Lessons Learned

As of writing this article, REACH has been in business for almost 2 months. Still, despite this short time, so much has happened: accounting systems have been established, workflows have been made, a new website has been launched, and the firm participated in its first regional tradeshow on November 19. To say that these months have been busy would be an understatement. Nevertheless, from the struggle, lessons have been learned.

1 – Take Initiative

Unlike other classes, VEI-based classes expect you and your peers to run a virtual firm; this means little to no help from the teacher. With such a free environment, each person in the firm has no choice but to take initiative and accomplish tasks for the firm. Thus, while in class, take time to reflect on tasks’ objectives, ask others if they need help when you’re not busy, or even see if you can get a head start on future tasks. Although these suggestions will increase your present workload, your future-self will thank you later.

2 – Admit Your Own Mistakes

No one is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. However, what sets people apart from each other is their ability to admit when they have made a mistake. During my time at REACH, I have made my own fair share of mistakes, and although they make me cringe, it would be wrong to hide them. Mistakes should be seen as waypoints, guiding a person down a road that will help guy them into becoming a better person.

3 – Learn Some New Skills

Although this is going to sound generic, making learning a part of your life inside and outside school is surprisingly useful. By learning some HTML & CSS during the summer, for instance, I now have a deeper understanding of how a website is structured, which was extremely useful when aiding the website's creation. Did I expect that to happen? No, all I did was learn about topics that interest me. Do I expect everyone to learn some coding? No, all I want is for people to find a topic that intrigues and study it. You will be surprised about what connections you may bring up between the topic and life.

Conclusions

Overall, taking a VEI class is different from other classes. Any structure will have to be built from the ground up, and you must feel comfortable with ambiguity. Still, as long as every participant has each other’s back, you have nothing to fear.