The Unbelievable 10 Week Pen Barter Challenge
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Bartering a Pen to a Car in 10 weeks! Each week bartering the item from the previous week for a new item of higher value.
As I am both somewhat delusional and extremely optimistic, I believe both in my ability to succeed in bartering my pen for more and more valuable objects until I reach a car, and I also believe that people will want to participate in my barter challenge because it's a great story to be a part of.
I'm currently doinat The University Of Chicago Booth School of Business as an exchange student, looking to finish my MBA this December.
I am very ambitious and like to take things to the max, hence this website and my attempt to barter my way from a crappy (yet sophisticated) pen to a car.
I will update this site weekly, according to the developments of my bartering successes.
Each week I hope to have a new, more valuable item to trade.
I am interested in human behavior and decision making, and more specifically, as a business student, I am interested in sales and what makes people sign above the dotted line.
Sometimes, I don't even know why I make certain purchasing decisions. A few years ago I was touring Tanzania on a bus, and while exploring a small local market, found a cobbler making sandals out of used car tires. I was excited about the prospect of walking around in African sandals made from real rubber tires! What a great story they would make. The cobbler measured my feet and began to make the sandals in front of me, and as I tried one on, the old, dirty, rusty nail that he had used to piece the sandal together pierced the skin of my ankle, cut the skin and entered my foot. I subsequently over-paid him for the sandal and went to get a tetanus shot. Why had I bought something I would never use and which probably gave me tetanus? I think it's because I had created a story behind the sandal and used that story to convince myself to buy it.
One day, I would like to be an expert at creating these stories!
I also love humor. Especially silly humor. Monty Python, South Park, Family Guy, Louis C.K, Conan O'Brien, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jim Gaffigan, Demitri Martin, George Carlin, Sarah Silverman, Comedy Central "Roasting of" to say just a few. I believe humor is the key to everything, and that irony and jokes are more powerful than guns and politics.
I love working out, muay thai boxing and upon arriving in Chicago, have become addicted to yoga. I recently jumped into Lake Michigan (see picture on left) and plan to do so again in the winter.
