So far I have enjoyed reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.  Last year I read Outliers by him, so I was familiar with his style of writing.  What Gladwell does so well is to dig deep into a large problem and find the tiniest thing that set in motion this change.  He calls them the three principles- one being contagiousness; two, the fact that little causes can have big effects, and three that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment. He calls this one dramatic moment when everything can change as the Tipping Point. It’s kind of like the boiling point, when everything starts to change very quickly. There were a few very interesting examples that Gladwell provided.  One of these examples was in New York City and how after the mid 70’s the next two decades experienced an extremely drastic decline in crime.  The police obviously took credit, along with many other groups, but Gladwell doesn’t buy these cliché answers.  Her rather points to the behaviors of criminals, and their change in behaviors. 

I also thought it was interesting that Gladwell points out it is tough for us to expect the idea of the Tipping Point.  We have in our minds a specific biological meaning of contagiousness, and don’t necessarily relate that to ideas- things like fashion trends. It’s hard to accept that huge changes can come from small events.  We like to think everything works proportionally, but often times that is not the case.  I am looking forward to reading more of Gladwell’s book!

This week we wrapped up the selling of our stickers.  We set a goal for each person in the team to sell at least five more stickers to add an extra sixty dollars to our profit.  Overall I think as a group we did a great job, because we saw other groups getting success selling but not finding the same success breaking even.  One of the great things about the stickers were that they cost us less than a dollar to make and that we were selling them for three dollars so we had a great margin on them.  On the storefront end this week we started working on our presentation.  I think we initially struggled with this because our vision was not clear.  After our initial presentation I think we know the way to go about staying with the 4A brand, but expanding on the original shop.  Although I have been to 4A before our trip there with our group was exciting.  We got to take some pictures, talk to Alua’s parents and really get another push for us to be excited about our project.  We also were able to get some pictures of the surrounding Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, for our presentation to show as our main competitors in the area.  I am both excited and nervous for the presentation coming up.  I think we have a lot of practice left to do this week, but I think we are a group that can pull it off well.   I think we just have to stay focused and make sure that we are very clear about why 4A is the best option for the investors.

 

Sandberg’s book has given me a lot to think about.  After finishing it I can say that although it was not one of my favorite books, it was one that is very relevant to and motivating.   Clearly there is a lot of changes that need to be made in the workplace to make it a more equal, but I think we are headed in the right direction.  There are other things that amaze me though about gender in this country.  I think it’s truly appalling that we have never had a female president, and that the majority of our representatives our male.  Some people say it’s because there have not been any women that they have seen on the ballot that they would want elected, but I think this has much to do with the society in which we are raised.   There are certain jobs and positions that I feel women are steered away from, or not encouraged to do.  While looking for a senior quote last week I found an interesting one that I think correlates with this idea.  Marilyn Monroe said “Well behaved Women rarely make history”.    I think it is interesting because in order to be seen a s a successful women I feel like you kind of have to have this rebellious attitude.  Women in power I think are not seen as the norm because of this culture I think we are used to.  Its as if to be a women in power you have to be an exception.  This bothers me because I think that many women in power are labeled as bossy or control freaks, when they are just the same as any male doing the same job. 

1/11/15

As the 200 dollar project entered it's last two weeks we began our final push for selling though the stickers.  We are hoping to really sell through the inventory that we have left. This began with first reaching out to any friends and family that were yet to buy the stickers. Then we looked into parents events occurring at the school this week. One of the ones we look at was for Thursday at the junior parent meeting. We got in touch with first Mr. Libenzon to give us permission who pointed is in the direction of Dean Meyers. Dean Meyers gave us the ok, so we were able to sell. We sold about ten stickers in the short time before the meeting.  It was interesting selling to parents because many of them were confused about the hashtag. While many of them were confused, they were happy to let us explain it to them, and they were eager to learn about what project we were working on in the Communication for Entrepreneurs Class.   We even sold three to Ms.Hollman, who now is very interested in Instagram after talking to us about it! We also were able to get out and sell at the Friday home girls basketball game where we found less success. But overall I think it was a pretty  good week in terms of selling, especially considering the completion from the other groups product in class. We saw other groups also having good success, including the wristband group who I think we got the most competition from. On the storefront end we just made the final touches for the packet to be ready for Mr. Gladstone.

