I am a Nerd
Be a Proud Nerd
Everyone is a nerd. Well, at least everyone has a nerdy part. You don’t have to have a 4.0 GPA, be crazy about video games, or enjoy doing math problems. Your interests may be different than this stereotypical image of a nerd, yet there are passions in which you invest the same fervor. In my case I have many, and I’m proud of them, for they have pushed me to learn many things, take risks, enjoy life, and help others.
One of my latest interest has been entrepreneurship. I’m a person who craves autonomy and thrives on having big responsibilities, and one of my life goals is to own one or more successful businesses. Proudly, I started a language school two year ago, so you can say I have taken the first step. Before I started my own school though, I had already read some books and articles on topics such as customer service, funding, marketing, advertisement, planning, among many others. Furthermore, I also took a couple of business classes on Coursera, an on-line education website: https://www.coursera.org/ The courses I got the most were Smart Growth for Business, offered by a very hands-on and down-to-earth professor from the University of Virginia, and Marketing, taught by three brilliant professors from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. I learned things such as customer value proposition and the business model canvas. I also participated in a Startup Weekend, a weekend marathon in where you team up with other aspiring entrepreneurs to create a company in less than 48 hours. I guess you can say I have followed this interest with great dedication, and I hope my language school is the first among many businesses I launch.
In addition to my entrepreneurship passions, I’m also interested in socio economic development. When I was in college I wanted to know why some countries are rich and other are not, what the myths and trues behind free trade are, and how it is possible to achieve development. To answer these big questions I took a deep dive in sociology and economic theory, and I began to question traditional narratives of success and modernity. I read humanists such as Foucault, Althusser, Barthes, Bourdieu, Marx, Gramsci, Zola, Dostoevsky, and economist such as Stieglitz, Keynes, Smith, Rodrick, Krugman. I wrote my bachelor’s thesis on the industrial development of the steel industry in Mexico and South Korea and the consumer electronic industry between Mexico and Taiwan. Lately, I discovered the importance of trust to generate social capital, the ability of groups to organize themselves to achieve a common good. For three years I worked as a community organizer and witnessed how social, sport, and cultural activities around a park can strengthen the socials bond of a community, lower crime, and transform the social dynamic of the people who live there. If you want to learn more about sociology, check out this awesome video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9PCp9oKPRw
An interest I would like to pursue further is science. In high school and college I exceled in my science courses, and at some point in my life I took science courses to enter a medicine program. Biology and physiology fascinate me because you understand how life works. For example, the reason you skin peels off after a few hours in the sun is to protect your body from getting skin cancer. Your skin cells that were exposed to the sun go into apoptosis, auto cell death, to prevent mutations that could lead to cancer. One of my dreams has been going on boat expeditions to study marine life or spending months in a camp in a tropical forest to study the ecology of the place. Every time I read a National Geographic magazine (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/), I get jealous of the scientists who get to do this. Deep in my heart, I really would like to be a scientist, and I hope to go back to school to study science degree such as biology or medicine, for I know I could spend many hours a day reading about and practicing science.
All in all, you reap what you sow. The amount of learning and satisfaction you get out of things is directly related to the time and passion you invest on them. Great scientists, businessmen, athletes and artists have become successful thanks to the time and dedication they have given to their passions. Be a proud nerd. Unleash your potential, for that’s how you get most out of life. One of my favorite economic professors once told me, “Party hard and study hard. Don’t do anything mediocrely.” Undoubtedly, this is one of the best advice someone has given me.
Everyone is a nerd. Well, at least everyone has a nerdy part. You don’t have to have a 4.0 GPA, be crazy about video games, or enjoy doing math problems. Your interests may be different than this stereotypical image of a nerd, yet there are passions in which you invest the same fervor. In my case I have many, and I’m proud of them, for they have pushed me to learn many things, take risks, enjoy life, and help others.
One of my latest interest has been entrepreneurship. I’m a person who craves autonomy and thrives on having big responsibilities, and one of my life goals is to own one or more successful businesses. Proudly, I started a language school two year ago, so you can say I have taken the first step. Before I started my own school though, I had already read some books and articles on topics such as customer service, funding, marketing, advertisement, planning, among many others. Furthermore, I also took a couple of business classes on Coursera, an on-line education website: https://www.coursera.org/ The courses I got the most were Smart Growth for Business, offered by a very hands-on and down-to-earth professor from the University of Virginia, and Marketing, taught by three brilliant professors from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. I learned things such as customer value proposition and the business model canvas. I also participated in a Startup Weekend, a weekend marathon in where you team up with other aspiring entrepreneurs to create a company in less than 48 hours. I guess you can say I have followed this interest with great dedication, and I hope my language school is the first among many businesses I launch.
In addition to my entrepreneurship passions, I’m also interested in socio economic development. When I was in college I wanted to know why some countries are rich and other are not, what the myths and trues behind free trade are, and how it is possible to achieve development. To answer these big questions I took a deep dive in sociology and economic theory, and I began to question traditional narratives of success and modernity. I read humanists such as Foucault, Althusser, Barthes, Bourdieu, Marx, Gramsci, Zola, Dostoevsky, and economist such as Stieglitz, Keynes, Smith, Rodrick, Krugman. I wrote my bachelor’s thesis on the industrial development of the steel industry in Mexico and South Korea and the consumer electronic industry between Mexico and Taiwan. Lately, I discovered the importance of trust to generate social capital, the ability of groups to organize themselves to achieve a common good. For three years I worked as a community organizer and witnessed how social, sport, and cultural activities around a park can strengthen the socials bond of a community, lower crime, and transform the social dynamic of the people who live there. If you want to learn more about sociology, check out this awesome video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9PCp9oKPRw
An interest I would like to pursue further is science. In high school and college I exceled in my science courses, and at some point in my life I took science courses to enter a medicine program. Biology and physiology fascinate me because you understand how life works. For example, the reason you skin peels off after a few hours in the sun is to protect your body from getting skin cancer. Your skin cells that were exposed to the sun go into apoptosis, auto cell death, to prevent mutations that could lead to cancer. One of my dreams has been going on boat expeditions to study marine life or spending months in a camp in a tropical forest to study the ecology of the place. Every time I read a National Geographic magazine (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/), I get jealous of the scientists who get to do this. Deep in my heart, I really would like to be a scientist, and I hope to go back to school to study science degree such as biology or medicine, for I know I could spend many hours a day reading about and practicing science.
All in all, you reap what you sow. The amount of learning and satisfaction you get out of things is directly related to the time and passion you invest on them. Great scientists, businessmen, athletes and artists have become successful thanks to the time and dedication they have given to their passions. Be a proud nerd. Unleash your potential, for that’s how you get most out of life. One of my favorite economic professors once told me, “Party hard and study hard. Don’t do anything mediocrely.” Undoubtedly, this is one of the best advice someone has given me.
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