MY ONLINE INTERNET WEBSITE

MY ONLINE INTERNET WEBSITE DOT COM
COLLEGE ENTRANCE ESSAYS

THE FOLLOWING ESSAYS WERE USED TO GAIN ADMISSION TO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

Author: Jake D'longa
Publisher: Sam Sklaver

Tulane MBA Essay Question #3:
How do you define success? Please tell of a situation in which you were called upon to succeed? What was the outcome? What did you learn from this experience?

Success to me is not simply one word. True, if you were to look it up in the dictionary, you would probably see that there was only one word there- success; but to me it is more like three words. In my life, whether it be training for a triathalon, mentoring retarded kids, or working to train the elderly use the word 'Asian' when referring to people and 'oriental' when referring to objects or groups of people, I have always striven to hear the three words I associate with success. Words that during my four years at Cellular Sellers I have heard countless times. "It's a deal." That, to me, is success.

Many of my Co-Workers said to me, "You're an idiot" when I told then that I was thinking of going back to school for an MBA. At times, I understood their outrage. As regional manager of Columbus' third largest independent, family run Cellular chain, I am in a very enviable position. I have a staff of four workers who all look to me for their schedules, break times and promotional items, and I receive Cingular phone service at a discounted rate reserved for emergency workers and burn victims. I have a hot girlfriend and an apartment with wall-to-wall carpeting, yet, I find myself striving for more.

As I've grown older and wiser, I've come to realize that education is necessary for making it in the business world. I am looking to expand my knowledge base in order to be as successful as some of my Japanese peers, and I know that I have the raw talent and drive to make that happen. Disregarding my college GPA, which I have already addressed as a symptom of my undiagnosed ADD, I know I have what it takes to be a success. Just listen to this:

Two years ago, when I was an assistant sales representative at Cellular Sellers, my boss put a challenge to us. "Sell more phones this month". This slogan was printed on paper in the break room, and every staff meeting ended with this same charge. It was impossible to think about work without thinking about selling more phones, yet the problem remained, how do you sell a phone? What could we do that was 'out of the box' enough to answer the phone, on which more sales were calling, telling us to sell phones?

This was when my business mind kicked in. I realized that we were losing more and more clients to Internet phone deals and more established phone stores. If that weren't enough, because the Blimpies next door had closed after a questionable Herpes B breakout, our foot traffic had declined severely as well. I needed to find a way to bring more people into the store, and then once they were there, sell them a phone. Although I did not have an MBA yet, I knew that it would take business knowledge and sweat, blood and tears to accomplish my mission.

I remembered a chapter in a book by Warren Buffet, a personal hero of mine along with Martin King jr. and Rosa Parker, where he talked about giving people what they wanted. In the business world, people are attracted to things that they find attractive. A classic example of this is a swimsuit model, who because she is hot, makes you buy a bikini. Knowing that I couldn't simply put beautiful women in the store (the idea was rejected), I thought, what else do I want? The answer was so simple it took me all of 3 seconds to come up with it- Free Ringtones!

I immediately wrote up a formal proposal to my superior, in which I stated that if we offered 3 ringtones from r-tonez4free.com with every new phone purchased, we would bring in more black clients, a very enviable market as they compose of half our population. Through research, I discovered that tones off this site were free, and therefore the only cost of my promotion would be in making the banners. It was a hard sell, but Donny said "Yes!" and we were off.

The outcome of my promotion was unbelievable! and by that I mean successful, and by that, I mean I heard "It's a deal" like every five seconds. And it wasn't just black people. While the average sales per month up until that point had been 47, the month of my promotion sales jumped to 56, and everyone agreed that I had answered the call to: "Sell more phones this month." With a resounding "I just did!"

A side not to this is that I have never been convicted of Date Raping a girl. Although I have already covered this is the application section dealing with criminal records, I cannot stress this fact enough. It's not because I haven't had the chance, but I believe in a woman's right to choose, and I can honestly say that no court has ever convicted me of date rape. As a student in New Orleans, the home of Mardi Gras, I feel that it is imperative to have an incoming class that does not have date rapists in it. I fit this demographic perfectly.

Through my impressive business skills and my firm stance against date rape, I know that I will be an ideal student at Tulane. Although Hurricane Katrina did awful damage to the city of New Orleans, the heart of the city is still beating and throwing beads. With it's world renowned faculty, wealth of black and foreign students, and great inter-mural teams, I know that Tulane is the perfect school for me. I look forward to being accepted to your school, where after I graduate I promise to donate a wing, which will carry my name, to a very important building.