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Socially Responsible Investing

9/30/2013

Today Mr. Topf, our client, told us that he wanted to invest on sustainable, socially, conscious, mission, green, ethical company therefore our project had to focus on "Socially Responsible Investing".

The past week has given us the opportunity to explore and learn independently about finance. Now that we know more about the unit and the different terminology and what the client wants exactly it is easier to create the proposal and presentation.

Today I learned the exact needs of my client which are:
1. Socially Responsible Investment

2. Invest in:
Stock#1: Great place to work & values its employes
Sources: Forbes and Bloomberg
Stocks#2: Alternative Energy
Stock#3: Innovative products that make our lives better and does social good
Stock#4: A company you admire and respect

3. More than 10% of return on investment

4. Companies and sectors that are innovate

After understanding our client my group and I divided the tasks(each one do a stock) to then conquer.

I was looking at Starbucks and Whole Foods which are ranked good places to work in and also have a steady increment of growth in the market.

Today we also learned how to read some basic information of stocks.
Market Capitalization
-Number of shares * price per share
-How much shares they have in the market and how much they are worth?

Earnings per Share (EPS)
-Suggests that investors are expecting higher earnings growth in the future compared to companies with a lower P/E
-The lower the P/E the more revenue the company will have
-Higher the P/E the more volatile Volume
-How many stocks are bought and sold -Yield; dividends- return in investment
-Volatile- because the stock goes up in a short amount of time
-Companies who are sustainable and reliable are more likely to have a steady chart

Finally we learned about the triple bottom line which refers to having profit in the bottom line, least importance. (1. PEOPLE 2. Planet 3.Profit)

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Just Published!

9/26/2013

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Harry Bliss

9/26/2013

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Today we got the chance to meet Harry Bliss, the cartoonist for the New Yorker. It was a very cool experience since he was able to tell us his story about how we ended up drawing and developing this passion.

Harry Bliss mentioned that art is an escape, it helps us distress and enhance our creativity. Something I really admire from his is that he does his work for himself, "I draw for myself, to make me laugh". It is cool that he focusses on how much his job makes him happy instead on focussing on the profit and what he gains back. Also another thing I admire form him is how persistent he was during his career he mentioned how we would run up and down on 5th Av. in New York showing around his portfolio until someone liked his cartoons. Also he mentions how he sends between 10 to one time 50 cartoons to his boss in the New Yorker and only one or sometimes none get picked.

You only need to have an open, curios mind to draw, anyone can draw.

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Finance 101

9/25/2013

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The last week we've spend time learning about finance and actually experiencing how hard the real world is. We realized how it can sometimes be very frustrating and stressing when working with money. For me this finance unit has been a great opportunity; we are all surrounded by this terms (stocks, investments, bonds, IPO, Beta, etc.) daily and we don't know what they mean.

This week I researched and learned many concepts about finance independently. At times I got very stressed because some terms were very hard to understand however this frustration forced to explore many sources so I went from Youtube videos to websites and to actual experts, like my dad who taught me about investments and the different ways of investing. By actually experiencing and going around gathering information I was able to understand much more the concepts and actually get in the shoes of a real financier, real life experience.

Today I learned something very important, when learning something new it is very important to stay open minded and open to new ideas, concepts and opinions. When talking to James my group and I were so into his advise that we only focused on stocks and we shut off all the other investing methods without even learning about them. When talking to my dad he told me that mutual funds was the best bet, I was so confused then, Iw as receiving so much advice that I didn't know what to do. So I researched all the investment options and I figured with all my research that mutual funds and ETF's are the best bet.

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Meeting James Barnette

9/23/2013

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Today I learned A LOT! Last class I was absent so I was a little behind with the Finance unit in terms of terminology and concepts but during my independent time, meeting with James Barnette and class discussions I was able to catch up and learn many many things.

Meeting with a real financial advisor was a very cool and unique opportunity; having this opportunity to experience taking to a financial advisor while doing this project truly made me feel as if it was a real life thing, therefore I had more intrinsic motivation to do this project good. It gave me a true essence of what people in the real world do as they create and develop investment proposals for real investors.

