Guy Kawasaki, in his talk, mentioned that the main focus of a venture is to make meaning. This meaning can come to life in many forms as different products can work to solve niche problems but can also improve the efficiency of everyday life in different contexts. He mentions that increasing quality of life, righting a wrong, or preventing the end of something good should be at the core of every business in order for it to be successful and impactful. My project specifically is not exactly a business venture as we are developing and distributing a survey, however we still do have to implement the survey successfully with many working components are critical key players in Sierra Leone itself. At the end of our survey and data collection, our goal is to make meaning by improving the quality of life for not only Sierra Leoneans, but also the entire world through different applications of our findings. By being able to tell, in real time, where Ebola is most likely to emerge would greatly impact health and society as supplies and resources can be diverted to high risk areas, potentially saving countless lives. Some other key points that stuck out to me from his talk was to be specific and keep it simple. We are currently in the design stage of our survey, one of the most critical aspects of our project, and I think it is essential to be straightforward and pointed with survey questions. If the survey is too vague, our results may not be accurate as respondents could each perceive broad questions differently. In addition, as we will be working in rural areas with less than a 75% literacy rate so keeping questions simple is also important so that everyone also understands what is being asked of them. We hope to eliminate some of the difficulties with language barriers by conducting the survey by interview with a translator in order to collect the most accurate data. Another important point he brought up was to niche yourself and flatten the learning curve. I think for our project, doing something unique with Ebola research that hasn’t necessarily been done before makes our work invaluable and will likely elevate our ability to leverage our partners on the ground as our work would be beneficial to the Sierra Leonean health system as well. The last point that stood out was to flatten the learning curve. This is important to our group because if we decide to continue our data collection once we leave Sierra Leone, we must easily train people on the ground.
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