27A – Reading Reflection No. 3 Submit Assignment

The book I selected to read for the final reflection is, How to fail at almost everything and still win big, by Scott Adams.

The general theme of the book is to present the idea that failure is a part of life that is needed and you will often encounter. However, the book foreshadows failure as a good thing because it presents individuals who have failed drastically, but have managed to become very successful once reflecting on their failures. The book explained that one should set systems opposed to goals because goals have inherent flaws. Also, the book went into details about some methods in how to approach life based on the characteristics of the person you are. Overall, it explained that failure is inevitable, therefore, you cannot lose hope when its presented, but find a way to learn a lesson from the failure.

The book connected and enhanced what I am learning in ENT 3003 because it emphasizes the idea that failure is an obstacle along the road to success, and that the most successful people encountered many forms of failure before reaching success; practically the content of what we are learning in class. It also enhanced the fact that success does not come easy, and that in order to be successful, you must learn to bounce back from failure because it would present itself much more often than success.

If I had to design an exercise for this class, I would design an exercise that ask people to reflect on their most successful moment in life and to identify the feelings and emotions they felt at that time of success. Then, I would ask these same individuals to reflect on a moment where they failed and also identify the emotions they felt at that time of failure. Now, I would make them compare the two and distinguish the difference in each emotion. After completing the exercise, they would practice presenting the same emotions for success or failure. The reason for this exercise is to get individuals to learn how to keep a stable level of emotions when encountering success or failure so that they can learn how to reflect from both actions. This will help individuals deal with failure and keep themselves together in hard times.

What surprised me the most about the book was their idea on goals. I always thought goals was an important part of reaching success and it is what drives people towards something. However, the book presents goal setting as a flaw and promotes setting a system instead of goals. This very much surprised me and made me rethink my form of reaching success. Should I set goals or should I set a system? After reaching the book, I understand this concept more and think I would reevaluate my goals and set a system instead of goal setting; I think this would help me better than setting goals can.

28A – Your Exit Strategy Submit Assignment

When selecting an exit strategy, it is important to consider a strategy that continues the success of your business, as well as expand my business deeper into its industry. Following the next few years, I would continue to remain with my business towards retirement and hopefully build a legacy through my business. My plan is to expand in the market and work my way towards being top in the market, eliminating competitors. I do not intend to sell my business, as I hope to pass it down to my children and allow them to continue the legacy. I believe that my business would allow me to reach financial stability and build a foundation.

I have selected this particular because I am proud of the business I am investing in. I believe that once you invested so much time in something, it is always important to continue driving towards making that investment better. Obviously, the older I get, the more help I would with my business, which is why I am passing the business down to my children, who would continue the legacy. I believe my children generation would have much more resources to make the app better and drive it within the market. Also, technology is rapidly evolving so that would also contribute making the app better and more practical.

Lastly, I do not think my exit strategy has influenced other decisions I have made in my concept. This exit strategy is just a way for me have an avenue for my business in the long term. It pushes me to work harder and strive towards a purpose. However, my exit strategy would not influence any particular decisions or anything I have identified. Also, it has not influenced my growth intentions or how I plan to acquire and use resources.

26A – Celebrating Failure

Failure, something very common to the human species. Without it, who would we be? Nobody, failures makes us who we are. Through failure, you experience growth because it gives you an opportunity to reflect and understand how not to perform or react. In many cases, we face failure and think that it is the end of the world; but its not, it is the start of a new path as you embark on a new journey to discovering a common goal or objective you set for yourself. Without failure, we would not learn to expand on our basic knowledge. Failure gives you a chance to mess up and correct that mess up. Many of the most successful people to this day, would not be where they are without having experienced some type of failure along their path to success.

In my case, I have experienced many failures. Some have broke me, but most have made me who I am. This past semester, I was lucky enough to have expereinced failure in a way that opened my eyes and made me realize that I needed to do better. Towards the beginning of the semester, I was slacking extremely hard in my courses and failed my first exam. However, understanding that I was about to graduate and needed to maintain a GPA above a 3.2, I knew that I had to re-evaluate myself and devote more time to my studies. Having realize this, I held myself accountable in devoting at least 3 hours of studying each day and working ahead in all of my courses. Because of this moment in where I failed and realized that I had to do better, I am now on track to receiving all A's for this semester. From this occasion, I learned that procrastination is our worth enemy, and that when procrastinating too much, you lose focus of the prize at hand.

