30A - Final Reflection

• The most formative experience in this class for me, was creating an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is something I did not have to do very often in my life. There was a time I had to do something like it for UF's IA Catalyst and me and my team had to come up with a whole product prototype and pitch it to real investors at UF. Not to say the least, it was pretty intimidating. But recording my elevator pitch for this class became slightly easier because of that past experience and the feedback I received then. I probably wont be able to forget that, just because I believe it will help me in the future should I bring my venture to life someday and need to pitch it to real investors.

• I think the experience that was both the most joyous and I'm most proud of for accomplishing is progressively creating my venture as the course went by and we added more and more aspects to our ideas. I really liked watching how my venture grew from just a mere idea at the start, not very sure how I would follow through with it, to having a full out plan of what it consists of and the plans for its future should I pass it on to others after it's become widely known and successful.

• I'd say I have always seen myself as an entrepreneur but I don't think I ever went as far with a venture as I did with this one. I also don't recall coming up with one that I was so passionate about until this one. I think in the future if I choose to move forward with my service/product and make it a reality, I think thanks to this class I would have some good tidbits to help me get to where I would like to be.

• One recommendation to the students going down this path, would be "don't give up and don't take no for an answer". Often times, we let the naysayers and the strongly opinionated get in our head about our ideas and kind of dim our lights and shut us down, making us think our ventures will never make it. But reading the books that I did in this class for the reading reflection, helped me realize that the successful entrepreneurs in those autobiographies once had a lot of people saying "No." in their faces, ripping their dreams apart. I agree that hard work is a big part of success but also taking the time to reassure yourself and have the confidence to stand behind your product/service regardless of what others may think of it.

• I would also like to add, that in order to do best in this course, future students should take all assignments seriously. The points may look small but they really do add up and completing all assignments was something I personally struggled with and hope the future students don't repeat. Manage your time, set up your own personal deadlines for each week however it works out with your life schedule, do all the work required, and you'll be just fine.