(Editor's Note: This is an extra feature not included in the print version of Pomona College Magazine.)
Bob Uyeda '93
Anaheim Heights, California
7:30 a.m.
I boot my laptop and retrieve my e-mail. While my e-mail downloads, I review yesterday to see how I spent my time. I do this primarily to hold myself accountable for my time management. Sometimes I realize I wasted my time on low priority tasks. Other times I realize I worked too much and didn't have any balance.
Please note that I said "worked too much" and not "worked too hard." There's a misguided belief that working hard is bad. Well, until someone can show me a highly successful person who earned that position without working hard, I will continue to work hard I just won't overwork. I almost burned out about a year ago while we were aggressively growing our company. Ever since we started our company, I kept telling myself that things would eventually get easier. Well, I guess I'm a slow learner, but I finally realized that things aren't going to get easier. After doing some research on stress, I learned that the secret wasn't to reduce stress, but to increase my ability to handle stress. After all, stress is what causes growth. So now I work hard, but I also play hard. Playing hard helps me recharge so that I can balance the high levels of stress that I face every day.
8:00 a.m.
Time to go to the office. I put a letter to Debbie Fulmer (Class of '93, maiden name Pieper), in my mailbox. I'm embarrassed to admit that she's one of the few college friends I'm still in regular contact with. I'm in e-mail contact with a handful of close college friends, and there's always a random phone call once or twice a year, but I've lost contact with many wonderful friends since graduation. Sometimes people just go their separate ways and move on, I guess.
My office is only 5 minutes away from my house one of the perks of being a business owner. As I pull into the parking lot, I glance over at one of the 6 buildings they just built next to us. We're thinking of buying Building #2. Unfortunately, it costs $1.4M so it's not an easy decision. We're in the middle of analyzing the numbers right now, but I secretly hope we get it. I don't normally get emotionally involved in financial decisions either it makes financial sense or it doesn't. But in this case, I want it! Maybe it's just my ego. After all, just four years ago (almost to the day), we started out with $1,000 and our "office" consisted of a folding table in my old house. Now we're thinking of buying our own building. Cool!
9:50 a.m.
Paul, my partner, arrives in the office with an e-mail from one of our employees. Lisa and I put our discussion on hold as we discuss the e-mail. Each of us reads it and shares his/her interpretation. We try to decide if he's giving us a veiled threat about leaving, or if we're just misunderstanding him. One of the problems with e-mail is that all of the communication is via words. In person-to-person interaction, research shows that only seven percent of the meaning is communicated via words the rest is communicated via voice intonation and body language. As a result, it's easy to misinterpret e-mail since we're only getting seven percent of the meaning. Since this employee will be in the office later this afternoon for our meeting, we decide to ask him about it when he arrives.
10:30 a.m.
The graphic designer returns my call and we arrange a meeting for tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.. I hope his stuff is good because it's always dangerous doing business with friends. When it comes to business, I'm pretty unemotional: business is business and friendship is friendship. It's extremely important to keep my business and personal lives separate when working with friends, because otherwise one can spill over into the other and then it can get ugly. Luckily, it's something I've been able to manage so far. For example, the second employee we ever hired was Jay Cordes (Class of '93). Somehow, Jay and I have managed to successfully balance our shared business and personal lives. It's especially weird because Jay and I are jiu-jitsu sparring partners, so Thursday afternoon we'll be discussing a client and later that evening he's choking me out.
1:30 p.m.
We start our monthly staff meeting but one of our employees is missing. We saw her in the office earlier so we know she didn't forget.
Late is unacceptable. We are a success-oriented company. In fact, our mini-slogan is "We never fail." Our employee has failed to show up on time. Plus, showing up late for a meeting is incredibly disrespectful of other people's time. The whole purpose of pre-arranging a date and time for a meeting is so that everyone can make the necessary arrangements to be there on time. We never wait for late attendees. Otherwise, if we had nine people sitting at a table and the 10th is 10 minutes late, we just wasted 90 minutes of company time (nine billable employees times 10 minutes each). At our current billable rates, we would have lost $172 for those 10 minutes!
4:00 p.m.
Every day, a large pile of mail materializes on my desk. It's a constant flood of items that need attention: business license renewal, taxes, IRS notices (inevitably resulting from their mistakes that could fill a book all by itself), worker's compensation, business liability insurance, health plan, retirement plan, unemployment insurance, attorneys, accountants, etc. Basically, those millions of things that small business owners are hit with every day millions of things that most people wouldn't even believe unless they've experienced it themselves. Yuck.
