04.10.13
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My Leadership Story – Not the End

Not the End

When asked to prepare a leadership story performance really made me go over some special time throughout my life. It drew me back to an extremely hard time that I have ever been through. I used to enjoying a simple and peaceful life under the shelter of my own protection. Attending primary school, middle school, high school and then college, those are things I just needed to go through as scheduled without any big risk and threat. This kind of life had cultivated me with a big ego. I have become naive, self-centered and vulnerable to changes. I conceitedly believed that I was a giant interstellar cloud made of something extraordinary amazing in the space. One day I would collide with a supernova and with incredible gravitational force of my awesomeness, I was doomed to become a star shining so brightly in the center of my own universe. However, the truth proved that I was wrong. I was a normal person and I had my ups and downs.

After two years of easy and comfortable college life, I become reluctant to manage my life and plan for the future. Given the circumstance that I enrolled in a joint program between a university in China and a university in State for my undergraduate study, most of my friends and classmates decided to move to the U.S. and began their junior years in a brand new environment. However, I couldn’t persuade myself to study aboard. The truth was that I couldn’t force myself to a new life that I couldn’t manage and I couldn’t also find the leader of my life there. So I decided to stay and continue rest of my undergraduate study in China. However, it just raised the curtain of the change of my life. I was diagnosed with gastric polyp during my summer vacation after several months of suffering from stomach ache and discomfort. It was first time that I did my gastroscopy without anesthetics injection. That was the most catastrophic and bloody torture that I’ve never experienced. My whole world collapsed at the moment when the end of the instrument was placed into my mouth and nausea and tears tore me apart. After the glory of life was removed and the confidence for life was corroded, I abandoned myself to a whole summer of grieving and self-blame. When I went back to school after summer and stayed in a dorm without old roommates and friends, I felt devastated and began to become self-sealing for the whole world. I didn’t want to consider about the future and dreams for that life was unpredictable. The truth was that I had no idea what I was doing and everyone around me knew where they were headed or at least what they wanted. However, I was lost and I didn’t even remember who I was. I prevented any chances to get involved into new life. I became impassionate about study and just did mediocre performance. I never planned for my future and I was actually not in the mood to do it after what I’ve been through. I also found it was hard to control my rage. It was like that I boarded the self-abandonment express and the destination was self-destruction. Yes, I was a star in my own universe and now this star was swallowed by the black hole.

I never thought I would shake all them out and re-lead my life until one thing happened. On a group project meeting that I didn’t even prepare for, I showed negative attitudes by keeping saying the work was stupid. Then one of my group members suddenly stopped the meeting and talked to me in front of all the group members: “Can we just talk about what the heck you’re doing? So Maksim I know you’re not getting your way and I am sorry for your problems and things you’ve been through, but your pathetic attitude is pissing me off. Please stop acting you’re okay and actually deal with your problems. You choked on your life and you are facing the big change of your life. I get it and we are all experiencing the same as you’re. Stop acting like a victim and continue your work! Contributing yourself 100% to this project is a chance for you to move on. Think about it”. I was totally shocked by what I just heard. What he said was what I actually wanted to say to myself. I was the only one who has sabotaged me. If nobody showed up and led my life, I had to be my own leader and then moved on. I couldn’t change my past, but I could let it go and start my future.

I surprisingly began to embrace the changes and plan for my future after that. I paid more attention to my health problems, getting rid of the old diet habit and develop a new one. I fully participated in my new life and opened heart to my new surroundings. I figured out my dream and decided to go to U.S. to pursue my graduate study after I graduated. I began to learn to motivate myself by dividing my big dream into many achievable goals and accomplished them one by one. I couldn’t believe I could study my business law book seven times before the test. I tried my best and improved my GPA to 4.0 and prepared all things in person for the application. During the whole process, I kept telling myself that I would survive and keep on surviving. Finally, I was rewarded for what I contributed to. I got the ticket for the trip to my new life and started my new chapter. I’ve become the leader of my life and successfully led my life out of the shadow and moved it to the next level.

Now, I truly believe that sufferings and difficulties come into our lives for a reason. It can invariably bring something we must learn and help us most to grow. Don’t waste time of waiting for the sympathy from others. You are the leader who can actually rescue you from what you’ve suffered from and as a song says, “We all have our ups and all have our downs that we have to find a way around. This is not the end”. Image

04.09.13
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An offensive print advertisement

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Barnardo’s: There are no silver spoons for children born into poverty

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This is a print advertisement of Barnardo’s, one of the United Kingdom’s leading children’s charities. After this print advertisement was published on a leading newspaper, it received intense and catastrophic criticism from the public. The advertisement shows a photograph of a just-born baby named Greg and a big and creepy cockroach is crawling out of his mouth. The slogan of this ad is that there are no silver spoons for children born into poverty. The text of the ad reads, “Baby Greg is one minute old. He should have a bright future. Poverty is waiting to rob Greg of hope and spirit and is likely to lead him to a future of squalor. We can’t end poverty but we can provide the practical skills that Greg and thousands of others in the UK need to stop it predetermining their…

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04.02.13
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Rachel Berry Singing “It’s all coming back to me” in nationals.

