DE BLOG 2

It has been a busy and eventful term, quite different from the previous one, with walkabouts and blogs and money-multiplying assignments.
After a number of DE classes where we discussed various aspects of what it means to be an entrepreneur and examining the deeds of various entrepreneurs, our Professor asked us to put our money where our mouth is, and to earn some money.
This assignment came at a very opportune time for me. For the previous few days, I, along with two partners, had been running a tea stall on campus as part of our HBO Walkabout. This idea had taken off tremendously well, with plenty of demand for tea and snacks, particularly in the wee hours of the night with CAN group meetings and exams leading to many sleepless nights.
We had a captive market, and the only bottlenecks in the whole operation were the fact that there were only three of us and that we had only so many hours in a day after class to run the stall. Our profits were directly proportional to the amount of time the stall was open.
It was a great learning experience, and extremely profitable as well. We doubled our initial investment. The best part though was the joy that we had identified a need, found a way to satisfy that need, and earn a monetary reward for our efforts.
For this reason, we are now going to ru the stall again for another week, and examine the feasibility of making it a permanent feature on campus.
ANother idea that struck us was that of a Poker Tournament. Poker is something of an addiction in AIM, and it afflicts students and teachers alike. For this reason, we decided to have a poker tournament with a twist- between the professors and students. Students had an opportunity to pit their wits(and luck), against that of AIM legends like Jay Bernardo and Prof. Roxas.
The event went off well, with Mr. Bernardo sweeping the chips. Prof. Cruz came in a close second and Siddhartha was the sole student representative in the top three.
On thinking about both these events, my insight is that entrepreneurship is all about satisfying unmet needs. For this reason it is immensely important to pay close attention to one's environment, look at what is at the top of people's minds, be intuitive and creative , and finally, take a risk and try and give people what they want.

DE BLOG 1

DE BLOG 1

I have never really thought of myself as an “entrepreneurial” person. Although my grandfather and my father are entrepreneurs, preferring to work for themselves rather than for anyone else, I have always been very content at the idea of being part of a larger organization, and making my contributions there.

However, AIM, and in particular the subject DE, is making me think. Who is an entrepreneur really? Isn’t an entrepreneur just someone with a dream, a vision, with the only difference between him and a non-entrepreneur being the fact that he actually takes action towards achieving his dream? Following from that- do we not all have dreams, or conversely, does not being an entrepreneur make you someone with no dreams?

I believe that all of us, in life, have a number of dreams, particularly when we are young and the future seems to be an expanse of endless possibilities and opportunities. As we grow older, we get set in out ways, many times taking the easy path, without really introspecting about what we really want to do in life. It’s not practical, we tell ourselves, or, it’s too risky.

And so we follow our dreams in a different way, the smaller dreams, forgetting the grand visions of our youth.

My challenge for myself over the course of this blog and this subject is to delve within and rediscover that “grand vision”.

Our professor has, I believe, given us a roadmap to do just that. What do we really like to do, we need to ask ourselves, with others or by ourselves, for or through others or for ourselves.

Having done this, perhaps we can find the pieces of the jigsaw that make up our dreams.