Markell’s Blog

     When we think of New York City, we think of a place where anyone can achieve the status of life they desire. What does it take to achieve this however, and how can we define success? There isn’t a clear-cut definition for success; therefore, everyone has their own definitions for the term. To me, success isn’t about expensive cars, lots of money, a huge house, and a family. Success to me can simply be defined as being happy with your life. German-French theologian and philosopher Albert Schweitzer once said that “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.” If you have all of these material possessions but aren’t happy with your life or yourself, then how can you truly be a successful person? To many other people however, success can be best defined as the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted. To achieve success in New York, one needs to have two qualities as a person. They have to possess either hard work or creativity, or both.
     You can dream of reaching success, but to actually achieve it, you have to wake up and work hard for it. The definition of hard work, to me, is not giving up even if you’ve hit a rough patch in your road to success. New Yorkers are one of the hardest working groups of people on the face of this planet because they know what it’s like to work for something and earn it through working hard. A New Yorker who comes to mind when I think of hard work is none other than Donald Trump. When you think of Donald Trump, you think of a New York businessman who has a ton of money. But that’s not even close to the whole story about Donald Trump. In the early 90s, Mr. Trump’s debt was increasing drastically. Matter of fact, it increased so drastically that he was brought to business bankruptcy and was close to personal bankruptcy. It couldn’t get any worse than this for the New Yorker.
     However, Donald Trump was able to greatly bounce back from his hardships. He started on several projects and has been successful on them as of right now. He built Trump International Hotels and Towers in major cities like Honolulu, Chicago, Toronto, and Tampa (Wikipedia). Not to mention the fact that Trump also owns a large number of property and land in New York. He was able to do this because of that one big quality New Yorkers possess; hard work. Even though he went through these hardships and conflicts in his business life, he was able to overcome them and rebound. Donald Trump is the epitome of the hard work that is the key to success anywhere, especially in New York City.
     The other quality a person should possess to reach success, creativity, is also one of the quintessential things you need to survive in New York. A creative person is one who is able to create and has the ability to innovate. A creative person thinks outside the box and possesses originality, and finds new ways of getting something done. The best U.S. President of all-time Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” You can’t buy happiness with money, happiness comes from achievement, and that achievement comes from creativity. It’s that creativity and creative effort that allows people to succeed in New York.
     Not everyone has the ability to think creatively and be creative, however. A person who comes to mind when I think of creativity is my English writing professor Mary Louise Penaz. Mrs. Penaz is always looking for new ways to communicate her message and preaches that creativity is the new thing now, and she’s right in my opinion. She is on a bunch of blog sites, social networks, and other websites because she’s always looking for the right opportunity to innovate and capture that something. With the Internet being so popular nowadays, there are many ways to succeed by using the Internet and Mrs. Penaz has been telling us this since the beginning of the semester.
     Hard work and creativity are essential qualities a person should have in order to succeed in the big city of dreams. Without hard work and creativity, you wouldn’t be able to succeed in New York because if you don’t work hard for something, you will never be able to achieve it. If you don’t think outside the box and be an innovative person, it would be very difficult to accomplish and reach success because people are always out to compete with one another and get ahead of their competition. New York is like a business and you have to be on top of your game every day or else you won’t last very long.

