Aside: How to Live Life Part I

In business school you get a chance to see how the men are separated from the mice. How smart people react to bad grades depends on: a)if they had ever gotten bad grades before, b) if they have ever had anything bad happen to them worse than bad grades. I am a pretty smart guy and a and b have both happened to me. So I have a lot more perspective than some of my peers, and I am gonna share that here.

1. Commitments matter

In school, fencing, life - commitments are like currency. You use them as you see fit, and if those commitments are broken you feel like you were robbed. You should never make commitments in haste and without deliberation, and if you do make a commitment you consider it like you would a contract. If you make commitments and don't keep them, you are like the guy who tries to buy a subway sandwich with monopoly money.

2. Solve someone else's problem once in a while

Here at DU you are asked to do community service as part of class. You are meant to use your business skills to help the organization be better - which is a nice way of saying solve someone else's problem. I apply the same principles to helping a sexy bartender figure out how to use her bachelor's degree. I am not wedded to the outcome, but I put all my mental faculties to the solution just the same.

Fencing Foil at South Denver

I am not a foil fencer. I don't look like one.

I don't act like one. But if I can't beat my high school aged foil students in a tournament, I am gonna be in trouble. I ended up in 6th place (out of 17) in an in house tournament. Mostly because I like to attack, am annoyed when I am parried, and my response is to drive forward rather than recover-retreat-counterparry-counterriposte.