Since I live in Washington DC and given that there is a new administration who is looking forward to accomplishing a lot in their first 100 days in office, I too am starting a 100 days challenge to create my own agenda. Why am I doing this? Because we all have the same 24 hours and the ability to govern ourselves according to our own mandate.

Regardless of your political affiliation I challenge you to also take the #first100dayschallenge because you too have the ability to create your own agenda just like our new government administration. No matter if you agree or disagree with our governments' vision take action by creating your agenda and perhaps someday you too will be given the opportunity to implement your vision for a better country and world. 

Over the next 100 days I will seek to maximize my schedule with as many international related experiences, meetings and actions as possible and will recap about what I did during the day on this blog.

I have no idea what will transpire as a result of this, but I do know that after reading "Getting Things Done" as long as I write down my next actions and set up reminders I will achieve my outcome.  

Met Dr. Klaus Schwab

Attended the Northeast WEF Shapers Retreat

Co-authored an article about Rotary International

Pimnuch works in the food space, so I get fed all the time. We tried Sri Lankan food for the first time and it was amazing. 

30th bday with friends.

Published TBF's first blog post written by Benjamin Liogon! "My Last College Season", fantastic story. ​

Skied for first time in PA with wife for bday. Learned three life lessons:
1. Falling - You have to learn how to pick yourself up after you fall, because very rarely will somehow help you up when going down the slope.
2. Forward - After you pick yourself up, you have to move forward because you cannot go backwards.
3. Vision- There are many obstacles on the slopes but as long as you look where you want to go, your skis will follow. 

Dim Sum Sunday followed by one thing the SuperBowl. Caught the game with my bud Steve and we watched the most epic comeback ever. Are you kidding me?

Ahh the weekend, time to do the things I love, baseball.
Worked on a list of to dos with my great friend and co-founder Cesar.
Started planning for the Irvine Memorial Day Tournament in California. 
Compiled a list of college tours for our teams to visit while in California.
Made plans to watch the Super Bowl.
Came to a realization, everything that we do is international, so what does this mean for the nationalism/populism movement? Something's gotta give and I'm not sure how this will end.

Wore red for National Wear Red Day. 
Worked.
Ate Mexican food for dinner again, but this time at Dulcinea, the spot of the bday bash.

Worked.
Made Mexican food for dinner.
Started planning for my birthday.

Worked.
Attended a World Economic Forum Davos Debrief event for the annual 47th meeting at the Swiss Residence of Ambassador Martin Dahinden, which was organized by the World Economic Forum Global Shapers and the American Swiss Foundation. 

We had the opportunity to speak with Megan Murphy, the Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek as well as a Congressman from South Carolina. They spoke about many meaningful topics but one common item stood out among the both of them, populism and nationalism is now the new normal, globally. 

Worked.
Re-edited "The Last Season" and sent email to Benjamin, can't wait to publish his story on our diamond diplomat blog.
Made dinner again and went to bed early because tomorrow will be a busy day.

Worked.
Recovered.
Edited draft of "The Last Season" by Benjamin Liogon, who's story is amazing.
Made chicken for dinner, wife and I are continuing our paleo diet, which in many ways may be tougher than writing this blog.

What a day, what a day.
Woke up and had breakfast with Preme
Next went to celebrate the Chinese Lunar Year at the DC festival in Chinatown

Next on my way to the second engagement stumbled upon the "no wall no ban protest", it was incredible to see how citizens stood up for those who cannot defend themselves. 

Now on to the main engagement, a concert by Cuarteto Latinoamericano at the National Gallery of Art.

After the concert enjoyed the beautiful gallery, it's a must see.

Today was an admin day but with a touch of international.
Got a haircut, (spoke in Spanish with my barber, we chatted about Mexico since he's from the old country like my family).
Did laundry.
Bought groceries (at an Asian and Latino supermarket).
Planned for the next day (Chinese Lunar Year).

Practiced Piano (played Bach's Little Fugue)
After work attended a celebratory happy hour for Mohammad, who thanks to the diligent work of my friends Mark, Gaby, Justin and Steven now has a green card one day before President Trump signed his executive order banning entry of refugees from Mohammad's country. 

