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? What stuck out to me was the table of the most common idea killers. I have never really thought of what kills an idea but its true that those phrases kill creativity.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
The incongruities section confused me because if no one believed that it was a good idea then how could it have come to be.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why? What happens when you have tried all of the ways of developing creativity do not work? What are ways to improve your brainstorming ability? I ask these questions because while I think I am somewhat creative I am not very good at coming up with new and innovative ideas and I draw a complete blank when I try to brainstorm.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I did not disagree with what the author said in this chapter. A lot of what the author said was very true, like the table on the left and right hemisphere and what each side is associated with. I also agreed with the parts that go into the critical thinking process.

interviewing customers no. 1

This interview was especially intriguing because it opened my eyes to the fact that the reason why teachers may not be treated properly and are losing passion in their jobs because the school system does not have enough funds to properly take care of their employees

I agreed that many teachers in the school system push their kids very hard but then there are some that hate their job and come to work to collect their measly paycheck to pay their bills. Apparently his son William is pushed harder to do well in school here in Gainesville than in Colorado. I think the teachers who do not push their children may have once had a passion in helping the kids but have been beaten down over the years.

 Mr. Nirav did not know much about the school system and how the teachers get paid but he did feel that some teachers have lost passion in what they do and no longer care if the children do not do well. When this happens children lose interest and start to not care about their education either.

 I especially found this interview interesting, she took her grandson out of the public school system because of how the teachers are and how the system works. She felt that her grandson was not getting as good of an education here. I agree with her that the teachers are discouraged and do not want to help the children. I also agree that the reason there is a shortage in teachers in Florida is because they are not treated fairly and paid properly.

 Jessica is a teacher and she agrees completely that teachers are not treated fairly and paid properly. Also that it affects the children. She also said that some of the reason teachers are losing passion is because children's parents sometimes treat the teachers poorly when the teachers are only trying to help the kids.

I chose the school system in Florida and how it treats its teachers to be the opportunity I interviewed 5 people about. I have always heard of the unrest among teachers and how the Florida school system does not treat teachers very fairly. I got some varying opinions and a lot more insight into why the system has its problems and why teachers are not treated quite as well as the deserve to be. After talking to a few people I definitely believe that there is many unmet needs in this area that would serve as good opportunities. From this I learned that interviewing people is very interesting and scary, people are not always so forthcoming when they are told they are going to be recorded. You definitely have to be prepared when conducting interviews with people you do not really know.

Top 5 world problems

The top 5 most important world problems are:
1. War
2. Government
3. World population
4. Diminished fossil fuels
5. Pollution
The top 5 solutions most likely to be implemented
1. Diminished fossil fuels: A world that does not rely on fossil fuels like oil to power everything in there lives, the use of something reusable and recyclable
2. Pollution: More people taking the time to recycle, reusing items instead of just throwing them away, ending the use of landfills
3. World population: More education on pregnancy prevention in schools, not fueling the pro-life advocates on certain points that they do not believe in. Decrease in the amount of rapes that occur every year, every unwanted child that is born into this world adds to the population.
4. Government: a new government system that is completely uniform in every country, that gives equal rights to every citizen and politician alike. No one is above everyone else, people have the right to vote, not have someone vote in their honor.
5. War: Pull all troops out of war zones, end all wars, and each country worries about themselves and not what everyone else is doing. If there is a disagreement a war does not have to be started.
Of my top 5 problems I selected the simplest one to fix, something that we are already currently working on in America but is not quite there yet, because it seems like it is the only one where change will actually happen. It is nice to think about a world without war and fighting and unfair governmental systems but the reality is the government has be unfair for decades and war has been around for even longer, we as humans seem to be content with reliving history over and over again.

