16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?
1) Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique. What is it about you, exactly, that makes you different? Write this up in a detailed list.
1) Honesty is truly an aspiration of mine. I detest dishonesty and therefore strive to be truthful, especially when it hurts.
2) I try to aslways provide straightforward answers. I think beating around the bush is often a waste of time. I do try to be considerate of others' feelings yet I make it a point to be truthful when I am questioned or asked for advice.
3) I consider myself a dilligent worker. I truly enjoy working hard, especially with my hands.
4) I'm fairly outgoing. I jump at opportunites to try new and exciting things. I love people and investing in them; I often use activities to build better relationships and bonds.
5) I like to be the best. I'm a very competetive person. Maybe that's why I enjoy working alone; what better competetor do I have than in myself? I'm my worst critic and my strongest encourager.
I am an incredibly driven and always looking for new opportunities. I grew under a family farm and contracting service company. My parents work nearly non-stop; they have since before I was born. This fostered a level of drive I'm not sure I would have developed otherwise. This comes in handy both in work and in school. When the schedule gets overloaded back home on the ranch, that just means it's time to buckle down and get busy. Unfortunately, this "grab it and growl" mentality doesn't perfectly mesh into my study habits because homework is much less tangible. However, the grittiness carries through in how hard I'm willing to work to get things done.
2) I try to aslways provide straightforward answers. I think beating around the bush is often a waste of time. I do try to be considerate of others' feelings yet I make it a point to be truthful when I am questioned or asked for advice.
3) I consider myself a dilligent worker. I truly enjoy working hard, especially with my hands.
4) I'm fairly outgoing. I jump at opportunites to try new and exciting things. I love people and investing in them; I often use activities to build better relationships and bonds.
5) I like to be the best. I'm a very competetive person. Maybe that's why I enjoy working alone; what better competetor do I have than in myself? I'm my worst critic and my strongest encourager.
I am an incredibly driven and always looking for new opportunities. I grew under a family farm and contracting service company. My parents work nearly non-stop; they have since before I was born. This fostered a level of drive I'm not sure I would have developed otherwise. This comes in handy both in work and in school. When the schedule gets overloaded back home on the ranch, that just means it's time to buckle down and get busy. Unfortunately, this "grab it and growl" mentality doesn't perfectly mesh into my study habits because homework is much less tangible. However, the grittiness carries through in how hard I'm willing to work to get things done.
2) Interview the five people who know you the best. Ask them what they think makes you different -- remember, focus on your knowledge, skills, abilities, emotions -- in other words, your human capital. Try to stay away from discussing your other types of capital (such as who you know). Record each interview. In your post, please post each interview, as well as a two-three sentence summary of each interview, explaining what your key takeaways are. There is no time limit on these recordings. As long as you cover the information asked for above, that's all you need to do.
Audrey is a lifelong friend of mine. She gave such a heartfelt and sweet response. It's truly humbling and I don't think I deserve such credit towards being talented. We have worked together on several occasions and she is also incredibly hard-working. This aspect of our friendship provides greater context to her response.
https://youtu.be/qh7DVO9IMZw
This is from my good friend Nathan V. He's a heck of a character and I appreciate his compliment on my love for people. I often get try to help people out any way I can and I love serving people. It was great to hear Nathan recognize those characteristics.
This one is from my good friend Antoine H. We've known each other for about 3 years and his response was very flattering. He and I appreciate straightforward responses so I'm not surprised that was one of his highlights about my personality.
https://youtu.be/VfQ7iWYI3Hc
This one is from my good friend, Phil B. I have worked alongside and volunteered with Phile on many occasions. I am extremely pleased that he believes I am a diligent worker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dMkUVxc8U
--This one is from my good friend, Hunter P. It's so honoring to have a friend view me in such high esteem. He gave several compliments to my intelligence. I feel they are overstated but I'm grateful nonetheless.
3) Reflect on the differences. How do you see yourself, and how do others see you? Are there differences in how you assess yourself compared to others? What do you think causes these differences? Do you think your interviewees are correct about you? Finally, going back to your list from part 1, would you make any corrections to the list? How?
It was extremely humbling to hear close friends describe me so fondly. I think I emphasize my work ethic more than others due because that is one of the most important properties I seek to embody. I think all five of my friends focused on my love for people and honing specific skills. I am an extroverted introvert, which really meshes all of that together. I don't know that I would revise the list because I made my list unpolluted from the thoughts of others and would thus like to maintain its intellectual lack of bias. I think it's more beneficial to look at both lists separately and then evaluate where shortcomings may lie. In short, I emphasized things about myself that I recognize while others emphasized similar but different aspects of my personality and temperament. I'm in my head all day and my friends only see what I show them. Conviction comes from within but character itself is how others perceive us. I do not think there is anything wrong with either list; therefore, I think both should be evaluated separately so as not to bias one with the other.
I had a very similar experience as you during this assignment with listening to what those around me had to say. What I thought about myself was very similar to what others thought about me as well, which was very comforting to hear. I think it is also interesting to take what everyone says about you and applying it to the way we run businesses and implement our products to make them stand out. Overall great work!
ReplyDeleteHi, after reading your post, I found that the people you interviewed are all the people who know you very well, I think the comments they had for you will be accurate and distinctive. reviewing my own post, I found that I have interviewed some friends who are not that familiar with me nowdays, which would have some bias in the comments. As a result, there would be some difference between what I thought about myself and what they thought about me.
ReplyDeleteHey Jerrett!
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean when you said it was humbling to listening to what other people say; most of the time we are so focused on what we cannot do and with the work that we have to do that we sometimes need to stop and appreciate ourselves. I also like how you mentioned that each list is separate and should require separate evaluations; that was a big eye opener because I wasn't able to think of it that way.
It is nice to see how well people speak of you! I like your opinion in not meshing both lists instead look at it as a compare and contrast to see where your shortcomings are. I enjoyed this assignment because it is a great way to evaluate what you need to fix in yourself. I also liked how nicely you described everyone you interviewed.
ReplyDeleteHi Jerrett, I loved how spoke on your upbringing and your family as reasoning for how you are unique. I think how we are raised and how our parents are has significant influence how we are as people and our entrepreneurial decisions. I enjoyed listening to the recordings. Everyone had nothing but great things to say about you. I also loved how you only used friends instead of family. I feel sometimes family tells us what we want to hear but friends tell us what we need to hear.
ReplyDelete