Thinking About Success

Opportunity
Hard Work
Skill
Luck

I've prioritized these words in this order because luck and hard work are mere factors leading to opportunity, which is at the top of the economic chain of success. Though skill and some luck can take you a long way, it is the hard work committed and the opportunities presented to you through your hard work that causes you to achieve success. Luck is just a system of random occurrences that may help you along the way towards your goals in life, and is something that is impossible to be economically dependent on. However, skill is something that all people are perhaps born with (referring to "talent"), or gain through hard work. It can get you through part of the way in life, but without hard work put in, your skills and talents are useless. Through hard work, which is the consistent and central moneymaker in life, you can do practically anything. Also, the hard work and effort you put into something is a part and piece of everything you do. The opportunities presented by the hard work that you commit can be the biggest life-changers, such as a promotion or having a job opportunity brought before you.

What I have learned about the business/consumer world - 11/19/2014

Learned Today:

• I never fully realized that there was a dedicated and unique invention of the "Ocean Shipping Container" during the 1950's, as I had figured that it had been a common and standardized way of shipping goods for a very long time.

• I didn't know about the "Toyota Production System," which is a system that breaks the production process of vehicles into two concepts, one of them being a safeguard to preventing unwanted defections, and the other with machines that only produce the necessary parts required to move to the next process during production.

Questions:

• How does the Toyota Production System work, and what are the specific details of each process? How does the system flow consistently without constant flaws?

• Who designed the Ocean Shipping Container, and how did companies react to the new invention?

Letter to Carlos

Dear Carlos,

My new life here in the city, New York, is anything but equal to the rural life we grew up to. Here there are grand buildings scattered throughout the city that they call "sky scrapers," with a park in the middle that is full of well-dressed people. There are also some sports that people often come to watch, and it seems that the people here have plenty of time to themselves throughout the day, specifically for leisure. Though, currently, I don't have that much time to spend for leisure around the city, as I'm usually helping with the construction. But I suppose those activities are for the people with a bit more money in their pockets, anyways.

The only real troubles that I've ran into here in the city are the living conditions of the houses that us poor folk are provided, which they call tenements, and the racial discrimination that I have to face daily. I can get used to the slums which I have to live in, but it's quite difficult to go about the city while constantly being looked down upon for my ethnicity. It was hard enough to find a job, as the city folk seem to only let white people get decent-paying work. Also, it seems that they are trying to assimilate immigrants to their ideals, as I noticed that they required me to speak English if I was to be getting my job. Though, I suppose that's the price we've got to pay for living here. But it is sure worth it! It's better than the rural life back home, and I'd be glad to accept any prerequisites to living here to have a taste of the "American dream" (as they call it) that is shown throughout the city.

-Pedro

Portrait of the city life here in New York