Assignment 13A – Reading Reflection No. 1


Assignment 13A – Reading Reflection No. 1
I read “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough and here are my thoughts:
●       What surprised you the most?  I think the thing that surprised me the most is how dismissive the united states were about their ideas. The U.S. government never even responded to them about selling their airplane to them and the media was very dismissive of their ideas. They Had to go to Europe to find people to invest in their ideas.
●       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?  I admired that as entrepreneurs that they never gave up on their ideas. I feel like if I was in a similar situation, I would have given up so easily in the face of adversity and the people in your own country not believing in you. Eventually they found success because they went to France and found people that believed in their vision.
●       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?  The thing I least admired about the entrepreneur were some of the legal battles they had. The wright brothers were known for having legal battles against other aviators of their time and accusing them of intellectual property theft.  Their efforts were not successful in these regards and they came off as kind of petty to me.
●       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? They did encounter adversity and failure since it took them a long time to make an airplane that worked properly and that lasted more than a few minutes in the air. Also, as I mentioned before, the united states did not believe in them when they were first starting out and would even say that man was not meant to be in the air. As a result of the adversity they found a supportive community of people in France who were also trying to pioneer air travel. Since they were able to deal with adversity, they ended up being successful and the united states ended up coming around to their idea of air travel.
●       What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?  One of the competencies that they exhibited was creativity. Wilbur was particularly creative, since he had a horrible accident and was bed ridden for a long period of time, he was able to imaginative about the idea of aviation. Him and his brother were able to see that there was a need for flying machines, but so far no one had been successful in making one.  Wilbur’s fascination with birds led him to apply the things he knew about birds to the airplane they were working on.
●       Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you I don’t think there was any part of the reading that was particularly confusing to me, but I didn’t understand why the United states was so dismissive of the wright brothers’ ideas. The people of France were very receptive to the wright brothers’ ideas and they ended up giving them so much money for their work in aviation and the united states only tried to get in on the action after their success.
●       If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? I would ask them if there were ever moments where they almost gave up entirely on their life’s work because I think it would be comforting to know that successful entrepreneurs like the wright brothers had the same doubts that up and coming entrepreneurs have had. I would also ask them how they motivated themselves again after they had their doubts about an opportunity because it would be valuable to know hot to keep yourself motivated.
●       For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work?  I think that their idea of hard work was to keep going at something until they are successful and to never give up. I share that opinion because even though not all business opportunities will be successful I think you have to maintain that mindset or you are setting yourself up for failure.

Comments

  1. Tory CohenMarch 4, 2020 at 12:50 PM

    Hi JC! I have learned about the Wright Brothers in the past, but it was really interesting to read your review for this assignment. I did not realize they encountered so many legal battles, but I was impressed with how dedicated they were. They never gave up and stuck to they believed in. You did a great job with this assignment as I was able to extend my learning too! Great job!

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  2. Mickel FadelMarch 7, 2020 at 3:44 PM

    Hi JC!

    It was pleasing to hear your take on the overall mindset because if an individual is not going to invest their all, they will never make the money that they are dreaming about. It is so easy to know what we want, but it is hard to get what we want and essentially it takes a motivated individual to complete the job or the next motivated individual is going to seize the opportunity and get ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sidney TebbalMarch 9, 2020 at 8:08 AM

    Hey JC,
    I liked your analysis on the Wright Brothers book. I did not know that the Wright Brothers had to go to Europe to find investors for their inventions. It shows the adversity they faced when trying to create something new and how they never gave up. I would also like to know how the Wright Brothers stayed motivated. They faced so many problems and failures trying to create the plane, did they ever stop and think about giving up? What kept them going everyday?

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