SYMBOLS & SUBSTANCE :: Are You a Once-In-A-Lifetime Find?

CHICOLE::INTERMIXED strongly believes in your application being your commercial. It should sell your strengths, how you benefit the program, and how the program and institution will be better off if you attend. You are your product, so show your value and worth. (Visit here for information on completing your application essays) On Monday, we suggested reading Kokology: The Game of Self-Discovery. Although you should’ve already submitted your graduate and professional school application, complete the following game from Kokology and see how well you showed and sold yourself in your application. Are you a once-in-a-lifetime find?

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In Business for Yourself
courtesy Kokology: The Game of Self Discovery
The crowded walks at a summer fair are lined with street vendors hawking their wares from tents and stands. Table after table of wooden children’s toys, crafts, oil paintings, silver jewelry, and other treasures draw the eyes of passerby and make them pause a while to browse. Everything is made by hand, and no two items are alike, giving a sense of hope that once-in-a-lifetime find waits unnoticed at the back of some counter display. The quality of the goods ranges from merely competent to exquisite craftsmanship equal to that found in the finest boutiques, and the vendors themselves, with their colorful personalities and appearances, add a dimension to the adventure that can’t be found in any window-shopping experience. The scene has been set; why not stop a while and see what’s up for sale?

1. You have opened a tabletop stand to sell your own original handmade jewelry. How many different types of accessories and bangles do you put on display?

2. A person walks up and looks over your table but after only a moment walks away without buying anything. What do you think to yourself?

3. Another potential customer comes up and seems extremely interested in one of your designs. In fact, you consider it the best piece in your collection. What type of salesmanship do you use to recommend it?

4. It’s time to close up shop for the day. How would you describe your sales?

Key to In Business for Yourself
Fashion accessories like jewelry express the social side of the self. Items you make by hand only deepen that personal meaning and significance. Your responses to this scenario therefore show how you hope to be viewed by others.

1. The number of different kinds of jewelry you sell corresponds to the number of different personas or social masks you wear in different situations. These are the faces you put on in front of your friends, your parents, your boss, your partner. The more you have, the more complicated your social life will seem.

2. The feeling you had at losing a customer corresponds to your feelings after a heartbreak or other rejection. Did you feel it was something you did wrong (“I wonder what it was they didn’t like?”), shrug it off and get on with your business (“No problem, there’s a plenty of other people in the park”), or take the chance to make some critical observations of your own (“They wouldn’t know quality workmanship if it walked up and bit them in the nose!”)?

3. The way you talked about your finest piece reflects what you feel your own strong points to be and the ways you try to express them to others. Did you take a low-key approach and let customers make up their own minds, hammer the point home by badgering them incessantly, or offer to lower your asking price? Be careful not to sell yourself short.

4. Your sales total for the day is an evaluation of your own social achievement. Those who said they sold out their entire stock are not short on self-assurance. Just try not to scare people off with your boldness. If you said you had a bad day, you may need a little boost in self-esteem. Don’t be too hard on yourself; customers can smell doubt a mile away. If you had an average sales day, you’re the type who understands your true place in the world without undervaluing your own worth. And that may be the key to achieving long-term success in this line of work.