MIST 5720: Speakers in Review

Throughout the speakers in this class, I feel as if we’ve gotten some really good advice. So for this final blog post, I want to run through a lesson to take away from some of my favorite speakers. While each speaker brought so much advice to the table I’ll be looking for the one thing that spoke most to me during their talk.
Dennis Crawley
Dennis was a great speaker to start off with. To me, he brought such a good creative outlook on entrepreneurship. He was such a creative brain. My favorite idea he shared with us was that he looked at the idea or problem first and then built the business. This was a super fresh mindset and helped me look at entrepreneurship differently.
Jere Doyle
I really loved Jere’s five P’s. My favorite and his most important P was passion. He looks for passion before anything else and I think there is a lesson of if you follow what you’re passionate about it is easier to be successful. I will definitely use this in my career and try to drive toward my passions.
Caroline Costa and Becca Shaw
My favorite idea they talked about and seems to be something lots of our speakers were big on is the willingness to ask questions. Caroline told us not to be scared to ask questions. This to me speaks to the curiosity and learning mindset you want to have in order to be constantly in a growth stage. I loved this advice and it really pertained to this class too.
Bill Curen
Bill said a lot of valuable lessons, including the importance of having a growth mindset. My favorite though was his dialogue about the quote, “Good is the enemy of Great”. He told us to strive for greatness and that is the key to having a growth mindset.
BJ Shaknowski
BJ really harped on the importance of lateral movement in the grand scheme of his career. He credited his lateral jumps as huge stepping stones toward his vertical jumps. This is usually not how we think but it was an interesting piece of advice for us starting our careers.
Jaqui Canney
Her quote that stuck with me was, “You gotta be famous for something. What do you want that to be?” This was something that stuck with me because you should do the things you want to be known for and try to align yourself with companies that allow you to do that
Mark Mahoney
Mark mentioned turning down a 100,000 deal early in the lifecycle of his company. He said he lost lots of sleep over that decision but ultimately it was the right one. He turned it down because he knew what his business was. He said you need to know what you are and what you’re not. I think this makes lots of sense in the grand scheme of things, not just business.
Ivan and Ledante
Ivan explained how the people in the industry are not smarter than you. He mentioned an imposter syndrome before he was in the industry but afterward, he realized no one had their stuff together.

Overall in this class, I’ve learned a lot and understood the mindset it takes to be successful. I will attribute lots of learning from these speakers and believe we’ve all grown by hearing them. I am grateful to Professor Kane for sharing these people with us and running such a good class. I enjoyed the class discussions, Twitter, and blogs as well but wanted to highlight the speakers as my favorite part of this class.