Week 3 Reading Reflection

The most surprising part of the reading to me was when the author discussed the dark side of entrepreneurship.  Of course some entrepreneurs fail and they suffer financial distress, but I never took too much time to think about the kinds of stresses that evolve from this type of risk taking.  It was mentioned that entrepreneurs risk their finances, their career, their family, their social life, and also their mental well being.  I found it interesting and surprising that there is a big psychic risk involved and "type A" people are more likely to get heart disease.  I found the sources of stress section a little confusing.  It mentioned the aggravation entrepreneurs have towards some of the situations their put into, but another section stressed the tendency for entrepreneurs to be overly and unrealistically optimistic. If I were to ask the author, I would ask for what kind of psychic problems entrepreneurs would encounter after a loss of profits or financial well being.  I would want to know some real life examples of entrepreneurs who failed and suffered some kind of mental breakdown.  I also would find it interesting to ask about what proportion of entrepreneurs are "type A" vs "type B."  The author described entrepreneurs as mostly "Type A" people, but are there many type B entrepreneurs, and how do they differ in their business types?  In this particular chapter I did not disagree with anything the author wrote, I do not know enough about the ethics of entrepreneurship or the psychology behind it to disagree with anything that was written.

Identifying Local Opportunities

Weather alert: 40s in South Florida, with a warming trend this week

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A938407819E0A0?p=AWNB

This story described the cold temperatures felt in South Florida earlier this week, and the effects of these temperatures.  It also mentioned the temperatures felt in other parts of Florida such as Gainesville and Orlando.

The issue presented in this story was the fact that 20 flights were canceled at Miami International Airport and 40 flights were canceled at Ft Lauderdale Airport.  This shows how cold weather storms in the north can strongly effect airports and travelers in South Florida.  A business proposition would be to create some way for air traffic to continue like normal even through tough winter weather, saving millions of dollars in losses.

High winds knock out power for thousands in Miami-Dade, Broward

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9383197E67820?p=AWNB

On Saturday a windy day led to 5,000 homes losing power in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.  The winds were about 45 to 50 mph, and the FPL employees gave no estimate to when the power would be back on in these homes. 

This is a problem, especially in the winter time.  Homes need power throughout the country to heat their homes and keep living comfortably.  A business idea would be to find some way to create power lines that could not be damaged by wind, but would not be as expensive as underground power lines. 

Politicians say Miami ‘slums' prove need for new laws

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A8E3CD20CD1840?p=AWNB

This article describes the undesirable and unsafe low income housing available in Miami.  The sewage leakage and unsafe conditions of the buildings are too costly to fix as they take up such a vast portion of Miami.  Slumlords are taking advantage of this situation that needs to be stopped. Miami officials suggest making new laws and codes to solve this issue. 

This problem of unacceptable low income housing in Miami could be taken care of with a large housing project with new facilities that meet new law and new code. 

Climate change could cost jobs in South Florida, says White House adviser

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A83B09F3219D68?p=AWNB

This article describes how South Florida has the biggest risk for global warming issues, compared to the rest of the country.  The erosion on the shores and the rising water levels could seriously damage property value and cause investment in the Miami area to go down.  The article also mentions how South Florida has one of the largest potentials for solar energy, as this area receives so much direct sunlight.

Because of its low grown level and high sunshine levels, and entrepreneur could discover a way to keep the shores from eroding, or make some kind of a levy system to keep water down when it does rise, such as in New Orleans or Amsterdam.  They could also develop areas for solar panels, to take advantage of South Florida's geographic location. 

Guantánamo parole board clears Yemeni who was victim of mistaken identity

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A88F7314864D90?p=AWNB

The article informs us of how a man with a similar name to actual al-Qaida extremists. 

This shows us how theres an issue with the military's system of profiling Guantánamo's captives.  We need to come up with a better system so there are not so many cases of mistaken identity.  Not just with security measures for the military, but with stolen identity issues for the average citizen. 

Very Short Interview No. 1

Rob Walters is an entrepreneur in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. He is a friend of my dad's and works in the field of development and building design.  He is an entrepreneur because he started his own business designing buildings for his ownership; owning the buildings and renting out the space for others. This is a unique business idea because he is the owner of the buildings and the architect as well.  

• What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

"It means freedom, it means being responsible for yourself and your whole team. It means that if you have your bad day you could lose your company, and everyone who works for you.  It's the ultimate responsibility.  It also means that you do not have motivation from anyone else, you have to motivate yourself.  There's no pressure except for what you put on yourself."

• What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?

"In an entrepreneurship course you should learn how to start your own business, but it should be after you gain experience in another firm.  This course should give you 100% confidence that you can make your own business work.  Make your mistakes with other peoples' money, and then start your own business. You'll know when you'll be ready to go off on your own."

• What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur? 

"It's hard to teach that in school.  It's extremely hard to be in business for yourself. You need a lot of capital, because the first year is the hardest year.  I wish they taught me that I need to set up work before you start your own business. It's something you have to learn on your own. You cant learn experience from school, you have to live it.  You have to dive into the best operated company you can find and explore every avenue of your business. Be very diversified and know your trade."

After my interview with Mr. Walters, I learned that being an entrepreneur is extremely risky.  He stressed the responsibility involved, as you are responsible for yourself and all of your employee's jobs.  He also mentioned how hard it is to learn in school because being a successful entrepreneur relies on experience.  Since experience cannot be taught in school, Mr. Walters suggested making all of your mistakes with a company first, before going out on your own, which I thought was interesting. 

