#1

1. Am I an entrepreneur?

• I wouldn’t classify myself as an entrepreneur for a few reasons. In a job, I’ve always wanted to be the person who comes in, does their job, make good money, and then go home. I never really wanted the extra responsibilities of operating an entire business. I always felt like it was a lot of work and stress to keep up with and would take up all my time in life. I would say that I do have some qualities of an entrepreneur. Qualities like being creative, professionalism, risk-taking, passion, social skills, and open mindedness are all qualities that I would say represent me and are traits I think I would bring to a job.

• 2. What is success?

• Success to me is accomplishing your goals and attaining everything you want in life. Success is also different for other people and can be viewed differently as well. Right now in my life, success for me would be to finally graduate this December with my bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity, and get a nice paying job after. But for someone else it could be getting a business started or raising an entire family and being financially stable. Could even be winning a big game in sports or having a successful YouTube channel. Success looks different for everyone and literally has no limit. No matter what we do in life, we all want to be as successful as we can, and I think we are all chasing success in our own ways.
• 3. Am I a self-starter? How well do I follow through on my ideas?

• I believe that I am a self-starter. I was always self- motivated to go to college to get a higher education without someone making me or pushing me to go. Now I am even more motivated to finish my degree for me and no one else. I am also ambitious to start a career after school because I am ready for something new and ready to make money for my future. I would say I try my best to follow through with my ideas, but they don’t always happen. I’ve tried to get a few internships, but they never followed through. On my end I did everything I could on my end for the internship, but something always happens/doesn’t happen from the other party’s side of things. I have also followed through with college and now I am almost done, and it seems like it’s going to pay off in the end.

• 4. How does ODU view entrepreneurship?

• From reading on ODU website, it seems like ODU has full support for entrepreneurship. It says faculty experts, staff, and students of any major can collaborate and launch innovative businesses. “The institute for innovation & entrepreneurship’s programs supports the local business community by linking them to the vast resources, expertise and technology at ODU.” It seems like ODU is willing to help those in the community innovate and grow their enterprises with resources and support them in doing so. On the website it says that helping others in the community “enables the university to nurture and develop entrepreneurs who go on to create jobs and strengthen Virginia’s economy.” I didn’t know ODU was this into helping entrepreneurs I think it’s great and I am a fan of the reason why they want to help.

• 5. What is my role in this ecosystem?

• I think that my role in this ecosystem right now is being a learner since I’m in school at the moment. I think that once I am done with school my role will then change to being a worker and using my higher education to help improve the world. I believe we all have a role to work in this ecosystem for different purposes and educate others in the process. Since I am a cybersecurity major, my role after getting my degree will be to contribute to that field so it grows and expands for the future to come. A better cyber world is important especially in today’s society so I believe my role will be to help educate, improve, and grow that part of this ecosystem.

#2

1. What is design thinking?

• Design thinking is a process in which you seek to understand your users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions which can prototype and test (interaction-design.org). The goal is to identify alternative strategies and solutions that are not instantly apparent with your initial level of understanding which to me means it is a different way of thinking once you understand the concept initially. It says that’s design thinking offers a variety of hands-on methods to help apply this mindset and for me, I believe that hands-on learning can be very beneficial when trying or learning about something new. Design thinking helps develop interest to understand the people that companies design products for and empathy with them as well. Experimentation is a big part of design thinking with things like prototypes, sketches, and testing and trials of ideas helping enhance the process.

• 2. How has design thinking influenced a product I use?

• Me being an Apple user and doing research on design thinking within Apple, I can now see how design thinking is used in their products. Simplicity of design and being user-friendly are two concepts that Apple tries to accomplish with their products, and I feel that influence me to use their products. They have simple designs that I find very appealing and works best for me. Giving customers colors choices on products will also always attract people to use their products and I feel that apple thought about that while designing their devices. As far as being user-friendly, Apple’s interface and software is very simple to use but also intriguing with a lot of customization. With every new software update, customization gets better and better and I feel it is one of Apple’s goals to draw in more customers by having new and improved features on their devices. I believe that Apple takes their design thinking seriously and uses it for the better of their company.

