On April 11 and 12, 2024, the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute (AEI) at The University of Alabama hosted the 2024 annual Edward K. Aldag, Jr. Student Business Plan competition. About 60 teams put together business plans and videos, and then on the first day of the event they answered questions from judges. On the second day, a select group presented those business plans for prize money adding up to about $100,000, with additional services that increase the value of their winnings.
Some of the students are in their first year of college and this was their first competition with us, while others were on their second or third year of competing with the same ideas. Also, quite a few presentations were about truly new ideas while other teams had customers and revenue.
I walked away from these two days thinking about hope and entrepreneurship. I worked with several of the teams, and I got to know them well. It was easy to see their hopes that they could win our grand prize of $50,000. I love the enthusiasm and courage of anyone competing and being judged by people who are strangers to them.
Then on the second day and the last part of the competition, I announced the winners. And even though we do not announce the people who don’t win, you see the look on their faces, and it is very easy to feel sad for the people who worked hard and didn’t receive a prize. However, the ones who continue with their ideas despite the loss do not give up hope that their idea is still worthy of a prize, maybe not on the last day of our competition but in the future.
There is a saying that hope is not a strategy, and I agree.
However, what I see from these competitions is that hope is an attitude.
The $50,000 winner and two other teams that placed and won money in the grand prize room had competed in prior years. They worked and followed the advice of their coaches and judges. They progressed significantly from year to year, and I am confident they will continue to succeed because their hopeful attitudes are contagious. They can get others to collaborate with them, believe in them and help them. They will be able to sell their products and ideas; they can hire employees because their kind of hope is catchy. I am excited to continue to watch these students and companies grow.
I am also impressed with the students who competed multiple years, did not give up on their ideas and still did not win this year. They might not be going home with cash, but they made new contacts, and our judges agreed to follow up with them and talk about their business ideas. That gave them enough hope to not give up.
As Ed Aldag has said to our students when meeting them, “Don’t give up on your dreams.” I thank him for that advice because dreams give us hope, and if we can translate that hope into a winning attitude, then we all are better able to manage the moments when we fail.
College life is fun and tough; non-college life is also the same. We vacillate between excitement and celebration, sadness, and regret. By having a hopeful attitude and helping inspire the same in others, we can quickly come out of our tough days and work on more positive moments and days going forward.
Watch out for our student entrepreneurs and their hopeful attitudes. They are going to create a better future for all of us.
To see a list of our winning teams, go to this site. If you want to get involved, feel free to contact me at aei@ua.edu.
