Jen Butson

3 years ago I was probably the most excited person ever to go to University. Everything about it excited me, and I loved the University of Ottawa. 3 years later…I’m ashamed and appalled to be a student at the University of Ottawa. I attend the Telfer School of Management, which while being a faculty at the University is still segregated from most of the bullshit. But some things, are unavoidable.

In a tweet I happened to see last week, I came across this article from the Ottawa Citizen. As I read it I could quickly feel my heart rate and blood pressure increasing and I felt quite angry, and also quite betrayed…by my own student union. I have blogged many times before about my stance on labour unions…but the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) may take the cake in the category of disgusting.

Some people have said that they do not see a problem with student service groups using their budgets to do something outside of their purpose…but as a student, I see a huge problem with this. Here’s why…

1) Over my 3 years at this school, I have paid countless dollars to participate in ACADEMIC outings, join ACADEMIC clubs, and compete in ACADEMIC competitions. Yet a small group of self-righteous individuals in semi-powerful positions use the money that I PAY outside of other fees to get an EDUCATION to send themselves to Toronto to protest something that only benefits them? (And yes, I am saying that them protesting doesn’t benefit me at all…they didn’t get results, and protesting isn’t the way to get results IMO anyway.) As a part of the Telfer School of Management, we either get company sponsors, or pay the money out of our pockets to pay for transportation…and these are for ACADEMIC purposes. And we win trophies…guess what…THAT is what makes the school look good, and helps everyone.

2) When you look at how many students attend the University of Ottawa, $1000 doesn’t seem like very much to get angry about, but it makes me wonder about all the other expenditures I don’t know about. I think this incident proves that some of the people in the ivory tower making decisions are unqualified, unintelligent, and untrustworthy. The $1000 came out of budgets for student services…so now if your appeal isn’t taken care of, you can’t get a walk home one night when you’re by yourself, or there is a lack of anything within these services…is it because they wasted hundreds of dollars of their allocated budgets? These services are supposed to be there for students…yet a few chosen people decided to take that away from us, for something they obviously thought was worthwhile. Well fuck you very much for thinking you are more important than the student body.

3) Also over my 3 years at this school, I have seen countless dollars being spent on a “Lower Tuition Fees” campaign…I don’t agree with it, because I do believe higher education should cost money or else it will hold lesser value to the ones who work hard to attain it. When I see ANY money being wasted like this $1000 was, or the thousands of dollars spent every year to advocate dropping fees, I want to strangle someone. This thousand dollars was pulled from budgets of student service organizations…the ones that our tuition funds. Guess what geniuses…if you don’t want to pay so much in fees, how about you stop fucking wasting it on your personal bullshit!

If you’ve made it this far in the post…kudos. I felt I had to get all of this off my chest…if you agree, or disagree, please let me know in the comments section.

This is my theory as to why I’m an entrepreneur…and maybe why I’d make a good one? Weigh in in the comments below.

1) Stubborn. I am one of the most stubborn people I know (when it comes to most things). I try not to be, but my theory is that I’m too stubborn to listen to authority when I want to do things my way. Don’t get me wrong, I love having input…but I also want the final decision. So, now I get the final say. If I don’t want to cold call, I’m not going to cold call!

2) Lazy. I like the idea of the 9-5…but I don’t actually like the 9-5. I wanted flexibility in my schedule in case I wanted to sleep in the odd morning. Of course it’s a tradeoff because I end up working all of my “free” time, but that was my lazy tradeoff.

3) Selfish. Growing up, people seemed to have faith that I would “be successful in whatever [I] did.” Well why would I want someone else to be able to capitalize on my success for my entire life? I want to be able to control who gets to benefit from my help…and that makes me incredibly selfish.

4) Impatient. I like money. I don’t like fixed income. I don’t want to climb the corporate ladder…takes too long. I wanted results on my terms, not when somebody else deemed me ready for a promotion. My impatience is a flaw most of the time, but maybe this time it did me some good?

Sometimes I laugh when people call me ambitious and driven for starting my own company…because these four traits stick out in my mind.

I like to think of myself as an optimistic realist, so my apologies if this post seems too much like a fairytale, but there’s been something bugging me as of late. And it’s not the “Olympic fantasy” you might be thinking of…

Remember just a couple short months ago when the nation was united with pride for our Canadian hockey team? So do I, though it seems like a distant memory. It’s no secret that the Sens lost last night. They played with heart but just couldn’t pull it off. So that ends their Stanley Cup dreams for this year.

My roommate is a diehard Toronto fan. Diehard in the fact that she rarely watches hockey (except for the Olympics and the odd regular/playoff season game) but is vehemently against any team. Last week, when I was watching our Sens take on the Penguins, she was in the background and made a comment about how she was happy the Pens were winning because she absolutely hates the Sens. I always knew she hated the Sens…I’m not allowed to put any Sens memorabilia in the apartment…at all…ever. But what I don’t understand is that you can be so against a Canadian team because, and I quote, she “loves Crosby and will marry a Staal brother someday”…which are hardly reasons, but I digress.

