Final Reflection
The Good 🙂, The Bad 😕, & The Ugly 👹
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The Good 🙂
For me, some of the good moments were when I made videos. Whether it was the Secret Sauce video, or any of the Elevator Pitches, it was always fun, which is also why I put everything I had into it. If you have watched them, you'll realize that, excluding the first one, I put some thought into how I edited the videos. I'm not saying the editing is good, but it's there: background music that fades in and out, custom thumbnail, custom end cards, even a little effect when I made the joke about Wells Fargo in the second pitch. Or in the secret sauce video, all the cuts from one person to the other, making it seem like real interviews, the special screens for the voice recordings (which by the way costed a fortune). That's what I do. I enjoy it, whether it is a lot of work or not. -
The Bad 😕
I don't think I've had many bad experiences, but if I must choose, I would say it was anytime we were assigned interviews (other than the Secret Sauce). I'm not afraid of talking to people, but just having to find strangers and asking them questions about a concept idea, and write down their responses, its not something I'm really comfortable doing. Nevertheless, whenever I could do it, I did it. -
The Ugly 👹
Lately things have been pretty bad. Not because of the assignments themselves, but because of the lack of feedback that I receive. I generally don't mind whether I get feedback or not, but most of the latest assignments have relied on feedback. That has made those assignments hard, making me evaluate what can be improved, and making the necessary changes.
The ENT3003 Experience
I think what I just described as "the bad 😕" may also be the most formative experience I've had in this class. I've learned to talk to people about an idea, and get their feedback from it. I've also learned to identify problems and opportunities in every-day situations from observation.
The experience that I'll remember years later is actually not a single experience, but two single experiences. The first one is the making of the Secret Sauce video. Most of my family, and some of my old co-workers have told me what they thought about me in person, but they never went into too much detail (except maybe my grandfather). This time it felt more real, and it was nice hearing what they thought without me being there.
The second experience was reading the book "Makers: The New Industrial Revolution". As I mentioned in Reading Reflection 2.0, I've never been certain of my career choice. I've always been going back and forth between many choices, and even when I declared my major I was unsure. It wasn't until this semester when I realized this was what I wanted to do. And it wasn't only driven by the book, it was actually a build up. It started with my programming class, which I absolutely love in every way you can possibly love a class. And during one of those lectures, I remember watching Apple's WWDC19 Keynote stream. While I'm not an official developer, I could actually relate to a lot of the things the intro video showed, from the agony of an app build that fails, to pacing around a room to try and think, to talking to a rubber duck. And sure, it doesn't look fun, but it's very rewarding. Or when they announced new APIs and frameworks for app development, new features in Xcode, I was genuinely excited about them, and not in an Apple fanboy way, but in a developer way. And hearing how the crowd (made up of mostly developers) was also excited made me feel that I was part of a much bigger community, and I'm proud of being part of it, even if not yet officially. After that I read the book, and at that moment I was sure: this is what it's come to. And this was also my most joyous experience
I'm most proud of how I structured my idea. I've taken a class before where we had to come up with a product/service, and define every aspect of it, and my ideas were never this structured. Then again, we often had a week to come up with them vs. almost an entire semester in this class.
I think what I just described as "the bad 😕" may also be the most formative experience I've had in this class. I've learned to talk to people about an idea, and get their feedback from it. I've also learned to identify problems and opportunities in every-day situations from observation.
The experience that I'll remember years later is actually not a single experience, but two single experiences. The first one is the making of the Secret Sauce video. Most of my family, and some of my old co-workers have told me what they thought about me in person, but they never went into too much detail (except maybe my grandfather). This time it felt more real, and it was nice hearing what they thought without me being there.
The second experience was reading the book "Makers: The New Industrial Revolution". As I mentioned in Reading Reflection 2.0, I've never been certain of my career choice. I've always been going back and forth between many choices, and even when I declared my major I was unsure. It wasn't until this semester when I realized this was what I wanted to do. And it wasn't only driven by the book, it was actually a build up. It started with my programming class, which I absolutely love in every way you can possibly love a class. And during one of those lectures, I remember watching Apple's WWDC19 Keynote stream. While I'm not an official developer, I could actually relate to a lot of the things the intro video showed, from the agony of an app build that fails, to pacing around a room to try and think, to talking to a rubber duck. And sure, it doesn't look fun, but it's very rewarding. Or when they announced new APIs and frameworks for app development, new features in Xcode, I was genuinely excited about them, and not in an Apple fanboy way, but in a developer way. And hearing how the crowd (made up of mostly developers) was also excited made me feel that I was part of a much bigger community, and I'm proud of being part of it, even if not yet officially. After that I read the book, and at that moment I was sure: this is what it's come to. And this was also my most joyous experience
I'm most proud of how I structured my idea. I've taken a class before where we had to come up with a product/service, and define every aspect of it, and my ideas were never this structured. Then again, we often had a week to come up with them vs. almost an entire semester in this class.
Are We There Yet?
No. I don't think anyone just "gets to become an entrepreneur". It's like (and this is a very bad comparison) a player's rating in any sports game. They may be the best in the world one year, but if they perform poorly enough, they may get downgraded back to an average player. And if you think about it, it works the same way in real life. Football (and I'm talking about "soccer" here) players are really all the same. Some have more talents than others, but they are all people, and one bad season can end some players' careers, while one good season can kickstart others. This is the same with entrepreneurship. Sure, there's a point when you "get" there, but that's not the end. You have to keep at it, whether you are successful or not, you have to keep doing it to truly be considered one. At least that's my opinion.
Have I moved closer to developing the mindset? Yeah, maybe a little. I'm still not close to being an actual entrepreneur, but I have learned how to think like one, so there's that.
No. I don't think anyone just "gets to become an entrepreneur". It's like (and this is a very bad comparison) a player's rating in any sports game. They may be the best in the world one year, but if they perform poorly enough, they may get downgraded back to an average player. And if you think about it, it works the same way in real life. Football (and I'm talking about "soccer" here) players are really all the same. Some have more talents than others, but they are all people, and one bad season can end some players' careers, while one good season can kickstart others. This is the same with entrepreneurship. Sure, there's a point when you "get" there, but that's not the end. You have to keep at it, whether you are successful or not, you have to keep doing it to truly be considered one. At least that's my opinion.
Have I moved closer to developing the mindset? Yeah, maybe a little. I'm still not close to being an actual entrepreneur, but I have learned how to think like one, so there's that.
Recommended For You
I'll let my friend Chandler tell you what you should do if you're starting in this class:
Nah, I'm just kidding. You have to simply be willing to try. Even if you don't know what you are doing, just try. This is an easy class if you actually do the work, as tedious and/or long as it may be. About the entrepreneurial mindset, just be open to ideas, opportunities, and always come up with solutions. For example, say you go to the grocery store and you notice something that bothers you. Instead of complaining about it to the manager, or walking away without caring too much about it, try to come up with a way to solve that thing. This will train you for when you identify a large scale problem that may actually be solvable and profitable.
I'll let my friend Chandler tell you what you should do if you're starting in this class:
Nah, I'm just kidding. You have to simply be willing to try. Even if you don't know what you are doing, just try. This is an easy class if you actually do the work, as tedious and/or long as it may be. About the entrepreneurial mindset, just be open to ideas, opportunities, and always come up with solutions. For example, say you go to the grocery store and you notice something that bothers you. Instead of complaining about it to the manager, or walking away without caring too much about it, try to come up with a way to solve that thing. This will train you for when you identify a large scale problem that may actually be solvable and profitable.
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