Bootcamp
Week 1
February 3rd, 2014
Virtues of the Entrepreneur
Today we started our fourth term at MPC. It’s a little awkward but somehow it feels different. I think one of the main reasons why I’m calm and relaxed is that I have a better perspective on what to expect and the outcome I’m looking for here. This makes it a lot easier.
One of the things that remarked my day was watching The Call of the Entrepreneur. I realized a parallelism with qualities and habits we are forming at the MPC. One of the most valuable learnings I had is the importance of feedback and critic. If you are in the pursuit of improvement, you have to start doing things differently and this is translated into challenges. I’ve been reading Conscious Business by Fred Kofman and one of the things he talks about is about unconditional responsibility. It’s about taking ownership of your actions and taking the role of the player in your life. This means to take control of the things you can change and this is seeing every situation you encounter as a challenge and not as a blessing or curse. “Choice is freedom.”
Going back to The Call of the Entrepreneur, this search for improvement is a change in your mindset, it’s about receiving and giving feedback and taking every opportunity as a challenge to improve. After the documentary, we had a good dialogue, mostly based on defining what is wealth and what are the factors that define a successful person.
Virtues of the Entrepreneur
Today we started our fourth term at MPC. It’s a little awkward but somehow it feels different. I think one of the main reasons why I’m calm and relaxed is that I have a better perspective on what to expect and the outcome I’m looking for here. This makes it a lot easier.
One of the things that remarked my day was watching The Call of the Entrepreneur. I realized a parallelism with qualities and habits we are forming at the MPC. One of the most valuable learnings I had is the importance of feedback and critic. If you are in the pursuit of improvement, you have to start doing things differently and this is translated into challenges. I’ve been reading Conscious Business by Fred Kofman and one of the things he talks about is about unconditional responsibility. It’s about taking ownership of your actions and taking the role of the player in your life. This means to take control of the things you can change and this is seeing every situation you encounter as a challenge and not as a blessing or curse. “Choice is freedom.”
Going back to The Call of the Entrepreneur, this search for improvement is a change in your mindset, it’s about receiving and giving feedback and taking every opportunity as a challenge to improve. After the documentary, we had a good dialogue, mostly based on defining what is wealth and what are the factors that define a successful person.
February 3rd, 2014
Virtues of the Entrepreneur (Revised)
Today we started our fourth term at MPC. It’s a little awkward but somehow it feels different. I think one of the main reasons why I’m calm and relaxed is that I have a better perspective on what to expect and the outcome I’m looking for here. This makes it a lot easier. Once you know your purpose, it’s only a matter of how bad you want it. So, yes, I’m planning to do a lot of things this semester, from starting my company to being a role model learner and co-worker, and I know it’s going to take long nights without sleep, quitting most of my social media, improving my organization, and a ton of will in order to achieve what I want, but for now I think it’s totally worth it and that’s my motivation.
One of the things that remarked my day was watching The Call of the Entrepreneur. I realized a parallelism with qualities and habits we are forming at the MPC. One of the most valuable learnings I had is the importance of feedback and critic. If you are in the pursuit of improvement, you have to start doing things differently and this is translated into challenges. I’ve been reading Conscious Business by Fred Kofman and one of the things he talks about is about unconditional responsibility. It’s about taking ownership of your actions and taking the role of the player in your life. This means to take control of the things you can change and this is seeing every situation you encounter as a challenge and not as a blessing or a curse. “Choice is freedom.”
Going back to The Call of the Entrepreneur, this search for improvement is a change in your mindset, it’s about receiving and giving feedback and taking every opportunity as a challenge to improve. Choose to live with the mentality of a winner, of the achiever, of the hero. Once you have it, you’re half way through.
Virtues of the Entrepreneur (Revised)
Today we started our fourth term at MPC. It’s a little awkward but somehow it feels different. I think one of the main reasons why I’m calm and relaxed is that I have a better perspective on what to expect and the outcome I’m looking for here. This makes it a lot easier. Once you know your purpose, it’s only a matter of how bad you want it. So, yes, I’m planning to do a lot of things this semester, from starting my company to being a role model learner and co-worker, and I know it’s going to take long nights without sleep, quitting most of my social media, improving my organization, and a ton of will in order to achieve what I want, but for now I think it’s totally worth it and that’s my motivation.