Now here is the issue I have with this, because this is the same attitude I have been seeing from everyone connected to the Leafs…if the tables were turned – that is, IF the Leafs were in the playoffs and the Sens were not, I would be cheering for the Leafs. Just like I am cheering for all the Canadian teams (I will still be watching the Habs tomorrow and cheer for the Canucks).

Does this make me a bad Sens fan? The fact that I have compassion for all Canadian teams (even after all the smack talking I may do during the regular season) because I would rather see a Canadian team get the cup than an American one? Does this make me a horrible hockey fan?

If being a Leafs fan means being against every Canadian team, then there’s another good reason for never becoming one…

Don’t get me wrong…I understand the rivalries and that Toronto has beat Ottawa every time it’s actually made it to the playoffs, and the Sens “choke” yadda yadda yadda, but is it horrible that I’d rather see the cup on this side of the border, even if it means giving the Leafs fans more ammo to sling our way in coming seasons? Please, help me clear up this apparent syndrome of Canadian pride I am showing symptoms of…

Dear Ford,

I have loved you ever since my dad realized how much GM sucked. Since then, it has only been Fords in our family. From F-150s, to F-250s, to F-350s, to F-550s, and a Taurus Centennial, you have always been there. I learned to drive on the Taurus, and realized I can’t drive standard on the F-550 (Sorry Dad). You probably already know this, since at the age of 12 I convinced a middle-aged couple to buy one of your trucks.

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

- That I have never found you on a road somewhere, dead (no matter what people say);

- That you got me to prom, then from prom to the afterparty;

- That you are the only big auto manufacturer who had their shit together and didn’t need a bailout;

- That you are the only auto manufacturer who is being innovative now that you’ve mastered the “car” part, to now Sync it up;

- That Alan Mulally is kind of a genius;

- That I have tweeted with many of your associates (they seem to “get” the social media part);

- That it’s hard for me to pick a favourite because the entire lineup is sexy (but I love Escape and Fusion);

- and that the dealership we have grown to love is always there if an issue arises.

If I had one of you now, I would take you for long drives into the sunset…clean you regularly…take you to meet my parents…heck, even introduce you to my clients.

You…would…complete me.

Yours forever,

Jen

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P.S. You can help, here.

Growing up, I always knew there had to be a balance between the things you learn from books and the things you learn from living to be successful. But without paid-education (college, university, etc.) no one takes you seriously. Which, I love my school, but when it comes to a competition of academics – depending on the topic – sometimes life education is the best education. When someone tries to figure out your qualifications for something, the first thing they ask is “have you taken ______ course yet?”. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But, for example, if it’s a competition about entrepreneurship and I’ve been running a successful company for the last 10 years, do I really need to take a course about entrepreneurship to be good at the competition? Probably not.

Have you had an instance where you were denied something because, on paper, you maybe weren’t the most qualified?

Everybody has something they are afraid of. The dark, public speaking, heights, spiders, death, the list goes on. I am no stranger to this fear. About 4-5 years ago I developed severe anxiety and panic attacks. This anxiety was so crippling that I cancelled a trip with my best friend the night before we were to leave, almost quit my job because I couldn’t leave home for 2 days to go to training, and thought I’d be a hermit for the rest of my life just to avoid the feeling of panic.

This is what I think most people do. Most people avoid the thing they fear to avoid feelings of anxiety. Avoiding presentations because the fear of public speaking is too much to bear, or any other form of inhibiting your life in one way or another. This is what I almost did.

When it came time to apply for Universities in high school, I knew exactly where I wanted to go: University of Ottawa. I knew it would be the perfect place for me. But I questioned myself…what if the anxiety is too much to bear? What if the panic attacks take over and I breakdown and have to move back home? What would be the point of living a life where I feared everything I did? I contemplated the local University just as an easy option. I’m sure it’s a lovely school, but Trent…you’re not my type. It’s not you, it’s me. So when I applied to my 4 Universities, I applied to uOttawa, McMaster, Brock, and Concordia – all schools at least 3 hours from where I’m from. I didn’t even apply to Trent because when it came down to accepting offers, I didn’t want to give myself an easy way out and quit. I didn’t even give myself the option. So I got in, accepted, and got really excited, and scared as hell. I had anxiety right up until I moved, and most of my first year. But I didn’t let it stop me…why would I let my own mind defeat me?

I bought a book shortly after I realized what was happening to me all those years ago. And the most important lesson that taught me, is that when anxiety happens or I start to panic, just ask myself this one question: What is the worst possible thing that could happen? Whenever I thought of this, it was really never that bad. So then I imagine the worst case scenario happening, and I’d feel calmer. Even to this day, I have to use that technique.

