"Fabulous Finish"

A midnight snack of blueberry yogurt and a granny smith apple later, I type a quote from Mr. Ramsey as my first blog title out here in the East Coast. As the last ILC group left to start our summer courses, it is nice to hear Mr. Ramsey call us the "fabulous finish" just before we head off to SFO's own Yankee Pier for a very fulfilling breakfast.

It was a quick exchange of farewells as Matt, Tom, Lori, and I boarded or white shuttle to SFO airport. We exchanged small talk on our ride over since all of us were admittedly tired from lack of sleep the previous night. Nevertheless, we were all excited internally, though physically we appeared very calm. Though our United Airlines flight was on schedule, traffic at the Philadelphia airport hindered our arrival time by a touch. As I sat between Tom and Lori throughout our five-hour flight, I killed time by watching the BBC movie Jane Eyre and rereading some Clausewitz. We were truly fortunate that a short session of rain began shortly after our revival and ended as we exited the airport with our luggage. Perhaps the only negative part to our entire plane ride to Philadelphia was the gush of muggy humidity that engulfed us the minute we stepped off the plane.

1. New People, New Perspectives: I had the wonderful opportunity of joining Mr. Ramsey's ride to the Philadelphia Sheraton Hotel as Matt, Tom, and Lori took a cab instead. Mr. Ramsey's relatives – his younger sister and cousin – offered to pick him and a student up from the airport so as he could both catch up with his family members and refrain of having to call two taxis. Although I was too excited by the brilliant city of Philadelphia whizzing before my eyes as our car dashed down 95 South freeway to really share elaborate conversations with the Ramseys, I did get to witness their unique interaction with one another. I saw a different, looser side to our school board president, Mr. Ramsey, as he candidly chatted away with his sister and cousin. These two women were awfully kind, with the sister turning to me to say: “Welcome to Philadelphia – the city of brotherly love – and we love you”. All the Ramseys had their share of pointing out certain aspects of this city to me and it was such a great way to enter downtown Philadelphia. Although we did get lost for a moment, our detour did give me another side of Philadelphia to observe and more time playing witness to the company of the Ramseys.










Connecting Connections: As soon as all the Yalies arrived to the Sheraton, everyone dashed to their rooms to set aside luggage and start dressing up for dinner. Since Mr. Ramsey and I arrived later than the others on account of us getting lost on the way, we had even lesser time to get ready. By the time I stepped down to the lobby, I noticed immediately three very familiar faces casually assembled with Matt, Tom, and Lori at the lobby. They were Julia Martien, Alex elms, and Brain Seegers – our ILC University of Pennsylvania cohorts – and here to join us for dinner at Butcher and Singer. Of all the other ILC groups, I could not think of another group that the Yalies could have reunited better with. The Penn group consisted of three students, with Alex as the only Pinole Valley High School representative among two representative students from El Cerrito High School and us Yalies was the exact opposite. Tom quickly reacquainted himself with Julia and Brian as Matt and I caught up with our good pal Alex. However, this was not merely an exchange of hugs and hellos. In addition to asking how wonderful the Penn Physics program was going for Alex – which has been wonderful by the way – I also asked him a lot of questions regarding his take on the U. Penn campus. Surely, I will get a more detailed campus tour and information session regarding the University of Pennsylvania later on July 22^nd, but there certainly was no harm in getting the opinions from a friend you knew had no reason to steer you in the wrong direction with his/her honest opinions. In addition to meeting back up with Alex again, I also was able to officially meet both Brian and Julia.





