29A Venture Concept 2

1. My Venture Concept is a service to get College athletes the compensation that they have deserved for a long time. I believe that there should be a system to where Student athletes should be able to market themselves and allow them to receive compensation from companies that use them as endorsers. After NCAA championships, the NCAA puts out advertisements for merchandise and uses the players as those who are on the commercials and the ads to buy the official gear. The players get used but to not see any of the money that the NCAA and the schools are making. I think this would be a good way to get the schools and the NCAA along with the athletes involved to find a solution to this problem. People want to point to scholarships as forms of compensation, yet most teams do not have full scholarships. Baseball is a sport where there are 35 players on the roster and 11.7 scholarships to hand out. There needs to be a plan in place that allows these athletes to get as much out of their worth as they can. Not every Student athlete gets the chance to play professionally. This would allow those who do not go to the next level to maximize their worth at the collegiate level.


2. The feedback that I received was that the readers could tell I am very passionate about this subject. Thy also noted how there will be some difficulties that will come about with dealing with each athlete individually and helping them be able to properly work with the companies that they will be marketing with. I believe that this plan will gain traction and will continue to be at the forefront of the media sports debates for a while.


3. I changed this by noting how there are athletes who do not go pro and do not receive full athletic aid to help with school. I think that it will be important to get the lawyers and the NCAA and the companies involved to be able to hold up the standard and make sure it is ethical in what they are doing. I think working with the major media companies will be something that can help me out and bring this to fruition.

30A- Final Reflection

After Reading through my posts, I  truly believe that networking and interviewing people for different reasons will be the most important thing in the future when I look back. These people that I added to my Human Capital will continue to be there as aides and people who will keep pushing my idea forward. This is something that Is near to me personally so I plan to continue pushing this forward and finding a solution to it. I am proud of myself for being able to find different ways to make this work even though there will be continuous threats and difficulties. I think that I was able to think my way through different challenges and that is something I am proud of.

 I do see myself as an entrepreneur. I see myself being able to think through problems and continuing to try and find new ways to get my ideas flowing. I love to find new challenges and that is a big part of being an entrepreneur. You will have to take risks and deal with failure. I know realize different things that are very important for the entrepreneurs to continue to make their companies grow.


I would recommend to stay on top of the work. It is easy to push back the assignments until the last second but they take time. It is also important to get the creative juices flowing even when there is a roadblock in finding ways to push the company and the ideas forward. Networking is vital so starting that process early and often is needed to be successful in promoting and starting up a company. And lastly, a company can get started with just one idea. The next big thing can come from a small idea. So take something you are passionate about and run with it.

28A- Exit Strategy

1) While my idea is not a physical product, I do feel that it is directly related to entrepreneurship and what we have learned in this class. I do not plan to sell my ideas or leave the Director board of what my opportunity brings. I do plan to stay with this and see it through the end. With my idea of working with the NCAA, and local businesses o get athletes to be able to market themselves in return for monetary compensation, is one that will continue to be a debate until there is a final decision made on this and the problem is solved. I do believe that this is something that will take a lot more people and a lot more time to fully come to fruition. I plan on continuing to fight for this and continue to bring top level people in the industry on my side to push this forward.

2) I just want to get justice for the athletes and let the schools, the conferences and most importantly the NCAA to treat the athletes fairly and not use them for their own good. I want to see this through and be a voice in the future for the athletes that will continue to be treated as employees without any compensation from the NCAA.

3) I do feel like it had influenced my decisions regarding this opportunity. I am fully invested in this and that has influenced me into wanting to find every problem with the concept that would require me to continue to work for it. I have been able to think about other ways to make this idea work and have interviewed people and networked with people that can help me make this happen and expedite the process. This is something that will require a lot of people and time so being fully invested and finding ways to improve the little things is very important. I plan on continuing to network and build relationships with people in the sports industry, entertainment industry and lawyers who will be able to work with this and run with it.