Planned the Victor J. Goldberg award nomination.
Practiced Piano (played all of me by John Legend).
Attended a Global Shapers Happy Hour with Shapers from Latin America.

Ate Italian food, chicken pesto pasta with pine nuts. 

Yuuuuge day because our Organization is down the final 3 candidates for Director General http://who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2017/director-general-nominees/en/  
Starving for Mexican food, thus dove into Baja Fresh and ordered some wahoo fish tacos.

Now that we I got my Mexican dish fix, time to eat some ramen. 

This challenge is exhausting! Slept at 8:45 pm because I've been hustling non stop in addition to work during the day.

Went to the National Press Club and worked on Hockey article with friend Alex (hint: focusing on international expansion for NHL) 

Speaking of the Press Club, wow we now have a new security system. 2017 is an interesting time for the Press I guess. 

Attended my good friend Rob's bday at Barcelona.

Slept a few minutes longer and missed breakfast :(
But, ate sweet and sour chicken for lunch (getting myself ready for the Chinese New Year)

Rushed home after work, changed and went to the Bistro Bohem, an awesome Czech restaurant. Ate the most delicious lentil soup I've ever had, and I've had many variations because I'm Mexican.

The reason I went to Bistro Bohem was to check out the Russian Literature Book Club of Washington DC who happened to be reading "The Captain's Daughter" by Alexander Pushkin. After the meeting, spoke with the event host, founder and organizer, Olga. She told me that she founded the club in 2014 as a way to share her interest of Russian literature with the DC community. To this day the club meets every two weeks at the Bistro Bohem and averages well north of 15 attendees per meeting. If we are to truly achieve mutual respect and understanding as a society, we need more book czar's like Olga. Looking forward to joining the next session and reading the book.

Woke up really patriotic and broke the fast with Preme. Made an egg, spinach, tomato and turkey omelette. 

Continued reading "Getting Things Done" and learned a valuable lesson: Deciding isn't really an action because actions take time and deciding doesn't. 
With that in mind started planning and scheduling activities because this blog ain't going to randomly write itself if I don't plan accordingly

Finished framework of a finance article with a friend Ryan, hint, we're going to talk about predictit
Made arrangements for a Latinos in hockey article brainstorm session

RSVPd for a couple Chinese New Year events

RSVPd for "Cuarteto Latinoamericano" at the National Gallery of Art 
RSVPd for a couple bday events for friends
RSVPd for a Privacy and Power: Book Launch and Film Screening event hosted by the Goethe Institute and German Cultural Center
Researched the Victor J Goldberg prize for peace in the Middle East because I know the perfect nominees 
Want to attend Russian Literature Book Club event titled "The Captain's Daughter by Alexander Pushkin"

Finished Season 1 of Mr. Robot

Bought pad see ew noodles in Chinatown 
Ate breakfast with Preme
Took pictures of Preme teaching her Thai cooking class (she rocks)

Published post of guitar for barter on craigslist.
Took pictures of Women's March on Washington (got inspired), but saddened to see so many signs thrown away. I hope folks shared them via social media so that their ideas spread as opposed to being a day only event.
Shared some images on Facebook about march.

Watched episodes of Mr. Robot on Amazon Prime Video.
Slept early because there are 98 days left.

Ate breakfast with Preme (wife).
Started planning for bday party.
Watched inauguration on youtube and did research on predictit.
Met with fellow World Economic Forum Global Shapers from the DC hub at Elephant and Castle
Met Shapers from Mongolia.
Invited one of the Shapers from Mongolia who works in journalism to the National Press Club in a few weeks. 

Scheduled article brainstorm session with friend Steven for next weekend.
Ate dinner with Preme.
Wrote content of craigslist post to barter my guitar for a piano keyboard because I will begin playing again (it relaxes me). 

First challenge, tie 20 knots in the 25 foot rope and have the groups untie the knot together using only their right hand. 

Second challenge, make a shape together using the 25 foot rope while blindfolded.

Final challenge, walk a course together in unison while lassoed by the rope.  

Lessons learned: when you’re resource limited you must pool your teams resources to accomplish the mission.

