Week 14- Last Lecture

Find Your Calling, Your Niche, Your People, and a Grateful Heart!

Becoming an entrepreneur for the sake of becoming an entrepreneur is a path that many take, but I believe the more worthwhile path is becoming an entrepreneur because you simply must! You MUST do this because it’s your passion, it’s your calling, it’s your drive, it’s something that doesn’t exist and you must make it so! In order to devote so much of your time and energy to a new business you have to have a huge amount of excitement for it. Therefore it cannot be a business you are starting just for the sake of starting. You must believe in it.
      The best question I answered for myself from this class was “What do you love doing so much that you lose yourself in it?” It was from a wonderful book called Hero’s Journey; but the question really got me thinking. What do I love doing so much that I wouldn’t mind doing it for my whole life? That I would have the kind of desire necessary to start a business doing? And along that line, what do I want to be remembered for doing? You must ask yourself this question and then ask yourself how to make a career out of that.
     I also believe that a fair amount of successful entrepreneurs are successful simply because they found a niche that needed filling. Find your niche! Look at what you love doing and how readily available that is in the market. Find a place to plant your flag and set yourself apart from the competition! Look at it from different angles and find a way to bring your passion and skill set to new customers.
     Find the right people. Also from the book Hero’s Journey, I learned that the most important thing you can have on your journey is good people walking with you. You need the RIGHT people, not the available people. You need people with skill sets that you lack and that can help to push you in ways you can’t push yourself.
     And lastly, find a grateful heart. Gratitude is a skill that’s too often overlooked. In your quest to start a successful company, there will be heartache, there will be loss, and there will be pain. But if you choose to look at life and circumstance through the eyes of gratitude you will find that you have had much success and have the ability to carry on further. You can pick your head up and move forward knowing you have accomplished much.
     If you have those four things, you will be successful! You will find joy in your journey!

Week 13- Should I?

The overlapping circle chart on The Role of Entrepreneurship from the Harvard handout titled "Identifying and Exploiting the Right Entrepreneurial Opportunity… for You" was incredibly helpful to me. I think that should basically be tattooed on the forearms of any “Serial Entrepreneurs”. What an awesome chart to help you see if what you want is within reason.

     And it made me think about the case study this week and how Randy Haykin found something that was a perfect middle area. He found a niche in a market he knew a lot about, a service that wasn’t being offered, his talents worked well there and he enjoyed it, and it was economically feasible because of his severance package.
     Throughout this class as I have tried to apply what we are learning to my own small entrepreneurial idea, I have learned a lot. But that chart was helpful to see that it is a good place for me to apply my time and talents.

     I also really liked the stuff that Stan Christensen said in his video about not being too stressed about finding the perfect first job or defining yourself in the perfect career. I have long thought that those things evolve overtime organically and that people put way too much emphasis on it.

     And as I’ve mentioned many times before, I love all things gratitude so I loved reading President Monson’s talk again. That is one of my favorite talks and it keeps me grounded in the importance of gratitude.

Week 12- Giving Back

Gratitude
I loved the chapter on “Coming Home” and the emphasis they put on gratitude. They also talked about gratitude on in the first chapter and how it can help you on a long journey. I’ve talked before about gratitude and how it is important to me, but I always love reading about it.

Entrepreneurship and Consecration
My favorite parts of this were easily the part near the beginning when he said: “ Life and financial means have changed dramatically for my wife and me since that time, but I do not remember being any less happy in those day of extremely limited means that our current days of much greater abundance. One of the most powerful lesson’s I’ve ever learned about money is that beyond making ends meet, whether you have low or much of the world’s good will never be a fundamental determining factor of personal peace and happiness. But rather it is your attitude towards wealth that will be critical.
     I loved that because I truly believe that money doesn’t make you happy and this was a beautifully phrased life lesson that affirms that.

I also loved his story of the Chateaubriand Principle that his father called “The grand secret of success in business.”
     In Europe in the late 1700’s early 1800’s, Françpois-René de Chateaubriand’s students asked him to summarize history in one sentence, he said: In the days of service all things are founded; In the days of special privilege all things deteriorate; In the days of vanity they are destroyed.
     What an incredible lesson that more business people should regard as the grand secret!


What’s A Business For?
1 – I loved the analogy of the fine China and then once it’s broken it’s never the same as an example of trust in companies. It’s true that as customers, once burned, we find it hard to go back to a certain business. Rules and laws depend on trust and truth. If people aren’t’ willing to play by the rules and follow them, then the mutual respect dies down and we can never be successful.

2 – The purpose of a business in other words is not to make profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that he business can do something more or better.

3 – I loved hen he said, “We should as charitable organizations do, measure success in terms of outcomes for others as well as for ourselves.” I think that would be such a powerful way to help other’s using business. Instead of just looking at the bottom line, look at the people you’ve helped.
     And I liked the examples provided about serving the poor and those who were neglected customers. These not only served those not being served, but also led to profitability in some cases. How can I help those we aren’t helping? Is a powerful question that all businesses should ask.