One of the things that remarked my day was watching The Call of the Entrepreneur. I realized a parallelism with qualities and habits we are forming at the MPC. One of the most valuable learnings I had is the importance of feedback and critic. If you are in the pursuit of improvement, you have to start doing things differently and this is translated into challenges. I’ve been reading Conscious Business by Fred Kofman and one of the things he talks about is about unconditional responsibility. It’s about taking ownership of your actions and taking the role of the player in your life. This means to take control of the things you can change and this is seeing every situation you encounter as a challenge and not as a blessing or a curse. “Choice is freedom.”
Going back to The Call of the Entrepreneur, this search for improvement is a change in your mindset, it’s about receiving and giving feedback and taking every opportunity as a challenge to improve. Choose to live with the mentality of a winner, of the achiever, of the hero. Once you have it, you’re half way through.
February 4th, 2014
How to Get Things Done
It has been a while since I revised Getting Things Done. To be honest, I only started doing to-do lists, thinking that this was a good approach to the book, like getting things out of your head but I actually didn’t have any system to approach on how to organize them. To help us improve on this, Manuel Pulido, a professor of UFM, came to MPC to share his experience and knowledge on the GTD system.
I think it went great, I understood how the system works and how to approach it. He also mentioned the Kanban and the Kaizen method. Both of these systems we would look on Thursday.
One of my learning during the day was about outcome focusing. It’s about knowing your purpose for doing things. Sometimes we get lost in what we are doing. We don’t even know why we are doing them! Of course, this leads to unmotivated work that also leads to not getting things done. So first of all, when you are planning on doing a project or task, focus on what you want to achieve. If you want and I think this helps a lot, write it down. Write down what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve that, and how do you want to feel after achieving it. When you feel unmotivated or want to procrastinate on that, read again what you wrote. Keeping this in mind will help you get focused, stay motivated, and replenish your will power.
How to Get Things Done
It has been a while since I revised Getting Things Done. To be honest, I only started doing to-do lists, thinking that this was a good approach to the book, like getting things out of your head but I actually didn’t have any system to approach on how to organize them. To help us improve on this, Manuel Pulido, a professor of UFM, came to MPC to share his experience and knowledge on the GTD system.
I think it went great, I understood how the system works and how to approach it. He also mentioned the Kanban and the Kaizen method. Both of these systems we would look on Thursday.
One of my learning during the day was about outcome focusing. It’s about knowing your purpose for doing things. Sometimes we get lost in what we are doing. We don’t even know why we are doing them! Of course, this leads to unmotivated work that also leads to not getting things done. So first of all, when you are planning on doing a project or task, focus on what you want to achieve. If you want and I think this helps a lot, write it down. Write down what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve that, and how do you want to feel after achieving it. When you feel unmotivated or want to procrastinate on that, read again what you wrote. Keeping this in mind will help you get focused, stay motivated, and replenish your will power.
February 5th, 2014
The Art of Storytelling
Telling a story is not just about remembering and repeating a sequence of events to someone else. It’s not only about talking or writing to someone telling him or her something that happened to someone. Storytelling goes beyond that. It’s about connecting with your audience; it’s to transmit the emotions, thoughts, and desires to the ones listening to you. Storytelling is about reliving an experience, engaging with your listeners and making them empathy toward you. It’s about true and effective communication.
We’ve seen this many times; horror movies, motivational speeches, the launch of the iPhone. Good communication is transmitting more than words and information, it’s about transmitting emotions and you can see that this is mostly what you remember. It goes into your limbic system, making your experience more memorable.
