Half-Way Reflection

For this exercise, I'd like you reflect on the past two months. In your blog post for this exercise, pretend that you're talking to a student from next semester's ENT 3003 course. What would you tell them?

1) Tenaciousness is a skill. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

I won't lie that the content of this course is amazingly interesting; that said it is a bit sporadic and difficult to keep up with if you're not on a rigid schedule.  Even then you can miss some if you're not paying attention.  Print a calendar and GET AHEAD quickly.  Aside from the speed of the course you'll have a ton of fun.  Pick an idea at the beginning of the course and essentially you'll get to cultivate it through the entrepreneurial process. 

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

I got behind early in the course; I missed a few easy deliverables and as a result have been playing a bit of catch up.  It was tough to swallow at first because I'm kind of a perfectionist.  Once I was literally able to share my assignment but didn't have enough time left to declare it... That was a touch frustrating.  My fault to be honest but the reality is that I missed the window and had not planned well.  That and walking through the grocery store with a video camera strapped to my chest was pretty scary too.  

3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?

(1) Most of the tenacity that I've experienced in myself came after the moment that I realized that I couldn't FINISH everything. One of the things I teach at work to my employees is that if you try to completely eliminate risk or completely avoid risk you will ultimately fail at either task. I think that same thing comes into play with failure.  If you try to eliminate it or completely avoid it altogether you will not be successful.  You have to be comfortable with it and have a tolerance for it.  (2) Rise and Grind; the very first thing that the tenacious mindsets needs to understand is that no one else is going to hand you your dream to be exceptional.  You can't wait for greatness to be given to you in that way.  If you want 'average' then it is readily available all around you but if you want greatness then you have to take it.