Book POst #4

Making Ideas Happen- Overcoming the Obstacle Between Vision and Reality

I have now finished the book and wanted to reflect on the book as a whole. This book has taught me that in order to really complete something you must be willing to be dedicated. Without dedication an idea is worthless. Dedication also needs to be long lasting otherwise you will begin a lot of things and quit them as soon as they start. In order to have this strong dedication you must have passion as well. Passion is what will fuel this dedication. Your passion for your project will lead to your ability to continually want to work on this idea and make it better. The book also mentions how you need creativity. Creativity is important because without creativity your ideas will look like any other idea. Creativity can be natural to some while for others it is important to look for inspiration. Inspiration can come in many forms, you can pick up a new hobby, travel, or study. All of these things can lead to a new inspiration that will lead you to that idea that has potential. Another idea the book brought up was that teamwork or collaboration usually leads to the strongest result. When you collaborate you receive more than one view on a project which is almost always stronger than a single opinion. You also create a support system so if you start to lose your dedication it can be reinforced by others working on the project with you. After reading this book I also had a chance to reflect on how these ideas are reinforced in school. Although a lot of school projects may seem pointless they have a lot of these skills and habits embedded in them. The book was really enjoyable and definitely benefitted my understanding of what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

This week in class 1/11

This week in class we finalized part 1-6. Finalizing these parts was an interesting process. it took a lot of thought because our part 5 which I had originally done had way too large numbers for the amount of each product we would buy. After reconsidering these numbers many time we finally came to numbers that made sense. Things we had to consider were how many customers we would have, our budget, and how much of each product made sense to sell.
Also this week we worked on a case study. I recognized the case study when we were given it which was interesting. The case study was interesting to work with because it was interesting to know it was a real case and see what kind of real problems businesses face. It was also interesting to try and brainstorm how to solve this problem. What I thought was very interesting inparticular was how their issues came from their business being a very common business. I found that very interesting because in class for our storefront project we are working on a doggy daycare which in a town like Brookline is a very competitive market.
Unfortunately, I was very sick this week and missed two classes so I don't have as much to reflect on.

Book Post #3

The more I read the book I am reading the more complex it seems to create a business or even to work in the business world. In the book Making Ideas Happen: The obstacle between vision and reality it discusses both the challenges and the positives of making your business idea come to reality. A quote that really stuck with me was, "an idea can only become a reality once it is broken down into organized, actionable elements". What this is saying is that in order for you to make something happen you need to break it down into things you can really do. Achieving smaller goals along the way is the best way to continue to feel motivated to achieve your larger goal. Achieving smaller goals is also the best way to not only have motivation, but to really have a chance at accomplishing your larger goal. If you let yourself wander in the world of dreams and fantasies you will lose sight of reality and what it takes to make things happen. For example, if you have the dream of opening a resteraunt, but if you never work on getting licenses or creating the perfect menu you're larger goal will stay far in the distance and unattainable. Another quote that stuck with me was, "Self-leadership is about awareness, tolerance, and not letting your own natural tendencies limit your potential." This stuck with me because as someone who can be impatient in order for me to really be successful I need to overcome that and learn to be patient and work with other people in order to really be a leader. Because a leader is not someone who functions in isolation, but someone who guides and educates others so that they can achieve what it is they set out to do. Reading this book was a really good idea I have really enjoyed being able to hear the ins and outs of how to make my ideas not just ideas, but things in the real world.

What we did in class 12/21

This week in class we ordered our socks and they are about to come in. We are looking forward to selling them because we expect to have good sales. We also are happy that we had bought a reasonable amount of stock we see that some of the other groups bought a large stock and are having trouble selling all their items so it is nice that we will actually be able to sell everything we bought. It is also nice to know that all our stock has been preordered. This week in class we also finished through part 6. Although parts of it were challenging we were able to finish it by splitting up the work and exchanging ideas until we had the right way of doing things figured out. Reflecting on our idea of a product we realized that our product was good because of its someway guaranteed market. It was also a good product because it was not too expensive to buy and so it sells at a reasonable price. We had a consultant talk to our group about the costs of licenses for our doggy daycare which was really helpful. It was also nice to have real life ideas of what it would be like in order to knock walls down and the building costs associated with that. He also filled us in on the benefits of creating a doggy daycare commercially versus one from out of a private home. He told us that those started out of a private home violate many laws and are not realistic. It was very interesting to see how in terms of zoning where you can have a daycare is very particular especially in a neighborhood like Brookline. We were fortunate that it would be possible to have one at the Route 9 location.

Book Post #2

After reading further in the book I have realized many new things about creating something. The book had a few really important quotes. It mentions that, “most ideas are born and die in isolation.” This concept was really interesting to me. Often I think people think that in order to be successful you have to hide your idea so no one can steal it. I think it actually is much more beneficial to share your idea and collaborate. If you don’t collaborate you lose the opportunity to gain someone else’s expertise. Another idea I took away was  “Today will never feel like it will be history, but it will. And more likely than not, you will look back and realize that you should have known.” What I took away from this was that when it comes to business you can’t expect to know what will happen. In business many things happen and you make decisions that you later look back at and realize that you wish you had done them a little differently in order to be at a better stage now.

blog post #2

This week in class we have been working on multiple projects. Within our sock project we have been working on ordering the socks. We finally got out order in and the design selected. The design which was created by all our group members features the spartan on it. We felt confident ordering the socks once we were able to see Kyle’s socks that he ordered and saw that they turned out well. We also decided on our price, they will be sold for 15 dollars a pair. Having locked in these was a really great improvement for our group and we look forward to selling them. Since we ordered 18 pairs our first sale is completely reserved by the basketball team as well as a couple individual buyers.

I also worked on part 5 of the storefront project a lot this week. Working on this has really helped me look at all the work that goes into starting a business and see how buying stock is much more complicated than just buying it and selling it again. This also made me think about the difference between services and products. Our services for example don’t cost anything to produce however in order to sell our stock we must buy stock.

Book Post #1

For my outside of class reading I am reading Making Ideas Happen: The obstacle between Vision and Reality by, Scott Belsky. I first sparked interest in reading this because with my Foreign Parent College Guidance Program an obstacle or fear I have is really making the project come to life. The idea I have firm belief in and clearly envision however it is the creation that is the difficult part. I hoped to find some guidance in reading this book. The firs bit of advice I received from the reading was “Overcome reactionary workflow and start pushing ideas forward”. What this means is although the easiest things to do are send emails and fill out little paperwork in order to get big things done you have to make time for the big steps, the kind of steps that push you to complete more and really start to build an outcome. If you never complete these kinds of steps then you’re product or idea will never leave the preliminary stages and you will lose interest because you won’t feel the reward of creation. The second piece of advice I received was “Let go of the myth of the lonely creative genius”. This advice means that although many of us may believe that handling things all on our own will look the most impressive and lead to the most reward reaching out to resources and getting help from others is key in developing something that will really be successful. The last piece of advice I have gathered from my reading so far is that you need to “push through the project plateau and finish”. Meaning that although long term goals are great you need short term goals in order to have constant progress. Otherwise you can get lost in the search of your long term goal.