30A – Final Reflection

What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? 

I think the most formative experience this semester has been quarantine and the way the whole world reacted to the pandemic and also the racial issues going on during this time as well. 

The experience that you'll remember years later? 

One experience during this semester I'll remember years later is being stuck at home for weeks/months on end, particularly because I enjoyed being home. 

What was your most joyous experience? 

My most joyous experience this semester was probably my parents getting remarried. 

What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

I am proud of getting through this semesters classes. As time goes on, school is more and more of a struggle because I hate school. I love learning, I just hate having to learn stuff that doesn't apply to anything and also have to memorize it and regurgitate it for an exam. I cannot wait to never have to take another class again, although I will say I enjoyed this class as it did actually apply to my life. 

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? 

I saw myself as an entrepreneur long before this class and it was nice to be able to apply my mindset to a course here at UF. 

Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

Because of the mentorship program I am in, I have very much already developed an entrepreneurial mindset, as I am surrounded by successful business people all the time, but this class definitely helped me see different aspects of business which I appreciate. 

What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? 

I would recommend taking advantage of opportunities to meet people who are successful business owners and seek mentorship from people who have what you want in business, relationships, health, spiritual life, and finances, as those are the main areas of life. 

What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? 

Work ahead. 

What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

Get around people who already have the mindset they want to adopt. Mindset is more so "caught" than it is taught. 

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

1.

Opportunity

The forces creating opportunity in this environment are all the athletes speaking up about their abuse situations during there athletic careers. Verbal abuse has been present in sports for a very long time, however, many athletes are speaking up about it now more than they ever have. Geographically, there is no specific group of people that this will target. Demographically, there is no specific group either since what I’m offering will range from young children, to older experienced adults. My audience will typically be low-middle class, on up. Some coaches are satisfying there need with general self education, however, many of them aren’t satisfying this need at all because they don’t know of any resources. I believe that this opportunity is huge, yes to make great profits, but more importantly to make a huge impact. I believe this window of opportunity will be open forever, because there will always be ways to improve personally and be better for our athletes. 

Innovation

In the gymnastics community, and athletic community in general, there is a huge need for coaches to better learn how to communicate with their athletes so they can bring the best out of them without being abusive or psychologically manipulative. What I am creating is going to be on online resource targeted mainly toward coaches, but I will also have content for the athletes and parents of athletes as well. 

Coaches content:

What I will be providing for coaches are recorded interviews, podcasts, articles, curriculums, and a book to access that all educate coaches on how to coach more effectively. These will cover a variety of topics like how to help an athlete overcome a mental block, how to use positive reinforcement vs. negative reinforcement, never wanting more for an athlete than they want for themselves, etc.. I will have many different guest speakers and experts to offer their knowledge when it comes to the psychology behind the sport. 

Athletes content:

This will mostly be interviews for the athletes to watch with guest speakers who are athletes they most likely look up to, speaking about different topics. Some of these topics will cover how to deal with injuries, how to deal with burnout, how to overcome mental blacks, etc..

Parents content:

This content directed toward the parent will be all about how to best look after their athlete. This content will be articles, interviews, and podcast covering topics like how to best be supportive of their athlete, how to be involved but not overly involved in their child’s sport, etc..

To have access to my resource, there will be a $20 monthly subscription fee that will include standard content like podcasts, and interviews, but additional fees for the book and curriculums. 

Venture Concept 

This opportunity will help alleviate some of the issues going on on the sports world related to verbal abuse. I don’t think my customers will really be switching from anything, but more so starting something new. The main competitor is a guy named Nick Ruddock who does something very similar to what I want to do, however, he is based in the UK and does most of his work there, and I don’t think that is a weakness of his, but it is more so an opportunity for me to have more opportunity in the US. I will not be limited to the US, though. Since my business will be online I will not have to worry about packaging and things of that nature. Given that my start up costs will be very minimal, I plan to create content for a year in advance before releasing any, and then from that point start releasing the content and continue creating more.