• 3. What are the connections between opportunities and planning?

• In my opinion, I feel that it is kind of hard to draw connections between the two. A connection could be having to plan for an opportunity when one presents itself. An example could be having a job fair coming up. A job fair is a great opportunity to network, get your name/resume out there, and hopefully obtain a job. Before you go to the job fair you have to do some planning like registering for the job fair, picking what you are going to wear that day, figuring out how you will get there if you can’t drive, etc. After the job fair and if you get some job offers, you would then have to plan on which job opportunity would be best for you before accepting an offer. So when it comes to planning and opportunities, a person must plan for opportunities when they are presented so they can get the most out of them by being better prepared.

• 4. What opportunities have I missed?

• Ever since I was a little kid, I played sports and loved everything about them. I moved to Germany when I was 7 and played my first football and basketball seasons the same year I arrived there. I played every year I was living in Germany all the way up until the time we left at the end of my 8^th grade year. I was always one of the top players on all my teams and we won a lot as well. I was so eager to leave and go back to the states because I always wanted to play in college, and I knew it would be easier if I was back in the U.S. When I finally got back to the states, it was way more difficult to shine and get my name out there than I expected. The coaches always went with the kids that they knew over me even though I was better than them. They always played favorites. I feel like me being in Germany all those years actually hurt me and my opportunities in sports by missing the opportunity to get my name out there more. After getting to college, I went to a football camp at ODU to try and get my name out there and to hopefully make the team, but they already knew who they wanted in advance. I could have transferred and played at a smaller school, but I decided to stop playing and just pursue my degree.

• 5. Can a successful business venture be unethical?

• I do believe that a successful business venture can be unethical. I also believe that just because the business is successful doesn’t mean that the business is doing everything right or ethical. Let’s say there’s a successful business like Amazon for example. It is a multi-trillion-dollar company that had their hands in a lot of things and is very successful. But let’s say they have sweatshops where there are terrible working conditions, children working in them, and they pay their employees very low wages with no benefits. Yes, the company is making a lot of money but behind the scenes, they are being unethical and not doing the right thing. Being successful should never overshadow doing the right thing and businesses and people should always do what’s right in my opinion.

#3

1. Why do ethics matter in entrepreneurship?

• Ethics in entrepreneurship is important and matters because of the success in business. In order for a business to be successful and continue to grow, the ethics part in that plays a huge role and needs to be strong for a business to stay intact. Business ethics outlines acceptable behaviors and corporations want to establish business ethics to promote integrity with their employees and gain trust with investors and consumers. If employees see the business being ran with the right morality behind it, it would boost the employee’s production and trust which results in a more productive/successful business. Ethics comes around full circle in entrepreneurship from the bottom of a business to the very top and the implementation of good ethics in an organization is needed to have a successful business with appropriate business policies.

• 2. How does my own personal budget relate to an entrepreneurship budget?

• After researching what a good entrepreneurship budget looks like, I can definitely see similarities between a personal budget and an entrepreneurship budget. For starters, as an individual it is important to have a good short and long range financial plan to control your cash flow and it is the same for businesses. Both a financial plan and financial goal is important for an individual as well as a business. Both the individual and businesses need to know the income of money that they receive so that they can properly budget that money for their financial plan. Both could also hire an accountant that is trustworthy to help manage their budget plan which could be a useful tool in the long run.

• 3. Why do we need budgets?

• The main reason and most important reason why we need budgets is to help create financial stability. Somebody who is tracking their expenses and following a financial plan makes it easier to pay their bills on time, build an emergency fund, and save for more significant expenses like a car or a house. A strong budget sets up a person for both day-to-day and the long term making both important if one wants to be financially stable. Once a person has a career, it would be beneficial to start saving money for retirement any way they can so they will be better setup for the future. A strong budget also helps a person not to spend money they don’t have. With the right budget, a person will know exactly how much money they earn, how much they can afford to spend each month, and how much they need to save which are all important to know so that they don’t put themselves in a financial bind that could be hard to get out of.

• 4. What is social entrepreneurship?

