Final Reflection

My elevator pitches were the most formative experience from this class.  I enjoyed getting to express my business idea aloud, seeing myself improve with each iteration, and polishing-up my public speaking skills.  I found that performing the pitch helped me become more passionate about my idea.  The "What's Your Secret Sauce" assignment was both the experience I'll remember years later and my most joyous experience.  It was initially uncomfortable asking my closest friends and family members to describe what makes me unique.  But after hearing what all of them had to say, it filled me with joy and made my heart very full because they had such thoughtful and nice things to say about me.  Recording it with my best friend was also really funny because he kept laughing and having to restart.  I'm most proud of myself for completing the assignment, "Growing Your Social Capital," because it was nerve-wracking to reach out to people I'd never meant via email and LinkedIn.  Though I didn't hear back from any of them, I was really proud of myself for summoning the courage to contact them.

I don't yet see myself as an entrepreneur, mainly because I have not yet put any resources into a venture that I sincerely want to pursue.  My venture for the class was an idea I had, but as I completed assignments and research, I decided that it wasn't an opportunity I'd actually want to pursue.  However, I definitely think that I've developed more of an entrepreneurial mindset.  I'm now constantly noticing unsolved problems in the world around me, and thinking of how to solve them.  Last month, my hair stylist was talking about how many clippers had broken when the cord catches and they fall off the table.  I immediately started thinking that maybe someone like me could design a shock-absorbing case to protect hair clippers.

I would recommend that any student taking this class in the future should get comfortable interviewing people and contacting people they don't know well.  To perform best in this course, I think they must set aside time to work on it every week, since the workload is consistent and substantial.  To foster this mindset, I recommend that they set a goal for how they want to perform in the class, and do their best each week to make sure it's still attainable.

I'm not sure what sort of photo I should use, so here is a picture of the Apollo IE "Golden Dragon," which I took at the 2020 Amelia Island Cars and Coffee.  This event was the last fun thing I got to do before everything got cancelled, and it was an awesome day.