Start Something!

Throughout the past semester I along with Adam (see previous post) have been planning the Second Annual StartUp Challenge. The StartUp Challenge is a business plan competition that is open to all undergraduate students at Villanova University. The competition focuses on the entrepreneurial process and intense team collaboration. As such all the teams are given the same concept for which they must successfully write a business plan.
I take real pride in this event. Like any entrepreneurial venture, the fact that I had a significant hand in creating it makes me smile. It was successful after its first year and now is established as a featured and talked about event every spring.
However, during the planning this fall, it wasn't as intense (I dedicated around 25 hours per week to StartUp Challenge last year) as it was the previous year. The reason for this is obvious. During the first year we had no working knowledge of what we had to do or with whom we should partner. Alot of our time was spent reacting to questions or situations we needed to address. This year we know exactly what we needed to do and who we needed to talk to. Sponsors and judges jumped on board without needing to sell them on the concept like the year before. It seemed like since Adam and I had a knowledge base to work from we didn't need to be as intense.
The intensity is what I love about the entrepreneurial process. I love the late night brainstorming and selling your idea not only to validate it to yourself but customers as well.
I have a love for the chase. Once I get what I wanted I don't know what to do with myself. I know this syndrome is common in entrepreneurs.
How do other entrepreneurs keep themselves motivated to find new ways to innovate? Or maybe the better question, how do entrepreneurs keep the newness to their venture so that they don't get "bored" and keep it from becomming a regular job?

Integrity...Let's Not Pay It Lip Service

Integrity is one of the single most important characteristics in a human being. Without it, you have nothing. No one would have good reason to believe you or take you seriously. The amount of integrity you have and exhibit shows what kind of person you are.
With that said, my good friend Adam Siegrist, a mechanical engineering major in Villanova's College of Engineering, continues to witness widespread cheating on an academic level among his classmates. Does cheating on an academic level mean that as these students get into corporate America that they are more likely to compromise their integrity in order to please shareholders?
I encouraged Adam to share his thoughts. They are below:
I am starting to feel like a minority on my campus. Here I am, going to a Catholic, Reputable college and I have been no less than shocked as to what I have witnessed in the past few weeks from my classmates. Students literally scour the public network drive to find the project solutions others are storing in personal folders. I see people whispering the answers to the quiz they just took to their friends in the later section. It takes every ounce of my energy to keep my mouth shut, because I know I shouldn’t. But I do, because I somehow feel like I’m the one of a very small population that actually objects to it.
What has happened to the word integrity? Is it simply a word regurgitated by companies in their mission statements, and nothing more? I can list a dozen people who cheat on a regular basis, and will do just about anything shy of backstabbing to improve their academic or financial position. If the companies they were applying to only knew the other half of the story…..
I think that no matter what happens, we all must come to accept that there will always be people like this in our worlds. One of the most profound lessons I have learned over the past few days is this:
The more you see what actions you find repulsive in others, the easier it is to shape and decide what you want to be- because you know what you don’t want to be.
Never forget watching somebody fall short of their own integrity, and what you thought of them after seeing it. And the next time you begin to walk that fine line, remember that there’s always someone watching, and they’ll remember seeing you.
What is in store for these students when they get into industry if that can't stand up morally to their peers in college? Is integrity learned? Can it be unlearned? Can a person switch between being a virtuous person in one aspect of his/her life and not so in other aspect of life?
This topic was, in part, a discussion of Ben Casnocha's post on Integrity
Thanks for posting, Adam.