Week 6
Monday November 7, 2016
Mondays are busy days filled with classes, reading and studying for the test over our Entrepreneurship book. This week we are testing over Chapter 5, which deals with our business mission and strategy. We are also starting Economics of One Unit, otherwise known as EOUs. Take my word for it when I say they are tough. One of the classes that we had today was Toastmasters. Some had Toastmasters in the morning while others had it in the afternoon.
Toastmasters is a public speaking class. Today I spoke on health, fitness, diet and exercise. My speech lasted for six minutes and 34 seconds. I really enjoy Toastmasters and feel like it is helping me improve my speaking skills. I believe that Toastmasters is a class that everyone can benefit from.
Next on the day’s agenda was computer class. Thank God it is nothing like Business Computer Information Systems (BCIS) classes! I failed BCIS twice in high school so I would hate to have to go through another class like that. It takes me forever and a day to finish the assignments, but I got them done. Today we are not doing the usual Microsoft Word assignments, but instead we have EOU assignments. We have been working on the EOU assignments for a couple of weeks now. They are starting to get more complicated now that we are getting further along in the lesson. We also had some market research put on our hard drives to help us with our business plans. We were just getting warmed up when, all of a sudden, we were saved by the bell: time to eat!
Joshua G. (a.k.a. Sweet Valley Girl)
Tuesday November 8, 2016
What makes a man smart? The things he knows or the things he remembers? If you learned something but then forgot what you learned, does this put you back in a state of ignorance?
We spend our days in class reciting things that we have to remember and take tests on things that we needed to remember. Those who don’t trust their brain to memorize information take notes. We spend countless hours trying to memorize, but how much of the information is going to be relevant?
They say the brain is a muscle, so maybe today’s work was more of a huge memory exercise to help us memorize conversations and be more attentive to what’s being said or taught to prevent us from having to rewrite contracts or redo assignments. Who knows? But I will stay focused and find out.
Marquael G. (a.k.a. Sweet Boot Black)
Wednesday November 9, 2016
Normally on Wednesdays we go to computer lab; however, due to unforeseen events we were on temporary lockdown, meaning we could not leave our cells for a specific amount of time. I took advantage of the situation to get a head start on my homework and started to work more on our Economics of One Unit. This was a little aggravating at first, but I started to get it.
We were still on lockdown when I finished all eight problems. They were a bit challenging, but I am sure I have the hang of them now. On to my next assignment: I started reading, Be on your Best Business Behavior. This book started out giving tips on how to dress, send e-mails and use a cell phone correctly. Personally, I need to read this book just to learn how to be around business people.
Not that I don’t have manners. My mother and father taught me manners. If I did not practice them I got a knot on the head, but this is a whole different ball game with its own set of rules and guidelines. As soon as I finished reading we were off lockdown – needless to say, it was too late to resume any normal PEP activities. We took advantage of the situation once again and started to study for the test on Chapter 5, plus practicing for our upcoming Venture Capital Panel event this Saturday. You know what they say: “Practice makes perfect.”
Brian G. (a.k.a. Sweet Gillette)
Thursday November 10, 2016
One of the lessons that I have learned from PEP is that no matter the situation, we have to look for the positive instead of focusing on the negative. Today was no different than any other day: first we gathered in the PEP room, prayed in, showed some love to each other and then read from our Jesus Calling devotional by Sarah Young. It was then test time; we took our test on Chapter 5 of the Entrepreneurship book. Then our trusty fellow graduate brothers gave us a knowledgeable presentation on “Market, Competition and Differentiation,” which was very interesting and taught us how to identify what market we’ll compete in, as well as how to write our own competition differentiation for our business plans.
Brian T. then gave us a presentation on the Venture Capital Panel grading system to prepare us for our business elevator pitches this Saturday. We then had some “volun-told” sessions to explain the Economics of One Unit assignments that we had. The purpose for these is to teach us how to prepare to do our revenue models and income statements for our business plans.
Soon after, we went to “Issues and Tissues.” During these sessions we get an opportunity to contest answers we got wrong on the test with the possibility to get partial or full credit for them. If for whatever reason Brian T. does not give credit for the issue brought to his attention, you walk away with a tissue. We then watched a National Geographic series on American History. This was meant to educate us on the Revolution and how we became a nation. So you see, the array of topics we learn about are to empower us and allow us to face many obstacles that come our way.
Franck G. (a.k.a. Baby Tooth Fairy)
Expressions
I woke up this morning with a mission on my mind. Today is our Venture Capital Panel event day. I have been working on my pitch for nearly two weeks straight. I think that I am equipped to go in front of the panel and knock it out the park. I am anxious to just get it out of the way and reminisce about my performance. Since I was the 9th person in line to say my pitch, I got a chance to see how everybody else did first. I was impressed because everyone came with their A game. Everyone did great, but my boy Isidro J. stole the show. I enjoyed listening to all the feedback the executives were giving to all my brothers, but especially the feedback given by Steve H. Mr. Steve had advice for everyone. He has a broad knowledge base. And trust me, he would not hold his tongue on what he was thinking. If he thought that your idea needed work, that is exactly what he would tell you. As soon as David D. got up to give his pitch, my heart started to beat like crazy because I knew I was going to be up next. I didn’t know if I was nervous or anxious. It was probably both, but when I got in front of the panel the feelings just went away and I started to relax. Before I knew it my pitch was flowing like I’d been practicing all week. As soon as I was finished and opened the floor up for any questions, the first thing Steve K. said was, “You are absolutely blessed because I don’t know anything about your business.” I just started laughing because I already knew that. My pitch is a bit different from most: it is about starting a record label and developing artists. Even so I thought at least one of the panelists was going to give me some type of feedback, but none of them knew anything about starting a record label or the music industry. Instead I spent the whole five minutes allotted for feedback explaining to them the music business. I had a good time. Now I know how those people feel on Shark Tank pitching their business idea to a bunch of businessmen. To me it is just another feeling of accomplishment.
Tyler H. (a.k.a. Gary Coleman)