In life many times we walk into a situation blindfolded, but how you find your way is by communicating correctly by asking the right asking the right questions to your team and by trusting that they follow instructions.

There’s the old saying “Individually you’ll get there faster, but together you’ll get there farther.” They learned that in order to finish the course they must all walk together because if not, they would be bound by the rope and ultimately fall. 

I had three goals: 
1) Find ways to collaborate with others on Baseball Diplomacy to address international health and education issues that at risk youth face every day.
2) Meet book authors and seek guidance on publishing.
3) Have fun and be a connector for my fellow scholars.

Thanks to Gordon, met with Jason Baron and Jackie Vanderbrug of U.S. Trust for lunch. They gave me great advice to make the most of this lifetime experience.

Met Josh Kaufman and he taught me how to learn anything fast. He also gave me advice on publishing my first book. 

After dinner, it's movie time.  "Cartel Land" is a must watch film about drugs and Mexico. Great job by Matthew Heineman. Had a chance to speak with him and we instantly connected on topic of baseball diplomacy. To be continued...

Listened in on Ben Rhodes and Jeffrey Goldberg talk about "The Obama Doctrine: America's Role in a Complicated World".

Next I sat in on Kathy Sullivan and Andrew Revkin's chat on "Climate Clarity and Complexity". 

Time for lunch at the Aspen Meadows Hotel with Daniel Lubetzky of KIND and Steve Clemons of the Atlantic for "Making Money, Making a Difference: Can the Twin Goals of Capitalism and Doing Good Work?". We instantly bonded over Latin America and the Middle East. We both share a passion for "triangulating" uncommon alliances through Diasporas. I invited him to speak at The National Press Club to speak on "Do the KIND Thing". To be continued as well.

Next went to Belly Up! Amazing venue to hear Marketplace Live with Robin Chase, Chris Daveport, Jose Ferreira, Ted Sarandos and Kai Ryssdal. 

Next, made my way to Aaron Sorkin and Jeffrey Goldberg talk "What's Character Got to Do with it?". He spoke about character development as well as his new Steve Jobs film. This was easily the most attended session of the festival. This line says it all. 

At the end of the Sorkin talk, I met Arianna Huffington and thanked her giving me a platform to share my voice through Huffpost. If it wasn't for my huffpost blog, I might not have launched The Baseball Foundation.

Attended "The New Quantitave Journalism" session with Jordan Ellenberg and David Leonhardt. Had a chance to speak with Jordan in the Koch building and to my amazement I ran into my former colleague, friend and mentor John Oxtoby who gave me my first start in politics. It was a full circle moment for me. We agreed to convene the next day at the My Brother's Keeper session. 

Soon after, I made my way to "Women and Work" with Erin Currier, Heather McGhee, Ai-jen Poo, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Deborah Clark. Before the talk began, I met a patron who recognized me from my question during the previous luncheon with Daniel Lubetzky. We connected and promised to stay in touch in DC. 

I'm a big believer in the heforshe movement and was inspired by all points, especially Anne-Marie Slaugther's point that society must liberate men and let them know that it's ok to support spouse with care in lieu of cash. After the session, we connected on the issue of gender empowerment and sport for development. 

Attended "Flying Car? Flying Ideas: The Future of Mobility" with Jim Lentz CEO of Toyota North America. He said that instead of ignoring and running away from the urban mobility trend set by Uber and Lyft, Toyota embraced it by offering incentives for uber drivers to buy Toyota vehicles. As a result, the number one car used by Uber drivers is a Prius. 

Next, I went to the "Deep Dive: Get a Job Youth, Employment and the 21st Century Economy" with Michael Crow, John Fallon, Mitch Landrieu, Blair Taylor, Martin Walsh, Mark Warner, Melody Barnes and Amanda Ripley. Soon after I went to American Dream, "How Can the Private Sector Increase Economic Mobility?" with Chet Cadieux, Dave Dillon, Tom Fanning, Zeynep Ton, Mark Weinberger and Steve Clemons session.

They spoke about how to get young people working since our society preps students to get educated, but not to get a job.  The panelists agreed that the easiest thing to teach young professionals is technical issues, not soft skills. Thus we need to provide hope and give folks a way to play offense. 

