A Startup Company : The Development And Application Of Critical Thinking Skills

After looking through all the undergraduate majors, I have come to the conclusion that I will enter college with an undecided major. The one thing I am certain about is that I want to attend University of Illinois in Chicago. I’ve lived my whole life thinking about going into business or marketing, but I'm so unsure because I want to make the right decision. Throughout high school, all I think about is moving forward and starting my life. High school isn't the end of my education. I want to grow as a person - no matter what field in college I end up going into - I want more. I want to be smarter, I want to be happier, and college will lead me to that. Hopefully, these classes will do that for me.

I have always been interested in “doing my own thing” or, better known as, entrepreneurship. In high school, I would buy T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats in bulk. I’d embroider little emblems on them and mark up the price by 100%. People at school would buy $1 shirts and pay $9 for my craftsmanship. However, I wanted bigger and better things. I channeled Andrew Carnegie in my approach to business: why just stop at my little venture when I could vertically integrate and market for myself? I decided to invest all my money in a new cause and thus, my own social media marketing company was born. The skills I’ve learned in starting my company is something that cannot be taught. I would relish the opportunity to grow and learn at an institution like The Stephen M. Ross School of Business that understands the importance of innovation and exploration.

Entrepreneurs are the flavour of the year and today everyone is either one or on the way to becoming one. Fueled by the drive to earn more than what most jobs can give, rock star like adulation achieved by those who make it, and with success stories that run into billions of dollars, being an entrepreneur is the new black. In fact those of us who are 30 plus would still remember that just two to three decades back, being an entrepreneur, especially if you were male, meant that you were either morally bankrupt or worse stupid, and either of which, by-the-way, substantially brought down your value in the marriage market.

Up until recently, I was like many of my peers, uncertain about what the future would hold for me. I did not know where exactly I wanted to attend school, what I wanted to study, or what I wanted to do career-wise. But, after taking high school classes like Business Information Management, Human Resources, Banking and Financial Services, and Accounting I, I found my long awaited answer, a fascination in the business and financial world. I loved attending these classes and learning new and exciting

My heart raced uncontrollably as I waited for my turn to come. I was sitting, for the first time, in a classroom in the United States, surrounded by people who were at least 2 years older than I was. Professor Knapp had asked for each one of us to stand up and state the reason why we were taking the Entrepreneurship course that summer at the University of Southern California. I thought I was prepared to answer what seemed like such a simple question, until I heard the responses that my fellow classmates were giving. “I want to expand my apparel business to other states” “I want to make even more than the 70 thousand dollars I made in the stock market last year” “I want universities to encourage the use of the app I built”. What was I supposed

As I was beginning my freshman year of college, I could only imagine what it would be like until I actually experienced it. My first official “college” business

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offers students all the resources and opportunities to succeed and thrive. Becoming a successful entrepreneur is my dream. I intend to study in The Lally School of Management. As the best undergraduate business school, RPI not only provides fundamental courses to prepare me well in leadership skills and computer skills, but also promotes my skills on interpreting data and problem-solving. I want to join the entrepreurship concentration which I have involving since my junior year. Thinking creatively outside the box, I endeavor to make my business project to become the best plan in the marketplace.Because the proudest moments of my life have been when I’ve been able to use my skills and resources to create products

The last few years in high school, I told myself I was going to pursue a major that will benefit me no matter the career path I took in life. I was determined to be different from my older siblings. I composed letters, essays, and papers dedicated to the future me and in every one of them, I envisioned the perfect four years of life in college and the start of my success. However, as the first year in college flew by, I no longer had the confidence I once did and the word success found its’ way out of my life. I took courses I that did not interest me, in hopes to find my passion. Then, finally I found myself again within the halls of the business department. I quickly grasped onto the opportunity and walked through

College life became a nightmare for me when I secured a part-time job along with my classes. There were some few breaches, but that never stopped me from advancing into the future. I never gave up, but rather challenged myself to overcome all those barriers. I chose my classes in a way that my job won’t interfere with them. “Of

Like most high schoolers starting out, I didn’t have a clue as to where I wanted to go. I knew I wanted to go into something corporate level, but I wasn’t sure what it could have been. It wasn’t until I took my first business class that I got a clear picture of what I was really interested in, finance. The course capstone was to manage a portfolio of $100,000 and work over the span of three months to maximize returns (if any). I automatically

Eventually, I started to look for a job to raise capital to start the business. Out of all of the businesses that I applied at, McDonald’s was the first to contact me, and I was happy to be one of the few juniors in my class to have a job. After a few months working at that job, I started to realize that I was developing social skills that would benefit my business. When my senior year started, I was able to take Morgan-Scott CEO as my first-hour class. Class started every day at seven twenty in the morning, and I was excited every morning to get to class. CEO stands for Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities, and it is of course meant to teach entrepreneurship. Through this program,

I chose this major because I wanted to learn in a different, more creative way than I would have in the other majors. I want to learn how to exploit my creativity and enhance my skills that will help me in the business world. I have people telling me all of the time that I should have done finance or another business major because it is a “real” major. After failing to make it to the next round in the business challenge, I started to wonder if I should have taken the safer route and majored in finance. I could have always created my own business later on with or without a degree in entrepreneurship. I quickly got that thought out of my head and still believe that learning the creative ways to accomplish tasks through entrepreneurship is more valuable than majoring in just one section of business. The one thing that I know for certain about entrepreneurship is that I will have a normal job after I get out of school so that I always have income coming in, but I will always be developing new ideas on the side to accomplish my dream of owning my own business someday. After I learn how someone does something, I always want to do it better on my own. This drives me and solidified my faith in continuing with entrepreneurship. When I fail at something, I do not stop, I reflect and learn, and then go harder until I succeed. I have learned this in sports and it applies directly to entrepreneurship. I may have lost this competition, but I can guarantee that the next business competition I am in, I will be better than I was in this class. I always want to get better at whatever I do. When I get angry after failure, it drives me to succeed next time instead of dwelling on the past. This class was high stakes and it helped me prepare for the real business world where failure is a harsh possibility. Participation ribbons are no longer an option after school, and this class reminded me of that

The following questions were presented to prove/disapprove whether or not the Rust College business department is adequately preparing its students to be entrepreneurs. The results were determined by conducting a widespread research. In order to address the following questions, statistical data was gathered from a survey conducted on its current students.

At the beginning of the course I had only had basic entrepreneur knowledge, I understood the traits, and the amount of thought put into a business. I understood a entrepreneur needed to be able to set goals and had to establish connections and business partners. I was actually lucky enough to have taken a entrepreneur class in highschool. Which taught me lots on how an entrepreneur business is started. It also taught me the required determination and hard work it takes to be a entrepreneur.

Taking this entrepreneur course has been the best thing I could do for myself. Not only did it grow my mindset, but it taught me how to focus and concentrate on meeting my goals. At the beginning of this semester I could not let go the negative self-image I had of myself. Since I have been able to reflect on who I am I am slowly able to let go of that past image. I now know that I am more than able to reach my goals with the proper mindset and skills. I have come a long way since the beginning of this course. At the beginning of this course we were asked what is most important in life, and when I chose myself I knew after that reflections that I was off to a great start. Putting myself first these last few months has been the best thing I