A Summary of the Best. Week. Ever.
I’m sorry it’s been so long since I said hello… I’ve been busy having the Best. Week. Ever.
For starters, I had what the worldly would call a kick-ass presentation at work. One of the things I’ve noticed after spending a few years working in a corporate environment is that people are generally weak and complacent. I recently decided to give up the facade, and just go after the things I want. If I get chewed out, so be it. The risk of achieving something incredible that nobody else has ever done is worth it.
So, I called a meeting with the executive team of the company I’ve been working at for only a month. Basically, I drug their website through the mud… probably a little too harshly, but in the end I got what I wanted. We all came to the consensus that we needed to make a change.
I am now spearheading the site redesign so I can effectively put into place my internet marketing plans to drive hundreds of thousands of people to our site. I’m so excited to transform this company, and show them that I can do things they never thought possible.
To celebrate my personal victory in the board room, I purchased a new phone. It’s a Palm Pre, and I love it more than the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland… and that’s saying something. I promise.
The following day, I applied for graduation. I can’t explain in words the feelings of joy and accomplishment I gained from this experience. I can, however, show you what my victory dance looked like.
Not 30 minutes after completing my graduation application, I received an email (on my new phone) informing me that I’d just won $50 from an internship competition I’d entered a few months earlier. We were supposed to write an essay explaining why we had the best internship experience ever. I won the Best Carreer-Building Experience award, and will post a link as soon as it goes up on the Career Services website.
The next day I was sifting through my Google Reader and stumbled upon this petition for Interns from Andy Sernovitz of Gas Pedal. If you don’t know who Andy Sernovitz is, or what GasPedal is, well… that’s ok. But, in a nutshell, he’s a hero of mine, and it’s a company I would LOVE to work for. I applied that day, and heard back almost emidiately. I have a call to discuss an internship tomorrow (Tuesday).
You’d think this would be the end of the best week ever, wouldn’t you? Well, it’s not.
On Friday I found out I was a finalist for a trip to New York over spring break. A professor in my department scored a grant and is taking 7 students to network with industry professionals for 5 days. Fourty students applied. Twelve were called back for interviews.
I felt really good about the interview, and not 3 hours later got a call with the news that I was chosen to participate.
At this point, my brain exploded. The amount of awesome experienced in one week was just too much to handle. There was really only one thing I could do at this point. I sat in my bedroom and did a slow clap for myself.
If there is one thing I’ve learned from this week, it’s that the only way to be freakin’ awesome is to take risks and do all of the crap nobody else wants to do. When you get down to the nitty gritties, most people are pretty much pansies. They don’t have the cojones to think they can succeed. They fear failure. They quake at the idea of competition. And that, my friends, is why I succeeded this week and will continue to do so. I refuse to be satisfied. I don’t care who I have to compete against to get what I want – I’m going to fight tooth and nail to get it, and unless my competition is willing to do the same… well… you can guess who will end up with the WIN.
Thanks to Ryan for pointing me to this video… it expresses exactly how I’ve been feeling lately.

January 25th, 2010 at 10:04 am
I am soooo happy for you. It really couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. You are like the little brother I never had… except I did have a little brother but he doesn’t do anything noteworthy (or anything worthy for that matter) so I adopted you as my brother!
Congrats!!! You totally deserve it!
January 25th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Congratulations!
You will like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLN2k0b3g70
January 25th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Congrats!!!!! So excited for all the wonderful things that are coming into play! NYC will be a blast!! I’m only a $20 bus ride from NYC and still haven’t made it..
You’ve got lots of good karma finally coming your way
January 25th, 2010 at 11:37 am
WOW, so happy for you Nate!!! AMAZING COOLNESS.
My week was really quite awesome too, no wonder you’re my bro!
You didn’t even mention that fact that you got your company to be a premier sponsor for our Seth Godin event for Haiti! You rock my socks.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:28 am
i am so happy for you!! and just wait…we are going to see the dinos this week…so you have not really had the BEST week yet
February 15th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I love your blog