Most of my friends are surprised when I tell them that, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have started this business so young (I was 24). In retrospect, I'm glad I did it because the "sacrifice" years are mostly behind me and I wouldn't be where I am now otherwise. But if I had it to do over again, I would wait until my 30s before starting a business it just cost me too much of my youth. As I try to explain to my friends, starting a business is like getting married and having kids: the business is like my spouse and gets all of my attention 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and our employees are like my kids because they depend on us for their paychecks, health care, retirement, etc. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what starting a company would be like, but I should have multiplied that estimate by about 1,000!
4:40 p.m.
I resume going through the day's mail while I simultaneously download my e-mail. I've learned to multi-task very effectively. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do things one-at-a-time. There are infinite tasks, but finite time. I hate that! I remember when, if I worked a little longer, stayed up a little later, or worked during the weekend, I could finish all of my tasks. Well, at some point that stopped being true. I don't remember exactly when that happened, but it seems like eons ago.
6:00 p.m.
My dance partner's grandparents want to see her dance, but they live out of state, so we're making a video for them. We choreographed a routine and practice six hours a week. Tonight is our first dress rehearsal. We just bought some vintage-style clothing: a zoot suit for me and a "sweetheart" dress for her. If you'd told me a year ago that one day I'd own a zoot suit, I would have laughed in your face. But then again, I laughed at my former dance instructor when she told me I was a dancer, so I should just shut up. If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's to assume nothing you never know what life has in store.
Lori McCulley '82
Seattle, Washington
Arrived at office at 5:45 am--I'm a Vice President for Foreign Exchange Advisory, Bank of America Seattle. Having majored in international at Pomona, it's a nice fit. Before leaving for work, I listened to a bank conference call with global analysts regarding market events and read The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Eastside Journal (local paper).
Watched along with many others in global capital markets as Microsoft opened stock trading after the announcement by the Justice Department Friday that the company pursued monopolistic practices in the computer software industry. Given that they have contributed mightly to the economic advances of the 1980s and 1990s, it's a shame that securities laws enacted in the early part of the19th century would be applied to industry that didn't exist when they went into effect. Microsoft is a local company and a bank customer. Employees that we deal with at Microsoft are sanguine, and going about their business. Interestingly, the volume traded on the stock is huge, but investors seem to be waging a tug-of-war on the stock's value, with the result being only a slight decline in the price.
Bought a pair of sunglasses from a Website. Was in Canada this past weekend for our son's soccer match and found a pair for my husband in a store in Vancouver. Despite being '50 percent' off in the store, the price still seemed high and we decided to forgo the purchase until we'd had the opportunity to check prices on the Internet. Saved $60 buying online, and they'll be here by the end of the week. Also got daughter's soccer team standings in division off of a Web page.
Left work at 3:30 pm, usual departure time. Travelled home alone in car--a 15 minute commute. Not too bad, considering usual traffic jams in Seattle. Met son and daughter as they were arriving home from school in the pouring rain, and took dog for a run. Dinner was lasagna, eaten with everyone in attendance (sort of unusual for week-nights). Helped Evan do his research on alien encounters (doing an astronomy unit in class after his ancient Greece studies) on the Internet, and took him to the local library for books on the subject. Kayla went to soccer practice and I played in my regular Monday night tennis flights.
Went to bed about 10 p.m.
Jeremy Frank '90
Santa Clara, California
Amy and I manage to eat breakfast together every morning and usually leave at the same time. We split the paper during breakfast; I usually read the front page, while she reads the comics. I become much more animated after a shower and some food. After breakfast, we feed the dog and the fish, and then go our separate ways to work.
There was a major rainstorm the night before, which means that the sky is a crystal blue with large, fluffy white and grey clouds. Unusual for this time of year; typically, low clouds blanket the sky in the morning; when it clears up, you can see the hills to the east and west, obscured by more and more smog as the days pass. Today, however, promises to be beautiful.
I work at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field. Moffett used to be a Navy airbase, and was one of the last stops for the atomic bombs as they headed to the Pacific Theater to end World War II. It is now a federal airfield, and is a stop for the President when he flies to the Bay Area. It is very hard for me to get lost on my way to work; the Moffett Field blimp hangar and Venturi Wind Tunnel are landmarks visible from at least 10 miles away. Every morning, I go through the ritual of waving my badge at the security guards in order to get on base. Losing your badge is an irritating inconvenience; thoretically, you have to go to the badging office to get a temporary badge.
