Entrepreneurial Spirit

So, as many of my close friends and family know, I am a very entrepreneurial person, having started many ventures in the past, from an income generating website to a produce wholesaler and vendor, the spirit has always been in me. Coming closer to graduation and receiving my bachelor's degree, I have realized that I am coming ever closer to entering the real world.

Today I listened to a lecture by a few prominent business and alum of Oswego State and what they had to say about life after college really made me think, on top of feeling sick. In a nutshell, they said that in the real world, it is not what you know, but who you know. Of course effort and persistence will help, but that is the bottom line. This had made me think about after college life. If you don't have a strong network of professionals, you're going to have to work much harder to achieve the same things in life as somebody with this, and that hard work doesn't even guarantee it.

My solution to this perception is to start my own business; not leaving a professional career on the whims of a corporate manager that I didn't go to school with or was not a fraternity buddy of his son. A degree in business has really helped me realize this dream. It has set the building blocks of success for a profitable entrepreneurial venture.

I have founded a business called CACR Books. I am currently in the process of obtaining used and new college textbooks from current and previous students to build an inventory. I have gotten sick and tired of buying books from a college bookstore and then four months later selling the book back for less than 20% of what I bought it for, even less if I bought the book new.

Researching this market, I have determined that there is ample room for entry, given the absolutely huge profit margins that these bookstores are experiencing. My business plan is to offer a better price to students for their books. This blog post is my delivery to the world of my first official business. I plan on leasing a site to store the books once my inventory becomes adequate.

So, calling out to all of my 3 readers, I am actively seeking textbooks and will pay a price better than a typical gouging bookstore. When the school semester ends, make sure to keep me in mind if you want more money for your books. In order to receive an offer for your books, email me at carl.chappell@gmail.com with the 10 or 13 ISBN number on bar code of the books that you wish to receive cash for. Yes, I will pay cash for the books and will pick up the books from you at a time convenient to you.

Soon, I plan on starting a web page that will become the internet home of this venture. I will publish another post when it comes online.

Grad School or the real world?

A very smart person once told me that you could never get enough education. Neither one of my parents went to college, so naturally they helped to push me to go to school. Now that my undergraduate career is coming to an end, I have come to a crossroads, and no, I don't mean that terrible Britney Spears movie. I want to gain as much knowledge as I possibly can, I love to learn. I plan on attending graduate school, even though I know it may not be at the time I wanted to. I won't be able to graduate in May, and will need a summer class in order to finish my degree in August. Don't switch majors any later than freshman year folks. That puts me into an awkward position in apply for my master's degree. Do I apply now for the upcoming fall, or do I wait and apply the following year and get a job in the meantime. I know that I need to ask my academic advisor to see if I can still get into grad school after getting my degree during the summer, but my dream job doesn't necessarily require grad work.

I want to work for the federal government, either for the USDA or the NASS as an agricultural statistician. It combines my highly analytical mind along with my passion for farming, a perfect fit in my mind. Complicating the grad school issue is the fact that the government will pay for grad school after a year of work.

What to do, what to do...

Bureaucracy Sucks!

Today, I had a meeting with my senior advisor to go over the classes I needed in order to graduate. A good thing and a bad thing arose from that arrangement. I'll save the bad news for last. First, I found out that I can declare an Economics minor and not have to take any more classes in that subject. Now for the bad. I decided to erase my Physics minor. That meant that I would have to complete the natural science general education requirement. (stupid SUNY!!!) In order to do that, a class from two separate areas in the natural sciences needed to be completed. I thought that I was covered, but I guess not. The advisor said that my chemistry class covered one of the subject area requirements, but none of my FIVE classes in physics covered the other one. Perhaps the most frustrating part of this was the fact that one of the classes that I did take was an exact replica of a class that fell under the general education requirement except that it was calculus-based instead of non-calculus. I tried to tell the advisor this and she said that there was no way to circumvent the decision. It was already decided upon by the general education director. So I felt like that I only had one other option.

I went to my ex-advisor in Physics and asked him if he could help. He couldn't believe what I was telling him that the class wouldn't count. Thank god that there are some logical people in this world! Needless to say, he said he would fight the director on this decision and hopefully that gen ed will be completed, allowing me to graduate with only needing to take a summer class instead of another whole semester.

On top of all of this, I had two midterms today that certainly didn't help to ease my stress level. Hopefully, tomorrow will be much less eventful, as I feel that another day like today could trigger a heart attack.

BTW.. I'm a tilting monkey at poker

Poker Bankroll: $80.85