Final Reflection

1)So this is it. One of my last posts in my blog for the Intro to Entrepreneurship class. In this post I will be reminiscing over my blog and all the experiences I had during this class. It's been a treat, fam. Good luck in life to all my fellow classmates and avid readers. I hope I entertained you or at least did not bore you.

Here goes nothing.

2)What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

Most formative experience: Definitely the most formative experience I had came from the exercise where I had to reach out to an industry expert, a market expert, and a supplier for my venture. This exercise gave me actual insight into how people are currently dealing with the issue of revenge porn (my venture concept is a service for survivors of revenge porn whereby my company wages a campaign on the victim's behalf to get the revenge porn taken down or use SEO to bury it under layers of positive information about our clients) and what (limited) resources are currently out in the world. Not only that but if I ever decide to go ahead with my concept, this exercise put me in direct contact with an organization that said they would endorse my service once they've seen it in action.

Most memorable experience: The most memorable exercise was the one where I had to go out and try to give 5 one dollar bills to people. This exercise really pushed my comfort zone and forced me to talk to people I normally wouldn't, which is why it was so memorable. The reactions I got to giving away money were varied and entirely unexpected. One person even gave away the dollar I gave them just to participate in the fun I was having.

Most proud experience: The experience I just mentioned is probably the one that invokes the most pride from me. I'm not usually the person who goes out and talks to strangers, but I want to be. I was really proud of myself for actually doing this and for making it entertaining.

3) Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

You know, I actually do. Before this class, I thought entrepreneurship was something you either born to do or don't do at all. Now I know that's not true. Anyone can have an entrepreneurial mindset, in whatever field they are in. It's about being innovative and identifying opportunities where you can create value for the people around you. I am entrepreneur. I can think like a guerilla.

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

Do the assignments that make you uncomfortable. Go out and talk to people about an idea you have and get their feedback. Understand that you are going to fail and that's really okay. You learn so much more from failure and suffering through weird or awkward experiences than you do from being super successful and no one giving you criticism. Have thick skin. Take the advice given to you without trying to defend yourself and explain things better the next time if that was the root of your problem. And remember, shit happens. Some things you will never be prepared for - and that's okay. Don't be too hard on yourself. Entrepreneurship and life are very similar creatures. They're unpredictable, frustrating, sometimes depressing but the experiences you have as you figure shit out are 100% worth it. If you don't know shit, then you're only choice is to learn and grow out of your innocence.

To better foster the entrepreneurial mindset, I would pick a venture concept at the beginning of this course that you are actually passionate about. Doing that will make all your assignments way more interesting and valuable to you because you actually give a damn about finding out what you can from these assignments. Also, talk to people outside this class about your idea and about entrepreneurship. Listen to people's experiences and incorporate what they have been through into your entrepreneurial mindset by listening and asking questions.

Alright. So that's it folks. Hope you enjoyed the ride and...