Halfway Reflection - "We're halfway there!"

"Woah we're halfway there, Woah livin' on a prayer, Take my hand and we'll make it I swear, Woah livin' on a prayer" - Bon Jovi 

Tenacity is a skill that you will definitely need in order to be successful in this course. If you are unsure if you possess this skill or not you will shortly find out. You have to take initiative in this course to get things done well in advance, waiting until the last minute is a bad strategy and you will not succeed if you use that technique. It's really easy to make excuses to not do an assignment, whether it be it seems difficult or time consuming or that it takes you out of your comfort zone. If these are your reasons I challenge you to take them on without reservation, you will feel such accomplishment if you do. One of the biggest tips I would offer is to look ahead at least a week or two in advance. Some assignments take more planning than others and knowing what you need to start strategizing for is a huge help!

One of the first assignments you do in this class is customer interviews. It seems super intimidating to go up to people you don't know and ask them questions on a hypothetical idea that you haven't even worked out completely in your head but don't overthink it and just do it. I was really nervous to do this because I really didn't know if my idea was really a good idea at all but I received so much positive feedback from customers and peers that I was so glad I did it. The other assignment in the first half of the course that really put my tenacity to the test was the "Free Money" assignment. I really wasn't all that nervous on my way to the location I did the experiment but once I got there I immediately wanted to give up. And it didn't help that the first three people I talked to refused to accept the free money I was offering. Talk about low self-esteem and encouragement! But shortly after I found two small kids with their grandmother and was able to successfully give away some money! I felt so good after interacting and giving away the money to the two kids that I was immediately encouraged. If I would have given up after my first three failures I wouldn't have felt the joy of making the kids day! And even though it seems like a small lesson in perseverance it really can be applied to many things in life.

The first tip I would offer to new entrepreneurs in this course is to take risks and push yourself. There are going to be assignments that you might not think fall in your comfort zone but the only way we grow as people is to try new experiences and push on those walls inside of us so we have room to grow as human beings. My second tip would be to be intentional about not giving up. Some of us might have mastered the skill of tenacity but some may need to look up what that word means prior to beginning the class (I fall in the latter category). But whichever group you fall into commit to doing everything 100%, you can't fail if you try. My final tip would be to really try and space out the workload of this course throughout the week. If you wait until the deadline to do all the assignment due for that particular day you will feel incredibly overwhelmed and won't benefit from the exercise.