When I look back at my original interview with my choice entrepreneur, I think that I covered only the very basics and the essential foundation of what it really means to be an entrepreneur. Now that I have progressed in this class, I realize that there is a lot more depth to the matter and a lot more meaningful questions I could gave asked.
The following is a translated transcript of a Skype call:
Q: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me again, I am basically following up with my last interview now that I have learned and experienced a greater deal of the field of entrepreneurship. Looking back again to your beginning years as an entrepreneur, was there any time in which you thought you had utterly failed? What was that like and how did you deal with it?
A: Im glad you got back to me, it is always a pleasure to talk with future entrepreneurs. Yes, there were actually a few failures before my initial success; I often thought the work I was doing wasn't worth it as I constantly had to start over quite a few times. When it comes to how I dealt with it...I mean, it was rough, you know? Losing everything you work for not once but multiple times. Yet I kept trying because what else was I gonna do? Give up after all this? No way.
Q: How did you go about raising capital for your business? How did you get the gears moving?
A: I was lucky to have been blessed with an affluent family who helped me a lot when it came to funds. Nevertheless that was just start up costs, what really got us going were government contracts. You have to understand that in a country such as Ecuador, a lot of wealth circulates around government and any close ties to it, so naturally I aimed at where the money was.
Q: What have you learned about this entrepreneurial journey as a whole that you can say you are able to widely apply it to your everyday life? What stuck with you?
A: To be perfectly honest, it was failure. I learned from it like a mistress teachings you things, you know? Haha. I learned to fail and I learned not to fail in the same way twice, that way I can say I am always moving forward, and that is something I think you can apply to life in general.
Q: Thank You so much Nelson, you have been a huge help for me in this class and in counsel for my venture.
A: Anytime! Tell your dad I say hi, will you?
During this interview, I fell a lot more comfortable not only with myself and the entrepreneur but also with the subject at hand. I felt I was able to ask much more meaningful questions that probed deep into the essence of the entrepreneurial journey as opposed to my first interview where I feel I only skimmed the very surface. I could tell that the entrepreneur thought of me in a different way, maybe it was the fact that I seemed more knowledgeable on the subject.
You are not the first person that I have seen having an easier time during this interview compared to the first. It is much easier to talk about a topic once you are more experienced with the topic that is being talked about. If your entrepreneur could see that there was something different about you, then you know that there has been some kind of change progressing over the past couple of months. Here is the link to my blog post: http://brandonsblog1111.blogspot.com/2016/04/very-short-interview-part-2.html
ReplyDeleteI was comfortable talking to my entrepreneur for both interviews. For the first interview, I had no idea where the class was going and was concerned whether or not the answers would be relevant. They were spot on. My biggest challenge for this interview was coming up with the questions to ask. Your questions are relevant to the material that we covered in this class. And anyone would benefit from the answers to those questions. Good post.
ReplyDeleteMy blog can be found at http://princeofentrepbyme.blogspot.com/2016/04/entrepreneur-very-short-interview-part-2.html