Guest Speaker - Brian

           With humble beginnings as an elementary school teacher, Brian Forth ventured into the unrelenting and unforgiving world of entrepreneurship. That introduction sounds kind of like an underdog fighting against the odds to achieve greatness like in Rocky. Truth be told, fancy wording aside that isn’t too far from the truth. The journey can be long and hard but the gains are worth the struggle.

            A past experience he had took place in the San Francisco Bay Area. Him along with others from Microsoft, Sega, and Atari (among others) were working together on a project, though were axed not long after. He didn’t want his company, SiteCrafting, to be the type of company that cared only for profits. His goal was to build a company with the type of culture that values its employees. It was to be the kind of workplace they could retire from and not need to worry over being fired from. It is a web application development company based in Tacoma that also creates training kits on how to code and builds websites. Gear Lab is a stemmed off company on the other hand that does product offering (with a separate LLC). He has run other projects like the Mobile Wine Tour App, which died off because they couldn’t keep up with new wine locations opening up.

            He 3 C’s he offered to us during his session: Core, Company, and Community. Core is being true to oneself, Company relates to the culture he wanted to build in his enterprise, and Community means to actively participate and give back to Tacoma. I think his model of a company is probably one of the safest working environments I have ever heard of. Usually you would hear of the negatives aspects of larger corporations, though his company puts value in the employee and the willingness to work with them instead of having them work like a grunt under him. It isn’t something I hear of often so I am glad to know there exist a few out there.

Guest Speaker - Eric

In the words of Joseph Campbell, “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” That pretty much defines entrepreneurship for me and that may also be true for the guest speaker, Eric, who attended our class to tell us a bit about his life went in that direction. It all began for him with writing a novel in 8^th grade, then really took off when he was brought on as the director of the grand cinema for the purpose of running it, increasing fundraising, and increasing special programming. Basically he gave it a face lift. He also went into how he was involved in a joke website and a few other prospects he tried out, but I lesson I took from his stories was as he mentioned halfway through his talk. In his own words he said, “Each job is time for money.”

His words really spoke to me. Though it wasn’t because it was a magnificent unveiling that awoke anything in me or anything like that. I also have a few mentors who live in such a way and show me the in-and-outs of entrepreneurship. Hearing it from someone else’s mouth just cements it more in my mind that it really is what I want to achieve greater freedom in the future. I also greatly agree with his comment on how, “The skill of running a business isn’t the same as what business is.” The biggest change is in the mindset of how it all works and most of us are programmed earlier on that you either win or lose, but it should be that you either win or learn. That is what I believe anyways.

What I Hope to Gain from the Class

            Waking up at the same time each morning, going to work every day on a set schedule, working for someone else’s dream, coming home, going to bed, and doing the same thing again and again until I retire is not something I look forward to. In fact, it is something I dread with a passion. Finding hobbies or searching for the little things in life to keep me occupied while I am not working sounds like it is just meant to fill in the gaps. Defining myself to someone else by my occupation isn’t something I wish to grow accustomed to. I don’t want to tell someone something like that when they ask me, “What do you do?” I want to be able to reply with, “I am a guy who loves going out with friends, snowboarding, traveling around the world, collecting interesting souvenirs, helping others find what they want in life, working out at the gym, buying my dream cars, building my next home, hanging out with my wife and kids, taking on new experiences, and so much more.”

            What I want to gain from this class is a way to accomplish this kind of lifestyle or even accomplish these kinds of goals. I don’t want to be limited by a boss and helping them with ‘their dream’. I want to find my own and work to making it a reality. I want to live day to day not as something to fill in the gaps, but to fulfill my purpose in this life. I want to mean something. I want to be something, not just another cog in the system all my life. I believe entrepreneurship is the way to achieving that.

3 Business Ideas

            3 business ideas I thought of include 2 having to do with apps and one other idea. My first app idea is similar to the app known as Doordash where people who apply can become personal contractors who deliver food from restaurants to customers. They are then rated on their performance and are paid upon delivery completion through the app. My app would have to do with computers. Doordash requires each personal contractor to have a car to deliver with, but my app would require personal contractors to have a 3D printer. Through orders sent by customers in a specific area near the personal contractor, such as in a specific city, they would process the blue prints of the order that is sent over through the app from the company, build the computer with a 3D printer, assemble it, then ship it off to the customer. They would only receive orders during the schedule times they signed up for to take care of orders so they could literally only work when they want to and the price of buying a computer would be cheaper in the long run since it doesn’t have to go through so many different hands before reaching the customer. The business running the app would get their cut and the personal contractor would gain from it. Of course this requires computer assembling that is made simple so most people could do it within an hour or two so getting in more orders could be possible in a day.

            My second app idea is similar where people work as independent contractors for an app, but in the case of doing 3D printing for cheaper items instead of customers needing to purchase them. Items could range from anything the contracted app company has copyrights over. My third idea is for personal heated clothing. This could pertain to jeans, jackets, or anything similar. It could have built in heating or cooling depending on the setting.

            I have a bit of a better grasp on the first idea and the second and third ones were things I considered as alright ideas that I may expand upon later.