Being a good storyteller or communicator is also the essential skill of the entrepreneur. If you want people to buy your product or service, you must be able to transmit that confidence that you are going to solve their problem through your solution. It’s that simple and yet only few are able to achieve it. Human beings are different to other animals in their capacity to communicate and share knowledge, but not everyone knows how to do this efficiently. Improving on this skill, mastering it, would become one of your foundations to achieve your dreams, so go and communicate.
The Art of Storytelling
Telling a story is not just about remembering and repeating a sequence of events to someone else. It’s not only about talking or writing to someone telling him or her something that happened to someone. Storytelling goes beyond that. It’s about connecting with your audience; it’s to transmit the emotions, thoughts, and desires to the ones listening to you. Storytelling is about reliving an experience, engaging with your listeners and making them empathy toward you. It’s about true and effective communication.
We’ve seen this many times; horror movies, motivational speeches, the launch of the iPhone. Good communication is transmitting more than words and information, it’s about transmitting emotions and you can see that this is mostly what you remember. It goes into your limbic system, making your experience more memorable.
Being a good storyteller or communicator is also the essential skill of the entrepreneur. If you want people to buy your product or service, you must be able to transmit that confidence that you are going to solve their problem through your solution. It’s that simple and yet only few are able to achieve it. Human beings are different to other animals in their capacity to communicate and share knowledge, but not everyone knows how to do this efficiently. Improving on this skill, mastering it, would become one of your foundations to achieve your dreams, so go and communicate.
February 6th, 2014
As if Getting Things Done was not enough
Manuel Pulido came over to the MPC again. It was a continuation of our class on Tuesday and a follow-up on our progress with this system. I had a lot of learnings so I’m not going to go to deep into them, but just writing them for future reference.
The first one was about defining what the GTD system was. We concluded that it’s a tool that makes things more objective and allows making decisions. It’s the indecision that blocks us from doing things. We must remember that if you want to eat an elephant, the only way to do it is one bite at a time. (I’m talking metaphorically here, not that I actually want to eat an elephant although it would be interesting to taste them. I guess they are not that tasty…whatever).
The second one is about improvement. This system allows us to review our day in order to improve for the next. What you can’t measure, you can’t improve.
A third one was about the importance of having the right mindset. It’s not profitable to be pessimistic. Whining about something would not solve it; it’s our future actions that determine our success in accomplishing something. In broader terms, “no hay que preocuparse, hay que ocuparse.” (don’t worry; work instead.) Also, focus on the things you can influence, not on the ones you don’t. This way you can take the mindset of the player, as Fred Kofman says.
Finally, Manuel presented the Kanban method. It’s very simple and straightforward. Three columns: to do, in process, and done. I started implementing this on Saturday.
As if Getting Things Done was not enough
Manuel Pulido came over to the MPC again. It was a continuation of our class on Tuesday and a follow-up on our progress with this system. I had a lot of learnings so I’m not going to go to deep into them, but just writing them for future reference.
The first one was about defining what the GTD system was. We concluded that it’s a tool that makes things more objective and allows making decisions. It’s the indecision that blocks us from doing things. We must remember that if you want to eat an elephant, the only way to do it is one bite at a time. (I’m talking metaphorically here, not that I actually want to eat an elephant although it would be interesting to taste them. I guess they are not that tasty…whatever).
The second one is about improvement. This system allows us to review our day in order to improve for the next. What you can’t measure, you can’t improve.
A third one was about the importance of having the right mindset. It’s not profitable to be pessimistic. Whining about something would not solve it; it’s our future actions that determine our success in accomplishing something. In broader terms, “no hay que preocuparse, hay que ocuparse.” (don’t worry; work instead.) Also, focus on the things you can influence, not on the ones you don’t. This way you can take the mindset of the player, as Fred Kofman says.
Finally, Manuel presented the Kanban method. It’s very simple and straightforward. Three columns: to do, in process, and done. I started implementing this on Saturday.
February 7th, 2014
Communication, Metaphors, and Creativity
Bert had an activity prepared for us that consisted on making a one-minute speech with a word he gave us. We had about 15 minutes to prepare and then we would go in front and tell it. The catch was that it could be any word. For example, my word was floor. How can you write a meaningful speech about the floor? At first, I was taking the word literally, but then it started transforming into a metaphor about your ground and values as a person. It was great. I learned to think out of the box, play with the rules, be creative, think differently.