Identifying local opportunities

1.
Title: Blaze destroys Monteocha family's home
Link: http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A8E38F7047DD00?p=AWNB
Description of article: A fire completely burned down the Monteocha's double wide trailer. No one was home when the fire started and the cause of the fire is still unknown. One of the neighbors told reporters that the home belonged to his cousins and had been given to them in 2013 after their grandfather passed away.
Problem: The Monteocha's home was burned down to the ground and they had nothing left.
2.
Title: More than 300 march to say: Hands off our parks
Link: http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388BC0BA7E30?p=AWNB
Description: More than 300 people rallied together to protest against the Florida department of environmental protection allowing things such as cattle grazing, hunting and other uses that could harm the environment at Paynes Prairie State Park. The group marched in downtown Gainesville on January 23rd, 2016.
Problem: The Florida Department of Environmental protection has proposed that Paynes Prairie State park be open up to things like cattle grazing and hunting which could be harmful to the environment
3.
Title: Local Big Brothers, Big Sisters Shuts Down
Link:http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A14DAA32490FE8?p=AWNB
Description: The Local big brothers, big sisters program here in Gainesville has been open for 38 years and was run by ex-mayor Craig Lowe. In the past couple of years this program has been suffering financially, this caused them to pull back their presence in Alachua county schools, they had outstanding bills and their phone and Internet were shut off and many employees hadn't been paid since September of 2015. Lowe resigned in October of 2015 as he could not fix the programs financial troubles.
Problem: The big bothers, big sisters program had to be shut down because they were not financially stable. What was once such a good program can no longer run because they cannot afford too.
4.
Title: Changing Misconceptions about mental illness
Link:http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A861FAF0F0CF00?p=AWNB
Description: This article is about mental illness and how there are people who suffer from it all around us, some more concealable than others. This article raises awareness to the fact that while the stigma towards mental illness has lessened this means that people with a mental illness will be more likely to reach out for help and that hopefully there will be programs available ready to help.
Problem: Many suffer from mental illness, it is a problem and as the stigma lessens more people with mental illness will reach out looking for help and there needs to be programs available and ready for when they come.
5.
Title: Hanna Irby: Never take little things for granted, like walking
Link: http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A83A5AC75D8750?p=AWNB
Description: Hanna Irby was born with a rare vascular abnormality in her brain that caused her to have a stroke. Because of the stroke she lost all of her memory and control of her legs and was confined to a wheelchair until finally she got control back at the age of ten.  But her legs weren't the same she said her right leg made a noise when it hit the ground when she walked but the left one never did and the brace she had squeaked and made her leg sweat. It wasn't until she was in high school that he father created the WalkAid to fix her drop leg problem.
Problem: After her stroke she didn't walk the same again and her brace wasn't the right solution, the WalkAid works for her but it sends little electrical impulses through her calf from electrodes at cause her pain every time she takes a step, so it still is not the perfect set up but it is better than the brace.

Week 3 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?
I was actually quite surprised at how many of the characteristics of an entrepreneur that I actually possess. I have never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur, I struggled just trying to find 20 things in my life that bugged me and needed to be fixed. But as I read through this chapter I found that a lot of it was true. Especially the one about persistent problem solving, I do not like to waste time on extremely easy problems and if they are way to hard I tend to give up.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
One thing that confused me was that Entrepreneurs have an overbearing need for control but at the beginning of the chapter we were told that they have a low need for status and power. I think the need to control ever aspect of your journey runs hand in hand with an underlying need for power.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
How do entrepreneurs overcome this dark side of entrepreneurship? I would ask this because the author talks about overcoming stress but it is more on a personal/ psychological level. What about the financial risk and the career risk? How do the push past those risks or at least minimize them?
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I did not disagree with anything that the author said really. I found a lot of it to be true in myself which is was not really expecting.

Very short interview

For my interview with an entrepreneur I chose to interview my boss Orlando Millan. Mr. Millan owns a Taekwondo school which also offers an afterschool program. He started his business in 2007 and has continued to grow it throughout the years. Okito America Family Fitness Center is located on SW Williston road and is open 6 days a week. Today I interviewed him on being an entrepreneur, here is what he had to say:

"What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?"
A: "For me being an entrepreneur and owning my own business is the American dream. When I left Cuba the one thing I wanted to do was open up my own Taekwondo business. Also being and entrepreneur means having a passion in whatever you are doing, passion is the biggest tool for moving forward."

