My Motivational Touchstone Essay Example for Free

My Motivational Touchstone Essay I once spoke to a very well educated man whom I had never met before, have only spoken to him on the phone and found that he gave me some compelling thoughts that would change my life forever, He gave me courage and conviction that hopefully will make me whole again as a person. I am coming to the conclusion that I am writing a letter to myself and will be my personal motivational journal and success within myself. I could write for hours, days and weeks and tell a never ending story; however I must begin somewhere and end somewhere. My life of failure and true disappointments has been what I would call an educational disaster. I believe in the foundations of education, the roots of learning which stems from the roots of your soul and the passion in which you strive for. I pray for success and courage that I will make it. I want to do my best and like Florence Chadwick when she swam in the mighty ocean, she never saw the bottom, she only saw the shore line and sometimes that was even difficult, but with motivation, determination and most of all strength, she braved the darkest hours as well as the shining moments. Her arms and legs may have given out, but it certainly was her heart that did not quit. I will be brave in my mind, for I do not want my mental diseases to take over my heart and make me a quitter again. I have PTSD, and I have come up with an anagram for the 4 letters, Positive Thinking Shall Develop. This will be one of my motivation words that I will put by my mirror to make me smile and strive for that tassel of hope. I feel these two quotes represent my personality, the standards in which I live by and most of all, that I feel is motivation for me because it inspired me for two reasons, number one is education. I will find solace in knowing I have found my calling in health psychology with a concentration in PTSD and emotional, mental as well a physical abuse. (This happened to me). We cannot live better than in seeking to become better. † ? Socrates The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. Aristotle The above quotes will forever be my shore line and the sand will never be rocky, only perfect with beautiful sea shells.

Renaissance Man and Renaissance Women Essay -- essays research papers

Between the 1300s and 1500s, Europe experienced a period of cultural rebirth known as the Renaissance, marking the transition from medieval times to modern times. The Renaissance brought new importance to individual expression, self-consciousness and worldly experience. The Renaissance man and woman characterized the Renaissance ideals. A renaissance man was a well- educated gentleman who had cultural grace, courage and who understood the arts and sciences. On the other hand, a Renaissance woman was supposed to marry well, be loyal to her husband and give birth to boys. The most famous Renaissance man was Leonardo Da Vinci who was born on April 15th 1452 in Florence, Italy. Da Vinci was truly recognized by many to be a Renaissance child and later a Renaissance man because of his many talents. He revealed his artistic talents at the age of 17 when he was hired as a studio boy to Andrea Del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio workshop, Da Vinci was introduced to main techniques, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. His ‘’Last Supper’’ and ‘’Mona Lisa’’are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. At the same time his scientific interests deepened: his concern with anatomy led him to perform dissections. After a period of time, Da Vinci’s scientific research began to dominate his other activities so much that his artis...

Consumer Decision Making Process

A CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING PROCESS IN PURCHSING A CAR Research suggests that customers go through five stages in making decision on any purchase (The Engel, Blackwell and Miniard, 1990). The economic buyer theory published by South-Western college in 1997 () explained that all customers have full information, make comparison, are rational, they have limited resources to satisfy their limitless needs, and they want to maximise satisfaction (page). A person who intends to purchase a car, go through a five decision-making stages. These include; Problem recognition Information search Evaluation of alternatives Purchase Post-purchase behaviours In dealing with these processes, it is important to note that there are factors influencing individual decision-making process. The factors could be categorized into three; Individual factors Motivation Perception Learning Personality, self-concept, lifestyle Values, beliefs and attitudes Social factors Culture Reference group Opinion leaders Family Social class Purchase situation Reasons for purchase Time Physical surrounding A consumer, influenced by the above factors goes through the first stage; Problem recognition: An individual realises that something is not as it should be. Perhaps, for example, an individual goes to work on a commercial bus or train late because of constant delays in travel time, decides he needs a car. Once the problem is realised it goes to the second stage. Information search: In this stage a consumer engages in both internal and external information search. The internal search involves gathering information in his mind about cars he prefers. External search on the other hand involves finding information from friends, reviewing in customers reports, (for example, accelerator pedal faults on some Toyota brands reported by BBC on 28 January 2010), consulting different websites, and visiting several dealerships. Information could be as well gathered from brochures, catalogs and news coverage. Evaluation of alternatives: The car industry is a competitive market and gives consumers options to choose, ranging from brands, product features, fuel efficiency, balance, space and price, for example a car may have a low price and good fuel efficiency, but slow acceleration. If the price is inexpensive and fuel efficient, the customer may select it over a car with better acceleration that cost more and use more fuel. Purchase: The above stage in the decision-making process determine what happens in this stage. This stage is when the consumer makes the purchase of the car. Post-purchase behaviours: This is where the consumer considers his decision for justification. The consumer then seeks new information to reinforce and judge whether he had the right price and quality for his money. The consumer could avoid contradictory information or deliberately seek contrary information to refute. He could even revoke the decision by returning the car. Firms and organisations invented strategies to overcome cognitive dissonance through sending post-purchase letters, cards, advertisement, guarantees, warrantees, instruction booklets and refund policies. (Festinger, L. 1957) In conclusion, the study of these consumer decision-making stages will help firms and organizations to improve their marketing strategies. REFERENCES Brassington and Pettitt, (2006), _Principles of marketing, 4th ed. _ FT Prentice Hall. Charles W. Lamb jr, Christo Boshoff et al. (1997), Consumer Decision-making process, South-western college publishing. Engel, J. F. , Blackwell, R. D. and Miniard, P. W. (1990), Consumer Behaviour, Dryden. Festinger, L. (1957), A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford university press. Lars Perner (1999-2008), Consumer Behaviour, Publish by university of Southern California, Business school.

Dimensional Fund Advisors Case Analysis Essay - 1337 Words

1) DFA’s investment strategy is based on their belief in the principle that stock market is efficient. They attempt to match a broad-based, value-weighted small-stock index and position themselves in the market as a passive fund manager that still claimed to add value by capturing specific dimensions of risks identified by financial science. DFA’s investment strategy incorporates elements of both passive and active management. It is passive in the sense that like many other index managers, it focuses on the importance of diversification, lower turnover and lower fees than actively managed portfolios. It is active in the sense that it develops its small-value stock focus based on academic research and uses certain techniques (such as†¦show more content†¦DFA’s trading strategy such as avoiding stocks if news announcements are coming in the near future or if stock has recently reported sales by insiders reflect a belief that stock prices can potentiall y not reflect all private information. DFA also does not accept the weak-form efficient because if stock prices only reflect all information in past prices, they would see the value of performance fundamental analysis of the firm they are looking at (but the case indicates that DFA does not performance fundamental analysis). 4) Fama and French’s three factor model attempts to explain the variation of stock prices through a multifactor model that includes a size factor and BE/ME factor in addition to the beta risk factor. Fama-French model essentially extended the CAPM (which breaks up cause of variation of stock price into systematic risk which is non-diversifiable and idiosyncratic risk which is diversifiable) by introducing these two additional factors. Fama and French find that stocks with high beta didn’t have consistently higher returns than stocks with low beta and this indicates that beta was not a useful measure under their model. Their model is based on research findings that sensitivity of movements of the size and BE/ME factor constituted risk, andShow MoreRelatedDfa Case Study7650 Words   |  31 Pages9-203-026 REV: JANUARY 28, 2003 RANDOLPH B. COHEN Dimensional Fund Advisors, 2002 In June of 2002, David Booth faced a dilemma. His firm, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), had in recent times shown stellar performance after going through some relatively rough patches in the late 1990s. Growth was steady and profits strong. 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