Thinking About Success

1. Opportunity. Opportunity is the most important of the four words when it comes to success. I believe this because people that are born in situations with less opportunity tend to stay in the same situation most of their life, especially if you want to consider wealth a success. Statistically speaking, people born in lower income situations tend to stay in those situations rather than to move up.
2. Luck. Luck is almost as important as opportunity. Luck is very vital in success, and you can sometime see it in people who have little skill and are not exactly hard working.
3. Hard work. Although it is not as important as the first two, it is still more important than skill. Any time I think of comparing hard work and skill I always think of the old phrase, "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."
4. Skill. Although being blessed with a lot of skill would make things easier, it is truly not that important in becoming successful.

Supply Chain Management

After reading these articles I have realized that there are many ways large, million dollar companies can run their businesses. Zara, for example is a very fast paced, trendy company that is able to be that way due to their very localized way of doing things. The company keeps very close relationships with their suppliers and is in constant contact in order to make sure they have the  newest, trendiest clothing at all times. On the other hand, Uniqlo designs their clothing long in advance and believes that customers focus more on quality than they do trends. The company may spend months testing and trying new clothing before they begin mass producing it. Then there is H&M, who uses both philosophies and is kind of a hybrid of the two companies. They use both "fast fashion" and long term planning. The strange thing is is that all off the companies, no matter what their style of business is all make a lot of money doing what they do. The companies have perfected there craft into almost an art form. One question that was brought to my mind while reading this was what do companies like Nike, Under Armour, Adidas and other sporting wear companies do? Because sports fashion can change almost instantly. It seems as if all it takes is for one big name athlete to do something and then there are hundreds of thousands of young athletes running around wearing whatever they were and on the other hand they have staples that they have to create year in and year out, like cleats, yet the style of cleat changes every year and they are always better than the previous. Are sportswear companies into "fast fashion?"

Letter for Test

                                Dear Mom,

           I'm sorry I just now got around to writing this letter, I know you must have been worried sick. Anyways, I have now been here for almost a month and I am becoming really used to my new homeland. I have even caught on to the English language very quickly, as you can tell.

           When I first arrived here I was very scared and worried. I got off the boat in a large city by the name of New York. It is a wonderful, thriving city with many, many people. However, it was incredibly terrifying. It is nothing like home. At first, I couldn't find anyone to talk to, except for this one man who was on the same boat as me. He said that he knew a place where there were more people like us, so after we got off I followed him through the city into a small area that reminded me of home. There are are so many Italians here, the community itself is called Little Italy. Thankfully, you and father gave me enough money to be able to buy a half way decent apartment. Some people in this city live in tiny, one bedroom apartments with almost five times as many people as there should be and it is incredibly disgusting to see the way in which they live. I don't travel from Little Italy much, except to work. I often feel threatened when I leave the community because some of the "natives" will yell at me and threaten me, and I have heard stories of the things they do to immigrants like myself. Either way, I am very thankful to be in America now.

           I am also adapting to the American way of life very easily. In Little Italy, most of the Italians are very Americanized, or they are trying to be like the Americans. We all have studied the English language very hard and most of us are picking it up well enough to talk to our bosses. We even sometimes eat their food, and I must say it is pretty good.