Blog URL: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

The Internet is taking over the world, in the form of blogging, and we cannot do anything about it! You’re probably wondering what exactly a blog is. Well a blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video (Wikipedia). Blogs serve different purposes in the Internet world. Some blogs are used to entertain. Some are used to inform, while others are used to expand your social network (like MySpace or Facebook do). A blog that I feel addresses all the needs of a great and informative blog is Seth Godin’s blog on Typepad.com. This blog has it all—expert knowledge, helpfulness, a simple but sleek design, easy navigation, and unique voice.
Seth Godin’s blog provides great expert knowledge on the issues of today’s small businesses. Seth Godin is a bestselling author and successful entrepreneur, and he has the expert knowledge and brains to deliver blog posts that are useful. Because of the expert knowledge on his blog, this makes Mr. Godin’s blog very helpful. The helpfulness of his blog is really underrated in my opinion because the information he posts is very simple and uncomplicated. For example, today’s post on his blog called “Ignore sunk costs” is about forgetting about your past investments simply because it’s in the past. You can’t undo your past and those investments are long gone. Seth Godin does a good job in communicating pieces of information and advice to his readers in such a way that is understandable to all, and that’s what defines his blog’s helpfulness.
The design of his blog is another aspect that makes it so appealing. The colors of his blog page are simple. It’s a mix of black, white, orange, and yellow. Even though his blog’s design is so simple and dull in a way, it works great here. This is a blog that is meant to deliver useful information to its readers, so they can use this information in their daily business lives. The blog features easy, simple click navigation as well. On the side, there is a picture of Seth’s head with a yellow background and on the bottom of that is a list of web pages, blog post archives, links, and books written by Seth Godin himself. Readers and viewers can very easily navigate through the blog and click on what they’re interested in.
Something that separates this blog from others is its unique voice. One of the things that really dragged me toward this particular blog was the way it communicated its message to readers. When you read the posts on the blog, you don’t feel like you’re listening to a politician or reading a speech by the President of America. You feel like a common working class American is speaking to you and trying to convey his message toward you. It really helps you understand the posts and information more when the message that is being communicated to you is easy to understand and become interested in.
In conclusion, this blog contains the essentials that any great blog should have. Those essentials, which include expert knowledge, helpfulness, design, navigation, and a unique voice, truly make this blog one of the most informative and interesting blogs on the Internet. Seth Godin is a professional and he knows how to convey important messages to his readers in a simple way everyone can understand. He knows what it takes to be successful in the business environment and he is sharing that knowledge with us in a common and helpful way on his simple blog page.