One of the t things I learned in the meeting with James Barnette was about risky and safe investments.
Risky: invested in the stock market, very volatile
Safer: bond market- prices don't tend to go up and down much
stock market-> more money -> higher level of risk
things that are steadier-> don't grow as much

I also learned that if you want to make a long term investment stock market is the best way to go. Stock markets are very risky since it depends weather a company grows or not, but it's been shown that companies grow through out the years so certainly there will be a gain there. Also there maybe a down or decrease as time goes by but the company will always grow and gain back. (See graph)

Moreover I learned about a very cool term called risk return trade off. What this concept explains is that the more risk you are willing to face the more you will have in return. Time reduces risk, this is because companies grow over time.

Finally I also learned about IPO, at least now I am able to understand it. I remember last week when we did the independent reading for the first time and I came across an article in Fast Company about Twitter filing an IPO. I remember about closing down the article because I didn't understand anything but today I was able to learn about it, so I went back to the article and it was very cool because I was able to understand much more of it. IPO stands for Initial Public Offering which is the first time a private company is willing to share or sell a stock to the general public.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3017372/twitter-has-filed-for-an-ipo

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TED Talk Presentation

9/12/2013

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I have just presented my TED Talk so the feelings are fresh in my mind. I feel that I did a much better job than the first time. I am proud of my work!

Before going to stage I was feeling nervous but I was able to control it. As my turn approximated I began to freak out. When I watched Domenico's presentation I felt a strong desire to present; something very weird because since I am very shy I hate to talk in public, especially alone. However, when I watched him present I kind of got excited about presenting to the audience. I felt that I had made my presentation so much more personal and better that I really wanted to share my story with everyone.

When it was finally my turn my heart started to beat faster and faster as I walked to the stage. I was very scared to fail. The main reason why I am so scared to ruin my presentation is because I only had one shot to show my work in the best way possible. I felt pressured. So I feel that I need to reward my hard work by giving an outstanding presentation. However this was very hard for me.

As I begun to talk I had some problems with the clicker because the slides wouldn't change, but the clicker wasn't really the problem, it was myself, I was so stressed I didn't even think were I was clicking. Then as a few slides passed I begun to gain more confidence and I became more natural, I felt the personal connection with what I was saying that I started to enjoy telling my story. However my body couldn't control the stress and my hands were trembling, I felt the notecards shake and all I could think was what if they mess up or the notecards fall. This stress begun to take over me and that small confidence that I took a while to gain suddenly left. Then I begun to rush, that's what I usually do when I am scared, because I want it to be over.

The worst part for me was when I suddenly begun talking about something and the next slide didn't match, I had realized that I have skipped a notecard, an idea, and I had to go back and fix my mistake. I return as fast as I could to the previous slide where I messed up and I what I had forgotten. Even though I was able to fix it I was still stressed because my notecards begun to mess up and I was really scared to forget something and not be able to find it.

When I finished talking about Angelica I realized that I didn't really need the notecards, this presentation was so personal to me that it was truly all inside my heart and all I need was a little more confidence, because the emotion and the words were all there with me during the entire time, they were just blocked by the stressed and my nerves.

When my presentations was over I felt happy, I had finally finished and I got through it all. I also realized that I had greatly improved since my last presentation to the class but I could have still done a better job. For next time, if we ever get the chance to do the TED Talk again I will defiantly try to do it without notecards. In fact, I will practice without them, I need to get more confident about myself and be sure that I will do all right, think about all the good positive outcomes instead of the negative ones.

I really would love to get another chance to do this TED Talk not only to do it better but also to get more experience presenting and using my oral english skills. Over the years, especially in high school, I feel that I have focused a lot on my writing, which is very solid now, and I have left my speaking skills behind, which is also very important. I am really looking forward to November to give the r e a l TED Talk because it is truly one of my dreams and for this I will need a lot of practice and confidence.

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Keynote

9/11/2013

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Today I learned to use Keynote. It's very easy and if you know how to use it well, add effects, transitions and actions you create a really cool presentation.

I am using Keynote to create the presentation for my TED Talk, this will allow me to have really cool media that goes along with my presentation and engages the audience.

Keynote allows you to incorporate media such as images and video in your slides without having to close down your presentation to open a video. Also if you don't have time to edit and cut the unnecessary parts of a video or take out the volume with Keynote you can decide when a video start and ends and you can take out the volume as well. Moreover you can also add cool effects and actions to your slide you can make the text and pictures come in and out with at different times and with different effects. Finally the last cool thing I learned is that Keynote helps toy stay organized, by allowing you to group and organize your slides. It allows you to group the slides from the same topic so it is easier to work with.

http://www.apple.com/iwork/tutorials/#keynote-intro (Take a look at the tutorials)

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David Fishman

9/10/2013

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Today we had a very cool experience as David Fishman came to visit us and we were able to talk to him about the book, The Secret of Seven Seeds, which we are reading on class and meditation.