27A- Reading Reflection No 3

Steve Jobs- Walter Isaacson


1)  Steve Jobs was the founder and the CEO of Apple. He died in 2011 after fighting pancreatic cancer. What surprised me about Steve Jobs was that he was basically ousted by Apple as the board of directors sided with John Sculley, who Jobs brought on. This happened in 1985 and he was brought back to the company in 1997. He stayed with the company until he died. what I admire about Steve Jobs is that he was always pushing to create something innovative. He was not one to really settle after Apple made so much money. He was always trying to improve the technological world, which he did. I least admire how Jobs was not involved with his family and his daughter for a long part of her early life. IT is hard to balance the career he had and a family life, but at least to me, I think that family is the most important thing and the career takes a backseat to that.Yes, This entrepreneur faced many failures. The Apple products did not all come to fruition. There were many prototypes and different models of the computer that did not work before they made the first model that was sold. He was faced with adversity when the company he co-founded parted ways with him. He continued to develop technology and later got back to Apple.

2)  Steve Jobs took a lot of risks when it came to Apple and starting this business. The computer industry had yet to explode and there was only a few systems in place that really lead technology at the time they created the Apple I computer in 1976. Steve Jobs did not know how it was going to sell and if this was the career path they should take. It is a very difficult business to get into and be the top of the food chain in, but he took the challenge head on and Apple became one of the most prominent companies in the world.

3) It was confusing to me how the actual power struggle went between Jobs and Sculley which ultimately lead to Jobs leaving Apple. I am not sure exactly what entailed the beef with them two and the other executives.

4)I would ask Jobs if he ever envisioned Apple becoming what it is today with all of the technology and products? This would be a good one to know because Apple has come out with items that we did not know we had a use for until they came out with them. Another Question I would ask him would be " If he could do one thing over again in the beginning stages of the company what would it be?" I feel this would be a good question because it is easier to look back and see what you could have done better.

5) I think Job's definition of hard work was to keep pushing forward. You cannot stay stagnant in any line of work, but especially in technology. It adapts and so do the people who are involved with it. I do share this opinion. You need to work hard to stay ahead of the curve and continue to work on the product and continue to make it better.

26A : Celebrating Failure

There have been multiple times this semester I have failed.  I have failed in the classroom and out of the classroom many times. One time in particular was  earlier in the semester in one of my classes. I had the first exam of the semester in an important class and did not do well on the exam. With not getting the ideal grade on the exam, I set myself up for a long road back to a passing grade by the end of the semester. It was a class for my major and in order to stay on track, I could not drop the class and had to pass it with at least a B. I did not study as much as I should have as I was caught up in practice starting and thought that the exam would be easy. Turns out it was not easy and I did not do well on it at all. Hard to fix your grade when you get less than a 55% on an exam.

What I learned from this is to never assume an exam is going to be easy and go in unprepared. I went in thinking that it was going to be a piece of cake and did not look over any of my notes. It would have helped to go through my notes for at least a little bit as those who studied said the exam was just like the study guide. I learned that It is harder to get a grade back up to a high level when you start the semester from rock bottom. Also, it is important to work hard and attempt to get yourself out of a hole when you are in it. Dropping the class after that exam would have been the easy way out. Continuing to study and do my work and working hard to get back to a grade that is now passing is a lesson that I am glad I learned.

I Think failure is a great thing. I think that you find more about who you are as a person, student, athlete, or employee when you fail rather than when you succeed. Everyone is happy and celebrating when they succeed, but when you fail, it shows that you have room to grow in all aspects. When I am playing baseball and I fail, which I have many times before and will many times again, I get a chance to look back at what I did wrong and can get better. Like I stated before, Everyone celebrates the successes, but to me the successes are how you rebound from the failures and how you hit back when your back is against the wall. It is very hard mentally when you fail over and over again, but finding a way to finally get what ever it is to click and continue to strive to figure things out, is a great feeling.