• Social entrepreneurship is the approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies, or entrepreneurs in which they fund and develop solutions to social cultural, or environmental issues. It is a for-profit business model whose goal is to make a positive impact on social issues. A social entrepreneur is a person who explores business opportunities that have a positive impact on their community, in society, or the world. According to my research, the company TOMS is the brand that popularized social entrepreneurship over the past decade. It followed a one-for-one social entrepreneurship model in which a pair of shoes would be given to children in need for every pair of shoes that they sold. By giving away free shoes to people in need for every shoe they sell, TOMS is having a positive impact on the world by tackling a social issue that has been lingering in the world for a long time.

• 5. What are the most significant legal issues entrepreneurs face?

• Some legal issues entrepreneurs face include: neglecting to follow corporate compliance laws, non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s), separate business and personal assets, employment handbooks and content, employee termination, shareholder agreements, and correctly filing taxes. The two biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make is hiring lawyers with little to no experience working with entrepreneurs and neglecting to use NDA’s. Businesses should make sure NDA’s are signed before sharing concepts to ensure the safety of confidential information and work-in-progress idea’s. Entrepreneurs should also pay close attention when filing taxes as well with all the rules, regulations, and laws that govern the operation of a for-profit business. Even the smallest detail error could possibly cause serious financial struggles in the future.

#4

1. Why do entrepreneurs get in trouble with the law?

• One of the first issues an entrepreneur has is deciding how they want to structure their business. Their business can be an LLC, a non-profit, a corporation, etc. It is important to determine the type of business they want to have because each type of business has their own legal and business ramifications than can impact an entrepreneur’s legal and tax liability in the company. If an entrepreneur doesn’t consider this issue or decides not to set up a legal entity or file the proper legal documents with the state, their company may be put under a different entity that they didn’t want to be put under by default which could put them at a higher financial and legal risk. Another issue that entrepreneurs face is not putting business agreements in writing. If there are a group of friends that decide they want to start a business together, it is important that whatever is agreed upon between each member of the team, it is written down on paper so if someone tries to say they don’t remember or they don’t want to agree on what was said anymore, it is already there in writing and everyone involved is protected.

• 2. What does psychology have to do with marketing?

• When it comes to marketing, in order to land lasting customers, the goal is to try to convince people by making a calculated emotional appeal. Psychology in marketing tries to understand the way that consumers think, feel, reason, and make decisions. Taking time to understand how the human mind works can help disclose opportunities to trigger emotional responses in potential customers. Understanding how and why people think and act in certain ways can be very beneficial in a business’s marketing strategy. A couple psychological tips for better marketing would be taking advantage of impulsivity and color psychology. Because we as human beings are impulsive beings, marketing teams can use that to their advantage when coming up with marketing strategies for their business. An example would be a store selling different things at the cash register like candy, drinks, and other snacks. Adding color to things like a logo or an advertising poster could also help bring out the exact mood, tone, emotions that the marketing team is trying to accomplish by helping to get their message across and draw in more customers to buy in to what they’re putting down.

• 3. What types of marketing sway my decisions?

• One of the types of marketing that would sway my decision is content marketing. It is a key marketing type in inbound and digital marketing and is one of the best ways to attract a targeted audience. Its goal is to create, publish, and distribute content to its targeted audience through social media platforms, blogs, videos, ebooks, and webinars. I think this is a strong marketing type because social media is something everyone uses every day so it is a strong place to advertise a business or product with a high chance that millions of people will come across it. Another type of marketing that would sway my decision would video marketing. According to a 2021 study, 87% of marketers say using video in their marketing strategy has a positive return on investment (ROI). Video’s were always an attention getter for me and I always liked watching video’s for different types of reasons like learning, advertising purposes like the new apple product coming out or the new gaming system about to hit the market. Video’s  always caught my attention and always had me engaged with the material in the videos and I think is a very effective marketing strategy to reel in customers for a business or product.

• 4. How can I pitch ideas better?

