1.   Preparing for your entrepreneurial venture:   Read Activity 6 on page 55 and page 56 in your new textbook “My Story“.   This activity will begin with our tour and meetings with the leaders of the highly successful company, TeeSpring, in Providence, Rhode Island on January 30th.   This activity will enable you to employ many of the skills and attitudes we’ve been developing in class:   networking, branding, collaboration, telling your story, creativity, measured risk taking,  data collection and analysis, value of diversity in your network, stepping out of your comfort zone, hard work, dependability, on-time-all-the-time, social media and putting mistakes and failure in the proper perspective – i.e. opportunity to learn valuable lessons for your development.   I’m excited about your opportunities with this activity.   Start thinking about the team you’ll assemble for this entrepreneurial venture – will you recruit a diverse group of people with diverse skills and perspectives YOU CAN COUNT ON or just a group of friends with no consideration of their skills and attitudes?   How many people do you want on your team – just you?  Two?   Three or more –  what works for you?  You’ll be the leader of the team.   Will your team share the same values and work ethic you have?   Is their creativity identical to yours or is their creativity somewhat different, i.e. diverse?  Your team does not have to be composed of students.  Your team can be any person in your network.  Don’t pick your team yet;  I have some new people I’ll be introducing you in the near future you may want to consider.  Tough decisions to make.   Keep thinking about the success you want for your company when you are deciding who you want on your team.

2.  Read page 1 through page 24 in “My Story“.    Please pay special attention to the section referencing ‘the ask’ on (pages 20 to 22).   Your ability ‘to ask’ will be critical to the success of your entrepreneurial success in Activity 6 and, believe it or not, with most of your endeavors throughout the rest of your life.   How you ask and how you tell your story has a lifetime impact on your success.

3. Share with me any reaction you had, anything you reflected upon, while reading pages 1 through 24 in “My Story“.  As always, you need good sentence structure, no ‘run-on’ sentences, perfect spelling and capitalization and proper grammar.  Please send me your response by Tuesday, January 13, midnight.  Thank you.

4. On page 16 in the “My Story” textbook, in a well written statement, answer the question –  What is Malala Yousafzai‘s WHY?  Please send me your response by Tuesday, January 13, midnight.  Thank you.

5.  I continue to be proud of you.   You all continue to step our of your comfort zone.  I see your networking skills improve each week.  This all shapes your brand:  homework fulfillment, on-time-all-the-time, taking measured risks out of your comfort zone, how you present yourself in each networking opportunity: your smile, eye contact, asking for and presenting your business card, your follow up email or hand written note to each new person you meet, saying ‘thank you’.   Did you hear what Donna Mumma from CVS said about her perception of the Hope brand?   The brand can be the best in the state.  Seguro!  Keep up the good work.