It's the First Test So Make it Good: Dinner at Luther and Singer this evening was a pretty large party of twelve individuals. Mr. Joaquim M. Hamilton was our special guest of the evening (he is the assistant dean of admissions and co-director of multicultural recruitment for Swarthmore University). A very jovial and approachable character, Mr. Hamilton was a great representative to dine with. Having the grand opportunity to sit to his right side made hearing him talk over the blaring background music much easier (though I have to admit their jazz tracks and Frank Sinatra songs were a great touch to this dimly-lit restaurant). The opportunity to meet a Swarthmore representative was really a last-minute event lodged into our itinerary. Originally, it was going to be a dinner without any representatives at all, but I’m glad that never happened. There are three main reasons why I was especially thankful that we had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Hamilton. For one: he was the only guest we would have that represented a highly selective but small, private liberal-arts college. Secondly, I did have a slight curiosity to learn more about Swarthmore especially since we were not going to visit their campus. And lastly, Mr. Hamilton's presence served as a good test-run to start establishing good habits, ask those important questions for comparison later, and practice making a good impression. Luckily, Mr. Hamilton's welcoming personality made our very first dinner very, very smooth.
Cut to the Chase: In the midst of college applications and after so many glances at the Fiske Guide for Colleges (a great book for finding good colleges that I highly recommend), I've become very acquainted with certain questions that I've either heard the same, obvious answers to or knew I could simply obtain them from the Fiske guide later. As a result, there are certain questions I no longer ask anymore and among them include typical statistics and details such as the historical background of the school. Questions that I do want to know answers to – and this is for my personal taste – are those that require a part of the individual I'm asking from. For instance, if it was an alumni, the question I'd ask would not be “why do students choose so-and-so college?” but rather “why did you choose so-and-so college?” If my guests were admissions officers or individuals of such status, I'd ask “what do you look for in a student on the applications” but not “what does the school look for among all the applicants”. Granted, there is no wrong in asking those questions which I personally try to avoid for it is simply a personal reference of mine, and there are definitely random questions I ask just for the sake of curiosity. In general, I'm simply trying to leave these dinners with a unique impression of the school that wasn't simply an easily forgettable repeat of all the fabulous things nearly all great schools offer (such as the highly stressed fact that so-and-so college had great professors). I want to be able to understand clearly what makes a Swarthmore student different from, say, a Davidson student. I want to know what atmosphere I could possibly be getting myself into. And since I'm on my way with college applications, I'm especially interested with both the application process details and requirements for college freshmen. After much reading about colleges and asking college representatives questions, I start to get the hang of what questions I really need to ask because in addition to your own burning curiosities, you also have to be courteous to your other cohorts who also had unique questions to ask of their own too.
Advice from Someone Who's Been There: After all my personal questions were asked and answered, I moved on to those I thought could benefit others. When Mr. Hamilton told all of us that, back in high school, he was pretty much a jock but also loved to learn, I immediately thought of my younger brother who was entering as a high school freshman next year. My little brother is a great basketball player and definitely has his mind set on a future, highly probably, in professional sports. I am all for individuals having big dreams and following them but there comes a point where one also has to be realistic. I've dabbled with the possibility of becoming an artist when I grow up but upon more scrutiny and focus on academics, I realized that, though I will never leave art in my future, it was definitely not be my main focus – especially for someone like myself with so many interests. Therefore, I wanted to find some way to convince my little brother to be more open-minded and rational about his goals. Mr. Hamilton loved basketball too and even played on traveling teams growing up. When he saw the competition out there before him, he started to rethink his focus and started placing more of his efforts towards getting into a great college. With that advice, I hope that, in addition to the academic exposure he will get from high school, my little brother understands that the path to the future is in no way a smooth, one-way path.
Playing Ambassador: Another extensive topic I can recall from chatting with Mr. Hamilton is the the ways we can promote a more college-going culture among students. His recommendation, as advice from a college representative that has gone around telling students more about the seemingly unheard of Swarthmore, is to definitely start such a culture earlier (such as middle school) and possibly have students in high school start clubs or groups that act as centers of college information and resources (almost like a more down-to-earth version of the Ivy League Connection). In addition to these suggestions, Mr. Hamilton reminded all of us of an important fact that although college can, yes, greatly improve your chances of securing a great job, there simply was no guarantee. For those students who do not end up choosing college as an option upon high school graduation, it is important not to misjudge them so quickly. Everyone has their reasons to stop their education after high school. For many students who do not come from very stable financial backgrounds, there if often a guilt of leaving home to pursue such a personal thing as high education despite knowing that your family back home is still struggling. “College is a luxury” Mr. Hamilton concluded. There is no guarantee that you will earn more than your parents nor is there a solid restriction from working at the local fast food restaurant down the street. It is a risk many students have to and in my opinion, should take. I'm going to college with a great fear in the back of my head that these four years could bring me very little in the end but whenever such doubt comes to my head, I simply remind myself that “you never know until you try” and if there was any advice anyone should remember from me regarding pursuing something new you're already second-guessing your abilities on is that you can never go wrong as long as you try and give it your all. Giving up with only get you nowhere and leave you forever wondering what could have been. “Reach for the moon because even if you miss, you'll land among stars”.

This wonderful night ended with a guest visit by Matt, Tom, and I to the U. Penn campus in the evening to hang out with our U. Penn cohorts. That campus is very dark but distinctly beautiful at night. Fireflies briefly make an appearance and U. Penn students from the summer program are always roaming around the quad areas to hang out with each other.

