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 6- Time

I really appreciated all the suggestions and ideas for how to manage time and family. This is something that I often struggle with currently. Right now I do (technically) run my own small company and I have a hard time balancing all my responsibilities.

     Often it seems that some of the easiest things to let go would be church responsibilities… It is technically volunteer work… But I am often reminded of two things that give me great comfort and direction. The first is this quote: “When we obey the commandments of the Lord and serve His children unselfishly, the natural consequence is power from God- power to do more than we can do by ourselves. Our insights, our talents, our abilities are expanded because we receive strength and power from the Lord.” (Elder Richard G. Scott, “For Peace at Home” April 2013) And with that many personal testimonies of people I respect who have told me about putting the Lord first and church responsibilities first and then finding the time to accomplish everything else they need to do. 
     The second is the famous story about “The Empty Pickle Jar” (Link: http://www.gratitudeseeds.com/lessons-on-life-the-empty-pickle-jar/) The story there is of course that if you fill up your time with the most important things first, then the smaller things can fill in the empty spots.

     So basically, in order to have time for everything, you first need to prioritize the most important things and give them the appropriate time and attention. For me, that is first my family and then the Gospel. I will be implementing some of the rules that Steve Blank talked about to ensure that I have adequate time for my family!