Are Sports Relatable To The Business World?

Statement of Purpose 
Design Plan

Are Sports Relatable To The Business World?

Are Sports Relatable to the Business World?

Audience- college students/athletes

Expectations- Create a slideshow explaining and comparing how the business world is similar to the sports world

Argument- Sports can teach you many useful qualities for the business world

Audience’s Interaction- Get them to realize how hard sports can be, but how helpful they can be as well

Needs & Concerns- Getting the message across in a way the audience can understand

Image choices- Pictures with caption plus narrative

Design Plan- PowerPoint Presentation

Statement of Purpose

           

Playing a sport in college has really opened my eyes to the real world and the struggles that will come with finding a job, specifically in the field of business. Playing a sport (baseball) where seven out of ten times you will fail will show you that life isn’t always going to go as planned. You are going to have to bounce back from failure and deal with competition. I want to show people that athletics, through all the ups and downs, can really prepare you for the real world by giving you the necessary skills to start a foundation for success. My audience will consist of college athletes and anyone interested in playing sports in their lifetime. I want to explain to my audience how the structure of sports and the hard work and dedication of sports can prepare someone for the workforce one day. I want my audience to look at my pictures and captions and see how I am comparing the two things. I want to explain to them that failure in sports can teach a life long lesson to get past hard times. I want to create a slide show on PowerPoint that shows and explains how the sports are challenging, but have useful qualities such as leadership. I want my classmates and others to be able to receive and understand the message I am trying to display without my help or presence and by simply viewing my PowerPoint presentation. One thing I want to want to compare/argue is how leadership in sports prepares you for the business world. I want the audience to look at the questions I ask and try to deeply think, “Wow I never thought of that!” I want my audience to realize some of the stress that comes from sports and see things they do in a whole other way. My concern is that they won’t see it the way I do, confusing the message, so I will have to find a way to interact with my audience in a way that everyone will understand. I think I have a good argument my only goal is to make the audience see what I see.

Photo Essay (Narrative)

Are Sports Relatable To The Business World

            Sports are a business all in their own, but seeing that college sports are not truly considered a business they do bring aspects of the real world to the table. Sports in college especially can teach you so much about the real world whether it is how to deal with failure or how to listen and follow the directions of a boss. The real world can be challenging and not the easiest to adjust to, but I feel that sports can prepare you for the real world. I want to explain how playing a sport can be relatable to the real business world.

            For starters, in every aspect of business there is some sort of leader or manager, whether it is a manager, general manager, or so on. In sports, the same break down can be seen through the coaches and the captains established in the team. The manager establishes the agenda for the day as well as sets the structure of the company. The orders he gives to his employees must be followed or consequences will be suffered. The real world expects you to be ready and that means a minimum amount of training may or may not go into preparing you. That is just how college baseball is. I have played baseball my whole life and it seems as you mature in age the sport expects more from you. Once I hit college, there was no more training wheels, because the coach expects you to know your stuff and have faith in your talents. The practice schedule is given to use every day and then we split off from the groups into individual work. Just like in the business world where the manager explains the goals for the day and then the employees split to be on their own. We have had all the training we need up to this point, so I guess the best way to say it is that in college sports there is much more freedom and integrity to do what is needed to be done. We show up get our work in and get out of there.

            Next, comes the idea of leadership in the company and on the field. For this I gave the example of a co-worker helping a fellow employee with a computer issue. The idea stressed here is that anyone can help someone with a issue in the real world. Someone will always stand out to be seen as a leader because what I may not know someone else may understand and be able to help. We usually look to someone that has been in the business for a while and understands how things may work. This is the same in the world of sports, because being a freshman can be quite difficult. You have to adjust to the new drills and the new lifestyle, so it usually helps if you have a senior there to help, someone who has been in the program that can be another source of intelligence when the coaches are busy helping others. This leadership may be seen in anyone with some sort of experience of the team. The captains of the team are the ones that try to step in, because they were placed on the list of captains for a reason and that is because the coach saw positive qualities in them to do what is right and help others while they are not around.

            The sports world shows teaches us how to deal with hardship, struggle, and sometimes-even pressure. The world can throw a lot at you such as missed job opportunities or things of that nature and you just have to bounce back from whatever knocks you down. In the sport of baseball you fail more times than not, which can put a lot of tension on the mind making it harder for you to come back from injury or even error. The thing about baseball is that there is always going to be another game or another play; it can even happen right after you commit an error in the field. In baseball, you have to pick yourself back up and be ready for the next play, or one error may turn into numerous errors. You can either dwell on that missed job opportunity or you can pick yourself up shake off the dust and get back out there in the world and find the job you truly want. You are going to be fired sometimes, but coming back that is a key to your success in life. Just how injury is difficult to deal with in sports athletes have to put their fears of failure or injury behind them to get back to what they truly love doing.