In this class specifically, my perspective on failure has changed in the sense that I understand that everyone fails and that how we bounce back from that failure is what determines our future. Taking Steve Jobs, for example, he dropped out of college and failed drastically, however, he never gave up and was able to develop Apple and become very wealthy. Seeing stories like these inspire me to continue working hard and to never give up because you never know when your time is next in discovering the next big invention; therefore, I do not shy away from risk and I am more willing to take risk now.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

Obesity has become an issue within our nation due to the lack of education on the importance of fitness and how to live a healthy lifestyle. People of all ages, demographics and sex who suffer from obesity or are simply uneducated on how to properly workout and what to eat to achieve their personal goal fall under my prototypical customer but specially young college students since they are the ones who mainly put aside their health because they're always busy on campus and do not have enough time to work out or meal prep which results in them eating out almost every day. Most college students live on a limited budget which means when they're eating out it is not the healthiest meal but rather some cheap fast food. As a college student myself I can understand how it can be hard to manage both but we need to remember and take care of our health and bodies. Others just lack the motivation to be more careful about what they eat and be more active because they do not possess the knowledge. There is currently multiple apps that provide what I will be offering but many of them are too expensive for my prototypical customer which is why mine will be different from most. Not only will the price of my services set me aside but my drive to actually help others become healthier will set my services aside from all the existing ones. 

Innovation

The service I have created is an app that will help those with little to no knowledge about fitness and a healthy lifestyle become healthier and improve their health. My app will be available on smart phones and it will provide customers a nutritional section where they can learn all about healthy eating. It will also create a fitness plan and a nutritional plan customized differently to every customer depending on their age, health, and goal. As I mentioned above one thing that will set me apart from my competitors will be the accessibility to my app. As a college student I know we sometimes have to limit our spending and for someone who may just be starting their fitness journey it may be hard to spend a lot of money on something they may give up on a few weeks after they begin because they lack the motivation so my app will be a $20 monthly subscription which is relatively cheaper than most apps out there, a gym subscription or services like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. My app will not only customize a nutritional and fitness plan for each customer but it will also provide some helpful tips on where and how to do groceries to get the best food at the best price. 

Venture Concept 

My app is meant to help people become healthier. Eating healthy and working out is a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle but it only works if it is done correctly. My opportunity comes from the lack of education which is exactly what my app will provide, knowledge. As I previously mentioned there are a lot of different apps similar to mine and it will be hard at first to gain customers but I feel like once they see the quality of my service they wont be hesitant to switch over to my app. I will be providing my customers with a free one moth trial and although it usually takes anywhere from three to six months to see a difference in your body I feel like people will want to continue using my service even after the free trial because they will like how personalized it is to them and their goals instead of a general idea of what they should do like most of the existing apps. I feel like my customer service will play a big role in the success of my business because I am offering to work with each and every customer individually. For my business to be successful I believe I am going to have to partner up with different trainers and nutritionist to provide the most effective advice to my customers. 

As previously mentioned, my most important resource will be my customer service skills. I am offering to help each f my customers reach their goal by personalizing their fitness and nutritional plan which means I will have to work with each individual personally. I will have to give everyone my undivided attention while setting up their plan and organizing their routine. 

 The next step will be to go international. I would like to be able to help people worldwide and not just Americans and college students. Obesity and the lack of education on fitness is an issue all over the world. I would also like to open my own gym to be able to be more connected with my customers and help them in person rather than through a screen on their smart phones. 

In the next five years I would hope to see myself providing my service internationally already and beginning to create a blueprint for my gym. Expanding my services locally and maybe also be able t work with celebrities personally as their personal trainer. My goal is to be able to be as connected as possible with my customers. This venture will help me towards my long term goals by opening the doors to clients and people that  may have not met otherwise. I will be able to network with not only customers but other professionals who may be able to help me in the future. 

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25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market:

I think making my product international is what's next for my venture.
Interview 1: I think that your product is a good idea, but I believe that health is something that impacts the world as a whole. So you should make your product available worldwide opposed to just college students and Americans.

Interview 2: I think this is actually a great idea, not everyone has this resource available to them so this puts you on a different level.

Interview 3: It sounds like a great idea, but you have to think about catering to those who speak a different language as well.

New Market:
I think it would be a radically difference in marketing my product B2B opposed to B2C
Interview 1: I believe this would take your product to another level. B2B is one of the best ways to evolve and expand a product. It will help your product grow.

Interview 2: B2B is a great idea, not only would you be catering to customers, but you would also be established in a large industry where could potentially take your product very far.