My most important resource will be my experiences and other experiences to pull from. For the next venture, I would branch off to start hosting seminars and gymnastics camps. 

In five years I want this to have 2000+ subscribers and by the 10 year mark I want to be hosting seminars for coaches and clinics as well. As an entrepreneur, I want to continue creating and adding value to people. I want my business to make so much profit that I don’t have to base my decisions off of how much it costs. I want to make all of my decisions based on my values and goals, not my checkbook.

2.

The only constructive feedback I received was about how creating content for a year before releasing any could be very costly if I don't plan on making any money in the first year. Given the nature of what I'm creating, I don't see that being a problem because my startup costs are going to be very low, and I have plenty of capital to pull from. 

3.

Given that feedback I did add in a part saying that my startup costs will be low, and that'll be very doable for me to do. 

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The book talked about our cognitive systems and how those function in our decision making. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book brought awareness for me to the different ways people fail to think effectively in their decision making process or when it comes to retaining information in general. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I would include and exercise that tests the students on their thinking process and see if they're a "fast" thinker or a "slow thinker. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

One part that stood out to me was a quote, "A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth". I didn't really have any expectations going into the book, but it definitely brought some truth to light for me. 

28A – Your Exit Strategy

As I go through my journey I will have a team of people who are directly and indirectly involved in my business. I don’t want to keep my business in the family because the point of my business is not only to make a profit, but to truly impact the sports world. So unless my future kids have the same passions and purpose as I do, I will not be keeping the business in the family. Through the years I will be growing my business, and as I get older I will be identifying who’s hands my business belongs in to continue taking it to the next level and impacting people. Now for those who think it’s wrong to not keep it in the family, this business is not going to be my only business venture, and I will have plenty to pass down to my future kids. So, I do plan to work the business for some decades, and then eventually hand it off to someone who I believe is committed to continuing the journey. 

I selected this exit strategy because I don’t want this to die when I die. I want someone to take it over who is capable of continuing on the legacy I will create. 

My exit strategy has not had any influence on any of my plans, mostly because for some reason I have thought very little about an exit strategy. However, it didn’t take me any time to know exactly how I will exit down the line. 

26A – Celebrating Failure

This assignment was a little more tricky for me, not because I don't make mistakes (I make tons of mistakes), but over the last few months, I haven't really done a whole lot other than work and school. I did make a mistake when I went to work and forgot I needed to be there 30 minutes early for a private lesson. The really dumb part was that I put it in my calendar to get to work at the time I was supposed to, but when I looked in my calendar a few days later, I thought I made a mistake when I put in my work schedule and forgot about the lesson I had. That was a really dumb mistake considering I had even put it in my calendar, but it was what it was. Crap happens.

I learned to trust myself with what I'm putting in my own calendar, because I am working on becoming a less forgetful person.

Failure isn't bad, I don't even like to call it failure. To me, failure only occurs when you make a mistake and don't learn from it. A great book for someone struggling with failure is Sometime You Win, Sometimes You Learn by John Maxwell. The foundation of success is failure, and I've heard successful people say that if you're not willing to go through the failures, then you don't deserve success.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

The forces creating opportunity in this environment are all the athletes speaking up about their abuse situations during there athletic careers. Verbal abuse has been present in sports for a very long time, however, many athletes are speaking up about it now more than they ever have. Geographically, there is no specific group of people that this will target. Demographically, there is no specific group either since what I’m offering will range from young children, to older experienced adults. My audience will typically be low-middle class, on up. Some coaches are satisfying there need with general self education, however, many of them aren’t satisfying this need at all because they don’t know of any resources. I believe that this opportunity is huge, yes to make great profits, but more importantly to make a huge impact. I believe this window of opportunity will be open forever, because there will always be ways to improve personally and be better for our athletes. 

Innovation

In the gymnastics community, and athletic community in general, there is a huge need for coaches to better learn how to communicate with their athletes so they can bring the best out of them without being abusive or psychologically manipulative. What I am creating is going to be on online resource targeted mainly toward coaches, but I will also have content for the athletes and parents of athletes as well. 