This has been a very productive first day and I cannot wait to see what Princeton has in store for us tomorrow.

Diving In

Other than the now ubiquitous film of sweat now coating my entire body, (it's 94 degrees here) Philadelphia has been treating us pretty well. It's now 12:29 Eastern time but I'm wide awake. A) because it's 9:30 back in Berkeley, and B), Because I just said goodbye to one of my best friends, Julia Martien, who is in the midst of a month long Physics course at Penn. The genuinely excited way in which she described photon defraction, which I related back to "normal" wave's superpositioning (we're nerds) struck me as an excellent example of the idea of learning for learning's sake, a topic which I brought up at dinner that we then discussed with the admissions rep for Swarthmore College.

Speaking of, we had an AMAZING dinner at Butcher and Singer, and upscale downtown Philly restaurant with Joaquin Hamilton, Assistant Dean of Swarthmore Admissions, as well as the Penn Physics group. When I asked him how he became involved in the college admissions field, he replied that he simply loved the experience and never wanted to leave. How he described Swarthmore was that it was a place with an "abundance of choice," he literally went into an impressive amount of detail about the sheer breadth of educational paths one might take. I loved this. As someone who has trouble deciding on what to order, much less choose a field, options are very important to me. Less with my dinner choices, but in important decisions I feel like there are always so many paths to take, and that, would if I could, I would try all of them. Like two roads in a yellow wood. However, I felt as though there are more than enough schools that offer a high degree of breadth, what really warranted I look closely at Swarthmore in the future is what Mr. Hamilton said about community. He described Swarthmore as a tightly knit group of brilliant, exceptional, off the norm students. The environment collaborative more than competitive, a place where ideas are challenged, but where real learning occurs in the process. Whether or not I find a community I prefer more at a different institution, if what Mr. Hamilton says is true, many people will find their niche at Swarthmore, as for me, the dinner as given me a good amount of metabolic and cognitive digestion to do.

In West Philadelphia...

After 5 hours of nonstop flight the Yalies, Ms. Nardone, and Mr. Ramsey finally arrived on the East Coast.

Our first greeting on this voyage was a wall of hot, humid air that hit us square in the face as we said farewell to our airplane. We had left at 9 AM (West Coast time) and had arrived at 5:30 (East Coast time). We had dinner reservations at 8:15 PM so we got out of the airport as quickly as possible to check into our fabulous hotel, the Sheraton.

Tom and I settled into our room, threw our suitcases on the floor, washed up a little bit and began to dress for our dinner this evening at the glamorous Butcher and Singer steakhouse. Because our first destination was in Philadelphia, we were able to meet up with some of our fellow ILC cohorts from the UPENN group: Alex Elms, Julia Martien, Brian Seegers, and their chaperone Mr. Miranda. We all gathered up in the lobby of the Sheraton before departing to the restaurant via taxi cab.

When we arrived at our destination many thoughts were building up in my head. The most prominent one was just the very fact that I was where I was. I wasn't in Kansas I thought to myself, I was in the big city now, ready to live up to my ILC experience. This reality set in so hard that I just burst out smiling and laughing. I even told my fellow Yalie Dyana So how excited I was to be here and that I couldn't wait to start our education at Yale. Other thoughts that pervaded my mind were how hungry I was, how beautiful my surroundings were, and a curiosity for Swarthmore, a college that I had never heard of before tonight.

We got into the restaurant, took our places according to Mr. Ramsey's decisions and soon got down to business. All of the ILC students turned immediately to the Swarthmore representative, Joaquim Hamilton, and bombarded him with question after question. I paid close attention to what Alex and Dyana asked our guest of honor. They mainly discussed Swarthmore's general student life, what it is like there, and how it is run. Then things turned into greater and greater detail as Alex delved deeper into the engineering prospects at Swarthmore.

As the dinner pushed forward, we got our appetizers, and our entrees. Ms. Kronenberg gave me a nice nugget of wisdom tonight. "Always play to people's strengths," she told me. As soon as I heard her advice I immediately implemented it in the planning of my meal. As our waitress came up to us and asked us what we wanted, I asked her what she thought was the best appetizer to get. She gave me a suggestion and I took it. It turns out that she made a very good suggestion to me, the salad was absolutely delicious as was the steak.