            There is also the stress of success in both aspects of the argument. When dealing with the fame of being a well-known company, they must produce the things that people want and need. Creating products that are going to satisfy a large amount of people can be stressful. The same goes for the success of a sports team. When you win and become a well-known team there becomes a hypothetical target on your back to do well. All the teams are out to get you and want to beat you and being one of the starters or players on that field is sometimes hard for people to grasp. The idea that you can cause your team to lose is a lot of pressure for one person to have to deal with, especially when there are two outs with bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to win the game! The pressure that comes with the success of your team is just like the pressure that big companies have to deal with daily.

            Finally, sports can teach us about competition and success! There is always going to be someone fighting to beat you out for a position or beat you out for that promotion, but you have to be better. You have to find ways to practice and develop your skills as well as your game. If you sit around all day and expect to get better people, can and will pass you up in this world regardless of if you rightfully deserve it. You have to remember there is always someone working harder than you out there that will be more than willing to take your spot on the field or job away from you. The more that you practice whether it is taking swings on your own or finding time to develop your communication skills the better off you will be in anything that you do. The last thing that I want to say is that I have had a job in the real world and played a college sport for two years now. When it comes down to it you just have to have fun, because if you aren’t enjoying yourself in what you do than it just isn’t worth doing!

Closing Comments

I think that when I look back on my original design plan i am happy and satisfied with how the final project came out. I wanted to make the audience realize that sports are just things people do in their down time, especially in college. I think that I explained and argued what I wanted to effectively by using the captions to be almost like a yearbook caption to summarize what each picture is doing. I think that I made a lot of changes for the better to my original design plan. At first I wanted to explain how sports better prepare you for the real world, but then after thinking about it I didn't want to go down that path. I wanted to show the audience how sports can be similar to the business aspects of the world. I think that the audience was able to see what I wanted them to see whether they agree or not. in the end I am happy with how the presentation turned out and couldn't be happier with the final product! hope everyone enjoys what they read/see!

Citations

Rotkvich, Joel M. Adidas Logo. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Adidas Shoe. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Answering Questions. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Austin and Kelton. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Brandon. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Bulldog Logo. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Conference. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Deal. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Flyer Logo. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Grant at Practice. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Good Job Team. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Heavy Lifting. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. James and Kane. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. J.C Shooting. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Joel Thinking. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Joel Working Hard. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Kane Studying. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Kendall Pitching. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Kyle Kapka. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Leadership in Business. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Lewis Uniform. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Lunch Break. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Manager and the Team. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Manager Uniform. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Marshall and Josh. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Mike Play. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Mike Error. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Nike Logo. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Nike Shoe. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. No Deal. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Regional. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Running. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Sas Speaking to Team. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Speaking with Group. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Speech Practice. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Taking Order. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. The Team. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Tommy. 2014. Romeoville.

Rotkvich, Joel M. Welcome to the Team. 2014. Romeoville.

My Experience with the Photo Essay, College Writing II

My Experience with the Photo Essay, College Writing II

In my College Writing II class we are dealing with something that is a little new to me, the Photo Essay. In summary what this assignment teaches is how to argue a point using pictures, captions, and a narrative. I find this to be a very interesting assignment, but my concerns are that I am approaching this totally wrong. I think that I have the concept of what we have to do down, but I don't think I am completing it right. I like the idea of the project and my argument is, "Are Sports Relatable to the Business World?" I think that this assignment is a great way of looking at an argument in a different aspect and that is through the pictures. I know exactly how I can argue my point, but I am not too sure I am getting the point across the way I want to.

I have attacked this assignment a little differently then others. I am writing out my argument first then taking the pictures to fit the description of the captions. I want to show my audience that sports possess similar aspects of the real world such as they develop leadership, deal with failure, and even give you the sense of authority figures. Like I said I understand and grasp my concept I just don't know if what I am doing is what we have to do for this assignment.

Overall I really enjoy this class and really like this project. It isn't the typical argue this point in a five to ten page paper like every other class does, but a way of thinking outside the box. It shows us to look at an argument in a creative way by using the pictures to tell a story. I am curious how the audience will relate or even disagree with my argument. I think that the things that I want to get across to my peers will really open their eyes to see that sports teams aren't just individuals thrown together to make up a program, but we are a group of people working together to reach a common goal. I want to display this through my pictures and captions, but I am quite concerned that I think I am right on, while my audience will be totally clueless. Sports are very interesting to me and I feel that I wouldn't be the person I am today without them because of all the things I have learned about myself throughout the years.

Without the ups and downs of the sports that I have played I don't think I would be as strong willed as I am. I want to display my enthusiasm about my topic in my paper, I just have to find the best way to do that! Hopefully my audience will understand and relate to some of the things in my paper!