James Benim - US & Brazil

Technology and business

• Traveled extensively throughout childhood - Mission work
• Started tech company in dorm at Texas A&M
• Fall of Berlin - Built Fiber Networks

Learn to Roll with the punches

• learn to adapt to changing global positions
• Had to compete with overseas coders

Network like crazy your whole life.

• Some stuff in Argentina, you can now hire people for cheap

First Big Mistake:

• Check your ego at the door
• Petty theft - put sign on door.
• Signs in Argentina means "Come and take all our stuff"
• Ego makes bad decisions especially globally

Rewrite all of your own rules

• At first the only people he could trust were family members. Had to check the "Nepotism""
• Here in US, you DONT hire family. In Argentina it is king.

The Yellow Chairs:

• In operating a company, nobody will ever appreciate what you went through to build it..

Getting to understand their culture:

• Actually live in that culture.
• They will view you as an ass otherwise

Things they did Right:

• We made our mistakes small - Start small so your mistakes are small. Grow gradually
• Built a diverse team
• Important to recognize loyalty and tenure
• We bootstrapped and kept our equity - take tiny pile of money, start simple, build from profits.
• Got out of debt super fast
• We found our niche - makes much less competition

Things they did Wrong

• Learn to say I''m sorry

Develop an actual skill

Develop a taste for risk

You are always a couple months away from being out of business

Know the difference between managers and leaders

Jorge Bermudez - CEO Citigroup, Inc

• First Aggie hired in New York location of Citibank
• Did not speak English when arrived in the U.S.
• New culture, new name, right answer was wrong
• Cultural sensitivity is needed to be successful
• First came to this country in 1962
• Can no longer operate as a country without trade
• Largest economy in the world = European Union
• 2nd largest economy in the world = United States
• Inter connectivity and interdependent countries has decreased the likelihood of the start of wars
• If we depend on each other, we better understand each other
• Housing industry is mostly Mexican labor
• Products, money, people are all traded
• On the verge of a currency war
•       a. lowering value of currency to promote products/exports
• Money is devalued by printing more
•       a. why is sand cheaper than gold? because sand is everywhere
• Younger you are the more money you spend
• Students from over 100 countries are here

Integrity

•       No price, only value that accrues through your life
•       Everyone has a different view, make sure you are okay with your view
•       Integrity compass
•       Key to your success
•       once lost, can't get it back

Social Expiriment #2 - Personal Space

In class we discussed personal space between people in public, private, and in social situations. 

Expiriment: Sit down and pretend to read in different distances from random people

Subject:  Younger man, Blonde
Where: Cafe York 
How Long Until He/She Noticed: Instantly
Reaction: I sat down in the chair right next to him. He slid his things over, continued working for a few seconds, then slid over to another table. No other reaction.

Subject:  Some hipster looking dude
Where: also Cafe York 
How Long Until He/She Noticed: Instantly
Reaction: He asked me if I needed something. I said no, and then he asked me quite politely to slide over and that he needed the room. He then put his backpack on the table where I was sitting.

Subject:  Younger girl
Where: Also Cafe York 
How Long Until He/She Noticed: Instantly
Reaction: She waited a second, then grabbed her stuff and left. I think I creeped her out :)

Subject:  An average burnette man
Where: The bus 
How Long Until He/She Noticed: Instantly
Reaction: He played with his phone, I dont think he cared or was probably hoping silently I will move. I sat in the seat next to him, and the rest of the bus was almost empty.


Conclusion - Sitting too close to people generally creeps them out. They respond in different ways.

