Week 8 Reading Reflection

What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? What stood out the most as different from your expectations?

The biggest surprise for me was the part about the myths of venture capital because I believed many of those myths were true. For example, I would have expected the majority of funding for a entrepreneurs start up to be from venture capital, but that is actually just a myth.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The most confusing part of this chapter was when the author discussed the notification and non-notification plans. I understand that this applies to when using accounts receivable as collateral, but it still confuses me.

If I were able to ask the author two questions, these would be them:

1. Why would a company choose to work with private placements?
2. What exactly is a venture capitalist and why do they exist?

Was there anything you thought was wrong that the author said? Where do you disagree with them? How?

I think the first thing that sticks out to me is the different myths that were disproved. I agree with all of them, which is that the venture capitalist doesn't want to own the business. The reason I disagree is that shows like Sharktank show that investors are looking to become at least part equity-owners and to have a say in the decisions.

Half-Way Reflection

Being tenacious is one of the important characteristics of Entrepreneurs. They do not care if they fail, they are confident that they will succeed in the near future, despite their current circumstances.

1. Tenaciousness is a skill

In order to keep up with the demands of the schedule for this class, I have had to set up a calendar and stick to it, or else I wouldn't be able to complete all the activities on time, and unfortunately I haven't done a great job at this. Moving forward, I hope to learn how to use my calendar to my advantage, and not my demise. Often I put off everything and do not use these deadlines to my advantage, but I am slowly learning how to develop this skill.

2. Tenaciousness is also about attitude

Every time I see a video assignment that I am supposed to work on, I look at it and feel like giving up. But in reality, this is a class I need in order to graduate and this thought has pushed me to be tenacious and dedicated to my work and my education. I feel like over the last few months, I have learned how to give up activities for my responsibilities, like I haven't had to in the past, which has been great at pushing me toward being an entrepreneur. There are so many deadlines for this class and experiencing the defeat of not abiding by them has pushed me into a more tenacious mindset. 

3. Three tips

- Do not just write everything in your calendar. Set individual deadlines for each part of the assignment. This way, you will not be forced to turn in a poor assignment, right before the deadline assigned. 

- Do not be a YES man. What I mean by this is that, sometimes it is better to say no to one thing in order to finish the responsibilities you have. As college students, it is very easy for me to say YES to every person or opportunity that is pulling me in one direction.

- Do not expect to be perfect and; expect to fail. If you always believe you will do everything exactly as assigned, the first time, you will eventually fail and this will often take away opportunities for success in all your classes. Expect failure and try to minimize those occurrences.