Take on Exercise
I find that exercising is my best stress relief. It can be a long day at school, work, or just life and I can always seem to clear my mind and relax via physical activity.
In a Fortune article, Bill Gross the CIO of Pimco says that
“the most important part of my day isn’t on the trading floor. Every day at 8:30 A.M., I get up from my desk and walk to a health club across the street. I do yoga and work out for probably an hour and a half, between 8:30 and 10. [...] After about 45 minutes of riding the exercise bike and maybe ten or 15 minutes of yoga, all of a sudden some significant light bulbs seem to turn on. I look at that hour and a half as the most valuable time of the day.”
Bill Gross seems to get it right and considering he’s managing $200 billion dollars a day, I’ll take his advice. A lot of people say that they don’t have time to workout/lose weight/eat healthy. I figure if multi-billion dollar hedge-fund managers can do it, so can I. Exercise does not have to be a burden or something dreaded. Put on your economist hat and get in the mindset that you are increasing your mental and physical utility. 10 minutes of exercise may prevent you from pulling out your hair and also help you achieve that 6-pack.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/02/news/newsmakers/howiwork_fortune_032006/index.htm
Defining Success
I figure since I’m blogging about a journey to a successful life, I should define what my ideal successful life entails. I’m sure this vision will change ever so often, but I think some starting points will be helpful.
My Successful Life:
1. Socially successful – great family, friends, colleagues. Having the piece of mind that other people have your back when the going gets tough.
2. Physically successful – healthy, fit, active. Able to go to the gym every morning, go rock climbing, mountain bike, surf, go for a run on a sunny day.
3. Financially successful – afford the lifestyle I want.
Illini Entrepreneurship Network (IEN)
A group of very motivated students and myself are undertaking arguably the most difficult task at UIUC: put students of different ideas, majors, and backgrounds in a room and build the next bread of startups.
I’ve noticed the only difference between UIUC and some of the Universities near Silicon Valley is the atmosphere. Silicon Valley allows for ideas to flow and develop; we need that at UIUC. Too many students (myself included) have ideas or skills to support those ideas. The trick is finding those students and getting them to meet; that is what IEN is for.
Our goals seem relatively simple: provide an atmosphere where students can network and create startups. We’ve modeled ideas after MPowered and SEN started at University of Michigan and Stanford respectively. We will bring students from ACES, The College of Business, Computer Science, Engineering, and Law together and allow these students to work together with other students, Alumni, and VC firms. We’ve received amazing support of various University groups and colleges to promote our soon to be Registered Student Organization (RSO).
Right now we are in our development stages. We have settled on the name; now its time to organize our agenda, ideas, and plans for the Fall 2008 semester.
Links:
http://ien.uiuc.edu
http://mpowered.web.itd.umich.edu/
http://www.stanford.edu/group/eship/