24A- Venture Concept #1 (Student Athletes or Employees?)

My Venture concept is a service to Student Athletes across America. As someone who is a student athlete, I think that there should be a method in place to protect the athletes and their personal brand. I believe that they are being used by the NCAA and their universities to bring n money for them and they do not get a chance to receive any form of compensation. I am bringing forth the idea that student athletes should be able to market themselves and make money off their own likeness. After an NCAA championship, the first thing shown is a quick video of the team and then an advertisement to go buy the championship merchandise. They use the athletes as the main source of their ads to bring in revenue from their performances. In professional sports, athletes are given a percentage of their jersey sales. Why can't a college athlete who arguably has a more rigorous schedule than a pro, make money off their own likeness. 

Pro athletes have an off season that lasts months. College athletes do not have an off season. Many sports have workout programs, and basically two seasons a year. Baseball plays approximately 70 games including postseason in the spring and will go through a two month fall season. Football goes from august until early January in their main season. they have a spring football season that requires the same amount of time and grind while they are on the field. The Athletes do not receive compensation for their time they give to the universities. 

Athletes on college campuses are required to take at least 12 credits to be eligible with most of them taking 15 a semester. These 5 classes can be challenging and hard to manage on their own. A regular student takes around the same amount but for the most part besides jobs or other issues, the classes are their main focus. Being a student athlete, you have to deal with all of the class work and be at their sport for over 30 hours a week a lot of times. It is difficult to manage and that is why it is so hard and rare to be able to balance both. It does not give the athletes enough time to go get a job or find a source of income.

Now, people may say that the athletes are being compensated by the scholarships, the food they are given by the team, or that they get to be professional athletes after they graduate. Not every sport is a full scholarship sport. Baseball for example, is given 11.7 scholarships to field a team of 35 guys. Most baseball players are on partial scholarships and many are not getting athletic money. Softball gets 12 scholarships at a fully funded university. Football and basketball are sports that are full scholarships as is women’s volleyball and tennis. These athletes that are not given full scholarships have to find ways to pay for rent, schooling, books, and food.

The target audience for this idea is the NCAA and the local businesses who will be able to use the the athletes for marketing purposes. I believe that the opportunities are to be controlled with what kind of companies can the athlete be endorsing or how much can they earn. Some may think that recruiting would change and it would but at the end of the day, the best programs will get the best players if they can provide these business opportunities or not. Alabama will get the best football players and it is because of their rich history of winning and tradition and not because they can give someone an opportunity to work with a local restaurant to make a little more money.

I think that there would be many people who would support my initiative and help push this forward. The media exposure would be the most important piece of the puzzle to getting this out in the open more and more. National media outlets like ESPN have already been talking about this debate and it is something that is needed to be talked about to ensure that the athletes are being taken care of. With what is next on this issue is to get more to the media and get-well known people to talk about this. If there are prominent business people who are not athletes that feel strongly about this, and keep pushing it forward, then it will help the cause. This is an opportunity that while it must be controlled, has the ability to be a drastic change to college sports. To me it is important to fight for this an continue to get exposure out there so that there s no more debate just fairness and justice being brought to the athletes.

23A- Unfair advantage

These are my top 10 best resources for my venture


1. Experience: Being a student athlete has given me the experience to know exactly why they should be compensated for what they bring to the university. I have been through the day to say grind that athletes endure and can continue to bring knowledge to the higher ups when it comes to talking to the NCAA or local businesses. This is rare because in comparison to the population, only a small percentage are student athletes and very few people have gone through the day to day things student athletes go through.

2. Passion: This issue is one that hits home for me and is one thing that I will continuously pursue until the issue is taken care of. I truly believe that as time goes on and people keep pushing this, the issue will be resolved. I am one that fights for something and will relentlessly push until it is completed. I think it is rare because many people are half in on things they are working on or what they are doing. It is not easy to compete with someone with a lot of passion for an issue as they will never back down.