David is very cool, his perspective about life is very interesting, yesterday I was very into his discussion because he said various things that connected to my life. One of the reasons why I love the book Seven Seeds is because it helps me learn about myself. Today David told us about the importance of positive energy. When you enter into a room and you are very excited and the mood in the room is dead it changes completely the mood of the person. Therefore successful business men are the ones who relax and take things easy in their company if they have a good atmosphere around them then the people will be influenced by that and will keep that mood.

David also talked about the 7 intrinsic needs which are : autonomy, competence, relatedness , learning, innovation, fun and transcendence. David mentioned how the Innovation Academy has almost all of them, the only one we need to work on is competence by collaborating with talents and passions to make the Innovation Academy better and to create cool things. When David mentioned this I was kind of confused since I still haven't yet developed a true passion or something I might want to pursue in the future. Actually this is the reason why I joined Innovation, I want to find a true passion. David told us he was very good about helping people choose what they want to study or career they want to pursue so he told us next time we meet we was going to help us with this.

I was very exited about this discussion and I can't wait for the next session. The meditation was very relaxing and nice, it was a very interesting new experience. I am cool to find out about things I am good at so I can kind of know where I should aim for a career.

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TED Talk

9/9/2013

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Ever since I was small I have been a very shy person. Over the years I've come to gain more confidence and I have loosen up myself more but I still think I am an introvert. Shyness sometimes is a sign of my own insecurity, however, today this is a big problem I have learned to manage it. I've gained more confidence within myself and my actions. The problem really is that I don't feel comfortable speaking up as much because I don't feel my oral speaking in english are strong enough. This is why while presenting I get very nervous and anxious because I am very scared to speak in public and to go blank.

Doing this TED talk really pressures me to speak up and have a good oral presentation since many members of our community will come to watch them on September 12. Little by little my oral skills in spanish have improved and I don't get very anxious, stressed or nervous while presenting in spanish since it's my first language and I feel very comfortable speaking and improvising. Therefore while presenting in spanish I am able to control myself and breath. However, in english, this is not the case, I don't feel very confident about my english speaking skills, even though they have improved a tone in this month, but also the fact that I am nervous about the presentation makes it harder on me.

Today while presenting the TED Talk to my friends I freaked out a lot inside, I don't show it. While presenting I was always thinking about going slow because I know that when I am stressed I rush and no one can understand. I managed to control my pace very well which I was proud of. However I have to loosen up and learn to control my stress because when I am nervous and scared my brain blanks and I am not able to get excited about my story and be more emotional which will make my presentation better, more engaging and genuine. Also if I would be more relaxed I would be be more natural, this will make the audience like my presentation more since I would be more into my stories and the anecdotes will seem more real, thus connect to the audience.

After talking to David Fishman and reading his book I've come to learn two great strategies for relaxation. The first one been meditation. This is hard for me since I am always thinking about stuff; it is so useful since it allows your body to forget about everything and help it get relaxed as you forget all your nerves allows you perform better. The second thing I learned is to breath properly, If I concentrate on my breathing and do one of the breathing techniques that the book or David taught me I would be able to relax, be secure and less stressed about presenting and I would do a better job.

Before my next presentation I am going to practice but before saying my presentation I am going to focus on my breathing for a bit and then see how this affects or impacts my presentation.

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Tips for delivery of a TED Talk

9/4/2013

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You can't learn how to do something unless you actually go and do it!

Next week we need to deliver a TED Talk telling our personal story, about who are we, what has shaped or influence us. Today we read and learned about things you need to be aware off in order to give, deliver, a good ted talk.

What should you consider?
-Be aware of your audience reaction
-Eye contact
-Fluency
-Eliminate Spanish

How to end your TED Talk?
-Give a call of action to the audience
-Give a all of action to yourself

How to start you TED Talk?
-Start with something that will remain through out your presentation
-Not all statistics, media or anecdotes
-Have moments of reflection
What you take away from it?
-Very descriptive anecdote and then reflection

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