Final Lecture

I have reached the end of my entrepreneurship course, and I want to begin by immediately saying how thankful I am for this wonderful course. It has taught me how to keep pushing forward when things get tough and to always remember my personal constitution as I try to fulfill my ultimate potential.

This is the last advice that I will give during this course, and I fell that it's only fair that I recap on some of the most important lessons that I have learned since the beginning of this course.

First, never lose track of your goals. Whether they be short-term or long-term, goals are there so that we can practice diligence and feel a sense of accomplishment once we fulfill them. They are not there to boss us around, but to help guide us to where we want to be. Always keep your goals in mind when observing your future, and make the best decisions based on those goals.

Second, stay diligent. It's easy to have peaks of progression then lose that sense of determination as time progresses. This is a path that may not be harmful, but it will lead to little progress. Even when your situation gets difficult don't forget to stop complaining and work harder. Nothing worth having comes easy, especially a fulfilling life. Work hard for what you deserve.

Third, success is not a solo project. I have always been an independent person, and I have had to go through many trials on my own without much support from friends. As I have been here at school I have learned to value the friendships and connections that I have made. There are going to be moments in your life where you will need the help/aid of others. When those moments come, don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't let your pride get in the way of you not progressing because you don't ask for the help of friends.

Fourth, remember your personal constitution. Read it often and keep the goals that you have set for yourself in your mind always. Change it as your situation changes, but always remember to set yourself at a high standard and don't regress. Always try to be better than you were the day before.

Fifth, you will most likely experience as many failures as you will successes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try because there are many vital lessons to learn from both occurrences. Remember to embrace the lessons you learn from your failures and don't become prideful when you are successful. Be prepared for both.

Sixth, education is an ongoing experience and should be embraced even outside the classroom. This semester at school has taught me that knowledge is so powerful and you should never limit yourself to what you can learn. Learn all you can and become well-versed in what you desire to learn. Learning how to learn is a very important skill to have, and you should never take this skill for granted.

Seventh, always remember than you are more capable of overcoming difficult things that you realize. There will always be trials, but your attitude towards them will determine your happiness. Always keep a sense of optimism and overcome your trials with determination and strength. You can overcome anything if you put your mind to it. You've made it this far.

Not to self:
Remember these things, and also remember what you have been taught during this course. There will be times in your life where these words will have incredible value. Refer to them often and know that through God all things are possible.

Entrepreneurship Journal - Week 11: "Mini Lessons II"

Just like my last Mini Lesson post, I have learned a few principles that made a definite impact on me while studying this week's material. This week has been very difficult, and the lessons I learned during this week had a particular impact on me because of the stress of school.

1) Maintaining an attitude of gratitude

A very difficult and tedious task to accomplish when there isn't much to be happy about, but those are the times when we need good attitudes the most. I always try to remember that the reason I'm so stressed is because I'm only perceiving it that way. If I try to find the optimism of a situation, then my whole outlook changes and the situation is less severe than anticipated. 

2) Don't be afraid to do what you love

I really liked what Stan Cristiensen had today about jobs. He said that you should pick a job that you enjoy doing; a job that you love. He talked about how there is plenty of time to change throughout your life, and you don't necessarily need to stick with one job for your entire life. 

3) Difficult things happen for a reason

Trials will always be there, so one of the only things we can do is try to keep our attitudes in an optimistic light. Entrepreneurial hero Larry North mentions that life will constantly put roadblocks and pitfalls in your way. Trials are there some can learn lessons from them. It's difficult to admit that while you are in that situation, but once it is over it is easy to see why it was given to you in the first place. Don't halt your progress and give up when things get difficult. Push through it and learn to overcome it, you'll thank yourself later for it. 

Entrepreneurship Journal - Week 10: "Business or Family?"

This week we were given an assignment of two different scenarios where we had to chose which course of action we would take. The first scenario went like this:

"Your daughter is going to have her first dance recital in a few days and you have promised her for months that you wouldn't miss it for the world. An hour before the performance, you receive a phone call from your most valuable client saying that their plant has had a fire and that you were the only person the client was willing to talk to about a solution. Do you continue to attend the recital, or do you assist in the disaster?"

