Do Good Things

#UOnyc12 Life is one long lesson.

Call me cliché. Call me pretentious. Call me whatever you want, but it’s true and this past week that I spent in New York with the University of Oregon Ad program was hands down the best experience of my life.

Many people may say the same thing for very different reasons. One person may say it because they love being immersed in such a diverse city. Another will say it’s because of the nightlife. While those two aspects of New York are great in their own way, they are not the reasons why I sit here in my room in the relaxed city of Eugene, OR and am in almost disbelief that I was able to share that experience with some amazing people.

Here are some of the lessons I took away from #UOnyc12:

Patience is a virtue. My trip, along with about ten others, started out with us expecting to get in to NYC at around 2 p.m. with time for shenanigans, but due to a mechanical failure with our plane, it turned into us not knowing if we’d even make it there on time for our first agency visit on Monday. Instead of overreacting, we stayed patient, stayed positive and got there earlier than we would have if we’d switched flights.

Guys. Sharing a bed is not as bad as it sounds and it a lot more comfortable than a hard floor littered with dirty clothes, trash, and electronic devices.

Inspiration is everywhere. It could be graffiti. It could be fashion. It could be architecture. It could be the streets. It could be a hand-drawn presentation. Inspiration is everywhere.

For the most part, people have good intentions. Me and two other friends were approached by a random girl asking for help in finding her way around. After telling her we weren’t from around NY and we trying to find a bar she told us she just arrived earlier in that afternoon to find a job and it was her birthday. We invited her to join us in our journey to find a place to grab a drink and got to help make her birthday afternoon that much better.

Working at a movie theater can be the most interesting part of your resume. The first question I was asked was about working at a movie theater. If you look hard enough, experience can be found in everything you’ve accomplished. So when you are making your resume and feeling down about not having a great internship of job stop. Look at the job you had getting you through college or that barista job you had for a summer.There will be something that relates to the field you are entering, you just have to find it.

Life really is a lesson. We just have to pay enough attention to learn from it. Thank you to Deb Morrison, Harsha Gangadharbatla, and Dave Koranda for making this experience possible. #UOnyc12 will be a memory never forgotten. 

As this wild crazy term comes to a screaming end and we’re dealing with, as the wise Professor Morrison would say, the ministry of magic fucking things up; here are a 7 pieces of advice that you should know.

1. Brand thinking is relationships, actions + purpose, living in the world, good business, and growing opportunity.

-A brand is a story constantly being told.

You should be reading. You should be asking questions. You should be curious. You should be interesting. You should be solving problems.

You should find a way to be indispensible.

-Find something about you that sets you apart from everyone else or just find someway to make an impact that others wont. Be special. Maybe you bring everyone cookies. Maybe it’s taking time out to see if you can help on a project that you don’t necessarily have a part in. Just find someway to set yourself a part from everyone else and run with it. Own it.

 You should be working on a project.

Effie

One Show

c.   Pop tent

5.   Job titles will evolve but be based on strong ideas, sound strategy, craftsmanship, and careful production.

Generosity Wins.

- Reoccurring theme we heard from a few of our presenters: Don’t be an ass hole. No body likes a ass hole.

Some people die at age 25, but aren’t buried till they’re 75.

- Never stop learning. Go back to Thing 2. You should be reading. You should be asking questions. You should be curious. You should be interesting. You should be solving problems. JUST LEARN. 

Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

Today is a sad and confusing day for me and the University of Oregon community. Our leader, Richard Lariviere, has been fired because of his creative and bold ideas.

I dont necessarily voice my opinion on many political issues very often because I am not very informed on them, but the reasoning behind the dismissal of Lariviere has got me quite upset and frustrated.

I have witnessed instances like Lariviere’s, albeit on a smaller scale, first hand in places I have worked. I’ve worked for people who strive to push their job description and better their work places by thinking outside the box. Typically the people working in their department really enjoy working for them, but then one day these employees show up to work and their manager is gone.

Like I said, I’ve seen it on a smaller scale, but it still affects people in the same way. These employees lost the manager they respected and that takes away from their motivation and desire to work for their employer.

This is the feeling I get from around campus these past few days. Not that people want to quit, but that they are confused and their spirits have been deflated.

Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, expressed his disapproval with the decision describing the move as “yet another application of Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law. For the chancellor and the State Board of Higher Education, a ‘team player’ is someone who falls in line with excellence does not fit in.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Uncle Phil in this statement, but will take it one step further and say that this applies to the corporate world in general. This is not just an issue about an innovator being fired, but an issue about bold and creative minds being silenced.

Throughout this whole ordeal President Lariviere has remained staunch on his position that this should not be about his employment status, but about furthering Oregon’s educational system. “I hasten to remind you that this is not about me,” says Lariviere. “We must all redouble our efforts to bring about positive change to the governance, funding and accountability of Oregon’s public universities.”

This is a true leader. Through the most difficult of times he deflects the attention from himself, and continues to push for his goal of a better university and stronger educational system. I only hope we can find someone who will continue to push the envelope and get our great university and the Oregon educational system to it’s full potential.  

#IStandWiththeHat