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A portion of Shawn's winning essay:
In high school I strived for good grades, played hard in a lot sports, and created many long lasting relationships by getting involved; however, on top of doing all of these things which today is considered the “norm” for many high school kids—I had other goals in mind. Every since I learned of the word, “Entrepreneurship”, in 7th grade I knew that was my passion. My soon to be business partner and also best friend whom I have known since kindergarten would reminisce of what type of business we would start and how successful we would become running it. However, high school was passing us by and both of us had begun to research different business ventures, but had not actually attempted to start one. Talk was cheap and talking was exactly what my partner and I had been doing all throughout high school about our grand “imaginary” business. Senior year of high school rolled around and we were nowhere close to meeting our goal of starting our very own business venture. I decided to at least broaden my knowledge and join a business club called Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). I remember going into the first club meeting not knowing what to expect. I soon came to realize that FBLA was the largest business club in America consisting of over 250,000 students across the country and that it was all about competing in various business competitions against these 250,000 other students. As soon as I heard that there was a competition for Entrepreneurship I jumped at the opportunity. By the end of high school if I was not going to be able to start my own business, I was at least going to win this competition. The first competition that my partner and I every competed in was at state which turned out to be the qualifying round for the national competition. The Entrepreneurship competition consisted of two parts. The first part was a 100 question multiple choice test that covered the basics of basically every area of business since in order to become an entrepreneur you are ultimately in charge of everything. By the grace of God we somehow made it to finals since only the top 7 scores on the multiple choice test advances. The next part of the competition was the presentation round in which we were given a case study of a certain entrepreneur and their business. We were given 20 minutes to read the case study, identity the issues the entrepreneur was facing, find alternatives with their relevant pros and cons, and ultimately pick a solution to solve the issues at hand. While doing all of this in the 20 minutes we also had to prepare a 10 minute presentation since right after reviewing the case study we would have to present our findings in front of a panel of judges and answer questions they may throw at us.
As it sounds it was very difficult and nerve racking, especially since because we were brand new to the club and knew not what to expect. I remember specifically that right after we were done with our 20 minutes prep time, my partner and I looked at each other and he said, “Ready to wing it?” I looked back at him and shook my head in agreement because I knew we had no other choice at the moment. As we walked into the judging room we noticed the panel of judges just waiting to rip our presentation apart that we were about to give. I nervously shook each of the judges’ hand just praying that they would not sense of my nervousness. My partner had the role of introducing us and the case study; however, once he began to introduce the case study he froze up! I was in shock and was hoping he would regain his thoughts and finish what he was saying; however, it was obvious that his mind had just gone blank and as his partner I had to do something. Immediately I began to speak with a loud and confident voice that immediately directed the judges’ attention from my partner to me. The judges actually began to become interested in what I was saying and it seemed that just maybe we might not be such a disaster after all. My sudden burst of confidence must have motivated my partner because then he began to chime in with words of his own that actually possessed great ideas for the case study we were speaking about. The time finally came where I wrapped up the presentation and expected to walk out of the room and let out a huge breath of relief; however, boy was I wrong. The judge sitting at the left end of the table spoke up, “No questions? You are not going to even ask us if we have any questions to ask?” I felt so stupid and then apologized and asked the judges if they had any questions. The first judge that spoke up with the first question was of course the same one that had gotten on back just a few seconds ago about not asking for questions. From then on the next 5 minutes—which seemed like an eternity—consisted of every piece of information presented in out presentation being shot down. I remember finally walking out of that room with my partner feeling like a failure. It came time for the awards ceremony and I knew we were not going to be called up for any awards. As the awards were being presented for the entrepreneurship event the top 5 out of 7 finalists were called up on the stage. I remember I began to think about every little thing I could have done or said to make that performance better when all of a sudden I was interrupted. My partner was nudging me in the side to get up since we had to get up on the award stage—we had made it in the top five! I was in awe and dumbfounded as I walked up to the stage with my partner thinking that maybe what we thought was a horrible presentation, the judges’ might have loved. I was thinking to myself the whole time that just maybe we had a chance of winning first place and my heartbeat began to beat faster and faster. As I peered out into the crowd of over 1000 Arizona high school students I heard the announcer began to announce the awards starting with fifth place. The announcer began to speak, “And in fifth place, Shawn Christian and Cordero Delgadillo from Peoria High School.” I accepted my fifth place trophy and walked off the stage. A part of me was disappointed we did not do better, but that was only a small part of me. I knew that us getting this far was a huge accomplishment in itself and it was the exact motivation and confirmation I needed to let me know that one day I would become a successful entrepreneur. A couple weeks later my high school FBLA advisor came up to me with this huge grin on her face. I asked what she was so happy about and tried to figure out why she was so giddy. As she told me the reason as to why she was so happy, I stood frozen not knowing how to react. Then I ran across campus and called my partner to meet me outside the class that he had at the time. Once we met he too noticed that same grin on my face that I had noticed on my advisor’s face and was confused as to why I was so happy. I soon shouted out, “We are going to Chicago, Illinois this summer to compete at the national FBLA Entrepreneurship competition representing Arizona!” We started yelling and going crazy with joy as everyone around us just stared.
