Alexander Lau

Yesterday was a perfect example of a challenging yet rewarding experience the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship provides.  I was 30 minutes outside of Valparaiso University Thursday evening driving from Indianapolis for the career fair, when it hit me.  I was the lead recruiter for the Orr Fellowship at Valpo.  There was not an experienced HR person by my side to be a crutch.  Instead, I was given the responsibility alongside my roommate and current Orr Fellow, Max Yoder.  This is the perfect example of the types of roles and responsibilities offered to Orr Fellows as part of this program.  These are roles that place fellows in challenging situations that help them grow as young professionals. 

Another example of this is at Apparatus, a company that has grown immensely in the past 2 years.  I was given the opportunity to help create a position for internal processes by planning, implementing, and now, soon to be training a new hire for the position.  To have this sense of ownership is quite rewarding. 

The 5 points I made for joining the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship in my previous blog have all been met or exceeded.  But a characteristic I failed to foresee is the entrepreneurial aspect of the fellowship (even though it is part of the name of the program).  When I started in June, I focused on the day-to-day work, the small projects I was placed on.  3 months into the fellowship, I can honestly say that my mind has been transformed from this day-to-day mindset to more of a visionary.  By that I mean, I'm asking myself questions like, "Where is Apparatus heading?  How did it grow from a 1st stage entrepreneurial company to a 2nd stage?  And how will it handle expansion to the 3rd stage of entrepreneurial growth?" 

I am a believer that people are influenced by their surroundings.  Because of the exposure to the business leaders and entrepreneurs of Indianapolis, it is hard to maintain that day-to-day mindset without seeing what is going on as a whole.  This has been a truly rewarding experience and is the characteristic of the Orr Fellowship that has enhanced my first occupation out of college.

By the way, I am a tennis/Rafael Nadal fan.

Vamos Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship!!!