Reflect: Something I learned about this market is that it gives me an advantage over competitors in the fact that I will be selling to other businesses. This is something that will help my product grow and build a good reputation within the market. I was not really surprised about anything as I am a business driven person and understand the potential of B2B selling. The expectation and assumptions that I had were correct and were confirmed by the people I interviewed. Therefore, this makes this market attractive to my existing market and would only act as other opportunity for advancement within my industry.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. Nutritional Knowledge
• Valuable: This is valuable in the sense that it makes me credible for the product I am selling.
• Rare: This knowledge is quite rare as most people lack knowledge on proper nutrition and health.
• Inimitable: This knowledge can be easily learned if studied. 
• Non-substitutable: cannot be substituted for the fact that it has to be acquired. 
2. Social Capital: contact with gym members
• Valuable: I have potential customers who have a need for my product.
• Rare: This is rare because not many people have a pipeline already developed.
• Inimitable: This can be imitated as building relationships is not a difficult task.
• Non-substitutable: This substitutable because people can still become customers.
3. Customer Service
• Valuable: This is valuable because it gives me the ability to interact with others on a professional level.
• Rare: This is not rare as many people already have this skill
• Inimitable: This can be imitated as others can also present good customer service
• Non-substitutable: This is substitutable because customers can still receive service.
4. Social Capital:Personal Trainers
• Valuable: This is valuable because I have connections with people who can benefit customers.
• Rare: This is rare because not many people have connections with personal trainers. 
• Inimitable: This cannot be easily inimitable as it takes time to build good connections.
• Non-substitutable: This is substitutable as customers can consult others for information provided by personal trainers. 
5. Public Speaking Skills
• Valuable: This is valuable because it allows me to present my product to the public.
• Rare: This is rare because not  many people are comfortable with speaking in public.
• Inimitable: This inimitable as others can present the product.
• Non-substitutable: This is non-substitutable as I would have to present the product in order to generate revenue. 
6. Social Capital: Popularity
• Valuable: This is valuable because my popularity brings me a lot of connections
• Rare: This is not rare as many people already have connections.
• Inimitable: This can not easily be imitated as it takes time to build connections.
• Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable as you need to build good rapport in order to advertise product. 
7. Social Capital: Student organizations/ Greek Life
• Valuable: This is valuable because it gives me an opportunity to connect with people within my organization. 
• Rare: This is rare because not  many people are involved in student organizations that act as a resource/connection.
• Inimitable: This is not very inimitable as not many people have this type of advantage.
• Non-substitutable: This is substitutable as it can be done through other sources
8. Social Capital: Contact with potential customers
• Valuable: This is valuable because I have contact with people who need my product
• Rare: This is rare because not many people already have contacts.
• Inimitable: This is not very inimitable because it is difficult to find potential customers with an already developed app.
• Non-substitutable: This is substitutable as you can use other resources. 
9. Physical Exercise Experience
• Valuable: This is valuable because it makes me credible
• Rare: This is not very rare as there are many people with experience
• Inimitable: This is not very inimitable as experience takes time
• Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable as it is needed for the function of the product. 
10. Lack of competitors
• This is valuable because it limits the amount of competition I have to compete against.
• Rare: This is rare because most markets have a lot of competitors in which they have to outperform.
• Inimitable: This is inimitable as not everyone has this opportunity.
• Non-substitutable: This is substitutable but it acts as a leverage. 

After complete the VRIN analysis, I think the having the knowledge and experience that makes me credible in selling my app, makes it my most valuable resource. I think experience is extremely valuable and rare as it separates you from competitors and gives you an advantage in making your product better than others. 

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

https://youtu.be/rvLI4uzrfHc

Reflection: 
What stood out to me the most was the fact that my first pitch was a little dragged out and repetitive as specified in the feedback I received. This was very important to me as it allowed me to understand how to narrow my pitch down to where it can be concise and better understood. This also gave me an opportunity to cut down on being repetitive and highlight more important aspects of my product. 

Change based on feedback: 
Based on the feedback, I made sure to be concise and straight forward in the information I provided. I also tried to speak from the perspective and standpoint of the customer in hopes of promoting emotions so that they can be more intoned with what my product actually does and so that they can feel a need for my product. I realized that my pitch was almost memorized and that I was more comfortable in front of the camera than I was during the first pitch. I strongly believe that this pitch is better than the first two as I was able to use the feedback I received to my advantage.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

The reading I have selected to write about is the Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki

1) The general theme of the book an insight on how to use social media to promote a business or a product. This reading drove deep into the best ways to use social media to your advantage and gain success in doing so. 

2) This reading helped enhanced what I am learning in the class by giving me a better understanding of how driven social capital is in the essence that any successful business needs social impact. This reading also helped me understand how important it is to properly use social media as it can be a determining factor between success and failure. 

3) The exercise would involve having individuals looking through their social media and determining if based on the content they have posted up to date, would they hire themselves? If not, why so? and if yes, then what factors determined that?

4) The biggest surprise I got from reading the book was how much of an impact social media has become. Before the reading, I understood that social media was very important in today's society, but I had not come to realize how impact it was to business and hiring recruiters. Today, social media is our brand and the way we use to advertise our brand can impact the rest of our life.