Firing People & Free Food: Grubshack Edition

A little back story about the eatery, Grub Shack is an Asian-fusion/Hawaiian restaurant in downtown San Jose. A little back story about my business ideology, I strongly believe every business should have a great focus on customer centricity. I don't care if I'm making $10 or $10 million dollars. If my stakeholders are not happy, my business is doing something wrong. 

Long story short, I enter the eatery with my friends and I was welcomed with one of the worst customer service experiences. I quickly expressed my thoughts on Yelp as descriptively as I could (Excuse my rushed response and grammar). 

Yelp Review in text below:

As of today, 9 people thought my review was cool, 9 other people thought my review was funny, and 2 other people thought it was cool as voted by Yelp readers who came across the review. For those who aren't on Yelp often, that's actually a good amount of attention within that small time span. 

A week later, I get a message on yelp from the general manager stating, 

At first I felt super bad because I got her fired, but he messaged me and said that was the 3rd incident someone has spoke up against her so I guess I was the final tipping point that cut the rope for her. I don't regret anything I did because hopefully, she learned form this mistake and finds a better job with her improved personality and skills. Or I corrupted her biweekly income and she no longer can afford making rent or tuition so she drops out of school and spends her time behind her television screen and eating ice cream. It can go both ways, but I digress.

I finally came into Grubshack last week and got a free meal for two as promised. Prompt and friendly service, my friend and I feasted on some more than enough food to handle. I then proceeded to update my Yelp review to save face for Grub Shack because I felt like that was the right thing to do. 

Now that is how you save a customer. 

First Semester of College Recap

In one word, my first semester of college has been very unpredictable to say the least.

Leaving high school, I had to leave all of the organizations and groups I was proudly apart of. I had to leave my closest friends, my beloved teachers, and start everything fresh in college. Going into San Jose State, I figured that I was probably not going enjoy it since I was living from home and just because, well, it was “San Jose State”. Little did I know what all of the amazing first experiences and friendships this first semester alone has brought upon to me. I had a chance to venture out of the state twice with my new loved organization AIESEC. I had a chance to network with a countless amount of people from a variety of different places.  I had a chance to learn what I actually found to be interesting and succeed in those classes.

These new experiences made me really reflect on my life and what I want to do with it. To those who read my blog and are still in high school, I strongly believe that no matter where you decide to go, you will have fun if you make the most out of it. Strangers won't come to your dorm and ask to be your friend so this means that you really have to put yourself out there. Join clubs, go to parties, and don’t be afraid to meet other people because you really never know what your future would look like if you haven't met someone :)

My Wild Weekend in Arizona

 

This is a long overdue post but a few weeks ago I took a road trip to Arizona with an organization I joined, AIESEC, for their regional conference known as West Coast Fall RoKs 2013.

First off, "AIESEC is the global youth network impacting the world throughleadership development experiences. AIESEC has been facilitating youth leadership activities as well as international internships & volunteer experiences for over 65 years, developing a global learning environment across 124 countries & territories."

In my own words, AIESEC focuses on global exchange to give students a valuable experience to travel and volunteer/intern abroad. As AIESEC members, we are responsible for receiving and sending out students to help give them an enriching life experience. We are the largest student run organization in the world, and some of our many responsibilities include convincing companies to hire interns from foreign countries to help their business, recruit students who want to volunteer/intern abroad specific to their major and location, match students from other countries to companies' specific job descriptions, find housing and making the intern feel at home here in the U.S., managing multiple budgets to fit certain needs, etc. We do have a professional side of AIESEC which practices real life business and leadership skills, but as a club, we are like a family. We want to work towards a common goal: peace and fulfillment of human's potential. 

The conference over weekend with AIESEC was definitely memories to cherish for a lifetime. It was cool because we got to connect with AIESEC chapters from other schools such as SLO, ASU, UCD, SDSU, and Cornell so I feel like my network has expanded at such a greater scale. I even roomed with a student from Germany who is part of the AIESEC chapter there! It's so inspiring to see how AIESEC brings together the youth to give students a chance to enhance their business and leadership skills and really make a difference in people's lives; that is just awesome. The topics we learned during the retreat was very technical specific to AIESEC, but it was enriching and inspiring to say the least. For me specifically, I spent 5 hours learning how to sell AIESEC to companies and how things needed to get done after the contract is signed, etc. What was also pretty cool about this this retreat was I think I found one of my passions in life and that is with Sales/Marketing. Practicing how to sell AIESEC to companies and the process behind everything lets me sort of visualize a career in that sort of field. I'm definitely interested in the psychology behind of what makes people do what do in a business aspect so West Coast RoKs allowed me to have this opportunity. I partnered up with next semester's president Imran to my first sales meeting with a guy from Juniper Networks and I just found out how the power of communication really is. Even if I don't pursue a career in Sales, it's a great skill to have regardless of your major and I find it quite enjoyable thus far. 

This blog post was a bit lengthy, but in short, I'm glad I joined this wonderful organization. I hope that with AIESEC, I can change people's lives and one day go on my own exchange. 

Theatre: Monologue - Hitch

I've always been into theatre but I was never exactly super skilled in it, But just because I'm not an expert doesn't mean I can't love it. I love having a chance to perform on stage or behind the camera because acting forces me out of reality and I can develop into a whole new character that I must embrace. Luckily, I was the last one that had the chance to add into an acting class at SJSU and I would like to share with you guys the monologue I had to perform! This is the opening scene of the movie, Hitch (which is a really really good movie btw).

I'm such a Nerd

It hasn't even been a semester of college and I'm loving the fact that the skills I've been learning actually applies to the real world. I haven't had a passion for learning in so long, except with my hobbies but telling my parents that education excites me is so much more satisfying. The clubs I joined let me network with so many people already and I'm learning about sales, finance, cold calls, meetings, interviews, marketing, leadership. I'm touring some of the best companies in the Silicon Valley and receiving chances to listen to some of the most successful people in the nation. Gaining all of these experiences makes me so pumped for my future, all I'm thinking about is how I can improve, what can I do to increase my knowledge, where can I gain experience? And I think it's really awesome that all the upper class men I have met so far are so eager to help me with my journey. 

I think it was fate that I eventually ended up at SJSU. By staying local, I get to help support my family, pick up the kids from school, run errands, go to school and be there for my seven year old brother.

I never thought I would be so pumped to LEARN. That's basically it :-)