To Next Semester's Students...

1.) What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?

I realized that in this course you can get a lot of value from the class if you take the time to think about each assignment. The only way to do this is not be rushed to submit your assignments. Because of this, I make sure to read my assignment descriptions every Monday so I can think about them during the week. Then, usually in the middle of the week, I start my first assignment so that for the last part of the week I only have one assignment to turn in. Doing this gives me the appropriate amount of time to conduct interviews and put the right amount of thought into each assignment. In addition, I learned that it is valuable to overview all the assignments for the semester because I didn't realize we had to read a book for an assignment until the week of the assignment's due date.

2.) Talk about a moment or two when you felt like giving up. What pulled you through? Do you feel you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

I felt like giving up on my idea early on in the semester when seeing all the competition. What pulled me through was realizing that even though there is a lot of competition, I can be better than the competition. I was able to realize that the market for my service is growing and not many of the competitors are focused on the value and experience of their service and don't have appealing and enticing websites. I believe I have developed a tenacious attitude during the last two months because I have been taking steps to be a better entrepreneur. Outside of reading books on leadership and entrepreneurship, I decided to take real action to help me become a better entrepreneur. I've done this by quitting my job at Gainesville Health and Fitness and taking a job as Gainesville's sales intern for the app Hooked this spring. By physically going into restaurants and pitching the app to the business, I am able to learn valuable sales and people skills that are crucial to being a good entrepreneur. Additionally, working with a start-up is allowing me to see the challenges that small companies face and what it looks like when starting a company.

3.) 3 tips you would offer next semester's students about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the "tenacious mindset"

1. Understand that this class can mean something if you follow all the assignments and you are passionate about your idea. Utilize the class structure and understand your idea can become real
2. Have the mindset the whole time that your idea is an actual business you are looking to start or are going to start the process of taking the course
3. The only thing you have to lose is time, you will learn so much from the class if you actually complete all the assignments as instructed