      The New York Knickerbockers, one of the most prominent franchises in the history of sports, have represented the great state of New York for over 62 years. Their tremendous work ethic and determination has brought along fame and two championships, one in 1970 and the other in 1973, to our great city of big dreams (Wikipedia). Knick players are known to be some of the hardest working players in the NBA and it was this hard work that characterized not only the New York Knicks franchise and their players, but also the entire city. Every New Yorker can relate to the hard work and passion that was being displayed from team orange and blue. Everyday middle class New Yorkers and the rich, high-paid Knick players may not have a lot in common, but they do both possess that same work ethic, drive, glory, persistence, and ambition that always takes us to the top.
     The Knicks, the shortened form of Knickerbockers, are one of only two teams of the original National Basketball Association still located in its original city (the other being the Boston Celtics). The Knicks’ first game was played on November 1, 1946 against the Toronto Huskies as the New York Knickerbockers at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, where the Knickerbockers won 68-66. The Knickerbockers’ first head coach was Neil Cohalan. The Knickerbockers were consistent playoff contenders in their early years. During the first decade of the NBA’s existence, the Knickerbockers made the NBA Finals in three straight years (1951–53), and they were respected by basketball players and fans. For the remainder of the 1950s, the Knicks would field decent, if not spectacular teams, and made the playoffs in 1955, 1956 (where they lost a one-game playoff to the Syracuse Nationals), and 1959 (Wikipedia). The history of the New York Knicks is very rich and filled with exciting chapters of basketball. They are truly one of the best sports franchises in the world.
     According to Wikipedia, work ethic is a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It’s also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character. The 26 year old David Lee, the Knicks current starting power forward, displays this ideal “New York” work ethic. According to Knicks assistant coach Herb Williams, “David Lee is a worker. He’s a guy you put in the game to be your blue collar worker. He’s gonna rebound the basketball, he’ll fight guys for you, he’s gonna battle. He’s a guy that you need on the team; you need those guys on the team who are going to fight every minute on the court.” David Lee truly possesses the work ethic that all New Yorkers possess. If we see something wrong with ourselves or our lives, we work at it and try to improve it. We as New Yorkers tend to receive a lot of criticism in our lives so we better ourselves daily, and David Lee is the epitome of this work ethic New Yorkers display as every day proceeds. New Yorkers are very logical and they know that if you work on a weakness, eventually it will improve because you’ve put in the time and hard work to better yourself through that weakness.
     Drive is simply characterized by the ability to carry on or through energetically, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Arguably the most loved Knick player of all-time, Patrick Ewing, showed his drive to the basketball world every time he stepped onto a basketball court. From his championship-contending days in the 1990s to his late basketball years, Patrick Ewing has shown nothing but heart and drive to the New York fans across the world. “I think the people here in New York appreciated what I brought to the table, and they showed it when I retired by the way they came out and supported me, and it meant a lot to me. It made me feel like I am a part of this city, and I will remain a part of this city.” This drive is implanted into the hearts of New Yorkers as soon as they become a part of the popular New York culture. We keep our ears closed because when someone tells us we can’t do something, we go ahead and keep striving to accomplish it anyway, even if it means failure. New Yorkers are one of the few groups of people who have this “unique” kind of drive.
     Glory – great honor, praise, or distinction extended by common consent (Merriam-Webster). A Knick player that jumps into my mind when I think of the word glory is none other than prominent Knick point-guard from 1967-1977 Walt “Clyde” Frazier. He was a man of honor and honesty, as well as distinction. He was the most unique and distinct basketball player of his time and received the nickname “Clyde” because of his unique style, where he wore a similar hat to Warren Beatty who played Clyde Barrow in the 1967 movie “Bonnie and Clyde.” New Yorkers are one of the most unique and distinct groups of people on the face of the earth. If you’re not a New Yorker, then you most likely won’t understand some of the things we do and the way we do them. When you think of New York and its inhabitants, you think of the rich history behind it and the glory that comes with it. When New York whispers, the whole world listens because we are the capital of the world and we make sure our voice is heard on an international scale. That’s what glory is all about, finding a place for you in history and making it known.
     Persistence is the ability to maintain action regardless of your feelings. You press on even when you feel like quitting. A Knick player that pops up into my mind when I think persistence is none other than my favorite basketball player of all-time, Allan Houston. Allan Houston shows that perseverance is all you need to achieve anything you want to achieve in this world. Even after all of his knee injuries, he was able to play through them and play at a high level of basketball. “I’m not going to retire, I believe in my heart that I’m going to be back. It would be nice to play two more years here and get close to winning a championship.” Throughout his career, he has been criticized for his injuries and not playing up to his monstrous $100 contract but he still didn’t give up. He stayed persistent and proved to everyone that he was still able to play like a true franchise player. Even though the Knicks were a struggling team at the end of Houston’s career, he stayed with it and played through the tough times. Persistence and perseverance are two adjectives that can be used to describe Allan Houston for sure, but they can also be used to describe everyday New Yorkers like you and I. New Yorkers and Americans as well, are always on the move and trying to make the best out of their current situation, even in today’s economy. Even in one of the most tragic days of American history in September 11th, 2001, we were able to overcome it and find a way to persevere over it. And that’s what makes us so special and different compared to the rest of the world.
     Last but certainly not least, ambition is another thing that describes Knick players and New Yorkers at the same time. Ambition can simply be defined as the desire to achieve something. The face of the current New York Knickerbockers, Nate Robinson, is the most ambitious player I have ever watched and known about. Standing at only 5 feet 10 inches, people constantly criticized and told him that he wouldn’t make it in basketball or in the NBA. However, he didn’t care, he knew what he wanted to do and he knew just how he was going to do it; through hard work and dedication. Nate Robinson spoke on his enthusiasm and dynamic style of play when he said: “I think I just carry it over being the person who I am. How God made me what I am, how my mom and dad raised me. I’ve always been a people person. I love to see people get involved in what I try to show out on the court, and that’s how I play hard. I play with passion, emotion and charisma, and I just want everybody to see and know what kind of talent God gave me.” Going by the nickname “Nate the Great,” he knew he wasn’t going to fail without at least trying, and his ambition helped him not only succeed his goal, but to exceed people’s opinions. As New Yorkers, we are one of the most ambitious people in the world and we aren’t afraid to show it. We don’t let anything stop us because we know that if we fail while trying the hardest we can, that right there is enough for us.
     The New York Knicks possess the characteristics that make them so “New York.” Everyday New Yorkers possess these same characteristics and that’s what makes the Knickerbockers so special and important to the New York world. The work ethic, drive, glory, persistence, and ambition of the New York Knicks players are what make them “New York” kind of people. Knick players such as David Lee, Patrick Ewing, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Allan Houston, and Nate “The Great” Robinson have influenced the history of the New York Knicks, and by influencing the history of the New York Knicks, they have influenced the history of the great city of New York. These five components of a person’s makeup are the quintessential parts of a New Yorker’s personal makeup. A true New Yorker possesses these five qualities and has the ability to change themselves or the world by using these qualities for good. New York people are one of the greatest people of the world and the New York Knicks players illustrate that through themselves. This is why the New York Knicks players show us how New Yorkers, as well as the city of New York, is as a whole.

