Halfway Reflection

1. To be honest, I haven't totally kept up with the requirements of this course. I estimate I'll earn a B+ in the class. I can tell you the two character traits that I haven't used or developed, that if I had I would be easily gliding on an A right now - foresight and diligence. I am working 2 jobs this summer, one of which (the one my career will stem from) takes up more time than I honestly have in the day, and I somehow fit the other in, along with a couple personal hobbies and keeping up my friendships. So I tend to forget I have an assignment due until the night of the grace period (like this assignment right now), which means I don't ever get the interview assignments done. If I had the diligence to stay on top of my classwork and the foresight to know that I will have 2 or 3 assignments due at the end of the week, I would think to work on them throughout the week.
2. I felt like giving up in week 3 or 4, when I wasn't able to complete 2 of the 3 assignments due for the week (because I had waited until the night before to remember them). I got through this feeling of failure by, first of all, closing my computer and going to bed and getting a good night's rest. When I woke up in the morning, I opened up Canvas and counted up the total number of points I had earned, plus how many were left to earn, and I realized I could still get an A- in the class. That one week hadn't gone so well, but that wasn't indicative of my overall standing in the lass, especially considering how many more points I was able to earn. I don't feel that I formed a tenacious attitude about this class in the past 2 months at all, and that feels pretty awful to type, but it's true. I'm just scraping by in this class with what I can work with,
1. As a side note, I want to say that I definitely feel that I am tenacious in my job (research assistant in a biomechanics lab). In 2 months, I went from an unpaid RA to the first and only paid undergraduate RA, I am submitting an abstract to present a poster at a conference in San Francisco next summer, and I am treated as/seen as a "mini grad student" in the lab with some of the same responsibilities as the PhD students. All of this I achieved through a year of hard work, long hours, and absolute devotion and dedication to the lab as a volunteer, through always going above and beyond my duties, and through my passion for neuromechanics research. I would absolutely say I have developed tenacity as a personal trait.....but not when it comes to ENT3003. Sorry, Dr. Pryor!
3. Tips that I would tell next semester's students to foster tenacity in the class:
1. Make sure you pick an opportunity/business idea that you really love for "Forming an Opportunity Belief" - you will get real intimate with this idea real quick.
2. Do as many assignments as you can ahead of time, so that when you get longer/more challenging assignments (like interviews), you can devote more time to them.
3. Read the posts by your fellow classmates and really thinks about the comments you give, and make sure you read the comment that they post; seeing similar people get passionate about their own ideas, feeling good about giving them constructive criticism or a big pat on the back, and seeing how others would tweak or improve our own idea will really help you get involved in your business idea and in the entrepreneurial community, and maybe foster a tenacious mindset.

Here's a picture of me in the Applied Neuromechanics Lab "markered up" in the reflective markers that make motion capture possible. We were trying to get a shot of me mid-jump...it didn't turn out so well!

Portmanteau" "Freasy"

Portmanteau: "Freasy"

Definition: free and easy (a college kid's favorite two things)

My experience with this activity was pretty disappointing. Almost every time I said "freasy", people ignored the word and continued the conversation. I got almost no reactions. One friend did a double-take and asked what it meant, and when I defined it he gave me an odd look and kept talking. MY parents and my sister just didn't even seem to hear the word although I said it multiple times in front of them.

No one picked up the phrase.

I think that most of my friends and family ignored the word because I do have a habit of making up nonsense words to fit in my sentences, and they have gotten used to using context clues to pick up the definition of thee words and continue conversation.

In the future, I think I will try to use a Portmanteau that is more used in funny contexts, because I believe it will stick better in my circles. Perhaps "Ploob" - a combination of "Pleb" and "noob"?

One conversation highlight:

Bailey (best friend): "Wanna go to a Gator Nights thing when fall comes back? We've never actually gone and we probably should before we graduate."

Me: "Hey, if it's freasy, I'm down."

Bailey: "What the hell did you just say to me?"

Me: "Freasy. Like free and easy, But better."

Bailey: "Shut the hell up."

Me: "Ok."

Idea Napkin Number 1

1. I am a 4th year college student. I began cooking for myself when I was 15 and I became a vegetarian, and my mother only consented to my eating habit change if I agreed to learn to cook my own dinners. When I came to college and returned to eating meat, I had a whole repertoire of meals and continued to cook for myself. The past two years I have prepped my meals for myself weekly, since it really cuts down on total cooking time. I see this meal prep business fitting really nicely into my current routine - I'd cook the weekly meals for customers at the same time I cook my own.
2. I'm offering weekly, fully prepared meals at low prices.
3. I'm offering these meals to college students who do not have the time, money, or knowledge to cook their own food.
4. Potential customers need this service because it is a cheap way to get actually healthy food daily without having to do any of the prep work themselves. 
5. There is no other college-kid-affordable meal prep service in Gainesville - the only services are either a fully vegan (and expensive) meal service or paleo diet/fitness-oriented services (also expensive)

I believe that my who/what/why's fit together quite well. I think I have the abilities to provide meals for students who have issues cooking their own food, and I have found that there are plenty of students with some form of that problem. The issue I am having is the pricing of meals, to keep them affordable enough for college students but expensive enough for me to make a reasonable profit.