Here’s my speech:
“We may not notice how important this is, but trust me, it is. If we didn’t have this, we would fall and fall, unstoppable to the dark abysm.
Fortunately, we have it. It’s there for us, it provides us a safety environment, it’s the ground to build great things. It’s one of the great inventions of mankind and we barely give a look at it, although it’s there all day.
The floor is the pillar and foundation that brings stability to our endeavors. Our values must be rooted in floor, and just as the beautiful and fragile dandelion in a windy field, we must protect it. Your floor is unique and solid, but it can become common and slippery, so be sure to keep it clean.
Where we stand is what defines us and we should never forget that.”
Communication, Metaphors, and Creativity
Bert had an activity prepared for us that consisted on making a one-minute speech with a word he gave us. We had about 15 minutes to prepare and then we would go in front and tell it. The catch was that it could be any word. For example, my word was floor. How can you write a meaningful speech about the floor? At first, I was taking the word literally, but then it started transforming into a metaphor about your ground and values as a person. It was great. I learned to think out of the box, play with the rules, be creative, think differently.
Here’s my speech:
“We may not notice how important this is, but trust me, it is. If we didn’t have this, we would fall and fall, unstoppable to the dark abysm.
Fortunately, we have it. It’s there for us, it provides us a safety environment, it’s the ground to build great things. It’s one of the great inventions of mankind and we barely give a look at it, although it’s there all day.
The floor is the pillar and foundation that brings stability to our endeavors. Our values must be rooted in floor, and just as the beautiful and fragile dandelion in a windy field, we must protect it. Your floor is unique and solid, but it can become common and slippery, so be sure to keep it clean.
Where we stand is what defines us and we should never forget that.”
Week 2
February 10th, 2014
The Freedom Writers
Wow, just wow. What a powerful movie! I’ve seen that movie a couple of times before, being the last time I saw it some years ago. When I saw it today, it really impacted me. It made me think of a lot of things, reflect on the importance of some things in my life, and it made me realize how lucky I am for being where I am.
I present to you 6 awesome learnings I’m pretty sure you’ll want to revisit from time to time.
1. The power of the individual
- You are an amazing human being; your individualistic nature gives you the power to change the things you can influence so go and make it count. One person can change the life of many people, but not everyone is able to do this. The difference would be based on your willfulness to do it.
2. The power of the community
- Never underestimate the power of collaborative learning. Build your community of co-learners and seek self-improvement along with them.
3. The importance of values and principles, of being honest and true to yourself, of respecting everyone as a person.
- Forget labels, stereotypes, and energy-drainers. Treat everyone as a person, respect him or her and always be true to yourself. Don’t let anyone change your nature; who you are.
4. Life is about respecting and celebrating the diversity in people as well as the things we are alike.
- Again, respect people for being people. Celebrate your differences, learn from them, and connect with the things you have in common. It’s a basic principle of networking.
5. Always remember that it’s the individual that matters and not the collective and the idea of a social whole.
- This goes with the labeling thing. Don’t allow yourself to unconsciously talk about someone as if he or she belongs to a group, applying the characteristics of the “group” to the person you are labeling. Only individuals exist, not social wholes.
6. There’s only one acceptable way to act and that is doing the right thing.
- It’s this simple: if you’re going to do something that it’s not in alignment with your values, you shouldn’t do it.
The Freedom Writers
Wow, just wow. What a powerful movie! I’ve seen that movie a couple of times before, being the last time I saw it some years ago. When I saw it today, it really impacted me. It made me think of a lot of things, reflect on the importance of some things in my life, and it made me realize how lucky I am for being where I am.
I present to you 6 awesome learnings I’m pretty sure you’ll want to revisit from time to time.
1. The power of the individual
- You are an amazing human being; your individualistic nature gives you the power to change the things you can influence so go and make it count. One person can change the life of many people, but not everyone is able to do this. The difference would be based on your willfulness to do it.
