Halfway Reflection

Tenaciousness is a competency
The biggest self development regarding this course is to expect to placed outside your comfort zone in any given assignment.  This is by no means a bad thing.

Tenaciousness is also about attitude
Perseverance is a trait I have always been glad to have.  I find that every difficult situation I face thickens this perseverance.  When things get a little tough, or very tough, I say to myself "just put your head down and get through it and learn everything you can".  This helps, I find, in reassuring yourself that there are few situations in life that are infinite.  If one has a plan that has an end goal, most likely, that goal is attainable.  At some point you just may have to put your head down and tough it out to the finish line.

Three tips

1. Do not let difficulty or challenges prevent you from doing something.  Some people have a negative view of things that are challenging and would just assume avoid these situations.  Don't be that person, seek them out, this is where most personal growth happens!!!
2. Apply everything.  This class is crammed with applicable knowledge.  I am in a non business major and everything in here has professional relevance.  Treat it as such.
3. Don't stop at the wall.  If you hit a wall continue around it.  All you may need is a little tweaking of your idea to avoid the next wall.

Seekcess

SEEKCESS- The action of of tracking strong action towards accomplishing goals.

Response to my word- Well this was mixed.  Some people thought it was clever.  Others thought it to be ridiculous.  The hardest part is finding times to use this word.  I saw you in the gym for 4 hours the other day.  You sure are trying to seekcess aren't you? Ehh.  One thing people do say about it is that it is close enough to success that when you do find occasion to use it it isn't too awkward.  I also tasked a couple people with trying to intentionally use it so I could reach a larger audience to, hopefully, give it better chance of gaining traction.  The flight attendant on my flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia thought it was the greatest thing ever though.  She is very excited to be part of this experiment.  I probably need to go social media with this next.  Also, no celebrity has used this word yet.  So it may  be dead in the water.    

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. Me:  I am a nonprofit leadership and management minor with over ten years experience in management and sales. While designing this idea rough calculations express that this idea is viable for myself part time with hiring of three of more part time employees.  Because much of the work can be done via email and online wholesale ordering the job can be done during down time, for the most part.  That makes this venture suitable for off hours times.
2. What I am offering to customers?  My proposed idea is to establish a nonprofit entity to offer computer science purchasing consultation to other nonprofit firms. The firm would research, and negotiate, wholesale hardware and software prices in relation to needs of hiring nonprofits.  
3. Who am I offering it to?  Nonprofit firms that may not have the resources (time, money, knowledge, etc.) to research the purchase of computer information hardware/software.   
4. Why do they care?  Unlike private firms the day to day operations of nonprofit entities is not necessarily financial growth.  Although financial growth is a concern for nonprofits, their primary goals are focused on the issues the nonprofit addresses.  Therefore, nonprofit information technology will often times fall obsolete due to lack of capital infrastructure investments.  This lack of infrastructure is not due to any financial mismanagement, it is simply the nature of the beast that nonprofits will often put a large amount of their resources towards those they serve.  When nonprofit technologies fall obsolete they fail to be able to compete, with private firms and other nonprofits, to their full potential.    
5. What are my core competencies?  As mentioned earlier my minor is nonprofit management and leadership which gives me a core understanding of this specific sector.  This minor has allowed me to work with many nonprofits across the country, thus, establishing a base network to begin marketing with.  I also have almost five years of sales experience in wholesale natural resource commodities. The natural resource part will be mostly irrelevant in regards to this firm, the wholesale sales experience gives me an insight into how wholesale acquisition operates.  

I feel as though all of these pieces fit together nicely.  Because most can be done remotely no brick and mortar site will be necessary.  The overhead will consist of human resource fees, specialized sales software, and possibly light marketing expenditures.  I do, however, feel as though the most complicated part will be to establish the purchasing relationships needed to secure wholesale pricing.