Coaches content:

What I will be providing for coaches are recorded interviews, podcasts, articles, curriculums, and a book to access that all educate coaches on how to coach more effectively. These will cover a variety of topics like how to help an athlete overcome a mental block, how to use positive reinforcement vs. negative reinforcement, never wanting more for an athlete than they want for themselves, etc.. I will have many different guest speakers and experts to offer their knowledge when it comes to the psychology behind the sport. 

Athletes content:

This will mostly be interviews for the athletes to watch with guest speakers who are athletes they most likely look up to, speaking about different topics. Some of these topics will cover how to deal with injuries, how to deal with burnout, how to overcome mental blacks, etc..

Parents content:

This content directed toward the parent will be all about how to best look after their athlete. This content will be articles, interviews, and podcast covering topics like how to best be supportive of their athlete, how to be involved but not overly involved in their child’s sport, etc..

To have access to my resource, there will be a $20 monthly subscription fee that will include standard content like podcasts, and interviews, but additional fees for the book and curriculums. 

Venture Concept 

This opportunity will help alleviate some of the issues going on on the sports world related to verbal abuse. I don’t think my customers will really be switching from anything, but more so starting something new. The main competitor is a guy named Nick Ruddock who does something very similar to what I want to do, however, he is based in the UK and does most of his work there, and I don’t think that is a weakness of his, but it is more so an opportunity for me to have more opportunity in the US. I will not be limited to the US, though. Since my business will be online I will not have to worry about packaging and things of that nature. I plan to create content for a year in advance before releasing any, and then from that point start releasing the content and continue creating more 

My most important resource will be my experiences and other experiences to pull from. For the next venture, I would branch off to start hosting seminars and gymnastics camps. 

In five years I want this to have 2000+ subscribers and by the 10 year mark I want to be hosting seminars for coaches and clinics as well. As an entrepreneur, I want to continue creating and adding value to people. I want my business to make so much profit that I don’t have to base my decisions off of how much it costs. I want to make all of my decisions based on my values and goals, not my checkbook.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

10 Resources:

1) Financial capital
This is valuable obviously because I will need money to start up. It isn't rare or inimitable, and is only substitutable by credit.
2) Lots of connections
This is valuable because to succeed in anything you need to have other people in your network. This isn't rare or inimitable. There is no substitute for this.
3) Coaching experience
This is valuable because I need experience to know what I'm talking about. This isn't rare, but is inimitable because it can't be copied  There really is no substitute for this.
4) Experience as an athlete
this is valuable because I have first hand experience dealing with different coaches as the athlete, and so I know what it feels like from the athletes point of view. This isn't rare, but is inimitable because it can't be copied. There really is no substitute for this.
5) Others experiences to pull from
This is valuable because everyone has different experiences, and to learn about others experiences will be crucial. This isn't rare or inimitable. There really is no substitute for this.
6) Access to technology to start up
This is valuable because I will have an online business. This isn't rare or inimitable. There really is no substitute for this.
7) Knowledge on the subject
This is valuable for obvious reasons. This may be somewhat rare and inimitable. There really is no substitute for this.
8) Relationships with people who will be customers
This is valuable because people who like what I'm offering will refer it to others. I don't think this is rare, but maybe somewhat inimitable. The substitute of this would be going out and finding other customers.
9) Credit
This is valuable for if I ever need to fall back on credit if my money runs out. This isn't rare or inimitable. And this is substitutable by cash.
10) Thousands of coaches and gymnasts out there with a need
This is valuable because you need customers to succeed. This isn't rare or inimitable. This is not substitutable.

I want to have a team culture that is all about integrity, loyalty, and constant progression. Those will be the main core values and our culture will be one that is rare. I want my teams culture to exude love and passion so that we are able to add value to as many people as possible.


I think the most important resource I have is experience. I did talk about 3 different experiences, but overall I think that's going to be the most valuable because my experiences are unique and those experiences is what I'll pull from to relate to and educate my future customers.