Entrepreneurial Journal Entry - My Last Lecture

Entrepreneurial Journey

My Last Lecture

            In this last post to my blog I've been asked to give advice, direction and/or caution to anyone considering journeying into the world of entrepreneurship. Although I've learned so much this semester, I still feel inadequate to write such a paper. But hopefully the things I include in this paper will be of help to someone who is considering becoming an entrepreneur.

            My first bit of advice to anyone that is considering becoming an entrepreneur is that you must choose to do something you love! You must love what you do and have an intense passion for the dreams you are putting into play. Find out what gets you leaping out of bed in the morning and focus on that as the starting point for your decision about becoming an entrepreneur.

            “The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.” – Brian Tracy

            Decide now that the business you create will fall within the two purposes of business taught by Elder Gay.

1.      To provide for our needs.

2.      To help others.

As we build our businesses with a great desire and a strong purpose, we need to also make sure our focus is on what is really important. If we have our focus on our Heavenly Father and His will for us, we will succeed in not only providing for ourselves, but in providing opportunities for others. One of the first questions you can ask yourself as you start making decisions about your business is: “How can this business benefit others?” As our focus continues to be on the will of our Father, we will not only succeed in our needs, but we will succeed in blessing the lives of others as He would have us do. Maximizing profits should never be our primary focus.

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow-men, and along those fibres, as sympathetic friends, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” – Herman Melville.

As you start your business brace yourself for trials and setbacks. They will come, so expect them. Prepare for them. In the book, “The Dip” by Seth Godin, we are taught about the difficult times ahead. We are also taught to decide before you start your business venture whether or not you have the ability to work through the tough times. If you don’t have the ability to survive then quit now, before you start.

Seven reason you might not succeed through the “dip” or tough times:

1.      You run out of time (and quit).

2.      You run out of money (and quit).

3.      You get scared (and quit).

4.      You’re not serious about it (and quit).

5.      You lose interest or enthusiasm (and quit).

6.      You focus on the short term instead of the long (and quit when the short term gets too hard.)

So when you choose a business to start, do so with the full understanding that there is a dip, and that you believe you have the ability to get through it.

With so many pros and cons for being an entrepreneur, I definitely believe the pros far outweigh the cons – especially if you seriously love what you do! Good luck in your venture!

Entrepreneurial Journal Entry - Week 12

I really enjoyed this week’s article by President Monson – “An Attitude of Gratitude”. I thought it was the perfect article for this time of year when we are focusing on the Savior and we can’t help but be grateful. President Monson highlighted different areas in which we can focus our gratitude. Each one seems so obvious, but I fear we often forget to be grateful as our days fill up with responsibilities and our time ends up spent on things other than reflection.

He started his talk by reviewing the incident with the ten lepers. This story always makes me so sad. Such an enormous and instantaneous blessing and yet only one expressed appreciation. It makes me want to evaluate my life and make sure I’m not doing the same thing with the blessings I’ve received.

He then goes on to highlight the following areas that we can focus our gratitude on:

1.      Mothers

2.      Fathers

3.      Teachers

4.      Friends

5.      Our Country

6.      Our Savior – The Lord Jesus Christ

It’s easy to find things to be thankful for in each of these areas, but do we remember to be thankful? Do we make a conscientious effort to recognize and show our appreciation for the blessing in our lives? I think that what I appreciated most about his article. The reminder to do just that.

Entrepreneurial Journal Entry - Week 11

It’s been a crazy week. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to work on school until tonight. So I’ve just been doused in a major amount of incredible information. Most of which I’m still very emotional about. I don’t know what part of this week’s material is best to highlight. It has all been very humbling and inspiring.

We had a great talk given by Muhammad Yunus – Microlending: Toward a Poverty-Free World. I remember reading about him many years ago. I was just as fascinated by his work then as I was tonight. His insight and faith in the ability for us to become a world without poverty is so inspiring. I am amazed the ability for some people to be able to see the big picture and the ability to accomplish it. His work reminded me of President Hinkley’s ability to also see the world free from poverty. It isn’t an undertaking that is possible overnight, but he was able to see steps that can lead to the fulfillment of such a world with the implementation of the Perpetual Education Fund.

