My Experience With Gambling

I never imagined myself ever risking my money as much as I have done this school year.  Since I was little, I always loved saving money until I did not know what to do with it.  My grandparents would occasionally purchase scratch lottery tickets for me and my brother, but that was the only time I ever won money off of gambling.  This year is where my liberal use of money came to be.  My roommates asked if I wanted to play poker with them one night.  I knew the rules of Texas Hold’em and a few other card games but never pursued putting money on the table for it.  I played alright the first time, not gaining or losing any money.  The next time I played, I ended up winning about $4-5.  Feeling very confident, I kept playing with the group of guys every Monday and Wednesday.  I have to say, to this day, I have still won more times than lost, which has completely changed my opinion on how I spend my money.  Another recent instance of gambling was entering the realm of penny stocks.  I do have some money in mutual funds and annuity plans, but I have a financial planner that takes care of all the work.  I personally had no clue how they worked, so I made sure to be extra conservative with those funds.  Last month, I found an app on my phone that specifically lets you buy and trade stocks (S&P 500) for free.  From the experience I had with poker, I wanted to risk buying volatile share to see if I could make a quick buck.  Unfortunately, I have lost over half of the money that I have put in, but I now understand the basics of the stock market and how I should properly risk my economic status.

Team Sales Competition

I am in a introduction sales class at UW-Whitewater and I just finished competing in a team sales competition two weeks ago.  My partner, David, and I pretended to be sales representatives for Sherwin Williams and our goal was to convince a client to change their purchasing habits from Benjamin Moore paint to Sherwin Williams.  The client that we spoke to was an actual sales representative for Sherwin Williams, which was really helpful to have and a little nerve-racking.  The part that made us most anxious was the six judges that sat in the same room as us and watched us pitch our product to our client.  At first, the greeting we gave was a bit lackluster as we stuttered talking, but after we moved on to building rapport, it felt like a normal conversation.  David and I were able to make the client and judges laugh and the entire presentation was really engaging and interesting.  We ended up receiving positive feedback from everyone, and, in the end, placed 2nd out of over 300 sales students!     A month and a half before this event, I had to take part in a sales pitch competition by myself.  To summarize how it went, I was ill-prepared and completely screwed up halfway through because of nervousness.  After that, I promised myself to reflect on what I did wrong for the next time I would compete (and I killed it!).  I was astounded to see myself so calm and confident during the team sales.  I was given a plaque and a cash prize during our next class and took a photo with David and the other winners.  The craziest part of this story is that one of the judges who actually worked for Sherwin Williams was my recruiter for their summer internship program!  She praised me for my wonderful performance and set me up with a face-to-face interview with the Waukesha City Manager.  They gave me an offer!  I am so blessed to see my progress as a salesman and marketer and cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me!

Hope and Dreams

My goal in life has always been to push myself towards the best that I can be, whether it having to with winning in sports, completing my Eagle Scout Project, maintaining a 3.5 GPA in high school and college, or finishing budgets early as a house painter.  I have had a passion for pushing myself to the utmost limits I can which has helped me become the successful person I am today.  Now that I have gained so much work and life experience, how will I apply that to a job or internship I’ll be a part of in the near future?  First and foremost, I aspire to get a digital marketing job with either the Milwaukee Bucks, the Winter X Games, or BMO Harris Bank.  I already have an interview set for BMO’s summer internship program, so I look forward to using this opportunity to give me a rich set of abilities for job down the road.  I know so much about the Internet, since it has been a key part of my entire childhood, and I have learned a great deal of information on how to brand and market myself and other companies.  With this knowledge, I am confident that my skill set will benefit each company that I work for because of my hardworking, loyal, and motivated personality.  I hope to also learn insight on how the companies that I work for operate and how I can efficiently progress their social media presence as well as online profits.  I do not see an end to my exponential advancement in digital marketing and one day completely stomp my competition’s innovation with my own!

The Rise of Winter X-Games

The world of sports consists of numerous styles, such as soccer, football, swimming, and E-Sports.  However, there has been a recent surge in sports that require cold weather: winter sports.  From skiing to snowboarding to snowmobiling, these adventurous, quite dangerous sports have risen to fame in the past decade and even more so in the last half decade.  The main reason to this unbelievable growth comes from one of the most watched sports event in winter: the X-Games.  Ever since its beginning, the Winter X-Games displays some of sports most daring, athletic, and adrenaline-seeking competitors in the world.  The events range from snowmobilers double-backflipping over 100-foot gaps, snowboarders racing over 60 miles per hour on a side-winding course, and skiers grinding on rails and pulling off triple cork 1440s!  One of the key athletes that help create X-Games growing fame was Shawn White.  This insane snowboarders competed in the X-Games for over fifteen years, showcasing death-defying, new tricks that set him apart from every other opponent.  During one of his last final X-Games, this man received a 100 (a perfect score) from the judges during his final Superpipe run, which had never been done before!  Other athletes, such as Bobby Brown, Henrik Harlaut, Torah Bright, Kelly Sildaru, Colten Moore, and Tucker Hibbert have paved the way for future generations who look to progress winter extreme sports.  Many kids look up to these superstar athletes and practice on their local ski hills or snowmobile trails to become one of the next greats.  The Winter X-Games encompasses a multitude of amazing professionals that may soon take over the face of sports.