Describe a challenging experience you have had. How were you tested? Tell us what you learned?

While in college, two friends and I set out to develop an e-commerce company selling environmentally conscious backpacks. From the initial concept onward our business was built to address rapidly growing consumer demand for environmentally-friendly alternatives to traditional backpacks. Over the course of six months we established Green Packs, a self-funded company entirely on our own, encountering numerous challenges along the way. Initially, as we worked to design and develop the product line with our manufacturing partners, we had no precedent to follow or template to work from. Developing the prototype challenged our creativity and innovation to create the optimal style and functionality. This was a lengthy process that required overcoming many functional challenges, including snags in the materials, bends in the zippers, and improper composition of the pack itself, all before a high quality product was finally created.

From there we set out to establish each of the different functional areas of the business, such as the website, marketing plan, logistics footprint, and accounting operations. These steps were far outside of my prior experiences or classroom learning and thus required the ability to research, analyze and apply situation-by-situation problem solving solutions to the multi-functional challenges. Lastly while developing the idea behind Green Packs was relatively easy, executing that concept required many late nights, balanced against exams, research papers and other extracurricular activities. Being an entrepreneur most heavily challenged my drive and motivation, as there were countless instances when the easier path would have been to end operations rather than push ahead to successfully establish the business.

From this process I learned a number of valuable lessons. The experience highlighted the interrelation of all functional areas of a business. As a team from strictly finance and engineering backgrounds, we struggled with our marketing efforts and effectively reaching our customers. I learned it is critical to compile teams with diverse skills and experiences who can work collaboratively to achieve the best results. I also developed a great appreciation for self-reflection and the ability to recognize your own weaknesses as both a team member and leader. Acknowledgement of your own limitations allows recognition of where weaknesses exist, builds insight into whom to seek guidance from, and creates an understanding of what questions to ask of them. Finally, building a company from scratch exposed my own passion for entrepreneurship. The pride and creativity associated with growing a young business was far and away one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life thus far. Ultimately, this defines one of the key reasons why I am pursuing my MBA, which will enable me to pursue work at a start up company in the retail sector after graduation and continue to follow my passion.