Hello again! I did not NOT start the day off with beans for breakfast today, thanks for asking. Today we went to the Guinness Enterprise Center (no, not affiliated with the other popular Guinness here), an incubation center for entrepreneurial startups in Ireland. While entrepreneurship is not one of my main interests in the larger business world, I found this visit incredibly insightful into that side of a business world in a foreign country. This visit allowed us to look at a company that not only has ties to small companies looking to get off the ground but also the larger culture of Ireland. Throughout the last four days, we have come to learn about this uniquely innovative culture through our multitude of site visits and walking tours. By learning the background of Irish history from our first historical walking tour, to seeing how the city has developed into a sprawling tech hub throughout our tour of the financial district, we are really able to dive head-first into how this uniquely Irish mindset has come about.

I believe there are just a few characteristics that make up this mindset that has come to be what we are experiencing now. These are creativity, the ability to be flexible and adaptive, as well as be able to receive criticism and take rejection well. These characteristics have all grown out of the trials that the Irish people have gone through throughout their tumultuous history, making them flourish in this market. Looking back on what Doctor Kelley talked about, I find myself following patterns and a strict rubric in order to complete projects and assignments. As this trip has gone on, I have gotten to take a deeper look at how my own mindset has grown, and what I can think about mold one that is more adaptable and creatable.

This trip has become a great opportunity for me to take a step back and not only look at how the entrepreneurial mindset of Ireland has come to be what it is today, but also what my own mindset is and how it could be improved. Every day we travel to a new site visit, I get a new “aha” moment, something that is either new or that I have come to discover about myself. I am looking forward to continuing our site visits to connect all we have learned from our tour guides to how it applies in a business sense today.