Employees joke about how often the guards simply wave us through; they recognize most of us anyway, but a few are sticklers for detail!
The first thing I usually do at work is read my e-mail. I always have e-mail waiting when I get to work. I subscribe to "A Word A Day," a mailing list that distributes unusual words. Monday's word is Aesculapian (es-kyuh-LAY-pee-ehn), an adjective: Relating to the healing arts; medical. Additional mail today came from my friend and Pomona classmate Sarah, about a tea-tasting class in Palo Alto. Sounds like fun! There are a number of other Sagehens up here as well, particularly Pam and Vadim (who is in fact Amy's boss!) After the fun e-mail, I have to start working.
I work as a researcher in computer science at NASA Ames. I'm a member of the Planning and Scheduling group; we study ways to solve planning and scheduling problems that arise in the context of NASA missions and operations. Much of this work is dedicated to improving the ability of NASA to study the farthest reaches of the solar system and the galaxy. As we want spacecraft to travel farther and farther away, and to more and more obscure places, our ability to control them diminishes. For example, the Mars Sojourner rover could only be commanded about once every day or so. As a result, it spent a large amount of time sitting around doing nothing. Our group works on problems related to getting spacecraft to "figure out for themselves" what to do, and how to do it.
After working on the planner for a while, I head upstairs at around 10 to go for a swim with Kanna, my swimming partner. Unfortunately, Kanna is engaged in a deep conversation with Greg, who is a member of the Autonomy and Robotics Area (the Planning and Scheduling Group's parent organization) about weighty matters such as future research projects and getting an export license for the Remote Agent. (Due to interesting twists and turns of our legal system, software like the Remote Agent is classified as a munition and therefore subject to rigorous controls.) As such, Kanna and I don't get to swim until 11. Amy gets home at about eight. There's enough soup left for her, so she eats that, and afterwards we take Rosalyn for a walk around our block. Amy and I met the year I worked as a computer system administrator at Harvey Mudd College, which was her freshman year and the year after I graduated. We didn't start dating until a few years after that, while I was in graduate school at U.C. Davis and she was a junior at Pomona. (Go figure!) We managed to survive two years of that, two more years with her living in the south Bay while I was still in Davis, then two years again while she was at U.C. Irvine and I transited from Davis to NASA. She finished her Masters in Mechanical Engineering at Irvine, then moved in with me a year ago November 1st. After about two months, we decided to get married.
While we walk, we discuss our wedding planning, or rather, our lack thereof. So far, we've decided on the where, when and (mostly) the who of the wedding. We will be getting married on July 9 at the Stanford Park Hotel, which is on the border between Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Unfortunately, I went on a work-related trip for a week, after which we visited Amy's sister Gail and brother-in-law Jess, also Pomona graduates, in Canada for another week, which means we haven't done any wedding planning for a while. As we walk, we try and sort out our priorities. "We need to find a photographer." "Yes, we also need to decide on music." "Are we going to have live music for the ceremony and the reception?" "What about flowers, do we need to decide on that now?" "No, but what about wedding cake? I want to try wedding cake." I am extremely enthusiastic about that! We decide, however, that we have to focus on a photographer and the music.
After we get back, we try the crossword puzzle. There is no way that either of us can do these by ourselves, but usually we do all right together. Not this time. We can't figure out what Indian queens and Latin handles are, and since they're in the same part of the crossword geography, we're stuck. Amy shows no compunction about going to references for help. We have a dictionary, a mini-atlas, and the Science Answer Book and Macaulay's "How Things Work" to help us out. I, on the other hand, would tough things out, racking my brains for answers which are perfectly available in resources on hand.
After our failure at word-play, I read over the section of the paper reviewing planning and scheduling. We have received reviews which caused us to make some changes. Ari has finished his round of changes, so now it's my turn again; he has added some text which looks fine to me. Unfortunately, our fearless leader, Dave, is working on the important section, so there's more editing ahead.
Amy wants to start getting up earlier because of her impending commute. I groan. "It's hard enough getting up at 6:45...when did you want to get up?" "Oh, I figure 6:30 would be early enough..."
So at 10:45 the lights go out...