The meal concluded with more questions being fired at Mr. Hamilton and we were able to pump a lot of information out of him. We learned that Swarthmore is an extremely selective small college. It is open and appealing to the applicant who hasn't yet found his or her way, and it emphasizes a unique style of teaching that focuses on core curriculum AND innovation. All in all, Swarthmore gained a lot of recognition in my mind, and now holds a spot for one of my college applications in the future.

Although the dinner was over, the night was still young. Tom, Dyana, and I accompanied the UPENN group back to their campus for a little private night tour. We wandered the streets of Philadelphia and I was able to absorb so many sights. I always knew that cities at night were magnificent sights, but Philly really took my breath away. The architecture, and style of the buildings really gave off a sense of "East Coast living." We got to UPENN, signed in at the front door, and entered the dorm area. The dorm buildings surrounded what is known as the "quad." Inside of the quad is a nice grass field, and stairs leading to a lower quad. Although it was night time and I couldn't see it in all of it's glamour, I could tell that it was a beautiful place, and that it would make for a great spot to just sit down and relax with some friends.

Time flew by there, and before we knew it it was time to head on back to the hotel. I walked away from UPENN eager to come back. I wanted to see all of the wonders that UPENN had to offer. Luckily it won't be too long until my wish is fulfilled. Thursday's plans revolve around a campus tour of UPENN along with a dinner as well.

To wrap it all up my day was great. I'm finally on the first leg of my long journey from home. After so many hours, days, and weeks of preparation I'm on the East Coast with my fellow cohorts, ready to experience what has been waiting for us this entire time. I end my day with a smile, and a hopeful heart for the joys that tomorrow has in store for us.

Let the Games Begin

With a rare daylight departure our three Yalies arrived at El Cerrito High School to meet up with their chaperone, pick up any last minute loaner items, receive a few instructions and take the traditional departure photo.

Their luggage was weighed and stowed in the back of the airport shuttle, hugs for the family were distributed and off they went.  As a good sign to start this adventure, traffic to the airport was light, the lines at airport security were almost non-existent and everyone was boarded super early.

Our three Yalies—Tom Miller from El Cerrito High School and Dyana So and Matt Lee from Pinole Valley High School—and their chaperone—Lori Nardone from De Anza High School—will spend the next four days traveling throughout the East Coast visiting Princeton, UPENN and Columbia as well as meeting at some fancy restaurants with representatives from these schools as well as from Swarthmore.

Of course, they’ll do plenty of sightseeing while they’re back there and they’ve promised to post lots of pretty photos.

By the end of the week they’ll be in their dorms at Yale ready to begin the 16 day Grand Strategies program.  During this time they will cover a full year’s course in just 16 days.  Attending classes from the crack of dawn until well after dusk—and then some—seven days per week, their mettle will be tested.  In reading blogs from students across the country after taking this course there seems to be a recurring theme: “what I wouldn’t give for another hour’s sleep”.

To help our Yalies prepare for this course, the ILC provided them with Kindle electronic readers so they could queue up on the 3,807 pages of required reading.  I’m betting that their greatest pleasure on boarding the plane this morning is that they no longer will be hounded by my daily demands for an update on their reading.  Now all they have to worry about is my hounding about their blogs (without interfering or detracting from their studies).

In three weeks time our Yalies will return to us as either tough as nails grand strategists or as cowering puddles of goo.  There is no in between. Don’t be fooled by those that might tell you that the ILC summer programs are nothing more than “college camp”.  These courses are tough college courses and the Yale Ivy Scholars Program is the toughest and most prestigious.  We have a strong history of sending only the best to this program.  They arrive well prepared, shine above the best and make us proud.

Into the Inferno

In a few short hours I will be on my way to one of the greatest journeys of my life.

Both my parents and I have been preparing for this journey ever since I was selected as one of the "chosen few" to venture out into the world and to the castle known as Yale to begin one of the hardest classes we will ever take. We had to absorb almost 4000 pages of reading, pack our belongings, and say goodbye to our friends and family for 3 weeks. Out of all of these preparations I did I thought that throughout this whole time the reading was the hardest thing to do, however after doing some reflection, I've realized that that isn't so.

All reading really required was that I put myself down in one spot, turn on my Kindle and read away. This was a relatively easy task that just consumed most of my days. Nothing truly arduous about it, in fact most of the reading was actually quite interesting. The books: Cyrus the Great, Genghis Khan, Never Eat Alone, and The Peloponnesian War were all interesting in their lessons. A whole new respect of the Mongul culture was thrust into my mind as I read about Genghis Khans life, Keith Ferrazzi's constant lesson of "network, network, and when you're done keep networking" echoes throughout my actions now, and perhaps most important of all I learned the qualities of great leaders such as Cyrus the Great.