World's Biggest Problems

1. Poverty: 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10.00 a day, half the population lives on less than $2.50 a day, and about 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty, which is living on less than $1.25 per day. Some of the most poverty stricken people on earth are children, and about 22,000 children die each day from poverty. 805 million people are hungry, and which leads to disease, growth stunting, and death.
So many charities and non-profits fight poverty.  With so many children being born in poorer nations, there is a constant increase and poverty and our resources cannot keep up with the demand.  I think if we can keep overpopulation down in developing countries and significantly decrease the birth rate in these nations, we can possibly supply them with enough food and water to survive, and help them become educated, industrialized nations.
2.  Lack of fresh water: Over 750 million people do not have access to clean drinking water.  About 2,300 people are killed everyday from inadequately filtered drinking water, which causes illness and diarrhea. This clean water epidemic causes millions of people to spend the majority of their day on a search for water, most of which could be contaminated and dangerous.  Because of this, they cannot pursue any other productive activities such as going to school or working. Only 2.5% of the world's water is freshwater, and only 1% is ready to be used by humans.  This 1% is not dispersed fairly throughout the world.
Only 10 nations use 65% of the 1% of water that is ready to be consumed by humans, so we definitely have an unfair distribution of clean, useable water.  We need to significantly lower the amount of water used by industrialized countries, and make cheaper water available in developing nations.  Like I said earlier, decreasing the birth rate for developing countries will help with the amount of water available to those places.
3. Insufficient energy, loss of fossil fuels:  As a population, we rely so much on nonrenewable energy sources such as crude oil, natural gas, and coal. We are using these resources so much faster than they can be replenished, as it takes millions of years for them to form.  By burning them we are also contributing to the pollution and global warming epidemics.
This is already being fixed in most industrialized countries.  Governments have been implementing programs to start using renewable energy and replace fossil fuel usage with new technologies.
4.  War: The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria have been the causes of millions of fatalities and millions of refugees displaced. Our national debt continues to rise as we send troops overseas and the refugee crisis in Europe has also contributed to the fall of economies.
Because the wars are dangerous, deathly, and effecting our economy, political campaigns have been centered around how to defeat ISIS and pull out of the middle east.  War is inevitable, but we should do everything we can as a country and with the UN to put a stop to the ongoing warfare in the middle east and Africa.
5.  Terrorism:  Terrorism is commonly blamed for the start of the wars.. Since ISIS is a focus in the news lately, and a cause of a lot of the fear, globally.  The attacks in November in Paris sparked another outrage and a focus on terrorism in the media.
After the terrorist attacks in 2001, the US has tried to prevent these acts by implementing all forms of security in airports, border patrol, and other areas of transportation.  Bomb threats are taken very seriously, and police and fire rescue are quick to act on any threat or suspicion involving terrorism.
6.  Overpopulation: Human overpopulation of the earth may or may not have already occurred, as most estimates for the carrying capacity for the earth is between 4 and 16 billion. The UN projected that the world population rate will stabilize around 9.15 billion. Currently, we have unevenly distributed basic supplies such as food and water, and have a poverty and clean water epidemic.  With the majority of the projected 2 billion people to be born in poor nations, the shortage of food and water will become much worse and much more than half our population could become poverty stricken.
To prevent or slow overpopulation, we should make birth control available in developing nations. As women become educated and enter the workforce, birth rates will slow down.  Encouraging and enabling women to be educated will help these countries in more ways than one.
7. Economic failure:  After the great recession in 2008, the world is dealing with a slow return back to prosperous economic times.  The United States national debt is at all time high of almost 19 trillion dollars, and multiple countries in the EU have had to be bailed out.  With millions of refugees fleeing to Europe from the middle eastern war, the euro's value is falling, and most nations are finding it difficult to gain steady ground.
The economy is an extremely fragile aspect of the world, and it has never been clear about how to completely prevent it from failing.  The end of war and terrorism is definitely a way to boost moral and allow countries to spend more on industrialization and education, which betters the economy, instead of spending it on war.
8.  Extreme Pollution, Global Warming:  In the US, power plants have been our largest source of carbon based pollution, emitting 2 billion tons of pollution into the air each year. Pollution is an even larger problem for countries like china, where smog impacts whole cities and makes it difficult to breathe.
The US can control our own efforts in stopping global warming, it is difficult to manage or control another country's emissions. The UN has tried to enforce many regulations on power plants and limits on how much carbon emissions are allowed to be excreted every year, and most countries are taking many steps to becoming "green" we just have to keep moving forward in this process.
9.  Disease: Disease outbreaks have been responsible for wiping out huge percentages of the population in the past, and we still fear them very much today.  Our world's most recent scare was the outbreak of ebola in 2013. Smallpox, the Spanish flu, the Black Plague, Malaria, and AIDS are some of the deadliest diseases in history, responsible for the deaths of billions of people.
Vaccinations are largely responsible for the slow of epidemics and diseases. People are becoming vaccinated for various diseases at birth.  We need to make these vaccinations available in developing countries, where the diseases are actually the most prevalent.  Places in Africa and Asia where many children are born in private residences and do not have access to these medications, are places where these diseases are common.
10.  Nuclear Weapons: Nuclear bombs have been used in warfare in the past, such as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  These lead to millions of deaths, and were an easy way for the Americans' to get their way in the war.  These bombs have been used as threats, and are a surefire way to kill millions of innocent civilians and wipe out huge cities.
Nuclear Weapons and bombs are a major threat and they are some of the reason we are in multiple wars today.  The UN has to make sure that countries with nuclear bombs are controlled and the nuclear weapons are safe and strictly regulated.