Textfacing

My portmanwho is "textfacing".  It's a combination of texting and Facebook.  I've been home a few weeks, and go swimming with my mom, sisters, and their girl friends practically every day.  But every so often, one of them will get out of the pool just to check their phone, either to text someone or check their Facebook.  Eventually I started saying "will you grab a beer, get back in the pool, and stop textfacing?"  They all clearly knew what I meant, but it didn't really catch on.  They would laugh it off as me being a typical goofball.  A couple of times my mom or sister would get out of the pool, and I'd say "where are you going?" and they would occasionally reply "textfacing" with a sarcastic and funny tone, but it wasn't often.  I think they were just trolling me.  It's a silly word, but hey, this is a silly assignment.

Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

I've never been a shy person or one to be nervous in front of a crowd.  So talking to strangers isn't a problem for me.  Something I have done though that is particularly useful in this course is time management.  Planning ahead of time what you need to do and then executing it is very critical, especially because many of these assignments take an unknown amount of time.  Finding people to interview can take 2 hours or 8 hours.  It all depends.  So setting enough allotted time to do the tasks is crucial.  In summary, time management and proper planning.

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

In moments where I feel like giving up, sheer will keeps me going because I have high standards for myself.  If I fail to meet them, my own disappointment will probably be worse than whatever it is I feel like giving up on.  I've always felt like I've had a tenacious attitude, and that was reinforced even more so during my time in the Marine Corps.  This course is definitely nowhere near as tough as the Marines, so I haven't developed tenacity during my time but it does have its arduous moments.

3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?

Plan ahead - as I said above, setting aside enough time is crucial in this course.  It's important in every course really, but some of these assignments can take an unknown amount of time.

Don't be afraid to fail - In most courses, you study and study in order to not fail, but this course rewards it because failure is a learning experience.  So don't be afraid to get creative, fail, learn, adapt, and try again. 

Practice public speaking - You'll be speaking with strangers a lot in this course, so you need learn how to be okay with that.  Pitch ideas, ask questions, etc., in front of friends or family at first. Practice being personable and speaking articulately.  Slowly but surely, you'll get better.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life? 

I'm Kyle Harris. I'm personable, determined, possess leadership qualities, and am good at reading people. I'm good at making processes more efficient, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. I have lived in many different countries all over the world, so I've learned a lot from different peoples and cultures. I'm aspiring to launch an application that connects golfers with other golfers. This business, hopefully, would help me connect with other golfers, help others connect with other golfers, and I'd be making money from it.


2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

Many golfers have the unmet need of wanting to play and not having anyone they know to play with. Instead of teeing off with some random person you know nothing about, I'm offering an application that displays information about other local golfers in the area such as skill level, courses they frequent, and character traits and behaviors. This will increase one's pool of friends that play golf, and now your chances of finding someone to play with that you actually like increases.


3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

Golfers. I really don't know how to give much more detail than that. Literally, anyone who plays golf and owns a smart phone.


4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.

Well, the app is free but if they want to use more features or use unlimited services, they'd have to pay a fee. This is what is commonly referred to as "freemium". The people I've talked to are typically people just starting out with golf. They enthusiastically want to play golf, but don't know many golfers and they are not comfortable enough to play with randoms due to a potential embarrassing skill difference. But this is just not for beginners. For instance, if a female golfer wants to play with other female golfers. Or senior golfers find other seniors. People will also care because golf isn't just for fun, but for networking. The more people you know, the better.


5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

To both questions: this idea. I have an idea that no one else has implemented yet: an application-based social network of golfers.



If I had to evaluate these concepts myself and do a little introspection, I see some bad and good in this. The good is that the idea is original and have received lots of positive feedback from it, and I truly am a hard worker that could try to get this off the ground. But that's not good enough on its own. I have no idea on how to create an application, and I have no idea how to market it. I would need to do some recruiting to make this happen.

Reading Reflection No.1

My first reading reflection is on "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest For a Fantastic Future".