 

This week I was able to finish Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In.  Upon completion of the book, my general feeling is that the book is definitely neither written nor organized very well, but I think the ideas are extremely valuable.  Over my winter vacation I was able to travel to San Francisco I was actually able to visit the Facebook headquarters.  We drove around the area a bit, and there were something that struck me that I am sure had to do with Sandberg.  In addition to there being a handicap spot there was a parking spot for expectant mothers.  I never thought about this, but once I saw it my only thought was why haven’t I seen this anywhere else? It is great that companies like Facebook are really pushing to become models in the realm of creating a more equal work environment for both men and women.  Sandberg has the right idea about it, that these goals are not possible with just women, women and men have to both work together for this common goal and that is where we will find the success. I think this is especially true when people are out down for being feminists.  Ive heard terms thrown around lightly within our school like “Femi-Nazi” and other derogatory terms.  When people say they are not feminists it bother me because so many people before us have fought for us to be here today, but we still have to continue the fight.  Jus the other day at the economic summit that we went to at Gillette I learned the harsh realization that some people still have very gender divided mindsets.  This happened when one boy came over while all the countries were trying to ally with each other and it was utter chaos, he pushed me to the side and told me to let the men handle this.  Clearly there are still teenagers that have the wrong mindset about gender.  I truly believe that as a school and as a society we have to work harder to not create these mindsets form an early age. 

3rd Blog Post

Lean In

Sheryl Sandberg

This week I continued my reading on Lean In.  I am getting close to the end, and I think I will probably end up finishing it on my plane ride during vacation.  The reading this week was probably not my favorite because although I am enjoying the way in which Sandberg explains the role of gender, I feel that it has started to get very repetitive. Sandberg is continuing to reestablish her stance on this point.  I do continue to like her points about us not being able to ignore gender and bias especially in the workplace.  To say one is not bias towards gender is probably impossible.  I think we all have some biases built in about gender because of the way our society has raised us, weather it be in America or any other country.  It makes me think a lot about how school reinforces gender roles.  Freshman year the girls in health and fitness had to learn self defense, while the boys were taught boxing.  In what way is this fair?  I never really thought about this, but Sandberg is making me question more and more many of the things even in our school that create gender divides.  I think in situations like I described it portrays women as the weaker sex.  This can translate into the workplace, because this is the type of mentality we have all grown up in. Small things like this need to be changed in order to reduce the gender divide.  The more and more we are aware of these things, the more and more emphasis we can put on changing the system.  This book, while getting a bit boring, is still pushing me more forward in seeing women not be labeled as women leaders but rather just leaders. That is one of the biggest things that bothers me, as it does Sandberg.  Why do you always hear female CEO or female president? This bothers me very much.

This was one of the busiest and most exciting weeks of our sticker project.  We had four very successful days.  Day 1 started with us being featured on Portraits of BHS, highlighting our story and it was a great way to get not only the stickers out there but along with our faces.  On Tuesday we had our flyer in homerooms to notify everyone we would be selling stickers on Thursday. Then on Wednesday we got a great Instagram collage posted By Kyle Williams form the Brookline Athletics Instagram account featuring many winter athletes with the sticker.  These were all great ways to get the word out there, not just once but three times to a whole new market of people who may have not even heard of the stickers before.  Thursday selling during both first and second lunch (in addition to E block) went well as we continued to make profit.  It was great that we weren’t just asking our friends anymore to buy them but rather new faces of people, which proved that we did something right t in the way were marketing. In addition the school store has begun to actually sell a couple of the stickers.   Looking ahead Alua had an idea for another product being temporary tattoos.  We are waiting back to hear a quote for those from the company she emailed.  It was exciting this week to finally have the work from the past couple of weeks pay off, because we lost some of that initial excitement we had originally with the stickers, but I think this week we were able to get back on track! On the storefront end we continued revising the different parts according to the comments we were provided with. We are hoping that we will be able to successfully pitch this in a presentation when the time comes to do so in January!

