PBC Remains Competitive in a Turbulant Economy

Man, if I could invest stock in Individuals, I would put all my money down on that good fellow Ryan Pei. That kid is driven for success. Since he himself is not a publicly traded entity though, I guess I have no other option but to just sit back and marvel at his accelerating growth.

Lately I've been wondering what it means to be competitive. Some people hate competition, say it makes us too greedy, too narrow-minded. Others love it, say it's a motivator, a road to ultimate personal gratification. Here's my assessment, of how I deal with competition. I will run in the race, head to head with the other competition-lovers, if I think I have a chance of winning. And this is a vast majority of the time. But whenever I'm falling behind, or when I get tired of running, I'll plea for advice and comfort from the disinterested spectators, those who either think they're too good for the race or that it's just not worth it to run. Then when I think I've heard enough of their rambling, I run again. And it cycles like this, I never find myself running forever for the sake of running, nor taking too long of a rest because the non-competitive crowd never comes up with a good reason for me to stop. I figure survival and comfort in life are key, which can only be achieved by maintaining competitiveness, and along the way we just have to take a few moments to think about where we are really going.

But I like competitive people much more than non-competitive. I'm not sure what the draw is. But I think it makes perfect sense to feel attached to someone who thinks life should be a pursuit of happiness rather than a miserable helpless existence. Also tend to be attached to competitive peoples in general. Like the Swiss, Americans, and Singaporeans. I just saw the World Economic Forum's "World's Most Competitive Countries" index, and the 1st place spots in North American, Asia, and Europe were held by the US, Singapore, and Switzerland respectively. All my favorites, how cool is that.

So what happened as of recent? I turned 21, while visiting Fredericksburg and Austin with all my family from Texas. Lots of fun of course, and my first legal alcoholic drink (in the US) was a rather flat kir royale, sort of disappointing. But the food was good. We literally did nothing but eat the whole weekend, my kind of weekend. And I got to take my new 2009 Accord out on its first real road-trip across Texas. Such a smooth ride, I love this car.

And how is work? Meh, it's alright I guess. Getting to know many more people, so that's good. And for once, yesterday I was able to actually HELP someone else with something, rather than having everyone come help me because I'm a clueless intern. So I suppose that signals at least some progress.

Anything else? Nothing urgent, I don't think I'm getting enough sleep though so I'm going to bed after a little Skype and a shower. Good night!