2. The power of the community
- Never underestimate the power of collaborative learning. Build your community of co-learners and seek self-improvement along with them.
3. The importance of values and principles, of being honest and true to yourself, of respecting everyone as a person.
- Forget labels, stereotypes, and energy-drainers. Treat everyone as a person, respect him or her and always be true to yourself. Don’t let anyone change your nature; who you are.
4. Life is about respecting and celebrating the diversity in people as well as the things we are alike.
- Again, respect people for being people. Celebrate your differences, learn from them, and connect with the things you have in common. It’s a basic principle of networking.
5. Always remember that it’s the individual that matters and not the collective and the idea of a social whole.
- This goes with the labeling thing. Don’t allow yourself to unconsciously talk about someone as if he or she belongs to a group, applying the characteristics of the “group” to the person you are labeling. Only individuals exist, not social wholes.
6. There’s only one acceptable way to act and that is doing the right thing.
- It’s this simple: if you’re going to do something that it’s not in alignment with your values, you shouldn’t do it.
February 11th, 2014
Your Legacy might be to tell your story
Everyone builds a story throughout his or her life. Experiences, lessons learned, things we regret, love, sadness, transcendence, wisdom. We have all of this, all this human experience, and yet we don’t realize how important it is. Should we live our life and not share our process as human beings with others? Is it important to leave something of that experience somewhere for others to check it when we aren’t here anymore? Why should that even matter? Is documentation the only way to reflect this?
Some people believe that your legacy would be manifested on the impacted you had on others. They believe this is a better way to be remembered. The method to achieve this varies a lot, but it’s commonly translated into some entrepreneurial journey, a company, product, or service that revolutionizes the market. I believe that in this process a lot of value is added to society, but it eventually vanishes. What’s left off is the learning we might get from this process. Through time, we are only able to preserve the human experience lived by that person.
One example of this is Steve Jobs. If I were to ask to people what’s Steve Jobs’s legacy, almost all if not everyone would say, Apple of course! They would even say it like they were talking to a child because of the apparent dumbness of the question, but maybe it’s more than that obvious answer. I’m referring to his autobiography. I haven’t read it, but I learned that it’s not based on how great and super smart he was, but on his ordinary experience as human being, and the things he did to achieve greatness. He is transmitting his life goal there, transmitting that the power to change the world relies on the power of the individual, and we all have it.
Your Legacy might be to tell your story
Everyone builds a story throughout his or her life. Experiences, lessons learned, things we regret, love, sadness, transcendence, wisdom. We have all of this, all this human experience, and yet we don’t realize how important it is. Should we live our life and not share our process as human beings with others? Is it important to leave something of that experience somewhere for others to check it when we aren’t here anymore? Why should that even matter? Is documentation the only way to reflect this?
Some people believe that your legacy would be manifested on the impacted you had on others. They believe this is a better way to be remembered. The method to achieve this varies a lot, but it’s commonly translated into some entrepreneurial journey, a company, product, or service that revolutionizes the market. I believe that in this process a lot of value is added to society, but it eventually vanishes. What’s left off is the learning we might get from this process. Through time, we are only able to preserve the human experience lived by that person.
One example of this is Steve Jobs. If I were to ask to people what’s Steve Jobs’s legacy, almost all if not everyone would say, Apple of course! They would even say it like they were talking to a child because of the apparent dumbness of the question, but maybe it’s more than that obvious answer. I’m referring to his autobiography. I haven’t read it, but I learned that it’s not based on how great and super smart he was, but on his ordinary experience as human being, and the things he did to achieve greatness. He is transmitting his life goal there, transmitting that the power to change the world relies on the power of the individual, and we all have it.
February 12th, 2014
Zangoloteo Mañanero
Friedrich Nietzsche said, “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” Few are able to recognize the power of dancing, and even fewer those who enjoy of that power.
