Table A1 Example of a reflective journal...

Table A1

Example of a reflective journal

Q1: What have I done and who have I met? In the last two weeks, I met a lot of inspiring people and I got to bond more with my fellow classmates. In terms of activities there were three main events happening: the “business failure workshop”, the “future in mind workshop” and the “pitching workshop”
Q2: Why did I do what I did? The business failure workshop was something I anticipated and looked forward to from the beginning of this course. Unfortunately, I had to witness two company closures in my previous start-up experiences and ever since I was reflecting about “business failing” a lot. Before this course started, I of course tried to understand the reasons why those two ventures did not succeed but since I was “just an employee” in both start-ups I had difficulties to understand the whole picture. Therefore, I was more than happy when XX told his story and painted a whole picture, why his business failed. He gave me (us) some real insights and with some decision-making exercises in between, he managed to illustrate that business failure usually does not happen due to one mistake but is characterized by uncertainty and complexity
Since there generally was less time in the last two weeks to actually form larger groups for “idea-brainstorming-sessions”, I made sure that I arranged some lunch and dinner meetings with two classmates in particular. All meetings were a lot of fun and I felt like we bonded a lot over the last couple of weeks. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for the three of us to form a team in the “pitching workshop” to work on an idea together. Interestingly all three of us had already have one idea in mind for the final project, but we all decided to come up with a new idea together
Q3: Observations and reflections with regard to points 1 and 2 As previously stated in journal #1 all of my fellow students are very friendly and working with a variety of them on different projects has been a pleasure so far. Feeling that I am starting to bond more with a fair amount of them also helps me when presenting in front of the class. While presentations in the first two weeks were still a bit nerve-wrecking, in the last two weeks they have been a lot of fun and I tried to put myself forward to present as often as I can since my classmates are usually very good at giving constructive feedback and I still very much enjoy improving my presentation still. Learning about the N.A.B.C pitching technique and getting useful tips from such a talented pitcher like XX was also very exciting. In regard to the new business idea, I found two like-minded people with whom working on a new idea was super fun and rewarding. All of us put the same amount of effort into the development and it did not feel like there was a “stormy phase” at all, and I am curious to find out if this is just because we did not leave the “honeymoon phase” or if it's because we are actually a great match. Nevertheless, I truly feel like our great team efforts paid off when we were presenting our concept
Q4: Can you please reflect on (entrepreneurial) theory and link it with point 3? I have been reflecting a lot about the business failure workshop. In my opinion, he was a real impersonation of positive attitude towards failure. Even though I worked in several (five) start-ups before I used to have a rather negative attitude towards failure, which goes against Politis and Gabrielsson's (2009) proposal that one develops a positive attitude towards failure through start-up experiences. However, learning about his company closure and his overcoming of grief (Shepherd, 2003) in such a personal and relatable manner, I can truly understand how this can affect someone's attitude towards failure and even though I have not experienced a closure as a founder myself
The pitching workshop on the other hand showed me that the IMOI model by Ilgen et al. (2005) is very applicable to team projects and we found ourselves referring back to it, especially in regard to the functioning stage (bonding, adapting and learning), to increase our efficiency as a team. Structuring our workload according to our strengths really helped the whole project to go smoothly and at the same time we made sure that we were teaching one another so that there was also a learning process involved
Lastly, I was trying to improve my entrepreneurial alertness by broaden my knowledge in different areas, meaning reading different articles on tech and finance news websites (tech crunch and financial times). Despite the fact that I just started with the plan to develop my general knowledge, I felt like it was already rewarding since I came up with the business idea for the pitching workshop challenge by connecting the dots of unrelated trends and topics, about which I had previously hardly any knowledge (Baron, 2006). Therefore, I am going to continue with my plan and hope that this will further sharpen my alertness and help me in upcoming entrepreneurial activities
Q5: What are my goals for next week? Do more research on the “XXX” as well as the “YYY” idea and try to decide which idea is more feasible for this program Talk to an acquaintance via Skype who works in the plastic recycling industry and ask about production opportunities Create a pitch deck for the idea of XXX Talk to alumni students and their experiences at the entrepreneurial fair Stick to the plan to broaden my knowledge in unfamiliar areas