      February 14, 1968. The date the world’s most famous arena was built (Wikipedia). People outside of New York know it as Madison Square Garden but we New Yorkers simply call it “The Garden.” The Garden is not only the home for many live acts and musicians, but also the home for prominent sports franchises such as the Knicks, Rangers, and Liberty. If you are a New Yorker and haven’t stepped foot inside The Garden, then you haven’t met the real New York yet. The Garden is the quintessential New York because of its competitive nature, rowdy and loud fans, great sense of pride, busyness, and giant-like size.

      The Garden is the world’s most famous arena and that cannot be changed. The competitive nature of The Garden affects everyone who enters it. When you hear New York, you hear competition. New York is a business that will always be light years ahead of its competition and The Garden is exactly that. No other arena brings in more money, people, attention, and live events than Madison Square Garden and it will most likely stay like that for many years to come because The Garden is the capital of all American arenas, just like New York is the real capital of the United States of America.

      The fans of MSG make it what it is. Walt “Clyde” Frazier, the New York Knicks commentator, had once said that even the best players get rattled by The Garden crowd. This statement cannot be truer. You have never heard or seen a crowd filled with more rowdy, noisy, and tougher people than the Madison Square Garden crowd. A famous person sighting is not a rarity in The Garden because famous people are just like everyone else, they are fans of the New York world. From Spike Lee to Patrick Ewing, The Garden is home to many famous faces of the country.

      Whether you’re a Knicks fan or a Rangers fan, you have something in common. You’re a New York fan. New Yorkers are the most prideful people on the face of this planet and that sense of pride is evoked when people enter the Madison Square Garden atmosphere. Sellout crowds of 19,763 come to watch their mediocre New York Knickerbockers team take on the challenge of achieving a win; something they’ve been having trouble doing in the past several years. That pride is what drives New Yorkers to participate in such festivities as this because even though we know the Knicks aren’t too good of a team, we still come to support New York, because that’s what The Garden is all about.

      When you think of New York, one of the first words that come to mind is busy. New York cannot be described better using any other word but busy. The Garden, however, is New York too because it’s just as busy, if not even busier. People are packing in to The Garden to enjoy the live events that will be held. Concession stand workers are scurrying from row to row to satisfy hungry and impatient families, who are waiting for food that will fill their bellies and leave them wanting more.

      Nothing beats the Madison Square Garden look. Words cannot describe the feelings people get just by looking at this gigantic structure that brings in a ton of revenue and big bucks. The Garden is an empire; the New York empire. Its circular shape yells the words fun and excitement over an entire city of New Yorkers and Americans. The Manhattan lights reflect off the beautiful architecture of The Garden, giving it an even more exciting look and feel. You can see advertisements and posters all around this amazing, tall and wide structure and you can just get lost for days.

      The Garden will always be a part of New York and New York will always be a part of The Garden and everything it has to offer its anxious visitors. It’s like a drug because it leaves people wanting more and more as they start becoming regular visitors of the Madison Square Garden experience. The Garden becomes a relaxation nest for people to come and escape their everyday realities, worries, and fears. The economy, wars, and personal problems all get left outside as people walk inside one of the most amazing parts of the New York culture.

      In conclusion, Madison Square Garden is quintessential New York because of its competitive nature, pride, loud fans, busyness, and physical appearance. You haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed The Garden experience. Whether you’re a common die-hard Knick fan or Fortune 500 CEO, The Garden is your home away from home and always will be, as long as you stay a New Yorker. Just like with New York, many people leave, but there’s no doubt that they come back. They come back because they have no other choice. They come back because The Garden is New York, and New York is in their hearts forever.

