Recently, one of my professor recommended that the class subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. He is an avid reader and a long-time subscriber. He mentioned of a student discount, $60 for the student rate. I plan to sign up and if that price includes both the print and online edition, sweet! Even if the online edition is not included in the student rate, getting 52-54 weeks of WSJ delivered to your door is quite a bargain.

To end this blog entry, Seth Godin released a new book to his collection titled, “Small Is the New Big: and 193 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas .”

During the summer period, I kept myself busy populating my brain with business books.
Such readings were pleasurable and well complementary to what textbooks and professors teach at school and really time-consuming. Not surprisingly, Cerritos Library even carries audio books of popular audiobooks so those kept me in good company during the commutes.

A concise yet very informative book was titled “Unleashing the Ideavirus” by Seth Godin. And if you’ve enjoyed that title, I can recommend similar titles such as “The Tipping Point” and “Blink” both by Malcolm Gladwell. The concept of the book goes far beyond viral marketing. Any business student can well benefit from reading this titles.

And everytime you learn something new, what do you do? You apply it as an application of course. I am trying to come up with a simple viral marketing for one of my website. As you are aware, the internet has well evolved into what we know today as Web 2.0. Do you have a MySpace and a Xanga account? Then you are already involved with Web 2.0.

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as “The phrase Web 2.0 was created by O’Reilly Media to refer to a supposed second generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in a new way—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies.”

Websites survive through a good use of marketing (Search Engine Marketing or SEM) along with viral marketing. Online viral marketing spreads much quicker than the traditional word of mouth so it is vital that the publishers plan to incorporate as many marketing techniques with the end-users in mind, which are the targeted market.

Thanks to the book, I had defined clearly my targeted market audience, timeframe of the project, techniques and ideas for a viral marketing, and steps to actually accomplish the end goals.

Off-topic: In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner talks about the bagel man case. Sad and true at the same time.