Final Reflection

Reading through my blog was really fun. This semester flew by and I really enjoyed this class. It stretched me a lot as a person and challenged my way of thinking. I'll never forget the first time interviewing customers. A friend and I went to Starbucks on 13th street and approached random people and asked to interview them and we were so uncomfortable. We just kept laughing out of insecurity. It's crazy to think how much i've grown just in that manner over the last semester. I hated every moment of being on camera. The elevator pitches were my worst nightmare. Hearing my voice on camera makes me cringe and I always had to take like 20 takes to get just the right one. I think a lot of the class was a low for me because I was always worried about missing assignment deadlines. I would of loved to see all 6 of the weeks assignments all due on Sunday.
The most informative assignment was the very short interviews. I will always be a firm believer in mentors because they are so much older and wiser than you. Learning from someone who has already done it and knows the hard parts, the fun parts, and the tricks to it all, was an incredible experience. I left both my meetings with Morgan so inspired. The experience i'll remember years later will be the free money experiment because it was so uncomfortable to do and the guy eating a donut in my video was so funny. I think he was trying to be super funny but I loved him. My most joyous experience was when we got to research the world's biggest problems and find solutions to them because this is where my passion lyes. I love serving in third world countries and it was so fun to write about what i've learned in Haiti. My most proud moment was when I finished recording a video, I would always feel so proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone.
I'm not quite sure I see myself as an entrepreneur yet. I think I understand entrepreneurship way more, but i'm not sure i'll ever have the passion to be one myself. I have definitely learned about and moved toward an entrepreneurial mindset through all of the assignments. They challenged the way I thought about the world around me, business opportunities, my frustrations, and money.
The best recommendation I could make to next semester's students would be to make a list of things they are passionate about and create a venture based on something on that list. If you don't love your venture and don't believe in it than the course work will feel more like a chore. To be more successful in this class, students should plan far in advance and not wait until the day of to do the assignments because sometimes they will be longer and more tedious than you expect and you don't want to lose simple points. Do ones with recordings a couple days before the deadline so you have ample time to find people to do it. I think the best thing they can do to foster that mindset is to put on this facade that THEY ARE an entrepreneur and really try to believe it for their duration in this course.