The second scenario (paraphrasing quite a bit) was like this:

"Your dream has always been to be the coach of a basketball team. You've been working really hard and have been spending a lot of time on business trips to try to make this dream a reality for yourself. Finally, you get the opportunity you have always dreamed of: Being the head coach of a college team.  At the same time you are given this opportunity, your spouse files for divorce and says that they are taking your child and leaving because you don't spend enough time with them. Which one would you chose?"

These situations are very difficult cases because they question the ethicality of both your family time and the time you put into your business. If I were to decide immediately, my first initial reaction to each scenario would be to focus on the emergency so you don't lose the client or your job and keep following what you've always wanted to do your entire life. But, after thinking about each decision's consequences and outcomes I realized that in the long run family is what matters most.

While businesses and dreams come and go, your family is irreplaceable. Family is eternal, so if we take it for granted we are bound to suffer severe consequences for not making family a priority in our lives. It's a difficult truth, but following your dreams is a very lonely path if you do not have someone you love to participate in that happiness along with you.

What would I have done in each scenario?
First, I would offer the client a chance to meet with someone who's either my right hand man or whom I have complete dependency in. I would send as many people as needed so that my daughter will always know that I made that sacrifice because I love her more than my client.

Second, I wouldn't let my dream get to the point where I would sacrifice my entire family over it. Dreams are wonderful goals to have, and you don't have to be the only one who participates in the happiness that they can bring. Just make sure to let your spouse participate as much as possible and don't neglect them. It is possible to fulfill your dreams when you have a family, just make sure that you don't disregard your family in the process.

All in all, in the long run, focusing on your family brings forth many blessings that we will not receive until we make difficult sacrifices such as these. It is easy to decide what you will do in these situations once your truly know where your focus lies: you business or your family. No man can serve to masters, so once we place our focus where it counts, we must be prepared to handle the sacrifices that will come from placing our focus on what matters most.

Entrepreneurship Journal - Week 9: "Interview with Redge Allen"

This week I had the extraordinary opportunity to interview Redge Allen, a professor at BYU-Idaho University. He has owned and ran multiple businesses that have been successful, but he has also encountered a few failures in his career as well. The interview went amazing, and my perspective on 'what it takes to be a businessman/woman' was changed dramatically.

Despite the fact that Allen is a very smart and powerful man, as we were talking I could tell that he had a very humble spirit about him. As soon as I realized that I became curious as to how he was able to act so humbly in an environment where the egocentric always seem to get the best and quickest results.

One of the best moments of our interview was when I asked him the question, "What was one of your most significant gains and failures you experienced since you have been in the industry?"

He replied in a way that I was not expecting at all: "The greatest gain I ever had was losing every penny I had in a failed business. The greatest challenge of all was making too much money."

Wait a second... those seem backwards. My thinking was that making enough/too much money would be an advantage to you and your business, and that having a business fail would be a great challenge, not a blessing. I asked him if he could further explain this statement to me.

He simply said that when he had lost every penny he became very humbled and used that opportunity to learn from the mistakes he made with that business. It also helped him recognize those issues which he can stop from occurring during future businesses. He then explained that when he was receiving too much money he became too focused on the world, and ended up making decisions which could have had better outcomes if he had not been as haughty or proud as he was in the moments where he was most prosperous. Too much money only made him more proud, not successful.

After hearing this I was baffled that he, a successful businessman, could think that too much money was a bad thing. But, he ended up proving me wrong. I only hope as I walk with him more on the subject in the future that I will be bale to gain his mindset on business so that I can focus on more important aspects of business than the amount of profit I will earn or lose.

Entrepreneurship Journal - Week 8: "Mini Lessons"

I learned many different things this week, so I figured that a list of them would be most appropriate. A few of these principles I learned this week are from the articles I was assigned to read, while others are from my daily experiences.

- Success is not a solo venture
You need people in your life who can support you and offer assistance when you need it. It's easy to think that you are capable of so many great things, but in the big picture so many of your successes will be edified by the people who are willing to be there for you.

