Final Reflection

"What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?"

Honestly, a few things pop into mind. The assignment where we had to ask people to say nice things about us (I know, that sounds super forced and vain, but it was an assignment, I wasn't just out here fishing for compliments) will probably stick with me. Like every other student who had to interview others, I was so used to expecting everyone to say something different based on their own unique experiences with me. The fact that no matter how many people I asked all had roughly the same sweet detailed things about me was really uplifting because it made me feel like I was the same person to everyone who saw me-- no pretending, no pick-and-choose who to be myself around, no faking, no holding back or acting or putting on a face for certain people and not others: just me being pure myself, always. And that was something I came to value. People think I'm too honest sometimes, that I don't spare anything by being so upfront and so straightforwardly myself, but that kind of universal consistency makes me feel dependable and true. And I like that.


"At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?"

I would say that I do see myself as an entrepreneur now more than I did ever. I always knew about being a personal agent for yourself and you being a brand and whatnot, but right up until the first day I sat down to do an assignment for this class, I didn't really think of being a writer as being an entrepreneur; I thought of it as being an author. But there is a lot of self-promotion and vouching for yourself and independent self-help that goes into pushing yourself forward as a writer, and the least of the troubles for an aspiring author are actually sitting down to flesh out the words and pages themselves--that's shockingly the easy part! The actual 'being an entrepreneur for yourself' part was where the brunt of the work sits in, and I'm still figuring it out. Needless to say, being an entrepreneur no longer implies to me a slimy door-to-door salesman with a whack tight suit who for some reason carries a briefcase even though he's here trying to peddle a cheap aerosol spray can that is supposed to be some kind of 'revolutionary homemade innovation'--you get the idea.

"What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?"

Gosh, it's more of a personalized thing, like each person finds their own way, and each way is different and right in its own sense. You do what fits to you, whatever methods tailor to your vision and your product. That's what gives you the edge, staying unique and applying the parts you need to succeed and disregarding the one's you don't. That's the whole point of being an entrepreneur: no standardized formulaic guidelines, or else everybody would be doing it if it were that easy to follow and get outcome!  You do you, booboo.