Week 13 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

• One thing that I found surprising about the reading was how technical valuation of a business is as a process. Obviously, I had considered it before as a more abstract idea, but to see it broken down like it was in this reading was interesting. 

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

• I found the idea of integrating vertically, backward, or forward in order to improve supply and distribution levels somewhat confusing at first. Thinking about it in terms of product motion helped me understand this concept more. 

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

• How long is a "reasonable period of time" for a firm to pay for itself?
• How do you account for the human factors and errors of biased valuation of a business, product, or service? Is there a technical way of doing so?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

• I could not find any point where I strongly disagreed with anything said by the author. 

Celebrating Failure

1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time. 

• (If you don't feel like reading my entire rant, skip to the last bullet point)
• I think that people who go into college and remain with their major either know themselves way too well for their age, or not well enough. I am definitely not one of those students, but this is no indication that I lie somewhere in between with some kind of balanced equilibrium. I was accepted into UF as an engineering major because I had trained myself to smile every time I heard the word, "engineering" because going into college, it felt like the right thing to do. I quickly realized I hated that, so changed, instead to sustainability in the built environment; loved that, but felt like I wasn't living up to my full potential. Then changed to economics, which brings me to ACG2021, Financial Accounting at the University of Florida- the bane of my existence. I hate finance, I dislike math just about as much as it dislikes me, and this particular class is notorious for its"life-destructive" qualities. 
• I was surviving the class, but surviving for a perfectionist is analogous to desperate failure. I went to talk to my counselor about my options because dropping the class didn't sound like a valid option for me, as it would be basically admitting defeat. In the middle of the meeting, my counselor asked me, "Do you even like what you're studying?" I realized then that I never considered that question. 
• Long story short: one meeting with my counselor made me drop my Financial Accounting Class (which I previously considered would be a huge personal failure), turn my life around, switch my major for the third (and final) time, and really do some soul searching about where I wanted UF to take me.

2) Tell us what you learned from it. 

• Through this experience I realized that I was not being honest with myself about who I was, what I wanted to study, and where I wanted to take my life. I have always been drawn to Anthropology but never considered it because it wasn't a technical degree. And the best part, I realized it is okay to live life and make my decisions for me. 

3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were four months ago?

• Typically people consider failure to be a terrible thing. After a lot of exposure to the entrepreneurial world, my perspective on failure has changed drastically. In the entrepreneurial world, an array of perspectives exist, but all of them tend towards the acceptance-or even encouragement-of failure. Obviously, as I mentioned earlier, perfectionists like myself take failure to heart. Even though learning about entrepreneurs and the necessity of failure, my brain contradicts my heart in these kinds of situations. I know it is okay to struggle through things and not be great at the first swing, but my heart says otherwise. 
• Recently, especially over the last four months, I have been working hard at shifting my actions to convince my heart that failure is okay and necessary at times. I think I have made progress at becoming more accepting of all possibilities, and throughout my life, I have lived with the motto: everything happens for a reason. Now, when I fail, I become reflective and search for a lesson that I might take from every experience whereas before, I would have had difficulty working past it and being okay with "me".