It was unbelievable but by second default according to our multiple choice test scores from our state competition we had made it into finals. I knew it was only by the grace of God we had come this far and I was truly amazed at how my passion for business was actually being put to work. After our time of celebration we knew that we only had a month before the competition and this time, we were not going to be “winging” any presentations or winning by second default. There also was another catch; we had to be partnered with a third partner from a different high school since we needed three people to compete. It was bit odd trying to work with our third partner but after awhile we built that chemistry and felt like true team. With only about three weeks left we began training with the coach that had coached last year’s entrepreneurship team to victory at nationals. To be honest, he was brutal on us and we dreaded having to go out to his office and train with him every day. However, he did look familiar to us but none of could pinpoint where we had seen him. Just a few days before the competition we had our last meeting with our coach and he told us how much we had improved from our previous competition. I was a bit in shock as to how he had seen us at our last competition until finally it clicked. The judge at the left end of table that was getting on my back about not asking questions was in fact my coach! Amazing how small of a world we actually live in. To make a long story short my team and I traveled to Chicago, Illinois to compete. We easily made it past the multiple choice test part into the final round. The case study we received was the hardest we had ever done but the performance we gave was the best. In the end we wound up taking first place in the nation beating out over 200 other teams competing in our event. We set the record by winning with the largest margin every in the history of FBLA. This accomplishment represents the start of my future and how much potential I possess. My passion for business consumes me and my self-motivation will overcome all challenges set before me. That is the reason I have decided to pursue W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. I am currently studying towards a Bachelors degree in Business Management with a focus on Entrepreneurship. After my first year of college I am already in the process of starting two different businesses with my partner. My main business that I am currently starting is a photography company in which already I have clients lined up! The second is a smaller business just to do during college. During my first year of college in order for me to get the grades I wanted I had to take detailed and organized notes on the text material and lectures of my classes. Soon, students in my classes found out about my notes and began asking for copies of my notes. I started setting up study groups for my classes in which I would lecture the students using my notes. I would then give them a copy to study themselves. Lecturing these college students with my notes not only was a great review for them on the material but great for me also since I was studying my own notes at the same time. Many have already told me that my lectures and notes really helped them increase their grades and build more confidence in them. This next year in college I will be selling my notes and lectures to college students in my classes in hopes of building more relationships and helping these students to also succeed. This small note-taking business on the side will not have an ultimate goal of making big profits since I am not charging much except to cover my groceries every week; it is set forth to teach me valuable practical experience that I can apply to my photography company and make sure that I am obtaining the grades that meets my requirements while helping others in the process. My future goal is to graduate college and work on expanding my photography company. I then want to fulfill my ultimate business goal and start a non-profit organization to those in need across world. After college I also plan on going to Bible College because I feel I have a calling in becoming a pastor so that one day I will be able to pastor to a church of my own or wherever the Lord guides me. I have big goals but without big goals I will never be able to leave a big impact in this world. I have already achieved many things and will only strive to achieve more. Along the process I am meeting and helping a lot of people in the world just by speaking to them with my actions and not words. What contribution will I have on the business world? My goal is to make a contribution to the world through the businesses I start, both profit and non-profit. I always try to achieve success but I know that the true meaning I was put on this earth was to stay humble and serve others. Luke 14:11 states, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
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