I’m far from being a good dancer according to society’s standards, but I know I’m a great dancer. Not because I know the technique or it’s pleasant to see me dancing, but because I understand many of the implications that dancing has. It’s about movement, awareness, energizing, breaking the norm, connecting with others, sharing memorable experiences, of being crazy and enjoying it.
Dancing is a lot more than just knowing how and when to move your body. Dancing is a statement of life. It’s your way to change the world and add value to humanity. Once more, Nietzsche said, “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” So be that misfit and crazy one, that game changer, that dancer who sees the world in its own unique way, full of possibilities, colors, dreams, opportunities, and beauty.
*This Daily Reflection was inspired by Marce’s morning meeting and Grace’s amazing dancing skills. The morning meeting consisted of dancing of course! It was at 7 a.m. and Marce figured out that we needed movement and energy to start our day, so we danced for 30 minutes, including genres from electronic indie to reguetón to waltz.
Zangoloteo Mañanero
Friedrich Nietzsche said, “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” Few are able to recognize the power of dancing, and even fewer those who enjoy of that power.
I’m far from being a good dancer according to society’s standards, but I know I’m a great dancer. Not because I know the technique or it’s pleasant to see me dancing, but because I understand many of the implications that dancing has. It’s about movement, awareness, energizing, breaking the norm, connecting with others, sharing memorable experiences, of being crazy and enjoying it.
Dancing is a lot more than just knowing how and when to move your body. Dancing is a statement of life. It’s your way to change the world and add value to humanity. Once more, Nietzsche said, “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” So be that misfit and crazy one, that game changer, that dancer who sees the world in its own unique way, full of possibilities, colors, dreams, opportunities, and beauty.
*This Daily Reflection was inspired by Marce’s morning meeting and Grace’s amazing dancing skills. The morning meeting consisted of dancing of course! It was at 7 a.m. and Marce figured out that we needed movement and energy to start our day, so we danced for 30 minutes, including genres from electronic indie to reguetón to waltz.
February 13th, 2014
A Reflection of the past two weeks
There are many things hard to articulate and for me, one of them is my learning experience, especially at MPC. During our common morning meeting today, we were talking about the best moments we’ve had for this term’s bootcamp. I started thinking about it and after a while I realized that one of them was the contrast I notice between the MPC and the other classes I’m taking, that is Design and Innovation and Spark (a.k.a. Conscious Business).
I couldn’t help to have a feeling of gratitude for being in a learning environment like the MPC, where I’m surrounded by awesome people who want to truly learn collaboratively, want to improve as persons and help others improve as well, a place where I feel comfortable of expressing my opinions and where I know I can build great things with them. Of course, time is a very important factor in feeling this way, but still I don’t think that being in an environment like the one from Economics or the other classes I’m taking now would be similar to what I experience at MPC.
Looking back, not just for the past two weeks but also for a year and a half, when I got in at MPC, I understand that I’ve made the right choice and it’s a great feeling. It hasn’t been easy and fun all the time, but something tells me it’s totally worth it. I hope to keep having this feeling and only increment it, that’s my plan everyday.
A Reflection of the past two weeks
There are many things hard to articulate and for me, one of them is my learning experience, especially at MPC. During our common morning meeting today, we were talking about the best moments we’ve had for this term’s bootcamp. I started thinking about it and after a while I realized that one of them was the contrast I notice between the MPC and the other classes I’m taking, that is Design and Innovation and Spark (a.k.a. Conscious Business).
I couldn’t help to have a feeling of gratitude for being in a learning environment like the MPC, where I’m surrounded by awesome people who want to truly learn collaboratively, want to improve as persons and help others improve as well, a place where I feel comfortable of expressing my opinions and where I know I can build great things with them. Of course, time is a very important factor in feeling this way, but still I don’t think that being in an environment like the one from Economics or the other classes I’m taking now would be similar to what I experience at MPC.
Looking back, not just for the past two weeks but also for a year and a half, when I got in at MPC, I understand that I’ve made the right choice and it’s a great feeling. It hasn’t been easy and fun all the time, but something tells me it’s totally worth it. I hope to keep having this feeling and only increment it, that’s my plan everyday.