• To pitch ideas better, one should follow these steps. The first step is to think through your idea. Think through the details and deliver an idea that is specific and actionable. The next step one should take is to consider the scope of the idea. The size of the idea impacts the amount of preparation you need to do, the number of pitches you need to make, the decision-makers you need to reach, and the amount of time you think it will take to reach your goal. Next, one should consider the perspective of the person that you are making the pitch for. Consider why they are going to be interested in your idea and what their primary concerns are. The more your pitch fits the perspective, needs and interests of the person/company you are pitching to, the more effective your pitch will be. And last, one should always practice their pitch after it is complete and to do so in front of others for possible feedback.

• 5. What are my strengths and weaknesses in pitching?

• I think a strength that I have in pitch would be planning accordingly for both practicing the pitch and starting on the pitch early enough to develop a strong presentation. I believe another strength that I would bring to the table would be knowing the perspective of the person/company that I would be making the pitch to. Knowing their perspective and what they are looking for, I think I would do good in knowing to focus on and what to talk about while delivering the pitch. The biggest weakness I think I would have in delivering a pitch would be my speaking. I never was the strongest speaker so trying to deliver the pitch is definitely something I would need to work on. Being a better speaker would make my pitch stronger and more believable for the person/company I am making the pitch for and could be a difference maker on the overall outcome of the pitch itself.

#5

1. What are the connections between the disciplines addressing entrepreneurship at ODU?

• The main connection about entrepreneurship at ODU is that it is open to all ODU students and all disciplines. ODU offers an undergraduate Entrepreneurship Certificate for all their students no matter the discipline they are in. ODU also offers different entrepreneurship courses for students to take regardless of their major to grow their entrepreneurship skills and knowledge. The ODU Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship has nationally-known experts that help beginning entrepreneurs and business leaders innovate and grow their enterprises of all disciplines. So being that the entrepreneurship opportunities at ODU are for all disciplines and students can take advantage of all the experts that ODU have to offer to help guide them to their goals, there are many connections for students of all disciplines that address entrepreneurship at ODU.

• 2. Is entrepreneurship an art or science?

• According to Peter Drucker who is called “the man who invented management” said that entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art, but it is a practice. Peter Drucker calls it knowledge based and that what constitutes knowledge in a practice is largely defined by the practice itself. He goes on to say that entrepreneurship should not be undertaken unless the entrepreneur has many years of study of the key ideas so that the enterprise that is started can be successful. Drucker is saying that without the knowledge and experience in that field which in this case is being an entrepreneur, it would be difficult to succeed and have a successful and healthy business. In my opinion that makes total sense. In some fields, experience is the best option to succeed and in entrepreneurship, the more knowledge and experience you have in the field, the better off you will be.

• 3. How is failure good?

• Failure can be a good thing for someone for a few reasons. One is that you get to learn from the mistakes you made and why the choice(s) you made didn’t work. Once you learn why what you did didn’t work and why you failed, you can begin to figure out new alternative ways that could be better than what you originally tried to do. Another reason failure can be good is that it can make a person stronger. Depending on how a person takes failing, they can either be sad and never want to try again or they can let the reason of them failing fuel them into wanting to get back up and try again. Sometimes a person has to fail to get to where they want to go. It’s all bout how they bounce back from it and never give up that separate the people who want to be successful and the people who really don’t. Failure sometimes can be the push that a person needs to get them back on track on the road to success.

• 4. What have I learned from failing?

• One thing I learned from failing is that it is ok to do so. Once I learned that even the most successful people in the world failed at some point in their career, it is still possible to pick yourself back up and make something of yourself. Another thing I learned from failing is that another door can open up from failing (light at the end of the tunnel). My goal was to play college football and when I went to try out for ODU’s football team and didn’t make it, I decided to just focus on getting my degree which will help my future tremendously. I could have transferred to a smaller school and played but I decided that a degree from ODU would be a lot better than a degree from a smaller D2 or D3 school. So by failing to play college football, I decided to pick myself back up and take a different route that will help me be successful in the future.

• 5. What ethical issues might arise related to what I am working on?