I then went to "The Sound of Tomorrow: Cameron Carpenter in Conversation with Michael Eisner". He is an amazing organist, perhaps the best in the world. Funny enough, I heard him playing the night before in an empty Greenwald Pavillion and the only thing I could think was, if Cameron may be the Bach of my time.

To cap the day, I attended the "Disrupting Political Campaigns: Shifting Influence from the Money to the Many" session with Heather McGhee, John Pudner, Ben Rattray, Heather Smith, Lucas Welch and David Leonhardt. Spoke with Ben, Lucas who are amazing. John is a knowledgeable NBA analytics guy and runs the value add basketball site. We immediately bonded over sports. As a result of the talk, Lucas and Ben invited me to a night cap at the St. Regis. 

There I met Ai-jen Poo, folks from AARP and a great guy by the name of Alex, whom randomly sat down next to me. 

At the moment, no one knew who he was, thus I struck a conversation with him. He said he was in Aspen for an energy conference and we spoke about sports and baseball diplomacy. He's an avid sports fan. In the end we exchanged contact information and promised to keep in touch. Towards the end of the night, someone later told me that Alex was Alex Laskey the founder of a company called O-Power. I thought Alex's introduction was quite refreshing because it conditions you to care about the person and not about what he or she does for a living.

Woke up, ate breakfast, took a jog and immediately went to the "Forward from Ferguson: I am My Brother's Keeper" session with Joseph Echevarria, Angela Glover Blackwell, Broderick Johnson and Stephen Patrick. 

This meant a great deal to me, because when I graduated from UCLA in 2010, not many months removed from the Great Recession, I had no job prospects, but thanks to my study abroad experience and much help from John Oxtoby and Chairman Paul Volcker's Chief of Staff at the time Tony Dowd and now one of the founder of the Volcker Alliance, I was given a chance. You see, they were my keeper and as a result, everything that I am to date I owe to them. Therefore, I am a believer in opening doors for the next generation because it's not about me but we. Thus, I am personally taking the challenge to help domestic and international youth achieve their dreams through baseball. 

Next I attended a special lunch with Shell about mobility. 

Next I attended a session with Elizabeth Alexander, Cameron Carpenter, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Brian Greene, Isaac Herzog, Gwen Ifill, Valerie Jarrett, David Petraeus, Paul Ryan, Peter Thiel, David Bradley, Jeffrey Goldberg, Walter Isaacson and William Kristol. 

At the end of Peter Thiel's talk, I followed him to his car to let him that had his fellowship been around when I was at UCLA I would have gone all in and pursued my passion of baseball diplomacy.

Later that evening I attended "Advice from Women Who Lead" featuring Raney Aronson-Rath, Rebecca Blumenstein, Robin Chase, Amy Cuddy, Vicky Dinges, Fiona Hill, Leila Jana, Hannah Jones, Andrea Kates, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Sochua Mu, Alyse Nelson, Latondra Newton, Michele Norris, Jacqueline Novogratz, Ai-jen Poo, Karla Ruiz Cofino, Shiza Shahid, Bina Benkataraman and Pamela Reeves. It was riveting, exhilarating and quite moving. I have never been a to an Oprah Show, but I can only imagine that it might have been something like this session. 

Soon after the session was over, I went up to Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Fiona Hill, Shiza Shahid and Andrea Kates to tell them that I was really moved. Fiona was so nice to me and even introduced me to Hannah Jones of Nike so that we could talk about our work with Baseball Diplomacy. 

Test drove the i-Road. Incredible.

Met the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haas, and spoke to him about our Baseball Diplomacy NGO. He was very intrigued. 

Spoke with Ricardo Salinas about Baseball Diplomacy in Mexico. To be continued...

Flew back and shared a flight with Congressman Paul Ryan. He loves reading articles about finance and budgets. 