- It's possible to be both humble and a leader simultaneously
My first thought of a leader is someone who can take charge and guide a group with an iron fist. After reading the assigned articles for this week I was reminded that leaders correct errors when needed, but treat the other members of the team with respect and humility. That's the kind of leader I would like to be, so I was happy to read that the most effective leaders are those that give credit to their teammates or luck instead of themselves.

- See mistakes as learning opportunities, not roadblocks
Mistakes will always be made. Whether the fault is yours or your coworker's, the most important thing you can do is see these mistakes as opportunities to learn and to try to be better so that the mistakes won't be repeated. Don't let a mishap (or a culmination thereof) keep you from making progress. See these challenges as learning opportunities and take advantage of them.

- Don't let your past get in the way of what you can become
Everyone has a low point in their lives where they have made mistakes. When we reach these low points it is difficult to see the light ahead. I have been in this situation before, and I can say with assuredly that taking each day one step at a time will eventually bring you closer and closer to that person you wish to become. The process of trying to become the person we want to be is a difficult one, but it is so worth the effort the day you realize that you have changed for the better. This is a very important principle to realize, but indeed it is the action we take to change that will truly dictate just how capable we are of becoming our best.

Entrepreneurship Journal - Week 7 "Brick by Brick"

The miraculous story of the Salt Lake City temple being built is truly humbling. The entire process required so many hours, so much labor so many resources that were miles and miles away. How could they ever start such an ambitious project with the end goal so out of reach it seemed impossible? Because they knew it was their duty.

Too often have I given up in my life. I was in public school and suffered for years before quitting so I could be homeschooled at home and learn at my own pace. While I was at BYU-Idaho my second semester, I got into enough of a dilemma with my schoolwork that I could either stay, endure, and get very poor grades, or I could go home and recuperate. I went home, recovered for a few months, worked three part-time jobs before coming back to BYU-Idaho, and now I'm back to prove that I can do difficult things.

It is always tempting to think that quitting is the easier option. The sad truth is that quitting is always easier than plowing your way through challenges. But if we don't put effort into overcoming our adversities then we will not progress or be blessed from being able to not only endure our challenges, but conquer them.

I am slowly, but surely, learning how to conquer my challenges instead of evading them. After reading this story of all the sacrifice that went into building this house of the Lord I know that I can overcome any trial. I also know that when I overcome I am building the foundation for my life brick by brick. How? When you learn how to conquer challenges you are improving yourself and becoming a stronger person than you were before the trial was given. As more and more of these figurative bricks of victory are laid, your foundation as a strong and able person will only increase more and more until you have a solid structure of integrity and accomplishment.

As my favorite quite goes, "Nothing worth having comes easy." In this particular case, the trials we are given will only demonstrate to us that we are capable of so much, as long as we stick to our goals and keep our destinations in sight.

Here is the wonderful I am referring to, it is an excellent read:

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/holland-jeffrey-r_however-long-hard-road/

Entrepreneurship Journal - Week 6 "Becoming a Master"

This week I read a book called 'Mastery', written by George Leonard. In a sentence, the book explains how we can fulfill our full potentials by not only mastering our skills, but becoming masters of ourselves as well.

One of the passages that stood out to me the most was how we tend to want the immediate result, but this mindset is dangerous to true mastery because it takes away our patience and defeats us when we're not gratified immediately by our work. This sentence from the book explains it very well: 

"The modern world, in fact, can be viewed as a prodigious conspiracy against mastery. We're continually bombarded with promises of immediate gratification, instant success, the fast, temporary relief, all which lead in exactly the wrong direction.... it not only prevents us from developing our potential skills but threatens our health, education, career, relationships, and perhaps even our national economic viability."

Goodness, all this can happen from simply wanting the now? But I've been guilty of that so many times and I am still fighting battles between patience and intolerance almost every day. 

Perhaps the road will be a difficult one, but the path to mastery is one that should be taken slowly but surely in order to experience the satisfaction that can only come from a lifetime of study and discipline. If I can practice effective goal setting, try to practice good character attributes and practice my skills often, maybe one day I will be a master of both my passion and myself.