Entrepreneurship Fun

I feel like at least mentioning the class that I'm finishing up today since it was a very unique experience that was frustrating but somehow managed. So this entrepreneurship class that was just barely introduced to the Business core program was forced on me this past term. This course thought it would be funny to make 4 people work together off a crazy idea that we came up with at the beginning of the term and form an entire business plan around it. This strategy is a very hit or miss strategy since often the absolutely unrealistic ideas get picked and worked on. Although there are some groups that have plausible ideas that students have come up with and even plan on making a reality. My group, that was formed at the last moment because the group I had initially joined up with collapsed..., was composed of 2 polynesians and a 2 white guys (myself included). One polynesian was a guy who was decently smart and knew what he was doing and the other polynesian was a girl who was a marketing major but seemed stuck on laughing and having fun which was good and bad at the same time (I'll give her credit that she got her work done and was basically our leader). The last guy was quite the interesting character. He always seemed half stoned, half unaware of how slow he really was (mentally). Now he was a very nice guy and tried to do his part but it was like we had a child on our team that needed constant care. This guy by the way was a good friend of the two polynesians so I was the odd man out in the group (they were friendly though). The way I could best describe this guy though is to quote him from what he said when he was doing some work on iPod specifications. He was in the library with us and he says "Man, this is really hard stuff. I just don't know how to look for this stuff. Are you guys getting this too?" Now in my head I was thinking "Are you kidding?" but luckily I kept a straight face but in my head I wanted to laugh but thought that wouldn't be very nice since he is sincerely trying.

Anyways we got a couple of assignments per week to finish out each part of the business plan and I found it very frustrating when these guys wouldn't come to class to realize that you can't do the break-even analysis for a company when you don't even know the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold). The reason this bothers me is that I had to do the break-even analysis part and the ROI (return on investment, which requires you to know the initial investment) but each required numbers from other parts of the plan to be able to progress. I was forced to essentially make up those numbers on my own so I could do my own part since they never did their part, ugg. This happened routinely but I just tolerated it and thankfully I will be done with this on Tuesday.

Man there is so much I could talk about that there just isn't time for. Take for example my Institute graduation, new work out program, and all the time conflicts that encompass going to Salem to play Volleyball. To keep it short I will just say that I was forced to graduate this year from institute and now have to do extra work during the summer to make up for missed classes instead of just graduating next year with no extra work, AWESOME. I want to start a work out program to work on my hops since I have always had a goal to be able to dunk a basketball on a 10' hoop. With the workout that I picked it should be possible by the end of the summer (maybe much earlier). Volleyball....hmmm, very sticky situation that could be either totally worth it or lots of missed opportunities that I had planned on in advance (softball, DoD league, soccer in town). Oh, did I mention it costs $10 to drive to Salem and back, yeah ouch.

Dang it I did it again. It is 12:45am and I have a Russian final at 9:30am today. Thankfully I don't have to do any studying but I'm gonna have to look at my book for 5 minutes before I get in my car to remember just what it is that I'm being tested on and I should be good to go. I know, a little boastful but I'm just stating what I'm probably going to do (thank you Donetsk, Ukraine mission for the mad Russian skills). Hey, there has to be at least a few things in life that you shouldn't have to stress over and thankfully Russian is that way for me now. Sleep...must stop typing.


Random pic from the end of my mission with my crazy awesome finnish companion, Visa Jouttenus.




He could understand any english slang you threw at him, oh, and I got a lot of good quotes from him, he held nothing back. Take for example something he said at District meeting where he said "Ukraine is the armpit of Europe" with complete seriousness, simply priceless.