Week 11- Money & Family

Money
1 - My attitude towards money can be best summed up by Mark Cuban when he was asked what advice he had for the potential power ball lottery winner last year, ““If you weren't happy yesterday, you won't be happy tomorrow. It's money. It's not happiness. If you were happy yesterday, you are going to be a lot happier tomorrow. It's money. Life gets easier when you don't have to worry about the bills.” I love that so much and I completely agree! Having money is great, but it is not what makes you happy. Happiness comes from within you and other choices/decisions in your life, not from money.

2 – My view on money will undoubtedly affect the way I live. Money is not the most important thing to me, therefore I place some emphasis on it, but not all of my time and efforts go there. I believe there are more important things and I will live for those things.
3 – The rules recommended for prospering are interesting to me because they are continually putting the Lord first. The emphasis there is to think of God first and then others, before thinking of yourself. I also like how it says to “think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant”. I believe it is a cultural problem that people often put no effort into their finances and just kind of float along. They are never trying to get ahead or improve their situation and that is dangerous.

Family
The videos and readings this week had me thinking a lot about my family. Currently, in my family life, I am the main driver of the home front and my husband is the main driver of the work and money-earning portion. We are a great team and generally are able to get things done.
     But I often feel torn between my little business and my family responsibilities and these case studies and responding to classmates on the discussion board had me thinking a lot more about how to manage all those things. I have learned throughout the class that outside help is often required to make all the ends meet. And I have seen that in use time and again. It has been a helpful perspective and lesson for me as this is something I struggle with.
     Right now, I have the luxury of putting my family first, no matter what. But if my business were to ever grow or my husband and I’s roles needed to change, because my children/family are my first priority I would make sure that I had all the bases covered for their care and support.

Week 10- Finding Joy

I was really interested in the Google 20% thing from this week’s videos. That is something I feel like I could implement in my life as a mother so as to be more productive over all the other jobs I have. I think when someone spends sometime each day or week doing something that they love, they are happier, more fulfilled and better equipped to do the things they need to. I am going to make sure that I put forth some time and effort each week to do a hobby of mine!
     I also really liked the part in Taylor’s boats when he talked about how it takes no more effort to be great than it does to be good. I can totally see that in my own life!
     And lastly I loved the readings this week from Hero’s Journey talking about different companions we have with us. I realized that a lot of my closet confidants are my opposite in many ways and just how much I receive from them because their strengths are my weaknesses. They have helped me more times than I can count and I have learned so much from them. I also liked that it specifically talks about how your spouse is your most important companion because I feel that way so much in all aspects of my life!

Week 9- Gratitude & Ethics

I already talked about this once back in Week 2, but “The Man in the Arena” is a huge inspiration to me, as in is the book “Daring Greatly” by Brene Brown. She inspires me in more ways than I can count, and so did the readings from “Hero’s Journey” this week.
     I loved the question at the end of Chapter 1 about “How does gratitude help on a long journey?” For me gratitude is absolutely essential in my life. It helps me to stay present, focused and helps me keep my anxiety in check. I actively practice gratitude every single day and it has made all the difference for me. Gratitude can help you see how far you’ve come and even when you are discouraged and have a long way yet to go, gratitude can make the path easier. Gratitude is my JAM!

     I also loved the question at the end of Chapter 2, which was “What do you love doing so much that you lose yourself in it? “ This also helped me to refocus on my “dream big”/entrepreneurial goal.

     And because I did my entrepreneurial interview this week, I was greatly inspired by that and her stories and ideas. I feel empowered to chase after my dreams. And she taught a lot about ethics within her business and that was really interesting. I learned a lot there and I plan to write about that in my paper.

Week 8- Getting Tough

Because I do not consider myself an entrepreneur quite yet, I had fun applying the lessons from this week to my regular life. We all experience tough times and this had some wonderful ideas on how to keep going. But thinking about just business…

     I got a lot out of our readings from the book “A Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey”. I loved the idea at the end of Chapter 6 about memorizing something that brings you joy to recite during tough times in the future. That is something that I feel could be useful in all aspects of life.
      And in Chapter 5 the question at the end about asking 10 people if they would quit working if they won the lottery really got me thinking about that. I think I would still want to work a little, especially if I had grown a company from nothing. But I also would really enjoy spending all the time I wanted with my husband and kids and traveling to fun places. That is a really interesting thought.  
     But by far my favorite thing I read this week was in Chapter 8. He talked about making a promise not to invest the profits from his first successful business sell for a year. This was like a revelation to me. I am a big budgeter and I love the idea of if you did come into a large sum of money (in your personal life) to sit on it for a year. I can’t even imagine how much money you would save on ridiculous and unnecessary things. I was so excited when I read it, that I told my husband immediately. That is our plan now if we ever do come into a large sum of money. Anyway, that was by far my favorite idea from this week!