I will never forget the moment that Rachel was doing the solo “It’s all coming back to me” on the stage of National Singing Competition in Season 3. This the moment she proved herself to others she was capable of being extraordinary. She has choked on her audition for the admission to NYADA. This was her last to rescue her future. If you’re star, never forget shinning is your responsibility.

04.02.13
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Gillette’s Odor Shield Commercial: Homage

Homage, the commercial of Gillette’s odor shield in 2012 won the silver prize in CLIO Awards. This commercial can be regarded as a masterpiece for the reason that Homage is a tribute to sweat that is paid for the hard work for significant achievements in the human history. There are five historical moments of significant achievements mentioned in this commercial. They are Egyptian laborers building the pyramids in Egypt, oceanographers exploring and finding new lands, great composers redefining the music, the Wright Brothers trying their first flight, and astronauts first walking on the moon. The common point in all these five moments is the sweat that is paid for the hard work. Sweat is the necessity that cannot be avoided for success. However, the unpleasant odor can be solved with the help of Gillette’s odor shield. With the help of this product, there is only one smell existed, the smell of success. The amazing thing for this commercial is that Gillette’s odor shield makes it accessible for consumers to connecting the current male’s daily life with the historical moments of significant achievements. It integrates the concept of time into this commercial. It makes the consumers cannot defy the attractiveness of this odor shield for the reason that they cannot defy the success. This commercial is so epic. Just as what it says in the commercial that men couldn’t afford to let sweats get in the way of progress.

Personally, I think this commercial is honored most for its aesthetic or creative merit. There are no details about features of the products explained in the commercial. The whole ad is trying to position this product by its aesthetic or creative merit. However, it has actually exerted a peculiar fascination on most of the potential consumers. This commercial is very successful and it totally worth the prize.

04.02.13
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Magazine Analysis: Men’s Health

Men’ Health

Men’s Health is a global leading lifestyle magazine for men in different countries, offering fascinating contents and reliable sources about various men’s lifestyle topics such as health, nutrition, fitness, fashion and so on. The target markets for Men’s Health magazine are men who care about health and want to enjoy an extraordinary lifestyle. As one of the world’s largest men’s magazine brand with 40 editions in 47 countries, Men’s Health makes it accessible for its audience to having knowledge and tools to get most out of life.

 

Approximately, about 43 percent of magazine’s pages are devoted to advertising. What’s more, there are also some ad placements in the editorial content. Given the circumstance of Men’s Health’s March issue of 2013, among 140 pages of monthly issue, there are 47 pages of the individual print advertisements. Apart from these individual ad pages, there are also some ad placements in its editorial content. The advertisement pages are counted nearly half of the content of the magazine. Clutter problem actually exits in the magazine. Advertisement has become the one of main parts of the magazine. It seems that every page of the editorial content is accompanied by one page of advertisement.

The types of product and services advertised in Men’s Health are all personal life related, ranging from fashion brands, clothes, shoes, accessories, luxury products, mobile devices, sporting products, male personal care products, food, beverages, nutrition products, and fitness related products or services. Men’s Health is an ideal place for these businesses to advertise their products for the editorial contents in the magazine are all men’s lifestyle related. All the products or services that companies want to sell are related to the content of the magazine. This magazine with its authority and influence on men’s lifestyle worldwide gives companies access to reaching their target market. For readers who subscribe Men’s Health, they seem to show their reliability and trust towards the content in the magazine. This magazine has become one of reliable sources of readers’ daily consuming behaviors. Those are reasons why these particular companies try to advertise their products or services on Men’s Health.

The editorial climate for Men’s Health is fun but professional. The readers for this magazine actually want to be informed. What’s more, they want to be informed in an entertaining but reliable way. Men’s Health tries to give audience suggestions and advices delivered in its humorous voice. However, the humorous voices all come from reliable and authoritative sources. The content in the magazine is also helpful but professional. This kind of editorial environment can both make audience trust the advertisement on the magazine and regard it as a reliable source of getting information about products or services.

Men’s Health magazine also has its official website. The official website of Men’s Health magazine enjoys similar sections of content with the print editions. Audiences can also find information about health, fitness and fashion from its official website. However, the editorial content on the official website is the collection information and articles come from both current and past issues of the magazine. It is about one specific issue. What’s more, the official website also offers audience access to watching some related videos that are not available for print magazines. One amazing feature of its official website is that audience can share content they like with others by Twitter, Facebook or other social media channels.

Cover of Men’s Health, March issue of 2013.

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Source of the picture:

http://www.smartologie.com/2013/02/adam-levine-for-mens-health-march-2013.html

Men’s Health’s Official Website: http://www.menshealth.com/