• A major ethical issue that could arise related to my group’s cybersecurity risk assessment firm is nondisclosure and corporate espionage.  Companies will always be at risk of their employees stealing or illegally distributing different types of information that is used by the organization which is deemed to be corporate espionage. That is why it is important that we put mandatory nondisclosure agreements for our company so that if that was to happen, it will put penalties on our employees and the proper punishment would be put in place. It is extremely important to protect company and any personal client information from being stolen or leaked out and it is our goal to keep any information provided to us safe. Other than the privacy of the companies we will be working with, that will be the main ethical issue that could happen within our company. As it is our priority to handle any information given to us with care, we will always have to watch out for any bad apples that attempt to steal or misuse private information as that will damage business and trust working with others in the future.

#6

1.  Describe five businesses or non-profits that have been created in my field.

• One of the top cybersecurity companies is called Heimdal Security. Heimdal Security offers a seamless and unified endpoint protection solution that consists of top of the line products working in unison to hunt, prevent, and remediate any cybersecurity incidents. Another company is the OptimalCloud. It is a scalable and affordable identity and access management solution that is built for the security and usability needs of small, mid-sized, and enterprise organizations. Syxsense is another company that stops breaches with an endpoint security solution. They combine vulnerability, scanning, patch management, and endpoint security in a single cloud console. ESET Protect is another company that protects a company’s computers, laptops, and mobile devices with security products all managed via a cloud-based management console. Graylog is another cyber company which is a flexible log management and cybersecurity platform that combines SIEM, security analytics, anomaly detection capabilities with machine learning.

• 2. What is your overall perspective on the entrepreneurship experience?

• My perspective on the entrepreneurship experience is that there can be serious ups and serious downs when is comes to entrepreneurships. Some positives is that brainstorming ideas can really open up for a great creation. Especially if you are apart of team like we were for our project in this class. Ideas can bounce off each other and communicating with team members and being on the same page is a positive thing when creating a business. Some negatives can be that the process to start a business can be difficult. After coming up with a business idea, you then have to make sure that it is unique and not the same as a business that already exist, then you have to obtain all the necessary legal licenses and insurance, and then you have to get your business on its feet by trying different ways to get its name out to the public to bring in cliental. There is a lot of steps you have to do to get a business up and running and to me, its no easy task or walk in the park. Also, if group members aren’t seeing eye to eye, it can make the process even harder.

• 3. How did the entrepreneurship prepare or not prepare you to be a competitive candidate for vacant positions?

• In my opinion, the entrepreneurship didn’t really affect my preparation to be competitive candidate for any vacant positions. Stemming from playing sports, I’ve always been a competitive person when competing for anything no matter what it is I am competing for. I also want to win whether that is coming up with a successful business or fighting for a vacant job. I will say however that the entrepreneurship did prepare me for starting a business by educating me on what is needed to turn a business idea to a reality. To me, the entrepreneurship did not prepare me to be competitive for vacant positions any more than I would already have been before the entrepreneurship. I do think that you should be competitive when job searching and trying to attain a vacant position.

• 4. What suggestions do you have to improve the experience?

• If talking about the project in this class, a suggestion I would make would be to go more in depth of what it really takes to start a business and what is needed. While doing my paper, I did some research on what is needed legally to start a business like getting the proper licenses and insurances so that the business is properly protected. Also, I think that it is important to talk about what you should do after starting a business like promoting it. To me, those two aspects of starting a business are extremely important and relevant to the topic as well. Another thing would suggest is having more group assignments or things to do instead of only coming up with the initial idea together but everything else we do on our own. It just makes more sense to do more work together with our teams than just coming up with a business idea.

• 5. What’s next for you?

• After this semester ends, I will be walking at graduation on the 17^th of December. I’m so happy to finally be graduating it has been a long journey and I am thankful that it is finally my turn to finish school and walk that stage. Once graduation is over, I will be enjoying the rest of the month with family for Christmas. After the year ends and we get to 2023, I plan on applying to job in my field (cybersecurity) and possibly trying to work on getting my certifications like Security+. I will also be applying to internships in cybersecurity as well. I would rather start out as an intern to learn more about the different jobs in cyber so I can figure out what exactly I want to do in cyber. If I am able to land a good job or paid internship in the months to come, I still plan on living with my parents a little longer to save money while working so that when I am ready to move out, I’ll be better off and more financially stable. In all, after graduating, I want to get a job and start making money so I can begin the next chapter in my life of being a college graduate.