Final Reflection

      1.       Read through your blog from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you’ve had along the way – the highs, the lows – the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

a.       After reading through my blog from the whole semester, I can clearly see where I went wrong. I had a couple of weeks where I didn’t do any of the assignments because I thought I was too overwhelmed with other classes. After speaking with my parents and friends, I realized that I had to turn it on for the end of the semester to make up for what I hadn’t done to still pass this class. The couple of weeks where this happened would be my moments of “dread” where I just didn’t have the desire to sit down and do these simple assignments.

      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?

a.       The most formative experience for me was learning that this class was no joke. I took it easy for the first couple of weeks, and started falling behind very quickly. Then the stress came, I was swamped in other class’ work, and had no idea what to do. Then, I realized that I had to stop wasting time not wanting to do the assignments, and start using that time to just complete them. I learned that simply, with the right mindset, life can never throw more at you than you can handle, and that is exactly what got me through this semester.  

      3.       At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And we repeated the mantra – I am an entrepreneur. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

a.       I would say that I have learned what it means to be an entrepreneur, but from my own perspective, I wouldn’t call myself one. However, I have moved even closer to becoming one, as I have learned the ups and downs throughout the process of this course. The entrepreneur mindset has always been implanted in my mind, and I wish to further develop it throughout the coming years.

      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?

a.       If I had to make one recommendation to a new ENT 3003 student, it would be to take this class seriously. There is no one in the world that can do the assignments, and fall behind if you don’t, besides you. To perform your best, I would say to just try your best, and not to overthink each assignment. They all add up to the final product of this course, but wasting time worrying about how much you don’t want to do something will only feed your procrastination. To foster the entrepreneurship mindset, I would suggest thinking outside of the box, and not following what everyone else is doing. You may feel out of place, or wrong, but in the end, you’ll find out that your gut feeling was right.  

Venture Concept No. 2

This is my second attempt at the venture concept for this idea. Once again, the opportunity for this concept pertains to those who need this project, and why they need it. Right now, the schedules for all four major North American sports are set up in a way that does not benefit the players. My problem with this is that there can be a change, an easy one at that. The reason these sports will need this program for their schedules is to tend to the players’ needs. There is no reason that it shouldn’t be set up more efficiently to help with player fatigue. I realize that there may be some kind program or development team working on this as we speak, but to have a program with the logic and algorithm set up for each year, will help tremendously.

The reason that this opportunity exists is, once again, because no one else has really thought about it, at least that I know of. I know, of course, that these leagues have been set up for years, and no one has specifically complained about inefficiency of the schedules, but why not change now for the better. It will only benefit everyone in the end. Demographically, the market hasn’t changed, and is defined just by the front offices of each of these sports, and in the future, the front offices of big companies. As for the geographic market would be defined wherever it is needed. Currently, these “customers” are satisfying their need by living without it, and having nothing specific to compare it to. If there was an implication of this program in their everyday lives, or just as an example of what it could do, I really think it would make a huge difference. I would say that this opportunity is a great one because of the fact that no one else has really thought about it. It is a great way to benefit everyone all around, and make things a lot easier for these sports, and big businesses alike. I believe that this opportunity window will be open so long as no one else really gives it much thought. If I came out with a finished product now, compared to a year from now, I don’t know if much would have changed barring any interruptions to this market.

Here is the more defined innovation. This program would be considered as a service that will address the need for a more efficient schedule for the four major North American sports. This “innovation” is not necessarily the most creative, or applicable one, but I really do think that it could make a big difference for a lot of people very quickly. As for a detailed description, is something that will start out as a scheduling application for the four major North American sports, including baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. As mentioned by one of my classmates, this would be somewhat of an impractical first step towards creating a business, as one of this biggest challenges is selling this to the league, without any real reason for them to spend money. I do not have a specific price point because I’m not quite sure how that would work out, but I assume it wouldn’t be cheap.

As a venture concept, the reason that this solves a problem is because ever since the creation of every single one of these four leagues, there hasn't been a system that can create the schedule for years and years in advance with taking into account the season rules for each sport, while also maximizing the efficiency of the travel schedules along with off-days for travel. I have seen too many times, a team go from the east coast to the west coast over night for an afternoon game the next day, and I think I can do something about this. I think that users would switch to this product because it would bring about change for the players, and give them a better schedule, taking into account travel and fatigue from an athlete’s perspective. Right now, there aren’t any competitors per say, but I do think that this is something that I should act on as soon as possible.

The three minor elements: My “unfair advantage” in this case would be my passion for sports, and perspective. I have been through tough scheduling myself, and I understand how hard it can be to recover, play hard, then do the same thing over again the next day, and sometimes that same day. What comes next for this venture is the opportunity to expand into local, or big businesses to help provide an easy solution for clients and employees. In five years, I would like to have an established product for the aforementioned “next step” for the venture.

Feedback: The feedback I received has been mostly positive, and the most helpful ones are those that outline a trial that comes fourth from their perspective, and challenge me to fix it, and/or take it into account for this second venture concept. As a summary, almost all of the feedback I received brought about the issue of getting this product to the league. This is a billion-dollar industry, so why would they stop what they are doing now just to buy a little program to do what they already do? Good question. Another insight I received was about the possibility of the inclusion of this program to collegiate sports, as student athlete schedules are full of travel, and missing class and tutoring sessions really hurts them on the student side of things, so the implementation of this program for this separate realm would be tremendous.

How did I change? I’ve changed the venture concept from the last time very minutely. There wasn’t an insane amount of feedback for me to work off of, so I used almost all of the same stuff from the last one. I did, however, change the opportunity side of things, taking into consideration the feedback I did receive. 

