30- Final Reflection

Intro

Looking through all my posts was an interesting experience. Much of the business creation process seems obvious now that I've learned about it all through experience.

• Talking to and asking people about their problems and using the perceived problems as a baseline for a product, finding the specific group of people I should market the product to, asking people what they look up when trying to solve X problem, giving an elevator pitch (for real, and three times, not just thinking "I could talk about this to people"), finding out the unique selling points of the product, and laying the business all out in idea napkins and venture plans… 

Some of the best parts of this class were the other students in my group- reading their blog posts, seeing their entrepreneurial journey, and following them as they developed their projects along the way. I especially enjoyed reading their comments on my posts because I knew If I worked extra hard on an assignment, it would be seen and acknowledged by the readers which would encourage me to strive to make higher quality content. 

Formative Experience

The accomplishment I am most personally proud of was the fact that I was able to set a time in my schedule to talk to business owners about the product subject I basing this class's assignments on, and actually did it. Wow, right? Well, I am generally not fond of reaching out to random people because I don't want to bother or waste their time but I was happy to find that most of the people I called to talk about their businesses were very friendly (though of course I also ran into the terse and not so friendly) and many of them made me laugh or smile in the course of the conversation even though I just reached out for the purpose of the class.

Mindset

I would have never considered starting my own business outside of having some brilliant sudden idea that is able to steal the market, but I realize that this isn't what entrepreneurship is all about. I just have to keep a keen eye out for problems(or bugs) in the world to stay aware of business opportunities. Creating a business as a solution to a specific problem is a much more approachable idea than waiting for a sudden flash of genius which may never happen. Just knowing how a business goes from startup to large corporation can help me facilitate growth in any company I work for in the future.

Advice for Future Students
Students who do this course: Work hard to make products you can be proud of, things you will look back on and not think are stupid. When you look back on all the assignments you did, it's great to see a sort of portfolio of curated ideas, not barely legible and half-baked sentences strewn together. This class is a journey, and just like you would want to take good pictures during any adventure, you want to have pictures (encapsulations of your experience at least) in the entrepreneurial journey. Be as transparent as possible and speak the truth so you can be corrected by your peers and can look back on your complete though process when you look back- see what changed in yourself as you learned and grew.

I would also say the books were some of the most interesting parts of the class, so try to read ahead or (because I know you won't like I didn't) make sure you select the books you are most interested in reading, not just the ones with the least pages.

Footnote

Really, thanks for the feedback. Good luck with your college years and potential future entrepreneurial businesses!

...also, this is a good book