What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?
A: "I think you should learn patience and discipline from this course. The one thing you have to learn when running a business is patience and discipline. Many people give up too soon when things do not run smoothly at the beginning."

What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?
A: "I wish I had known that it wouldn't grow as fast as I expected it would. It takes a great team and you have to have achievable goals set out. When I started the after-school program I had never thought about the competition around me, in Gainesville there is not a shortage of after-school programs so the demand is not as large as I expected."

All in all, my interview with my boss was very interesting a lot of what he said reflected what we have been learning in class about unmet customer needs and the demand for certain things. He has learned a lot over the years that he did not know before starting a business, he went to college in Cube and it is very different than in America. He said that the best way to learn about running a business is by actually running a business and gaining hands on experience.

World's biggest problems and solutions

1. Animal species extinction

• More and more animals are either becoming extinct or are being put on the endangered species list.  A lot of the animals that are in danger of becoming extinct are ones that are being overhunted or have been overhunted in the past. I think that making it illegal to hunt certain animals that are near extinction is a good place to start. Also hunting for trophy kills should not be allowed. Major companies who sell meat in places like grocery store should be the only ones allowed to kill animals for meat.

2. Pollution

• With our population growing more and more every year, the amount of pollution in the world is also growing. Some minor ways to fix this problem would be if every one took the time to recycle and not be as wasteful. If people tried to find a way to reuse some of the things that they throw out there would be less pollution accumulating in landfills

3. War

• War is probably one of the biggest problems that the world faces. The world cannot come to an agreement together about how to handle many of the situations it has faced. We as a society feel that when we have a disagreement with another country we have to start a war over it. If all of the countries decided that they were not going to stick their noses in each others problems they would all probably fight less.  The countries either need to sit down and agree and compromise or they need to back off and leave each other alone.

4. Government

• Each country has their way of handling their governmental system but none of them have really found a way that works.  The United States government for example has a lot wrong with it, one of which being that they have political parties.  A lot of times the government is associated with corruption.  I feel that one way to solve this is if everyone voted for who they want to run the country and the voted was tallied equally. Also government workers such as the president and Congress people should not get paid for the rest of their life just for working for the government.  Some other countries are not doing much better though either.

5. Drug cartels

• There are so many drug cartels around the world that you hear talked about on the new all of the time but nothing seems to be done to stop it from happening. Instead we have drug lords like "El Chapo" who made his millions selling drugs then got caught and arrested and then managed to escape.  In that instance they did catch him again but he also got out of prison as well. He is not the only one though there are so many, even some that we never hear about. The world needs to be more active in working together to solve this drug cartel problem.

6. World Population

• The population continues to get bigger and bigger every year but our world has not gotten any larger.  A big problem with that is that many countries are already over populated and others suffer from extreme poverty. Contributing to this problem are the pro life advocates who are against birth control and abortion. There are many ways to educate people on these issues because many times children are born into an environment not equipped to raise them or whom does not want them.

7. Diminished fossil fuels

•  Over the past few years there has been a great diminish in the fossil fuels on earth. This is a problem because we rely on them to power our homes, our businesses, our vehicles and much more. While there has been advances in more earth friendly ways to power the things we use every day, they have not yet become financially friendly to everyone.

8. Racism and discrimination

• This happens all over the world to a variety of people. Whether you are Caucasian, African American, Asian, etc. there is someone around discriminating against you. The color of your skin does not define the kind of person that you are.  I believe that if we all started to see people like dogs see people, in that they are all equal and actions define their character, people would be happier.

9. Increased reliance on technology

• Our entire lives now rely on technology, children in elementary school are now walking around with cellphone. Schools now require the majority of school work to be done online, even textbooks are online. Anymore when technology stops working we do not know what to do. The world needs to rely less on technology for certain things because I always works right up until it doesn't.

10. Refugee immigration

• Immigration happens all over the world, many immigrants go to the US but there is also immigration in Germany and France. For many countries this is a problem because many of them do not have the resources to support an inflow of people. It also give terrorists a way to enter the country by posing as refugees. A way to prevent the inflow of terrorists would be more security and background checks on the people. If the refugees were split up equally among the more financially stable countries it would make it easier to financially support them.