Monday, July 17, 2017
We have been on our semi-annual lockdown since Tuesday July 5th, so it has been nearly two weeks that we have been stuck in our cells. The good thing about being locked down is that we have had time to catch up on our reading and assignments. Juan D. and I went over PEP’s 10 Driving Values, business vocabulary and personal finance vocabulary this morning. After that I studied my Integrity Selling book and caught up on some assignments that were coming due. We are still working on our pitches as well. As they let us off of lockdown, I went to seek help and have my work looked over by Servant-Leaders who have already graduated the program. The Servant-Leaders were very helpful. I saw a lot of our brothers working on their Integrity Selling assignments as well as the Selling with a Purpose assignment. All of us are glad to be off of lockdown, as we can help each other and look over each other’s work and make any corrections where needed. I personally am glad to be off of lockdown because I can finally get the help that I need to put my pitch together. I got it in order, but I want my other PEP brothers to give me their honest opinions of how it sounds. We in PEP help each other and pull each other up – we are a brotherhood. I can honestly say that all in all, it turned out to be a great day after all.
Juan T. (a.k.a. Donkey)
Tuesday July 18, 2017
Today was our first day back to class since our lockdown. It was also a time to see who was studying during lockdown, because we took our test for Chapter 12 and, surprisingly enough, almost the entire class passed. We also handed in four assignments plus our extra credit articles for the Chapter 12 test. After our test we listened to six of our fellow PEP brothers give their PowerPoint presentations for chapters nine, 10, 11 and 12 in the book we have been reading called Integrity Selling for the 21st Century. I was one of the six PEP brothers who gave a presentation. I spoke on Chapter 11, which had to do with conditioning your mind for unlimited prosperity consciousness. The key take-away point of this chapter was that prosperity, or poverty, is a state of mind that has been developed through your past conditioning. But your state of mind can be changed by new conditioning.We were issued another book to start reading called Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written in 1866. One thing is for sure: it is a new history lesson being learned. After being issued our new books and listening to our brothers give their PowerPoint presentations, we went over two art history lessons which were talking about two painters from the same time period. Their names were Edouard Manet (1832-1883) and Claude Monet (1840-1926). Some of the guys may get bored with this subject, but for those of us who really want to expand our minds, it is really interesting. We’ve all come a long way and have worked really hard to get where we are in this program. For some of us studying came naturally, while others of us struggled. Yet it is how we overcame those struggles that matters the most. Change isn’t easy, but with much hard work and dedication we see the positive and good that comes from making those positive changes.
Brian T. (a.k.a. Dr. Pepper Guy)
Wednesday July 19, 2017
We have been studying for the weekly chapter test which is on several things including exit, harvest and turnaround. We take turns reading and going over the chapter in the Entrepreneurship book to get a better understanding from different points of view, which helps a lot. We try never to leave a brother behind. We make sure that each and every one of us grows to further our education and knowledge. We also make our own practice test which each one of us utilizes. This helps us pass that weekly chapter test with excellent scores. We lead to see others succeed. We have also been studying and reading the Integrity Selling book. The book is based upon selling with a purpose and meeting the customer’s needs, not just selling a product or a service because you need to sell it to gain commission. Selling with integrity is doing something for people rather than to them. Its focus is to create value for customers.We also have been practicing our pitches and saying them to each other so we can gain confidence. We also held Toastmasters in our dorm which some of our Phase One brothers joined in on so they can see and get input on how the meetings go. Afterwards we held a book club which was on Crime and Punishment, a book that is part of the Phase Two curriculum. We made some flash cards on the vocabulary words they gave us to study so we can be ready for the upcoming test we will be taking. It was a good day for all of us in PEP.
Richard V. (a.k.a. Pawn)
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Today was an interesting day in PEP. We reviewed Chapter 13 in our Entrepreneurship book with Bert S. Chapter 13 covered preparing your business to be sold, including the proper steps you should take and make future plans about selling your company. We also went over how to value your business – I thought that was some valuable information on how to value your business for sale. We only have a couple more lessons before we are done with our textbook. There are only two more months remaining until we graduate, and I am personally very excited. We are learning so much from PEP, and our instructors are doing a great job of presenting us with the information that we need in the beginning stages of becoming an entrepreneur. Bert S is a great teacher, and we are learning a lot from him. The fact that my PEP brothers and I can have an extensive conversation about the curriculum we are covering is proof to me that this program is working. I am eager to get out and put these tools into use. I know that all of this knowledge we are gaining will play a vital part in our future, if we use the knowledge we have learned in a positive way. We are so close to graduation and I cannot wait. All of these events that we attend really give us something to look forward to. This is truly a great experience. I plan on using this as a stepping stone in order to get to the next stage in our life.
Rolando V. (a.k.a. Charmin)
Expressions
This week was a little better than last week, considering last week we were on lockdown. (Just imagine locking yourself in your closet with for a week.) It does give you plenty of time to catch up on any reading, homework and letter writing. I was able to lay out the rest of my speeches for Toastmasters, and now I only have only speech number 10 remaining.We are now at the tail end of the program and have written our final business pitches. It was nice to be able to put all my thoughts and planning together and get an end result that I am satisfied with. I believe it will catapult my audience and educate the men about what my plans are for the future of my business. I am looking forward to graduating the program and using the knowledge that I have learned to better myself as not only an individual but as an Entrepreneur.Also this week we had a group of individuals come to the PEP room, when we went over the book Integrity Selling. This was a good book on selling with purpose. That helps us understand different personality types. Not everyone will have to sell directly to consumers, but the individuals who will either have a product or service will benefit from this the most. Having a background in direct selling to many different walks of life will really help me identify what type of people I am dealing with. It was a great week, and it will be better as we approach September 15th, the day Pristine ‘17 graduates.
Joshua W. (a.k.a. Stewart)