Reflections

When I initially read about this elective, I felt a lot of familiarity with the way the course is
structured and the methods used as I had similar experiences in the previous roles from my
NGO background and I was very excited to be part of it.

After attending the course and starting to work on the project, I realized that it is next level
and there is so much more to learn, develop, experiment, and grow.
The timing to take full advantage wasn’t the best for me, but I still learned a lot from this
course about the importance of consistency and structure, as well as taking action sooner
than later.
This course also took me out of my comfort zone and made me reflect and reach out to old
networks and be brave enough to not stay an introvert.

My expectations for this elective were mostly for myself to be way more present than I could
be and more active in covering all bases. Although I was able to work from home and bring
ideas and research and talk with others, I expected that our project will be even more concise
in planning to be transformed into action afterward.

Although my expectations from myself weren’t fully met, I also learned new things from this
elective that will help me navigate in future work environments such as the importance of
taking action at the moment it’s needed, being adaptable, and the importance of a strong
steady network and expansion of social value. I also learned to expand my ways of thinking
by looking at an idea backward and tools to generate and transform good ideas into great
ideas and solutions from your various exercises.

Personally, I learned resilience as I would try to attend as many classes regardless of my

health condition, but I also learned it is alright to take it easy when it’s too much for a
continuous harmonious development. I also rediscovered my passion for working with food
waste and helped me to discover my internship around food sustainability.

The only downside of the course that we felt as a group was the feedback we received from
you was mostly very positive and encouraging. That was really very empowering and felt
great to receive positive feedback throughout the semester, and we would have benefited a
bit more if our project flaws would be approached as well to improve critical thinking and
skills.
Therefore one of the suggestions to improve the student experience during this course would
be more critical feedback (such as the sandwich approach for example) where the flaws and
challenges are also pointed out.
The most innovative part of the project was during finding and defining the pain and the
exercises around the idea generation. Those parts were really smart and challenging.
Otherwise, honestly, most of the course was quite innovative in comparison with other
classes as it was very practical (and rightly so) and pitch oriented. It was amazing to have
guests and outside perspectives and to see the efforts of our teacher to structure and give
good exercises to make us think from all points of view.
In terms of my role in the project, I think I played an involved role in the first part of the
course and exercises by generating ideas and having an overview of a larger scale when it
comes to solutions for expanding and developing our business. In the last 2 weeks of the
course, unfortunately, I wasn’t greatly involved, and I mostly supported a bit with some of
the exercises.
Overall, we were a great team, with understanding for each other and complementing in
the areas we were lacking. We had good communication and no conflicts and we also
empowered each other and supported our ideas or developed them together.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to pitch in front of judges and investors for our
project.
I can say from another pitching experience of a small business to a group of investors that is
a scary experience that requires a sound mind and presentation, as well as really good
preparation and readiness for questions. My personal pitching was part of a competition to
receive funding for the project and even though I didn’t win, I learned about the importance
of a good business plan, authenticity, and alignment with investors values. It is also
extremely important to have a great economic base to ensure profit return and steady
growth.

Overall, I am very happy with this elective. It was the most interesting course at Zealand and
the most challenging in a healthy good way to develop our minds and skills. If I would have
the chance I would take it all over again to develop a business idea into reality.
To answer the question about being an entrepreneur, I would like to initially be the right
hand of an entrepreneur to learn and support in creating a good business plan and
development curve.
Thank you for this great elective and all the innovative efforts behind it.