Sources used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Square_Garden

      The words anger, anxiety, greed, sorrow, and disappointment run through your mind when you think about the financial crisis we’re going through. After that, fingers begin pointing at one place. This place is simply Wall Street. Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District, the notoriously known Wall Street is one of the most prominent and monumental landmarks in the history of the Big Apple. From the New York Stock Exchange to the giant-like billion dollar corporation buildings, Wall Street is like no other place you’ve ever witnessed in your life. When you think Wall Street, some of the things that spring to mind include money, stocks, trading, and business. However, that is not all Wall Street is. Wall Street is New York City’s lifestyle. Wall Street is New York City’s personality. Wall Street is New York City’s individual. Wall Street is New York City itself.
      This was my first time walking through Wall Street in my life so it was a huge breath of fresh air for me, being a finance major student at Baruch College. The cold New York wind pierced through my face like a butcher knife cutting through ham as I was about to embark on the biggest mini-journey of my college life. I didn’t know what to expect. It’s the feeling a boy gets when he is about to participate in the first fight of his life in elementary school. There are so many people scurrying through and things like stock trading and billion dollar corporation meetings going on around you that you could lose yourself and not know whether to cautiously walk through this maze or quickly run through it. You don’t even feel like you’re taking steps, it just feels like you’re gliding along on the Wall Street express.
      As I walk down Wall Street, the cream-colored Federal Hall building, the glassy Trump Building, and the ever so important New York Stock Exchange all stare down at me as if I was a small grain of sand or a simple speck of dust to them. These infrastructures are all accompanied by the 7,000 pound bronze Arturo Di Modica Bowling Green bull sculpture. Symbolizing the phase in the business cycle we call the bull market, the $360,000 Wall Street Bull is in us all. We as Americans possess the Bull inside of us. It also stands for the strength and power of the American people, and the New Yorkers that have inhabited and created this great insomniac city that never sleeps.
      Wall Street is a very fast-paced financial corner in Manhattan. Fast-paced is also a word that describes New York. From the packed rush hour subway trains to the long lines of people waiting for their morning coffee at the local deli, we don’t stop. No city on earth is as fast-paced as this city. We’re always on the move because a second wasted is money that could have been put in our wallets. The New York hustle is one that can always be differentiated from any other kind of hustle. We know what we’re doing when we’re doing it and we can’t slow down because we don’t know how to. We’re always looking for that easy way to get somewhere because we enjoy it. We need that shortcut that involves us going through a narrow alleyway to get where we need to be.
      The busyness of Wall Street is unmatched. It’s so unmatched that the only thing that comes close to its busyness is the people of New York themselves. We always have something to do because there is a world of opportunities looking down at you in New York. Whether its work, your local gym, or your favorite clothing store near your block, we don’t stop doing things. Even when we’re not busy, we find a way to look like we’re busy. When your favorite singer’s downloaded ringtone sounds and you see it’s your best friend, who you speak with on the phone for hours calling, you don’t pick it up because you’re busy being not busy.
      Wall Street is the quintessential New Yorker because Wall Street will look at you in the eye, intimidate you, and tell you exactly like it is. If there has been a huge drop in the Dow Jones, it will have it written all over its face. If interest rates have just been cut for the 12,758th time and there has been a last-minute surge in trading, it will tell you that too. We are the same exact way. We don’t sugarcoat anything because we don’t feel the need to. If we mean business, we will tell you. If we’re not happy about something, we will make sure it gets heard. If we’ve just had the best day of our lives, we will spread it around so far that it will reach a high school principal all the way down in Brooklyn. New York and its people are as straight-forward as it gets and that is something that will never change about us as New Yorkers.
      In conclusion, a walk through Wall Street is a walk through New York in a nutshell. Everyone should undergo the Wall Street, New York experience because it will open up a whole new world of excitement for you. Fast-paced, busy, and straight-forward are just a few of the words that describe New York and how it stands out compared to the rest of the world. We don’t really think about how great New York really is until we being to deeply think about it and acknowledge it. This is the greatest city in the world and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.