Q1: What have I done and who have I met?In the last two weeks, I met a lot of inspiring people and I got to bond more with my fellow classmates. In terms of activities there were three main events happening: the “business failure workshop”, the “future in mind workshop” and the “pitching workshop”

Q2: Why did I do what I did?The business failure workshop was something I anticipated and looked forward to from the beginning of this course. Unfortunately, I had to witness two company closures in my previous start-up experiences and ever since I was reflecting about “business failing” a lot. Before this course started, I of course tried to understand the reasons why those two ventures did not succeed but since I was “just an employee” in both start-ups I had difficulties to understand the whole picture. Therefore, I was more than happy when XX told his story and painted a whole picture, why his business failed. He gave me (us) some real insights and with some decision-making exercises in between, he managed to illustrate that business failure usually does not happen due to one mistake but is characterized by uncertainty and complexity

Since there generally was less time in the last two weeks to actually form larger groups for “idea-brainstorming-sessions”, I made sure that I arranged some lunch and dinner meetings with two classmates in particular. All meetings were a lot of fun and I felt like we bonded a lot over the last couple of weeks. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for the three of us to form a team in the “pitching workshop” to work on an idea together. Interestingly all three of us had already have one idea in mind for the final project, but we all decided to come up with a new idea together

Q3: Observations and reflections with regard to points 1 and 2As previously stated in journal #1 all of my fellow students are very friendly and working with a variety of them on different projects has been a pleasure so far. Feeling that I am starting to bond more with a fair amount of them also helps me when presenting in front of the class. While presentations in the first two weeks were still a bit nerve-wrecking, in the last two weeks they have been a lot of fun and I tried to put myself forward to present as often as I can since my classmates are usually very good at giving constructive feedback and I still very much enjoy improving my presentation still. Learning about the N.A.B.C pitching technique and getting useful tips from such a talented pitcher like XX was also very exciting. In regard to the new business idea, I found two like-minded people with whom working on a new idea was super fun and rewarding. All of us put the same amount of effort into the development and it did not feel like there was a “stormy phase” at all, and I am curious to find out if this is just because we did not leave the “honeymoon phase” or if it's because we are actually a great match. Nevertheless, I truly feel like our great team efforts paid off when we were presenting our concept

Q4: Can you please reflect on (entrepreneurial) theory and link it with point 3?I have been reflecting a lot about the business failure workshop. In my opinion, he was a real impersonation of positive attitude towards failure. Even though I worked in several (five) start-ups before I used to have a rather negative attitude towards failure, which goes against Politis and Gabrielsson's (2009) proposal that one develops a positive attitude towards failure through start-up experiences. However, learning about his company closure and his overcoming of grief (Shepherd, 2003) in such a personal and relatable manner, I can truly understand how this can affect someone's attitude towards failure and even though I have not experienced a closure as a founder myself

The pitching workshop on the other hand showed me that the IMOI model by Ilgen et al. (2005) is very applicable to team projects and we found ourselves referring back to it, especially in regard to the functioning stage (bonding, adapting and learning), to increase our efficiency as a team. Structuring our workload according to our strengths really helped the whole project to go smoothly and at the same time we made sure that we were teaching one another so that there was also a learning process involved

Lastly, I was trying to improve my entrepreneurial alertness by broaden my knowledge in different areas, meaning reading different articles on tech and finance news websites (tech crunch and financial times). Despite the fact that I just started with the plan to develop my general knowledge, I felt like it was already rewarding since I came up with the business idea for the pitching workshop challenge by connecting the dots of unrelated trends and topics, about which I had previously hardly any knowledge (Baron, 2006). Therefore, I am going to continue with my plan and hope that this will further sharpen my alertness and help me in upcoming entrepreneurial activities

Q5: What are my goals for next week?

Do more research on the “XXX” as well as the “YYY” idea and try to decide which idea is more feasible for this program

Talk to an acquaintance via Skype who works in the plastic recycling industry and ask about production opportunities

Create a pitch deck for the idea of XXX

Talk to alumni students and their experiences at the entrepreneurial fair

Stick to the plan to broaden my knowledge in unfamiliar areas

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