Reading Reflection Number 1

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

1. About Steve Jobs:
• I was surprised by how gruff, heartless and manipulative Jobs was, and by how accepting of those trait he was. Gurus and geniuses like Jobs are painted to be these perfect, awesome human beings, because of what has did for the world by creating Apple. But really, he has nasty character traits like the rest of us, and honestly probably much worse than the rest of us.
• I admired Jobs's determination. Everyone told him that his visions for the personal computer were outlandish and impossible, and instead of being dicouraged his response was to prove them wrong and do the impossible.
• I did not admire how Jobs treated his friends, especially Wozniak. Apple definitely would not have become what it is today without Jobs' drive for perfection and ability to get what he wanted from others, but Wozniak was the engineering genius behind the first Apple computers. Apple would not have existed at all without Woz Jobs was heartless to his other friends as well, like Daniel.
• Jobs encountered plenty of adversity and failure from a young age. He grew up knowing he was adopted and feeling abandoned because of it. He also was fired from his own company, Apple. He was treated for cancer, multiple times. Through all of these storm clouds, he sought the silver lining. Though he had feelings of abandonment, Jobs also had a recognition that he was special, and that his parents chose him specifically. When he was fired from Apple, Jobs created 2 new businesses, one of which Apple later bought (bringing Jobs back into the company), the other of which is Pixar. And through the cancer, he
2. Two competencies that Jobs exhibited were the ability to manipulate others into complying with his requests, and the ability to make his creative ideas come to life no matter the costs.
3. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was Job's opinion on his use of LSD as a young man. Jobs swears that LSD helped enlighten him and open up his creativity and his will to give something back to humanity. I guess that confuses me because I don't expect a self-made billionaire to attribute a large part of those traits that made him so successful to a psychedelic drug. Then again, Steve Jobs was definitely not the typical businessman nor predictable.
4. Two questions I would ask Jobs are "What do you think the next 10 years holds for technological advancement?", and "What do YOU think was your greatest accomplishment?"
5. Jobs seemed to see hard work as absolutely non-negotiable. When one of his team members might have appeared to be slightly slacking off, Jobs cut him out with no empathy. To Jobs, if you didn't love the work you were doing and put your whole heart and time into it, then he didn't need to deal with you. Do I agree with this? I mean, I have a good hard-work ethic and I whole-heartedly believe that if someone doesn't love their career, then they shouldn't be in it. But I wouldn't be as intense as Jobs was about it...however, I also will not be a millionaire and famous by the time I'm 23.

Tweaking the Innovation

Product/Service Mix

Breakfast	Entrees	Delivery/packaging	Easy college cooking classes
Baked Oatmeal (cinnamon apple, banana chocolate chip)	Fiesta crockpot chicken	1x per week – 7 entrees, 7 breakfasts	1x per month in-person, 1.5 hours long
Vegetable quiche	Balsamic chicken and rice	1x per week – 5 entrees, 5 breakfasts	Tutorial videos uploaded 1x per month
Sausage, egg, and cheddar casserole	Asian chicken tir Fry	1x per week – 5 entrees
Biscuits and gravy	Mozarella meatloaf
	BBQ pulled chicken
	Chili-pasta beef skillet
	Garlic lemon chicken
	Mediterranean chicken
	Chicken parmesan casserole
	Chicken and dumplings
	Creamy bruschetta chicken
	Kielbasa-spinach alfredo

Mapping the Items

1. ALL food items (breakfasts, entrees): 
• Core: nourishment, healthy home-cooked food with reasonable macros
• Tangible: taste, texture
• Augmented: pre-packaged, already cooked, ready-to-eat
2. ALL Delivery/packaging:
• Core: food delivered straight to doorstep
• Tangible: face-to-face time and conversation with the cook
• Augmented: don't have to leave the house to get pre-cooked food
3. Easy college cooking classes:
1. 1x per month in-person, 1.5 hours long
• Core: college students can learn how to cook simple, healthy meals 
• Tangible: hands-on learning with an in-person instructor
• Augmented: build a community and friendships
2. Tutorial videos uploaded 1x per month
• Core: college sudents can learn how to cook simple, healthy meals 
• Tangible: can pause and rewind video, ask questions in the comments
• Augmented: don't have to leave the house to learn to cook meals

Describing the Innovations

1. ALL food items (breakfasts, entrees): 
1. Can rotate the meals offered each week so that the same meals aren't served every week
2. Can sell the raw ingredients for each meal so the customer can cook it him/herself
2. ALL Delivery/packaging:
1. Can allow for customization of the number/type of meals delivered
2. Can include a satisfaction survey with delivery to get feedback from customers
3. Easy college cooking classes:
1. 1x per month in-person, 1.5 hours long
1. Can also teach how to cook desserts
2. Can have the food pre-cooked so that customers can sample it before they cook it
2. Tutorial videos uploaded 1x per month
1. Can upload more than 1x per month
2. Can allow advertisements on the videos for extra revenue