How do you measure success?

The Beers for Books event at IBEX was a huge success. Thank you to everyone that helped out especially Romano, Gary B, and the pole dancers that worked for free. We raised almost 30,000 JPY for Room to Read. Special thanks to my boy JG whose been one of my closest friends in Japan through thick and thin. From time to time we piss each other off, but after all these years we’re still friends.

One of the things I am doing to evaluate the schools I am applying to is reading student blogs. I came across an entry from one of the students at Texas. It was about their opportunity to meet superstar investor Warren Buffet. Here is an interesting excerpt from the entry:

“There was one particular story that Warren told that really had an impact on me. He told a story about an old woman who befriended him several years ago who took a while to open up to him. She had escaped the Holocaust, but before coming to the United States and settling in Omaha, she had been in a concentration camp in Auschwitz with her sister. Unfortunately, her sister didn’t make it out alive, but this woman had been one of the lucky ones. As Warren told us this story, he described how at some point the woman had said to him, ‘I’m sorry I have been slow to open up. It is hard for me to get close to people, because when I evaluate my relationships with them, I always ask myself, ‘Would they hide me?’’ In jest, he remarked that there were several people in his life whose cover he’d intentionally blow (”HE’S IN THE ATTIC!!”)….But Warren went on to equate this to how you measure success…not by how much money you have, or how many letters are after your name. Warren paused (for emphasis), and asked us simply, ‘How many people would hide you?’”

The rest of the entry can be found here, but I found it a pretty interesting way to evaluate success. I never thought about it, but I have close to 1,000 friends on facebook and I wonder how many would hide me. JG and DC def would. I’d hide them in a heartbeat too.

No word from Texas. I read the fine print on their admissions website and it said 10-13 weeks after submitting my application online. We just entered the 10th week, so I’m sure that’s what admissions will tell me if I send them an e-mail asking them what’s up with my application. Question is: should I do it anyway? I don’t know the etiquette for asking admissions about where your application is when the waiting period hasn’t ended yet. Does it hurt my chances? I think I’ll give it until the end of this week and if I don’t hear back by then, I’ll give them a little nudge.