5 Tips for Campaigning

I have been at the State Leadership Conference for FBLA these last three days and one of my major “things to do” was campaigning for District Vice President! I was successful albeit I was the only one running but I learned many things that I thought I’d share.

1. Don’t waste your time- This is a major one because at a 3-day event, time is of the essence. After I set up my booth at the campaigning room, I would stand by it when no one else was around. I thought this was the thing we were “supposed” to be doing or maybe someone in charge would come around and wonder where I was but both were wrong. I wasted time trying to do the right thing when I could have competed in more events and network with more people and then come to my booth during busy hours. Instead time passed under my boredom.
2. Act fast, Act first- Whether it’s when you’re campaigning, talking to someone, or eyeing that cute girl you want to dance with across the room, you got to act fast and act first. There is no right time for anything but there are wrong times and that’s when you are too late. Either the opportunity will be gone or taken away and you will never know what could have came out of it if you had just toughened up to go and do it. In most cases just think about it this way, you’re going to be doing it anyways so might as well do it early and get it over with.
3. Find minions- In other words, delegate your tasks. Every great boss knows this and does this well. Every unsuccessful boss has this mentality that “nobody else can do things as well as I” which leads to overworking and bombing. Learn to rely on your friends to do things when you can’t or to make your work faster. I had many friends represent me at my booth while I did other tasks which helped a lot. 
4. Network, network, network- You have probably heard this at every other blog you’ve read but it is still true. You meet amazing people at events or conferences and some of those people can come in very handy or lifelong friends. More connections open yourself to more opportunities so definitely take the initiative and talk to people. I’ve realized that people really don’t mind because they are looking forward to meeting new people too so taking the initiative only makes things quicker.
5. Learn names- You get an awesome sense of a personal bond when you actually greet someone with their name. You come to learn someone’s name when they see it or from a peek at their nametag but learn to immediately memorize it if you feel this is a friend you will come back to. As Vice President, names are a must for me especially of board of trustee members and other important adults.

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Are you keeping things too private?

In today’s growing “social” world where websites like Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, Twitter, Wikipedia, and now Friendfeed all encourage this thing called “sharing”, should we be more focused on keeping things private or encourage sharing and the collaboration of minds?

One could argue that for startups, there is the need for privacy and to not let their “sacred ideas” get out before they get a chance to make something of it. So-called as going into stealth mode, founders try to keep as much as possible on the downlow until launch and boom from there. But this would also mean not getting other people’s view on things and being very selfish over things.

Recently I took my SAT and did pretty well (2330) so came the onslaught of “Ooh whatdya get’s?” from my friends. But no matter what I got I would have told them without embarrassment. Some of my friends on the other hand, refuse to reveal their elusive score in fear of criticism or who knows what. If they did bad, I would understand not telling the score and I instantly know it from the expression on their face so its ok.

But some cases, geniuses usually, choose not to say anything after “Ooh whatdya get?” probably in fear of competition. I know how their mind works, if they reveal what they got then I would know and if its better then I would take the test again and try to do better. Or if its worse then I can wallow inside on the sense that I did better. Or maybe they just don’t want to reveal how smart they are even though everyone probably knows they got a perfect score. Wrong, wrong and wrong, keeping it to themselves is just being selfish and conceited cause they don’t want others to do better themselves. In my case, I would never express any of the aforementioned reactions cause I honestly do want all my friends to do better and go to great colleges with me.

So I say embrace the idea of sharing and collaborating, the web sure has. Using tools like wiki’s makes things easier than ever. Of course you won’t want to reveal that super master plan for success to others but the basic ideas and concept should be out on the open market. A great example is Jessica Mah using a wiki last week to collaborate ideas for a speech she was presenting. She got the opinions of many others that crafted an even better speech.

I’m willing to bet the future will hold a lot more of this idea of sharing.

~Kevin Xu

Photo courtesy of photoai

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Can The World Hear. . . Us?

Not sure if any readers have noticed but the title of our blog is a slight flaw as it implies only one mastermind behind this idea and this dream. Although I am the primary writer, I want to make sure everyone knows that Josh is also intricate to the blog’s process with the backend work and constant discussions to further ideas and the future startup.

But beyond the naming problem, I realize this could lead to problems in the future over say copyright or ownership of this blog. As we go separate ways (I hope not), two roads diverge in a yellow wood, and we may never know where we may end up.

I hope when that time does come, this blog still stays alive and our memories and experience really advance us in wherever we are.  I know thatsounds corny but the inevitable does happen so although the title says “Can The World Hear Me” I really want it to be “Can The World Hear Us” as I believe there are more people than just Josh and me that share this dream.

On forth!

~Kevin Xu

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GoCrossCampus― Bringing Risk Online

Remember the traditional board game you used to play with your friends on bored weekends? Well a couple of guys from Yale and a guy from Columbia want to bring that same intense territory-conquering battle to the web, to your campus, dorm vs dorm. Meet GoCrossCampus (GXC).