There’s a lot more to this story, but I want to get to the point of this post: redirecting fear. Instead of letting my fear beat me, I beat it. It’s true that my disorder will never actually go away…but I know how to manage it, instead of it managing me. So why do we let fear control us?

I started my own business in July, and I’ve had a similar reaction from a lot of my peers: “Wow, that’s so amazing. I wish I could do that.” Well, why can’t you? I have done a lot of things this year that have pushed me to the limit, but all of it has made me that much stronger – and happier.

So this is my task for you: do one thing a day that scares you. Push yourself to the limit. If it scares the crap out of you, try it! What’s the worst that could happen?

Dear HTC,

Ever since I purchased the S720 on August 28th, 2008, I have had countless problems with the device. The “smart”phone would take on a mind of its own and erase messages from memory, shut off whenever it felt like it, and sometimes give me attitude by not turning on at all or showing me a white screen (I assume this is the cellular phone equivalent of flipping the bird.). Being a pricey $550 phone, and ‘competition’ to the Blackberry smartphones, I expected my phone to cooperate with me. I showed it love, compassion, and patience (maybe not so much patience).

Today, the phone (“Hank”) went into what seemed like epileptic seisures. It would shut down, restart, cycle through screens and freeze on “Windows Mobile”. Then, it would repeat this process. Because I am stuck with this phone for the next 2 years of my contract, this is how it’s going to go: Everytime Hank decides to be moody or throw a fit, I will put a quarter in a jar. It shouldn’t take too long to rack up enough quarters to then buy myself a Blackberry. I just hope RIM takes quarters for payment.

Sincerely,

Jen Butson

So there’s a case goin’ on in Saudi Arabia right now. A company that recently folded, owned by one of the wealthiest and most respected families there, is claiming it was frauded…by a son-in-law of one of the founders…for $10 billion.

Okay now, it’s analogy time. That is like running an elephant park and having your only elephant go missing. Oh, and not notice  that it’s gone. In other words, how the hell is something like that possible?! That is a sizeable amount of money to go missing. Apparently it’s been going on for years. I guess no one noticed until the company went bankrupt.

When will these companies learn?

For the full scoop, click here.

Going with the theme of labour union strike rants, I’m writing this blog because of the currently famous Toronto “garbage” strike. Public city workers have gone on strike, and left the city a disgusting mess. Workers are, of course, entitled to their opinion, but sometimes they go way too far. In this case, they blocked city dumps, so citizens were not allowed to take their own garbage there. Umm, back off. Just because you don’t feel like picking up my garbage, doesn’t mean you should be able to stop me from picking up my own.

This strike really had no effect on me until a call from my brother’s fiancee. They are getting married next weekend in Toronto. Pictures were supposed to be taken at Centennial Park. They received a letter from the City of Toronto, revoking their permit. The permit they paid for. That is angering. So, here’s a big middle finger for the public workers in Toronto on strike. From me, to you.

So you all probably (should) know how I feel about unions, and were probably expecting this post sooner or later. Union strikes anger me. A lot. The union this time around is the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). The reason for striking is that the LCBO is trying to move towards a more casual work force – this means employing workers who don’t get sick days, vacation, benefits, etc etc. Basically, part-time students. Currently, the LCBO’s work force is made up 57% of casual workers. So the union is striking to try and make this not happen. Umm, I feel the need to point something out…

WE ARE IN A RECESSION. PEOPLE EVERYWHERE ARE LOOKING FOR JOBS! YOU THINK BY NOT GOING TO WORK TO PROVE A POINT THAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET WHAT YOU WANT?!

Unions are like children. They whine and scream and refuse to do things until they get exactly what they want. They are the most spoiled children in the world. I mean, they do get, on average, 41% more pay and benefits than non-unionized workers. Here’s a tip ladies and gentlemen: you are replaceable. This part bugs me:

“Mr. Layton said the LCBO would not hire outside workers in the event of a strike.”

Why the bloody hell not? You need to bust the union and show them who’s boss if you want to accomplish anything. You can’t win here. They won’t let you win. Here’s another gem from the National Post article:

“We won’t stop someone from getting alcohol if a store is open, but we will let customers know what we are fighting for,” he said on Sunday. “We’re going to try to stop the flow of alcohol by talking to the truckers and warehouses, by convincing them to not move the alcohol.”

Haha so basically “We won’t stop you from buying alcohol, but we’ll stop the alcohol from getting to you.” What the hell is your problem? You don’t want people to drink? Then go work at Alcoholics Anonymous and help people that need it.

This rattles me to no end because unions are mindless, undemocratic armies who take hostages and make threats. That is not very Canadian.