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?  I like reading about all the popular scientists out there: Michio Kaku, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Richard Dawkins, etc., including Elon Musk.  So I already knew quite a bit of information about the guy, because I'm a big astronomy and science enthusiast.  But I had no idea that he had such a difficult childhood.  Apparently his dad was a real jerk and he was bullied so bad that he was even hospitalized.  Bullying is common, but getting thrown down flights of stairs and beaten?  That's crazy.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?  I admire his vision of the future and his imagination.  He's a risk-taker.  Ultimately that can be your undoing, but it's worked out for him so far.  I also share his passion for getting off this planet.  Like him, we need boots on the ground in Mars.  Life is fragile and our planet is no exception.  All it takes is one meteor and our race is gone.  I admire how he thinks of human beings as a whole.  
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?  According to his coworkers, he's not a very nice guy.  Seems to lack empathy.  This trait seems to be common though with successful genius entrepreneurs, so it's not that surprising as I also heard the same thing about Steve Jobs.  I guess if you're so focused on your goals, you don't care if you hurt people's feelings in the process and won't let anything get in your way.  I guess it helps, but at the cost of your social life?  I wouldn't want that for myself. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?  He definitely encountered adversity as most entrepreneurs do.  Living at work, divorce, bad economy, space program losing money, etc., these are all things that are hard and challenging to deal with.  But I'm not sure he ever outright failed.  His father gave him some money which he invested in one company, merged with another, got bought out, made more money, invested in another, and so on and so forth until you see the man he is now: a billionaire in charge of SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity, Hyperloop, etc., and will probably take humans to Mars.  One thing is for sure, he persisted.  He just never stopped and did whatever it took.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?  Risk-taking, determination, and scientific literacy.  He was going to get a PhD in applied physics.  I mean, it sort of helps to be smart.  He may take risks, but they seem to be extremely calculated.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.  Just all the initial companies he was part of, founder vs co-founder, the merging of companies, the renaming of companies, it was all just a little much.  

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?  Would you consider yourself narcissistic, egotistical, or an elitist?  If so, where exactly does your drive come from to help all of humanity?  Why not just take your money and live a relaxing stress-free life?  I would ask these questions because I'm interested in the conflict, if there is any, between success and empathy.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?  I would imagine hard work to Elon Musk is going against the grain, thinking outside the box, and being so creative that you shun the naysayers and produce something truly noteworthy, respectable, and successful.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

My first elevator pitch

Lots of people like playing golf, but finding friends that can always play is hard, especially if you're just starting out and don't know many golfers yet.  Playing by yourself and teeing up with a random player can be embarrassing if there is a big skill difference.  I want to create an app called Golf Buddy that allows you to create a profile with your skill level, favorite courses, and other character information.  You can also book tee times straight from the app.  Revenue will come from ads, golf courses that want to display coupons and deals, and user fees for unlimited service. 

Tweaking the Innovation

My idea is having an application where you can connect with golfers in the same style of Tinder.  You can look at a person's skill level, what courses they like to play at, common interests, and if all of that looks good, you "match" and can book a tee-time together.

Product Service Mix

(for an application)

Advertising	Course Deals	Service/Data
Interrupted Advertising	Course Suggestions	Ad-Free
Continuous Advertising	Coupons Notifications	Unlimited Matching
	Notification of Tee-time Vacancies	Instant Match Recognition
		Book Tee Times
		Full Service

Advertising - These are tangible.  For the interrupted ad, you can be swiping through and have no choice but to look at new driver on sale, or maybe another application like a golf fame.  For the continuous ad, this would be on display all the time.  If clicked, the ad will open a webpage where you can get more information.  Each time an ad is viewed or clicked, revenue is generated.

Course Deals - These are core benefits of using the application.  You get suggestions on nearby courses you may not know about, receive notifications about deals going on at said courses, and receive notifications of available tee times.  So say you've done some swiping and have about 8 "matches".  You and your new golf buddy get a notification that says "available tee time for 2:04 pm at a discount price of only $14.99 + cart and range balls" and so you can message the person and see if they're interested and book the tee time.  Every time a suggestion is taken, a coupon used, or a tee-time booked, I generate revenue from the course by receiving a cut.

Service/Data - These are augmented.  They are additions to the service that are limited with the free edition.  For instance, to use the app without ads for 1 month would be $2.99.  To be able to swipe through matches without a limit, that would be $2.99.  To let someone know immediately that you're interested in playing golf with them (sort of like the "super-like" function on Tinder), that would be $2.99.  If you want to be able to book tee times through the app, that would be $2.99.  Altogether that would be $11.99.  But if you want all of these services exclusively, it's $9.99.  I could also tweak the prices to represent 6 months, 1 year, and lifetime use.