Week 6: Research and Realization

June 22, 2018 — June 29, 2018

This week, work was more regimented. I have been assisting the director with some research, as well as, working on my own. Preparing my annotated bibliography has given me a feeling of urgency. I would like to have a solid, lengthy rough draft finished before the internship is over. Being in this space and helping in different capacities has shown me so much of what I like and don’t like in the professional world. I definitely am all things creative and not an operations/analysis person AT ALL! I have find that I real like my wheels in my head turning to contribute something as opposed to more structured processes like managing, analysis, customer service, and web security. It has also shown me that it’s your internal drive that get you in careers you want, not the degree. But, maybe I’ve come to this realization after speaking with coaches who attended one of our events. They were call avatars — look it up — and they really emphasized making it your business to being in environments that bring about positive, ambitious, and happy perspectives and parts of your being and health mindfulness. I digress. I have found out that throughout this internship one thing I’ve never been disappointed by is content creation. Primarily, because I am a creative person, secondly because I can put it to use when I decide to start a business of my own. Speaking of startups, Orlando has given me so much exposure to what entrepreneurial ecosystems look like in a dynamic way. Not only have I seen lateral component that support entrepreneurship like contractors, legal experts, and insurance companies. I have seen professional at different levels as scholars, boot-strappers, and even associations like the International Business Innovation Association. It has shown me that entrepreneurship is a lot bigger than I had understood and in many ways mirror traditional corporations and institutions in a lot of ways. I was told you don’t have to do XYZ to be an entrepreneur, but with the attention and funding these ecosystems are getting, especially with the development of methodologies for EET, it feels as though we are creating barriers to entry and qualifications for those hoping to benefit from the entrepreneurship ecosystem. This is human organizational behavior, I guess. Nevertheless, I do believe in the power of entrepreneurship ecosystems in communities.