The ones I wish I knew about while in High School:
Gates Millenium Scholarship free undergrad and graduate school 
Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Awards helps cover undergraduate costs and  gives access to LOFT network
Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund helps with tuition and provides guidance and mentoring
Hispanic Scholarship Fund  famous alumni such as the Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios
American Indian Graduate Center Scholars great scholarships for college
Segal Americorps Education Award scholarships for volunteering
The Ronald Brown Scholar Program helps cover undergraduate costs
National Merit Scholarship Program take PSAT and get money for high score

The ones I wish I knew about before I interned in Washington DC:
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) internship and mentoring program
Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI) internship, mentoring program
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) internship, mentoring program
Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) internship, mentoring program
Udall Native American Congressional Internship 

The ones I wish I knew during my university orientation:
Truman for public service 
Rhodes to study in the UK 
Marshall to study in the UK 
Churchill Foundation Scholarship to study in Cambridge 
Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship free two years of graduate school for new Americans

The one I applied for while in college and highly recommend: 
Benjamin A. Gilman for international study/intern abroad

The ones I recently discovered and encourage all to apply for:
Boren to study a critical need language in an interesting region of the world 
Schwarzman Scholars program also known as the Rhodes of Asia allows you to study in China for a year
Fulbright gives you the freedom to study, live or teach abroad in any country
The Consortium fellowship will pay for your MBA
MLT helps prepare you for an MBA program
Mansfield fellowship will allow you to study and work in Japan for a year
Pickering gives you free tuition and a job at the State Department’s Foreign Service
Rangel gives you free tuition and a job at State Department
George Mitchell scholarship to study in Ireland
Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) to work for two years in any U.S. Federal Agency of your choice then be non competitively appointed by an agency upon completion of the fellowship
Udall Undergraduate Scholarship awards $5,000 in academic expenses 
Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for careers in math, science, engineering or medical research
Henry Luce Foundation Scholarship to live in Asia
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 
National Defense and Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship 
Carnegie Junior Fellows Program 
Beinecke Scholarship Program 

How I will begin saving for your studies:
529 Plan
Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA)

I vow to help, love and protect you, while guiding you to become the best you can become so that one day you too will reciprocate this knowledge to your children. Even though I regret having missed out on some of these fantastic opportunities, I am writing this now because 20 years from now I want you and your friends to be equipped with the necessary information to seize the opportunities of tomorrow. 

With much love,

Your Dad 

Earlier this month, I attended the Passport DC open embassies event and am now on a mission to learn more about different countries and their cultures. Consequently, I am challenging myself to attend 3 cultural events every month, i.e. food, music or language. 

At the end of every month, I will write about my experience and recap the lessons learned from the events. 

This New Year’s I am starting a personal Resolution Revolution. For the first time in my 26 years of age, I am writing this post in order to make a promise and more importantly to hold myself accountable to you all: my friends, family and mentors. If I don’t put my words out there, chances are I will take a day, a week or perhaps a month off, and under no circumstances will I ever cheat myself out of achieving greatness again.

Equally as important, I have learned and embraced this Chinese Proverb "If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision if for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people." So here it goes.

About 2 months ago I discovered the Myers Briggs personality test and learned that my letters are ENTP, which according to Buzzfeed’s animal version says that I am a parrot. It also goes on to say that ENTP’s are rationalists who  are outspoken, resourceful and like to generate ideas. Bingo that pretty much sums me up. http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/whats-your-animal-personality-type

However, I then proceeded to look up the earnings potential for an ENTP and it wasn’t what I expected at all. Out of the 16 personality types, my rank is the second lowest on the earnings potential totem pole. As a result, my New Year’s resolution is this, to change my habits so that my last letter more appropriately reflects a J and not a P. http://www.payscale.com/career-news/2013/10/can-your-personality-type-determine-your-salary-potential-infographic-

Why am I doing this you ask? Well for starters I truly believe that the harder you work, the luckier you get. Thus if I want to be prepared for every future opportunity, I need to further plan, study or save for it. It's true, sometimes you get lucky, but I think that the most successful people in life are planners; as a result, I plan to be more successful.

So how will I do this? First, I will substitute my “go with the flow” approach with a more calculated, scheduled and structured one. Yes, I know what you're thinking, but things don’t always go according to plan; however, that shouldn't derail you from always having a plan A. Second, I am going to continue studying via www.coursera.org, while I prepare for graduate programs. Finally, I plan to save more money with the goal of buying more time.

So if you’re reading this, what is your personality and how can you improve this New Year?