Assignment 16A: What's your Secret Sauce?

For this exercise, students were asked to reflect on what sets them apart from the crowd, their human capital. Human capital is arguably the most important tool in entrepreneurship, because it is one of the few tools that is unique to each entrepreneur. Format wise, we’ll start with a personal reflection of my best attributes, then transition into some outside opinions. Let’s jump into it!

Coming up with my five unique human capital attributes turned out to be a bit of a challenge for me. In my opinion, we are never really finished with developing our human capital. If you are not moving forward, you are moving backwards. However, for the sake of this assignment, I have come up with the following five attributes that I think set me apart from the pack.

1.)    Work ethic – Playing sports growing up helped me to develop the proper work ethic needed to succeed in the real world.

2.)    Salesmanship – Through my internships during my college tenure, I have developed strong sales skills.

3.)    Positivity – I’m not sure if this was developed and cultivated throughout my life or just comes naturally, but I can usually see the good in situations.

4.)    Communication skills – It has never been difficult for me to effectively convey my positions or emotions.

5.)    Leadership – I think that this skill also comes from playing sports growing up, but I have always been a natural leader.

Interviewing the five people closest to me turned out to be much easier than coming up with five attributes myself, because I happen to have two parents and three siblings. (2 + 3 = 5)

Mom: My mom probably sees me in a more altruistic light than most people do, as is expected with most moms. She described me as intelligent and ambitious.

Dad: My dad is very much a man’s man. I’m not sure that he fully understood what we meant by “human capital.” As far as capital, he rated me as expensive and high maintenance.

Sister: My sister Tori is only two years older than me, we are by far the closest. She said that I am smart, hard-working, and have unlimited potential.

Sister: My sister Farrah is the oldest out of all of us. Being the oldest, I think she has a very realistic view of the world. She thinks that I’d be a great fit for entrepreneurship because of my uniqueness and problem-solving skills.

Brother: My brother Travis is older than Tori, but younger than Farrah. He has a great deal of professional experience and thinks that my ability to follow instructions will set me apart in the real world.

Conclusion: I think that my family largely shapes the way that I perceive myself, so we really weren’t too far off as far as human capital goes.