26A

28A

27A

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general argument of the book was that even though we all have huge amounts of failures and really don't know much at all, with a conscientious strategy and approach to life in general, and adopting certain beliefs, anyone can increase their chances of success dramatically. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I think that a lot of his recommendations on how to approach life connect directly with entrepreneurship.  Entrepreneurs are forced to figure a lot of his steps out the hard way, and so reading his take on the world was striking in resemblance to entrepreneurship principles.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

"Why did Susie make the decision that she did."

This exercise would present a variety of scenarios (or have students ask people about a recent large purchase they made or decision), and then require the student to deconstruct the reasons for the choice.  The student can make things up, but has to divide the reasons into emotional and rational buckets. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I loved the part about selfishness and how it is important to be selfish in the right ways (exercise, family time, etc.).  I also learned a lot about worldview matters, whereas my expectation was that it was going to be more like a Gary Vee spiel about why you should fail a bunch.

25A

Based on the discussions that I had with the prospective customers and other companies serving the market, I have determined that the best opportunity is to focus on probate to begin.  Probate is much more complex than the other transitions, and almost always results in the sale of owned-property (if there is owned-property in the estate).  In addition, the property is not the actual executor's, so there will be less overvalue bias. 

The probate services would also benefit the attorneys in the space. For this reason, they will be likely to act as a flywheel to send business to us.  We will return the favor by referring pro se elections to them for service. We can also send executors without an estate plan to them to abate probate in the future.  We will focus on helping with all services for experience and to build social capital and influence. 

The radically different market I identified is military family transitions.  Military families need to transition often, and the spouse is left with little support when the military service member is deployed.  There is potential to help relocation companies move quickly, as we can invest in the properties. We can also help with other areas of the transition, including helping to set up good communication channels with the deployed military service member. 

This market is not as attractive as the probate market. There are already quite a few resources for these types of families, but it doesn't mean it couldn't help them.  I would have to research and study more complexities to navigate if we were to decide to pursue this market.  One way we could help guide this market is to simply publish some resources on our site, and test to see if anyone comes and the problems they do have. 

24A

People going through major life transitions where assets must be liquidated are unable to quickly and efficiently get through the transitions due to the logistical complexities of each transition.  I see an opportunity to help these people that are facing new and complex situations bridge the gap by acting as the hub of their wheel.  This hub would be act as a hollow-organization structure that allows a full-stack solution to help families tackle their own unique situations by connecting them with, and helping them organize the services they are in need of, and tasks they are in need of completing.

The window of opportunity will be open for the foreseeable future, and the forces creating this need is the procedures and laws around life transitions. People are on their own. 

A few major life transitions where that involve many complexities outside of what the lawyer will help with include divorce, transitioning to an assisted living facility or nursing home, and acting as the personal representative of an estate. All of these scenarios are accompanied by overwhelming emotions, and encompass elements of grief.  The unmet need of the grieving party, which is either the beneficiaries of the estate, or the personal representative, is the need to get rid of all the 'stuff' they're now responsible to liquidate, including real property like real estate, and personal property like vehicles, collections, furniture, and straight-up junk.  This is a brand new responsibility or 'need' of the party, and although they have their own lives and daily duties, this is a new chore they've been assigned to handle.  Currently, these affected parties are figuring out the best ways to go about liquidating the unwanted assets in a timely manner, including listing the real estate with an agent, selling the 'stuff' at an estate sale, and selling the car to a car dealership or car purchasing business.  They are faced with many decisions, and are likely feeling the pressure of making the 'right' choice.  This takes a lot of time, energy, and focus on a situation that is already extremely emotional and confusing.

Not only will we be helping the clients liquidate the assets they're no longer in need of, we will be guiding them through the steps, helping them accomplish tasks that require attention, and connect them with our network of highly vetted service providers in their area.  This way, depending on their goals for their transition, they will have a shepherd to help alleviate the stress, confusion, and pain. We will monetize the real estate sales through commissions, invest in the real estate to repair and flip ourselves, or offer gap loans and contractor management to increase the value of the home, split the value increase, and then also monetize the sales commission.  

Families will use us because their alternatives are to simply do it themselves. There is no other alternative, and the service itself doesn't cost the family anything other than the commissions they'd be paying anyways. We are the bridge. We need to brand properly and use the right emotional triggers and communication styles to succeed. 

Our most important resource will be marketing.  If we can effectively market, the service will sell itself.  We would like to automate and streamline the process, and in the next five years would like each vertical or transition to generate a million dollars in revenue per vertical.  If we can help around 80-100 families per year, per vertical, we can hit that target. 

I would like to own multiple businesses, and train others to excel by serving and helping others. This venture will help to propel us into larger and more sophisticated transactions and businesses. 

23A

• Generate a list of all of the resources in your venture (produce a list of at least 10 resources that you already possess). This can include your human capital, social capital, financial capital, and capabilities. You may also discuss the organizational culture you intend to create (but, obviously, it's not a resource that you have, now.) 

- human capital

- financial capital

- some social capital

- licensing for real estate

- marketing skill

- digital resources

- automation

- local service intelligence

- creative real estate knowledge

- problem solving and empathy

• Conduct a "VRIN" analysis for each resource. That is, describe, for each resource, how it is valuable, rare, inimitable (how hard it is to copy by others), and non-substitutable (are there other resources that can provide the same benefits?). 

- human capital (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- financial capital (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- some social capital (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- licensing for real estate (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- marketing skill (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- digital resources (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- automation (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- local service intelligence (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- creative real estate knowledge (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

- problem solving and empathy (valuable: YES, rare: NO, imitable: YES, non-substitutable: YES)

• Remember, not ALL resources will measure up well. That's OK. You just need one. 

• After conducting the VRIN analysis, determine what your top resource is. Explain why it's more important to your venture than all of the other resources.

Our top resource is our problem solving and empathy, because we are able to actually employ and utilize our other resources effectively due to our problem solving skills.

21A

1. The general theme of the book was that leveraging the right resources in the right way, with a vision and mission, leads to exceptional execution.
2. The book was a good guide to help me understand the concepts we were learning in class, and defining avatars and target markets. It brought the learning to real life.
3. If I had to design an exercise it would be to pick an objective for an existing product (differentiation/uniqueness vs cost/value focus), and then take an existing product and adapt it to fit the new product focus. Then you could also adapt the target market for the new focus.
4. My biggest aha moment was when I learned about customer obsession, and the main driver of the teams being something other than money. I am driven by profitability normally, but the underlying vision and his dream led the leadership.