Reading Reflection No. 3

This is the third reading reflection I did for How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams:

      1.       What was the general theme or argument of the book?

a.       The way this book was organized was just like a story book. It had a bunch of stories and lessons to basically test the reader’s takeaways. The author, Scott Adams, was very open with this failures and successes, and how each process leading up to that worked out. There were a bunch of major takeaways, and the general idea was that failure vs. success can teach you just about anything you need to know.

      2.       How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

a.       This book connected with this course in that it outlined what it meant to fail, and how much it means to each process. You cannot win, or succeed at everything, and sometimes it takes a whoopin’ for you to find that out.

      3.       If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

a.       If I had to design an exercise for this class, it would involve an exercise where you go out and try to fail at something, maybe just once, and then reflect on what you learned from failing that you could use towards trying to succeed the next time, and to see the real benefits of failing at something.

      4.       What was your biggest surprise or “aha” moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

                  a.       I didn’t really have many expectations for this book, but the biggest thing I learned                               was the distinction between goals and systems. The example in the book was the                                   comparison between “losing 10 pounds” being a goal, and “eating healthier” being a                             system. It is much easier to follow a system, because you are constantly working with                         the system, whereas a goal, once you complete it, you start looking for a new one and                           forget about all you did to reach the previous one.

My Exit Strategy

      1.       Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

a.       I believe that I would be interested in working with this venture for as long as I can, whether it be until the day I retire, or until I get bored of it and magically lose interest in everything that it has to offer.

      2.       Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

a.       I would consider it to be a family business, but I wouldn’t want to force my children into this business, which would provide me with the opportunity to sell for a large return at the moment the aforementioned “end” comes to be.

      3.       How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you’ve made in your concept?

a.       For me, I always wanted to work this venture until the end, so in any and all situations, I was looking at it from my perspective, not a prospectus new owner. Of course I want to grow as much, and as quickly as possible, so I’ve put my best foot forward in that regard. 

Making it Real

Here is my updated resume:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0NpFncqeMOXeGpQR2ZSaTR1N0E/view?usp=sharing

Celebrating Failure

1. Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time. 
1. This past semester was a long and tough one, and I would say that the thing I failed at most during this time was in a discrete math course. I had all of the tools at my disposal to do well in this class, but after the first couple of weeks, I basically had no chance. This was frustrating because I spent a lot of time trying to understand everything, and even though I thought I did, I didn't. 
2. Tell us what you learned from it.
1. What I learned from being forced to drop this course was that failure can come in many different shapes and sizes, and nothing will ever be as easy as you think it will be without any experience. I know now that when it comes to challenging courses, I have to give it everything I have, or I risk falling far behind very quickly.
3. Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. 
1. The thing that sticks out most to me when it comes to failure is the part afterward. Not knowing what to do, feeling embarrassed and down, all of that can really bring you down. In my first full year of college, I've learned that life will never throw more stuff at you than you can handle. We all have different ways about getting through failure and/or rejection, and the only way that is common is perseverance, pushing through to the next obstacle, and understanding that you cannot, in fact, be perfect.  

Venture Concept No. 1

My venture concept is a quite simple one, although I believe that it can serve a huge purpose in the sports industry, and business industry right away. To start, the opportunity for this concept pertains to those who need this project, and why they need it. Right now, the schedules for all four major North American sports are set up in a way that does not benefit the players. My problem with this is that there can be a change, an easy one at that. The reason these sports will need this program for their schedules is to tend to the players’ needs. There is no reason that it shouldn’t be set up more efficiently to help with player fatigue.

The reason that this opportunity exists is because no one else has really thought about it, at least that I know of. I know, of course, that these leagues have been set up for years, and no one has specifically complained about inefficiency of the schedules, but why not change now for the better. It will only benefit everyone in the end. Demographically, the market is defined just by the front offices of each of these sports, and in the future, the front offices of big companies. As for the geographic market would be defined wherever it is needed. Currently, these “customers” are satisfying their need by living without it, and having nothing specific to compare it to. If there was an implication of this program in their everyday lives, or just as an example of what it could do, I really think it would make a huge difference. I would say that this opportunity is a great one because of the fact that no one else has really thought about it. It is a great way to benefit everyone all around, and make things a lot easier for these sports, and big businesses alike. I believe that this opportunity window will be open so long as no one else really gives it much thought. If I came out with a finished product now, compared to a year from now, I don’t know if much would have changed barring any interruptions to this market.

Now, the innovation. This program would be considered as a service that will address the need for a more efficient schedule for the four major North American sports. This “innovation” is not necessarily the most creative, or applicable one, but I really do think that it could make a big difference for a lot of people very quickly. As for a detailed description, is something that will start out as a scheduling application for the four major North American sports, including baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. I do not have a specific price point because I’m not quite sure how that would work out, but I assume it wouldn’t be cheap.

As a venture concept, the reason that this solves a problem is because ever since the creation of every single one of these four leagues, there hasn't been an algorithm that can create the schedule for years and years in advance with taking into account the season rules for each sport, while also maximizing the efficiency of the travel schedules along with off-days for travel. I have seen too many times, a team go from the east coast to the west coast over night for an afternoon game the next day, and I think I can do something about this. I think that users would switch to this product because it would bring about change for the players, and give them a better schedule, taking into account travel and fatigue from an athlete’s perspective. Right now, there aren’t any competitors per say, but I do think that this is something that I should act on as soon as possible.

The three minor elements: My “unfair advantage” in this case would be my passion for sports, and perspective. I have been through tough scheduling myself, and I understand how hard it can be to recover, play hard, then do the same thing over again the next day, and sometimes that same day. What comes next for this venture is the opportunity to expand into local, or big businesses to help provide an easy solution for clients and employees. In five years, I would like to have an established product for the aforementioned “next step” for the venture.