This has created a huge stir across campuses as dorms get to make secret alliances and betrayals to battle for supremacy! All in the sake for bragging rights, exactly what college students love.

The game has recently hit the NYT and Techcrunch providing substantial coverage for an otherwise unheard of game beyond the college campus. They hope to expand their user base to even more universities and even large corporations for office vs office type battles. According to the NYT, it seems that Google has taken quite an interest. I hope they find their way to my high school next!

In my opinion, they have done all the right steps so far growing what was an idea into a full-fledged startup. Not many ideas have become more than an idea in a college dorm room (not everyone can be a Facebook) but GXC shows a lot of promise.

The one thing I always wished to see more of with Web 2.0 was integration with the real world. I always viewed the internet as the next “New World”, kinda how America used to be viewed with limitless possibilities, but we still need direct interaction in our current world. GXC involves optional planned meetups to elect commanders and spies for even more fun which is exactly what I wanted to happen. I bet this can be expanded for even greater depth!

GXC even emailed me and we chatted about ideas and such. Who knows, this might possibly turn into something. I’ll keep you guys updated.

So everyone go sign up! You don’t have to be affiliated with any colleges to play some games like the GoCrossPoliticalBash. Go Colbert! =D

~Kevin Xu

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Always keep it simple

Uncomplicated, straightforward, austere, smooth, easy, simple.

Everyone likes it when things are simple.  From web design to project assignments to blog posts. Simplicity has that rare beauty to delight the eyes and at the same time convey info.

Sadly the world is not always simple and but it is up to web designers to at least make the virtual world simpler. A favorite example of mine is Google, I mean have you seen their homepage? You go to Google to search and it lets you make a search without distraction. Easy, straight-to-the-point, simple.

Recently I received a certificate from Google for participating in the GHOP contest I mentioned earlier and I love it’s design.

Clean and simple, done

There’s absolutely no need for colorful backgrounds or random images to make it look “pretty”. It’s a certificate with my name, the contest, and a signature and I’m happy with it.

So with that in mind, we want to make “Can The World Hear Me” as simple as possible. Wordpress is the master at aggregating and automating many parts of the blog but sometimes it gets cluttered. Fortunately everything is customizable.  Uncluttering the website and making the content stand out is our current goal.

And to our new readers and old readers― we have revised the point of this blog to its simplest form:

 A chronicle of two boys’ journey to leave their mark on the world

~Kevin Xu

P.S. If anyone wants a really simple blog, Tumblr is the way to go. Simple design and simple posts give a whole feeling of calmness. I’m even considering creating a personal blog using Tumblr ;D

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Hello San Francisco!

Tomorrow I’m flying to California for a week-long super vacation extravaganza!

Basically I want to check out the startup culture and visit some colleges. I view San Francisco as a city full of wonderful opportunities for a young lad like me. Just by meeting the right people and making the right connections can get me really far in my dream.

First up I’ll be in Los Angeles from the 16th to the 18th. There will be a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tourney that I hope to get in. Only first 256 people though, let’s see how clever I am.

Then I hit the road and off to San Francisco from the 19th through the 22nd. I will be visiting Stanford on the 21st but other than that I will just be around the area just basking in the culture. I don’t think any big companies like Google or Apple will just let me talk to someone if I go into HQ. But I sure will try to take lots of pictures in front of those company logos!

I’ll also be sure to blog anything worth mentioning here. California has great wi-fi spots =D

So if anyone is in those areas, I will be more than happy to meet up with anyone! Just send an email or leave a comment. Aaron Stanton from CanGoogleHearMe actually offered to have lunch with me after reading my last post. He hasn’t replied back to my email but here’s me hoping for the best.

~Kevin Xu

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Back In The Swing of Things…

Can The World Hear Me was meant to be a starting point for us to create something notable enough for the world to know our names. And it is still that.

Besides the daily occurrences of schoolwork and social life, there is so much more to be done in one’s lifetime. We’re glad we didn’t realize that too late in our lives. If we just kept going with the status quo the whole time, we would just be another head in the crowd.

So this blog will chronicle major points in our journey to do just that. It has served well as a place to talk out our ideas and it will continue to do that. We want to extend its use to become an online portfolio as well as a planning area. We also got Moleskine notebooks for private ideas and planning.

Currently this is the laid out plan:

• Full redesign of the blog― Expected date: March 25
• Launch Birthday Blog Idea― Expected date: End of Spring
• Establish first Startup― Expected date: End of Summer
• *Meanwhile gain experience and startup know-how

There may be a slow down in the number of posts per week but that is only because we want to emphasize major updates in our journey. It may seem like we have been re-iterating our same goals but that is because of our constant posting. We’ll try to fit in a post a week to keep everything updated and that also serves as a due date to make sure we do something interesting every week.