I've always felt that physical obstacles, were never as hard to bypass as emotional ones. Friends & family have been there since Day 1 of my life. I've always had them to fall back on and to count on in the darkest hours. However I'm not going to have them during this trip. This harsh reality hit me this very day, as I was cruising Pinole with some of my best and oldest pals. We talked about my upcoming voyage, went around town, and basically just had fun. An overwhelming sense of nostalgia soon arose in the pit of my stomach. All of those fun memories I've shared with my friends, felt like it's all slipping away.

I don't want to leave behind all my loved ones for 3 weeks, but I know that I'll have to sooner or later. Here's another lesson from the ILC that I just learned. Whether by will or force you will have to separate bonds between yourself and the most important people in your life, either forever or for a set amount of time. This is the first time that I'm going to be without these people in my life for this long and I'm learning to use this experience as practice for when the big bullet comes. I'm a high school senior now, graduation is just around the corner. High school feels like a blur, and this blur is on the home stretch. It saddens me deeply to think about that now, but I take comfort in the fact that I can practice making new connections, and applying the skills I've learned throughout my reading in the upcoming weeks.

People have constantly been telling me that the Yale Ivy Scholars Program is the toughest class of them all. I've heard it said that I will have 12 hour work days, class almost every day of the week, and demanding tasks put before me that I will have to overcome. I've tacked many obstacles before in my life, but none as monstrous as this one before me now. However I've done my reading, I've done my packing, and I've even said goodbye to the ones I care about the most. I feel like I'm ready to take this beast by the horns. I'm ready to step into the inferno. Yale, here I come.

Embrace the Incoming Tide

I envision a wave.

Two months ago, that was just a faint line of foam in the distance. Now, it has picked up adrenaline - thundering towards us at a monstrous height. I am the amateur surfer - not too far from land but far enough that there was no turning back now - staring at this intimidating friend or foe, unaware what to anticipate. Tomorrow the tide will come - will I, as they would say, "hang ten", or wipe out? "Only time will tell" responds this overly-used cliche.

1. Making Sacrifices: I can honestly say that in terms of leisure, this was not the summer for it. I had family from Hong Kong that stayed at my home for awhile; lots of recently-graduated high school seniors with lots of time to kill; and numerous hints by my father to take week off to have a family vacation. That could have been my summer but letting myself get carried away with the temptations of recreational activities would only make me regret my decision in the long run. 3,807 pages of reading do not read itself - especially between the timeline of mid-May to the very present mid-July. This was the heaviest reading assignment to date, and while some of the books were admittedly dry, I am glad that, for the most part, they were actually really intriguing texts. Plus, it does feel good to say that you are able to complete such a feat and have the evidence to back it up.
2. Focus: The excitement I have for this upcoming trip is currently neutral (After all, if I was to get any sleep tonight, I best not go to bed restless and incredulously anxious). However, this is not to say that I am not very happy to finally be one day closer to departure. I worked hard all summer long to juggle all this reading alongside my other commitments. With bittersweet hesitation I turned down so many other possibilities - a journalism program at Princeton, art classes at the Academy of Art University SF, and/or a focused vacation dedicated strictly to studying for the ACT. I made my mind up that the YISP was my ultimate prize and I shut my mind off from drifting off to other things I could always pursue some other time. In short, whenever I caught myself taking too long of a break from reading, or worse yet - procrastinating - I remind myself: "are you really going to just give all this up, after all this work and time?"
   