12/14

This week my group focused our attention on both the sticker project and the storefront project.  In the sticker project we worked on finding winter sports players to take pictures with the Warriors sticker.  Then I worked to make a collage of these pictures, which we are planning on using for an instagram post through the Brookline Athletics Account that would also be posted on The Brookline Athletics Facebook Page.  We have secured a spot for Thursday E block including both lunches to sell our stickers.  Through the social media posting, we think we will be able to create some more buzz about the stickers.  We were also thinking about if we were to reinvest the money to buy another product and sell, what it would be.  We have not yet decided what this would be though.  On the Storefront end we worked on revising our first three parts to really create a better understanding of the need, and who we are targeting.  We then turned our focus to the numbers.  This was unique because we had some help from having the original 4A numbers, but we had to readjust them according to what we expected in our location.  The same went for many of the expenses; while some were the same some were different. Creating these spreadsheets took some time, but helps us create a better picture of what exactly we need to start a 4A Coffee in this particular location. I think that this was definitely challenging and tedious but surely as we are aware it is not even close to the amount of work one has to do when keeping track of finances.  It definitely opened my eyes to if I were to start a business in my future I would want a partner who was very good with numbers, because it is certainly not something that I would want to be as the focus of my career.

 

This week I have been continuing to enjoy Lean In (Sheryl Sandberg).  I especially like the way in which Sandberg describes the way in which women are much more self critical of themselves.  It was very interesting to   that women tend to score themselves lower even when they have the same exact abilities at men.   I think Sandberg demonstrates this idea that is very relatable.   Even though she is generation older than me I think many of these points are relevant.  We had a discussion about this last year in my class, about how females tend to say sorry in class when they have questions, and how we have less self confidence in our work.   I don’t know why this is, but I think it is something that needs to change.  As Sandberg says women who are successful these days seem to get pointed out as lucky rather than it be a product of their own hard work.   This makes me think of our own class, and how gender roles have made a difference in the class.  One thing I think is great that the gender ratio is pretty equal in the class.  It is interesting because II feel like the girls in our class who take charge are labeled as bossy, while the males who do so are not.  I also definitely think it is true that in our class the males have more confidence in their own work.  It is interesting to think about these concepts within the realm of our own class, because it was something I had not given much thought too before I read this book and now it is something that I am constantly thinking about.  It is kind of annoying in a way because these are issues that in my opinion a product of the way we have grown up in society, so I do not know ho exactly to go about changing them.  But I think that recognizing it as an issue is one of the most important things we as students can do.

The book I started reading last week is called Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. I'll admit I only picked it because my mom already had a copy of it, but I was pleasantly surprised by this choice.  I was expecting a book about a woman telling other women to fight more for their role in society. While in some ways it is that, I actually found it to be a fresh take.  From what I have read so far it talks about her experience working in Google as a pregnant employee and her life growing up. I like her take on it saying that each generation of women has been growing up in a more equal society but that doesn't mean it's is time to settle. It is easy to be happy with what society has given us, but if we don’t try to change it then it will not improve for the next generation.  I also like that Sandberg is not saying that all women should try to be a powerful figure, but rather think about why she has chosen the work she is doing.  I like that she does not undermine women who have chosen not to work, because I feel that happens a lot. Another thing I liked was about how women who try to lead are often called bossy.  I can completely relate to this because I get called bossy or a control freak all the time even at home and at school.  Sandberg also points out many other interesting points about women in the workplace, one that especially intrigued me that we are one of the only countries without paid maternity leave.  Clearly there are many issues that need to be brought up and fixed.  I am looking forward to reading more of what Sandberg has to say!

            This week my group was very involved in the selling the stickers.  After we learned the reality of dealing with the unexpected weather that we faced at The PowderPuff Game last week, we had to come up with a new strategy for selling. This meant reaching out to a whole new market, because selling to just our friends was not going to cut it. We decided that the best way to go about this was to create some buzz using the help of Brookline athletics. We were able to talk to Kyle Williams who is willing to put up some Social Media to help with our marketing.  We need to continue working with him because he would like to include the other BHS pride products as well in the Social Media, so we will have to wait for the other groups to get their products and work together to come up with a creative post. In addition we have started selling at the school store making it a go to spot we can refer people to instead of just us selling personally. The School Store gets 50 cents of each sticker sold, but we are still making a profit on the sticker and being in the store really helps us create more  presence in the school.   Next week I would like to continue and execute a plan to really sell our inventory in the last two weeks of the project. I am proud to say we have broke even and began to make a small profit and would like to continue with the same momentum.  Next week we are also trying to talk with Jaime, the student who runs Portraits of BHS, to do a photo of us featuring the sticker.  The page more than a thousand flowers at the high school across the grade levels so it would be a great way to get the word out.  We are also going to try to find a contact that will see if selling at basketball games is possible.