We are also very interested to hear from our readers. Either drop us a comment or email us, we’re interested in the general reaction.

~Kevin Xu and Josh Belanich

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Don’t worry, We’re working!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, since the new year started school has taken full swing on our minds and sapped our ability to write a decent blog post (Ok that was a lame excuse but just go with it). But we have been working very hard toward our long-term goals! Don’t believe us? Here’s a quick run-through:

• Kevin has been pro-actively studying like a madman for the SATs on January 26 thus the lack of posts as the main author. This is one of the final obstacles in the way of his dream college and he is planning to go all out on this one and do his best so he will not have to worry about it ever again. He has forcefully reduced himself down to the “good asian student” and postponed all other aspects of “fun life” until after January 26.
• Kevin has also created a website for ThinkQuest about Dunbar’s Number. This was done in an extreme example of an all-nighter but on the plus side it looks awesome and he played with more code than was possible in a small amount of time. He hopes to get it uploaded online soon so our readers can see it, critique it, and become educated as well.

• Josh has run through several drafts and templates for a new design for the website. Below is his current draft and any suggestions, advice, critiques are HIGHLY appreciated: (click for larger view)
• Josh has also been thinking about a new section for all our various ideas and projects. One of the main things that we lack is credibility and even though we are slowly building it up, we want a place on our blog to store all that stuff too. Kind of like an informal online portfolio so people know that we are serious and not just kids playing around. This will take some tweaking of the Wordpress code but if anyone knows an easier way to do this then please leave a comment!

That would be considered hard work right? Well we hope it all pays off in the long run. The fun thing about having a blog and dreaming of a startup is that you really don’t know where you are going to end up. Enjoy the ride as they say.

To conclude, we also have an idea! It’s not a super-big idea like Facebook but it is an idea and we might go for it. One thing we do know is that it hasn’t been taken in any which way or form so thats really good. It might lead to something and it isn’t that hard to create either (we think…).

We feel like being a tease so let’s say that it is a rare topic mentioned on blogs but everyone has one and it starts with the letter “B”. To make it more exciting, we are also going to give the first person that guesses it right Zen Habit’s E-Book Zen To Done by Leo Babauta for free! We are allowed to do this now since he released his copyright and we hope that someone can benefit from Leo’s guide for a simpler life!

~Can The World Hear Me

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Starting the next Bubble?

I have been known to be a “futurist” and by that I mean half my mind is always in the future. I’m usually thinking of things that will happen in the near future and how I can prepare for it and also the far future and what I can expect. And lately I’ve been noticing that my venture into startups might be very bad timing.

Read the rest of this entry »

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U can haz t-shurts?

I couldn’t sleep last night. I had my first major breakthrough for an idea. Normally I would be keeping this idea a secret but I have a reason to share.

The idea was for lolcat t-shirts.

I bet the idea has been thrown around but no particular “store” has been made to specifically sell shirts with a lolcat on it. My idea was specifically for customers to upload the lolcat they want on the t-shirt. Of course there will also be pre-made ones for the most popular lolcats.

Imagine a t-shirt of a lolcat wearing a t-shirt of a lolcat wearing a t-shirt… yeah you get it. Add a funny caption as well.

I came up with domain names, hosting options, website layouts, models, profit numbers, time management problems, money issues, “lolcat gramur”, beta’s, trails, competition, partnerships, marketing, t-shirt making techniques, and finally legal issues. . .

icanhascheezburger currently has the monopoly over lolcats and believe it or not, they have a store. But the items they sell are ICHC-related products which have little to no relation to what I am aiming at. So technically I still can proceed with this. . .

But while looking over the terms of use, I came upon this:

Any use of the Website or its Content or services that Pet Holdings finds, in its sole discretion, to use its resources or User Submissions with the effect of competing with or displacing the market for the Website, its Content, or its User Submissions.

Being only 16, I do not have much legal knowledge (I even tried asking a lawyer teacher at my school) about copyrights and permissions, etc. But what I do know is if this idea did come about, many customers will probably take pictures from icanhascheezburger (maybe even crop out the little trademark out) and this can lead to all sorts of issues and CEO Ben Huh and Pet Holdings, Inc will not be very happy.

There is also the thing with making t-shirts during our busy school-weeks. There is that part of me that would not risk going to college for a t-shirt company.

And I’m not sure our parents would be too keen on investing money for t-shirt screening materials. This website seems to be quite helpful in that factor but we could also find potential partner-ups in the local area. Then this all comes back to money again.

So we definitely need help if anything is to happen. This might be newbish bit its worth a try. I declare this post an informal open letter to Ben Huh and anyone else that might be able to help us. I call for a partnership or some formal deal. Digg this post, email us, leave a comment, any support is appreciated. Somehow get this word to the right people.

A large part of me believes nothing will come out of this but that sentimental child inside of me can still hope.

~Kevin X

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