Blake Godkin - Group Creativity

Defer Judgement/Evaluation

•       do this during convergent thinking
•       nonverbal is judgment as well
•       types include negative and positive
•       not contributing when judginh

Strive for Quantity: capture the essence

•       more chance for success
•       80% of success usually comes from the last 20% of the list

Make Associations

•       taking unrelated things
•       forced connections

Strive for Novelty

•       go for wild and crazy
•       easier to tame wild ideas than invigorate a dull idea
•       William Kamkwamba video

Blake Godkin - Brainstorming

Goal: expected to work in groups in this course and increase your ability to generate new ideas

Procedural Knowledge: how do we add to numbers together

•       core of creativity is procedural knowledge

Alex Osborn came up with brainstorming

Creativity can be enhanced

•       there is no unified definition of creativity

Four P's of creativity

•       Product: interact with the most; result of creativity
•       Person: style of being creative
•       Press: pressures on a person; comes from constraints
•       Process: how?; not seen a lot in a job description

Focus on creative process

Why should we care?: creativity is important globally

Unified traits on how people go about being creative

•       Clarification
•       Transformation
•       Implementation
•       every phase is maximized if you practice:

Guidelines to enhance divergent thinking

Sir Ken Robinson video

•       global epidemic of our decreasing divergent thinking
•       creativity isn't the same as divergent thinking but they go hand in hand

Brainstorming is only meant for a divergent tool

Social Expiriment #1 - Eye Contact

In class we discussed social behaviors in public such as eye contact and normal responses. I thought I would put this to the test on the way home from class.

Expiriment: Make eye contact with random strangers when walking, on bus, etc.

Subject: Average Looking Male. Tall, brown hair
Where: near Chemistry building
How Long Until He/She Noticed: quickly. We were walking toward each other
Reaction: looked at the ground, looked back, looked at the ground. I probably creeped him out

Subject: Small White Girl, Freshmen?
Where: The bus stop outside of Sbisa Dining hall
How Long Until He/She Noticed: 10 seconds or so
Reaction: Immediately Looked down at the ground. Uneventful. Darn

Subject: Another Average looking male
Where: On the bus ride home, accross the aisle
How Long Until He/She Noticed: 20 seconds ish
Reaction: He just asked me if I needed something. I said no and looked away. This is probably what I would do in his situation.

Subject: Asian Girl - Freshmen?
Where: Also On the bus
How Long Until He/She Noticed: She didnt
Reaction: None. She just kept looking at her phone. I felt weird for staring.

Conclusion - Most people feel uncomfortable with unsolicited eye-contact with strangers. Most will stare at the ground, but some feel the need to ask. This was fun

Geoffrey Booth - Australia, Japan, and Land Development

Youngblood endowed
Professor of land development
Texas A&M University.

Blooms taxonomy revised.

What do I know?How do I know?Why is it relevant?Where does our knowledge come from?

• Personal experience.
• Appeal comes from how people relate from their own experience.
• Movies music and the arts. (YouTube, indie, pop culture)
• The internet and other media.
• Books and libraries.
• Friends and colleagues.

• Knowledge
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create

Real estate development

Seize the opportunities that present themselves.
Real estate is all about place and how people use it.
Perception of place. The phenomenology of place.
Property developers are best when they’ve experienced other places and people.

Rebuilding of parliament.
We create infrastructure and then it changes how we interact with it.
We shape our buildings and then they shape us.

We can practice globally because we speak English and finance laws are essentially universal.
Not all ethics are the same but theories are essentially universal.

“Know no fear.”

We are afraid of failure and that holds us back. And you will never get out of bed if you are adverse to risk.

The golden circle ted talk.

What creates value in real estate.

• Concepualization
• Design
• Delivery
• Activation
• Management

Components of value.

• Economic
• Socio cultural
• Environmental
• Sensory

Rodney Hill - Personal Space

Personal space is nonverbal communication.

Intimate- less than .5m
Personal - 1.2m
Social - 3.0m

People don't like sitting next to strangers. Go look at library tables, lunch tables, bus seats, etc. People spread their stuff out and put backpacks on chairs to prevent others from using that space.

When sitting near strangers, people usually sit in the furthest possible seat within the public space rule. Rarely do people sit within the intimate or personal distance unless..well intimate.

Matt noticed how receptionist’s layouts have changed for work efficiency until this lecture. Same with conference rooms, gaining vote favor by splitting the conference table into thirds.

People usually look at the ground as you walk passed.