21 - reading reflection 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adam

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

·      Well, with this book I felt very identified and grateful to have read it. Scott Adams, an animator, tells his advice and his autobiography. The first tip is to eat well, with foods that give you energy and creativity. The second is to exercise to increase your energy and execute what you propose. The third is to create affirmations, to believe in you. The fourth is to have happiness as a goal, to be at peace. He also advises having a lot of knowledge, studying, educating ourselves, he says that is the key to success. He also advises to look for patterns, and reports that failure is necessary to tell which are the ideal patterns. He says that failure is his best friend and that we must learn from it.

2)    How did the book in your opinion connect with and enhance what you are learning on this class?

·      Well, I consider that this book is ideal for entrepreneurs, in this class most of the assignments are about creating and developing a business idea, looking for potential clients, how big and how successful it can be and if it is really necessary the creation of a product or service. This book says that things that do not work or do not work out as expected, teach us very important things and that we must learn from them without giving up. Also, somehow explains how the best ideas could come out of mistakes. For example, I noticed that from the first elevator pitch and with feedback and comments from other students who advise how to improve the video, the final result (video 3) is much better than the first one.

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

·      I think I would like to implement Scott Adams' advice on looking for patterns, for example, he says that even in our diet there are patterns. If you notice that when you eat carbohydrates you are tired and want to rest a little, it is better to eat carbohydrates at night and not at times where you need to be productive, otherwise, it says that if you realize that eating an apple helps you in your productivity giving you energy you should take advantage of that.

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?

·      I was surprised by the goals systems, as it says that we often are demotivated because we reach the deadline and we have not met the goal, that is why we should set short-term goals that we can meet and we can be satisfied with in order to reach our final goal without giving up.

22 A - ELEVATOR PITCH 3

 https://youtu.be/bj5Zg7wdAgs

I did not have feedback on my last elevator pitch, however, I felt the need to change my business idea, which I think helped me because I feel much more passionate about this topic. I tried to improve it and to express my idea much better than with the past video, I felt much more comfortable talking about this topic and in front of the camera, I guess it is because it is the third time we do this type of video, I enjoyed seeing the improvement from the first video to this one, because I feel I expressed myself better on this one.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

For this assignment I changed my idea, I am using the idea of implementing healthier options to eat on campus.

1)    Person expert in the industry

My industry would be the restaurant industry, because I will promote a restaurant where you can buy healthy, affordable and “fast” food service. Where you don’t necessarily have to eat chicken nuggets to have a quick bite. For this question I contacted my uncle, he owns three restaurants in the city I was born. I called him and explained my business idea. He said that he finds this concept to go with the trends that are now a “lifestyle”. He said the most important thing in the business will be to keep the promise of healthy food at an affordable price and without taking too much time from customers. He said the location will be an important factor as I want to target college students, and also suppliers which I will talk on question 3.

2)    Person expert in the market

In this opportunity, I talked to Miss Gaby Yerkin, she is the owner of a health shop, the biggest one in her city. She is a nutritionist who started with a small store and little by little growing up. Nowadays "wellness" is a way of life, each time people are more concerned about their health and what they eat. that is why, she created her company in which she offers quality products, superfoods, healthy snacks, and food and exercise plans. She says that her store came up with social networks, she told me that she does not feel threatened by competition because the idea of everything is to promote a better lifestyle for every person. I found her because she is a friend of my mom's childhood and I sent her an email explaining my initiative and she said that it seems a great proposal since many times college students between studying and working tend to eat junk food because they think it will be the best option at the moment, but in the long run if this is regular, it can cause harm to their health

3)     Person that will be an important supplier

I have spent many time in Miami, where this trend is much more popular than here in Gainesville. They offer many types of guilt free desserts and also low calorie and nutritious foods. I am passionate about this topic, so every time I go there I go to restaurants that offer this kind of concept. A year ago, I met a girl who makes guilt free cakes and also cookies. Most of her desserts are made with organic eggs, oatmeal, coconut oil, stevia. So, I talked with her and she said that she has more and more clients as time passes because this trend of “wellness” is not a trend anymore, it is a “lifestyle”. She said she could start shipping to Gainesville her best sellers: chocolate cake, zucchini cake, carrot cake. To see how the market responds to this kind of products.

Reflect: I found this “networking” assignment much more specific, and it gave me much more engagement to the opportunity, they made me see things I may have not thought before. Talking to experts and suppliers made me realize this is possible, and eating healthy is becoming a lifestyle so with my opportunity I could help students and persons with busy schedules to still eat healthy while keeping up with their daily tasks.