3. Statistics: There are many stats that prove that the Universities, Conferences, and the NCAA make money off of their athletes. With the NCAA bringing in over $1 Billion dollars a year based off of their sports, shows that people are buying tickets at a large rate to go see athletes play. Ticket sales are a major factor in revenue. People do not go to games to watch the million dollar coaches, the referees or the announcers. They watch the players perform. People will turn into a game on TV to watch the athletes play and the rating show that. This is rare because there are few corporations that make this much money off of their "Employees" and do not compensate them.

4. UF: Being at a major University like Florida, it gives me a platform that those at smaller schools do not have. I can bring together student athletes and form leadership groups to push this idea the the AD and those who work with the Athletic Administration. They can provide me with insight from the other side and why the NCAA is hesitant to solve this issue now. This is non substitute because there is a small amount of universities that bring in as much money as UF with our fan base.

5. Networking: I honestly believe that this issue will be solved when more people get involved and continue to fight for the justice of the student athletes. I know many student athletes, current and past that have the same opinion as me on this issue. With being in the position I am in, I have the chance to meet a lot of people in the community, and  get people on board with me. I believe my networking ability with people who have been in my position is rare because we have gone through the same struggles and want to help the people in the future.

6. Media Exposure: This debate has been one of the most prominent issues among the media. From National media outlets like ESPN, and Fox Sports to local outlets like Gator Country and others have chimed in on this debate. The media helps push forward ideas when they are important. This is a major issue in college sports and I think that with the media already exposing this, it is rare and non-substitutable in the fact that we do not have to start from the bottom, but can continue to get more people involved.

7. Financial Backing: This venture will have to be brought forth to the NCAA and people involved with Lawyers and it will cost a lot to ultimately get it resolved. I believe that with the national coverage it has and will continue to get, people with money to help out, will back us as we push this forward. If everyone who shares the same ideas gets together to help fund this movement, It will continue to gain ground. Money drives everything and with the NCAA bringing in the type of money they do, it will certainly be hard to fight against the big dogs in the industry but can be done if many generous people continue to back and fund this.

8. Wide variety of local businesses: The back bone of my idea is that the athletes should be allowed to market themselves and make money off of their likeness. I think this would be the best way as hourly ages and baseline compensation would be hard to spread out. College towns and major cities would absolutely want to be able to use local college athletes to market their brand and products. Here in Gainesville, there are a lot of local places that would make money for their company if they could use a Gator Athlete as an endorser. The companies would most like be willing to get involved and work out a way for it to be controlled in order to keep it legal. This would also save the companies and athletes from getting in trouble for receiving free stuff from them under the table.

9. Wide Market: This idea is not just to make people in Gainesville be impacted by it, but the goal of this is to be Nationwide. I think that it is a rare item that can be of impact to those effected at one time rather than specializing in a market locally then trying to move region to region. Working with advisers across the country and other athletes involved at many different schools, would help widen the market and get this issue fixed at one time. This is a rare element to my idea, it will be something that we will not have to work hard on advertising because it is one that is on the mind of many already.

10.Partners working together: One of the best things for a company and people pushing an idea is that they are all working for the same goal. In this case, There will not be people focused on the daily sales of a product, but would all be focused on working with the NCAA and the athletes to make sure that they are being taken care of legally and within the guidelines set. Everyone would be working with the two sides to ensure that everything is squared away. There is no equity in this company but rather the joy and pride of getting justice for the athletes that have made a lot of money for the NCAA and their respective schools. The local companies would want to be working in unison with us so that they can continue to use the athletes and not halt the progress that will be made with this issue.



I think the Top resource is the Media Exposure. Getting the media involved and talking about this issue makes it more of a household debate and gets people interested in this. When we can bring forth our idea to the top of the media industry and possible get the legal system involved, we will be able to have a strong case in our favor. The media will help us if they keep pushing it. With as many people involved as possible, we can finally get things straight and start working with the athletes.