Week 4 Reading Reflection

Here is my reading reflection on Chapter 5 of the textbook:

1.  What stood out most to me during the reading was the one section that discussed entrepreneurship in Africa.  Due to all the turmoil in Africa, I assumed that no businesses would even consider doing business there.  Even though the reading mentioned how very few companies to venture there, the success of ECP and the return on their investment shocked me.  Everyone just assumes there is no opportunity, which ends up leaving the door wide open to those who want to expand there.

2. The difference between Duplication and Synthesis is slightly vague to me, but not completely confusing.  Duplication says it is replicating and existing product but making sure to add new touches to it to make it different; synthesis says it takes existing concepts to formulate something new.  They are slightly similar so its a little confusing.

3. Two questions: How would you go about handling idea killers, so as to not derail you? what would you recommend doing to change the way you think (to be more unaffected by those comments)? Sometimes idea killers can be co-workers, and you can just ignore them, but if the idea killers are close people to you, you tend to be more affected and let yourself be influenced by their comments.  If you can learn to manage your mentality and emotions, maybe it would be easier to be creative.

4. I did not notice anything that I disagreed with the author this time around. It just seems that the steps to get rid of muddling mind sets, such as stereotyping, seem to be made to look easy.  As humans we develop our own opinions around our teens and 20s, and as we get older it becomes even more difficult to change a person's mentality.  So I feel that the author makes it look easier than it really is, especially if you are someone much older.