Spreadsheets and Business Planning

 

The humanitarian design project was the culmination of who I have become in Business Honors and of the strong relationships that have been formed in our small group. On previous projects I have worked on, I have never been able to count on team members the way I was able to count on the members of my small group. In the past, I have always spearheaded the main efforts of projects and been the one to give direction. The beauty of this project was that each team member worked to move everything forward – I can honestly say that every person had a valid and worthwhile contribution. Our group’s drive to do well on the plan and product development was not the only thing that set this apart in my mind. The encouragement and support that everyone offered each other throughout the process was the kind of support and encouragement that I have only ever felt from close-knit friend groups.
           

On a personal side, the passion and pride I took in our project was a key factor to my success as a team member. As we were developing our idea and examining how much each unit cost to produce, I realized our business plan was not extensive enough. From that point on, I became very driven to put together as realistic of a professional plan as we could. The spark I felt from wanting to do as much as possible with the project fueled the fire for crunching numbers and sifting through Indian real estate and wholesale MP3 prices. After about three hours of research I realized that the task was much bigger than I had once thought. Here again, I was amazed at the readiness of my team members to pursue this new, much more in-depth, aspect of our project. I was able to call on them whenever I felt lost or stuck, and they were just as driven as I was to be successful.
           

The two biggest lessons I took away from this project are similar to the lessons I have learned so far this semester. One is that nothing compares to the success of a group that has compassion for one another, and the second is that Business is definitely the right major for me – and perhaps Finance is too. I loved creating the spreadsheet for our project and researching and analyzing numbers to get what we needed. I also loved taking what I had learned and explaining it to the group and then presenting it. However, I was very nervous during the presentation, something I hope will dissipate with the number of presentations I give. As of late, I have been reflecting on whether or not I want to go to law school after graduation or if I want to do Finance – my five year plan when I came into Texas A&M. While I am still somewhat undecided on both, I know that I really enjoyed applying some things I had been learning about Finance to our project and that I still love looking for the holes in projects and filling them. I also know that the most frustrating part of the project was finding out how little I knew about creating a business plan, projection plan, and starting a business. Moving forward, I am excited to learn about all of these things, and to keep exploring my options when it comes to things that I am interested in. I will remember how great teamwork can be when you have a solid team, and that I should continue to pursue my passions in my work and on projects to achieve my greatest success.