We moved from this inspiring article to an incredible talk given by Elder Gay – Entrepreneurship and Consecration. I think it’s safe to say that this is actually a life-changing talk. I talks about no matter how successful we are and what wonderful things we do with our money, if our focus isn’t on what the Lord would have us do, we will not be where the Lord intended us to be. Nor will we be considered successful in an eternal perspective. Our aim must always be to do His will in our temporal and spiritual activities. He shared a great quote that his father had on his wall as he worked as an extremely successful CEO for Howard Hughes:

In the days of service all things are founded.

In the days of special privilege all things are deteriorated.

In the days of vanity all things are destroyed.

He taught that Business has a two-fold purpose:

1.      To provide for our basic needs.

2.      To rescue others as directed by the Lord.

He also shared with us President Monson’s desire for the leaders of the church: He wants them to make their singular priority to awaken in the members of the church the need to rescue. Elder Gay then emphasizes that as we engage in business we need to do so with the intent to help others.

.

After this we were given to small videos to watch each of which talked about the importance of our focusing on the intent to help others; to make a difference in the world.

Our material ended with an incredible talk by President Monson – Constant Truths for Changing Times. This talk highlighted many important needs for us to implement in our lives. Some of the needs were: The importance of Family Home Evening and the need to teach our children. To raise them to improve the future of our world. He taught about the need to stay out of debt, live within our means, to not be complacent, to not judge others, to listen and communicate with our children, treat our spouses with respect, be a good example to our kids, learn of our heritage. He also said something I’d like to quote:

Remember that ofttimes the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to men, but the greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right.

What an incredible week of uplifting and humbling material to learn from.

Entrepreneurial Journal Entry - Week 10

This week was full of great readings and videos. Two great articles that I'd like to refer to are "Formula For Success" by President Monson - 1996; "Attitude on Money" by Stephen Gibson.

Stephen Gibson talks about the positive side of money:

   1.  Money is not evil. (How it is used may be, but money itself is not.)
   2.  Money has great power to do good.
   3.  Money reveals the kind of person we are.
   4.  Money makes good men better.

He goes on to explain how we need to seek for wealth with righteous intent and for righteous purposes. He gave great examples of people that use their wealth to do good.  Jon Huntsman from Utah has given over $100 Million dollars to fight cancer. The good samaritan gave freely of his wealth to meet the needs of a total stranger. Brother Gibson and his wife have given of their wealth to build a school for return missionaries in the Philippines.

Presiden Monson talks about three things we need to fill our lives with:

   1.  Fill your mind with truth.
   2.  Fill your life with service.
   3.  Fill your heart with love.

Truth: He suggests that when we search for truth we search among those books and in those places where truth is most likely to be found. "You do not find truth by groveling through error. You find truth by searching the holy word of God."

Service: Remember that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Love: I like how he talked about love. He gave a great example of Abraham Lincoln:

When I think of love, I think of Abraham Lincoln, one of the outstanding presidents of the United States. He was also one of the nation’s greatest writers and orators. I have seldom read words that better characterize the love that a man can have for others than the love he described as he penned a letter to a mother who had lost all her sons in the Civil War. It is known as the Lydia Bixby Letter. Note carefully the words of Abraham Lincoln and see if you don’t feel within your heart the love that filled his:

Dear Madam:

I have just been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming, but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln

Entrepreneurial Journal Entry – Week 9

Each week we are giving so many great things to read and watch. We are then given the opportunity to write about what stood out to us the most. Even though I learn so many from all the weekly material I notice it’s usually the church articles that stand out to me the most.

This week’s article was incredible as usual. It was a talk given by Elder Oaks in 2000 – “The Challenge To Become”. I learned so much from this article that I ended up sharing quite a bit of it to my husband. Elder Oaks starts out by teaching a little bit about Simon Peter. Who he was, the experiences he had, the things he had taught, and the position he held in the leadership of the church, etc. It was interesting to hear after all these incredible things he had done and been through, even with the incredible testimony he had and his willingness to share it, Peter was still asked to do and be more. The Savior told Peter he needed to be converted.

So what is the difference between having a testimony and being converted? Elder Oaks teaches that to testify is to know and to declare. But to be converted requires us to do and to become. Oftentimes our journey to conversion requires us to endure trials and adversity. Some of us will even endure what the scriptures call “the furnace of affliction.” Through these difficult experiences of refinement and sanctification our Heavenly Father is able to help us to reach our potential and become who we are meant to be. It is at this state of being that we not only do what is right, but we do it for the right reasons – for the pure love of Christ. People who are progressing toward the process of conversion are beginning to see things as our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, see them. They are hearing His voice instead of the voice of the world, and they are doing things in His way instead of by the ways of the world.