3. Learning from Experience: If there was anything I wanted to make sure I definitely get right for the Yale ISP program, it was packing. I got by just fine at Cornell last year with my slightly under-packed belongings, but I wanted to make sure that, for Yale, everything that I couldn't simply purchase at, say, a Walmart, was stored safely in my orange luggage case. Since the dress code for the the YISP program is a bit distinct - with business casual for the first part of class - a lot of thought had to be put into assembling my list of clothes to pack (I am beyond overjoyed that I started packing five days before - doing a little each day). I made sure to bring another lens and attachable strobe for my Olympus E-P1 camera. I made sure NOT to bring a mirror that I may just candidly stow in my suitcase and expect nothing more than shatter glass shards upon arrival (thankfully, the awful superstition did not carry through since I did have a very pleasant time at Cornell). Lastly, I made sure to be painstakingly detailed with my packing. I knew I simply could not deal with myself if I discovered that just one thing was left back at home after all this quadruple-checking.
4. A Friendly Reminder About Health: If you're like me, capable of having all the work before you take over every aspect of your waking moment, than please do your body a very good favor and take this not stressed-enough advice. Your health is so important. "There's no use in being intelligent and hardworking if you do not even have the energy to carry out all your expectations and items on your agenda", my parents would tell me. I learned this lesson the hard way this previous year and I'm glad I now take greater precautions. An unexpected thyroid infection in May - causes still unknown by doctors - was my wake-up call to make recovery the first priority in my agenda under such circumstances. Finishing your work is important but not so much when you can barely stand from weakness or fatigue. That is why, for this program - the summit to my great climb up this summer mountain - I must make sure to avoid any rash undertakings that could get me horribly ill again. Because, as far as I know from recent experience, a one-month detour from your physical and mental best is a horrible, horrible road trip.
5. Counting your Blessings: Before I sign off for the evening, I must express, not only my gratitude to all the individuals responsible for my attendance to this program, but also recognize just how fortunate my academic upbringing has been for someone like me. My passion to be well-rounded and pursue great education was instilled in me because I was fortunate enough to have certain teachers in my life growing up that believed in me. I am also very lucky to have supportive parents - maybe not financially or as often physically. They never attend Open House or Back-to-School Night because they cannot make time for it when they head off to work. They stopped helping me in math when I entered middle school because of time and lack of confidence to teach me. However, they continue to support my various interests. Although they love it when I get good grades, they tell me constantly that, they love it more that I get good grades but also personally enjoy what it is I'm doing. Many students in this school district alone do not have the lucky balance of supportive teachers and parents. For many, it's either a broken see-saw or, sadly but very real, no support from parents nor teachers. Friends may make a difference but having just one older individual express an earnest appreciation for who you are and trust in your capabilities can mean the world to a little kid growing up. I mean, if you really think about it, just imagine if every single child out there in the world had at least one adult they can truly trust and look up to. With so many young faces driven by inspiration and less self-doubt, there is less room on a sound path to venture off from. Therefore, I look back at my childhood often to remind myself just how fortunate I am. Had I not had Ms. Willis tell me how much she appreciated my writing to grant me a partial scholarship for a writing camp, or Mr. Stelle remark at how much he appreciated my complete assignments and time spent on them, there's no telling what kind of scholar I'd be today. Lastly, to the many people responsible for helping Matt, Tom, and I board our flight tomorrow for Philadelphia and later Yale University, I give a very heartfelt and sincere "thank you" once again. I never though this once Cornellian would get a second chance to further her academic interests but she's very excited to greet this upcoming tide - "hang ten" or not.

Good night Bay Area; I will miss you (partially) this upcoming two weeks and a half.

A Nugget of Truth

One would think that Cyrus the Great's philosophy on empire administration has little to do with Keith Ferazzi's perspective on success in the professional world. Nor would one think that Ghengis Khan's tactics for nation building would have anything in common with Fareed Zakaria's take on how America should move forward in a world where its share of power is increasingly smaller. Well, maybe one would, but nevertheless, not only do those two pairs relate, but they relate to each as well.

Along with myriad views of other writers, philosophers, leaders, intellectuals etc. From the reading of thousands of pages of text on Genghis Khan to the post-American world, I feel as though I have distilled one nugget of advice. President Kennedy said it best when he declared, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." The idea of giving to receive is so powerful, and so uninstinctual that those who have mastered its application have risen to the highest levels of politics, business, etc.

Keith Ferazzi boasts that he has thousands of people, who he could contact with his blackberry no less, who would jump at the chance to grant him favors, advice, etc., not because they owe him, but because they would jump at the chance to help someone who had helped them, or has expressed a willingness to help them in the future. Cyrus the Great built his empire by conquering great swaths of land, and then, over decades, building up his subject nation's infrastructure to create such and unprecedented level of growth and prosperity that they came to love their benevolent rulers. In return he was able to build the most powerful empire to ever originate in the Middle East. Likewise, Genghis Khan presided over the greatest spread of knowledge and trade ever experienced from China to the east end of the Mediterranean, cities in between boomed, and descendants of his ruled well into the 20th century. Fareed Zakaria is a staunch believer in the need for America to cease the forced spread of the "American Way", and to start asking countries, "what can we do for you?"

It seems as though many of the same people have stumbled upon the same universal truth, that living only for yourself, and trying to claw your way alone to the top is far less effective than working with, and for, those around you to succeed.