Week 14: My Last Lecture

{For your last journal entry/blog post take the time to write your own last lecture. If you had one final lecture to share with a group of students on what you have learned from this course, what would you share? What would be your last bit of advice to someone wanting to begin the entrepreneur journey? What words of advice, direction, or caution would you give him or her if you had only one chance to give your own last lecture? Write your last lecture about your experiences and answer the above stated questions. This assignment is the capstone to everything that you have been learning. This final entry will be worth 25 points instead of the usual 10 for each journal entry.}


With just a couple days of the semester remaining, I'm considering all that I have learned in B183: Intro to Entrepreneurship. It's been an interesting class, to say the least. I didn't know what to expect, really. At first, I was somewhat surprised by how much personal reflection and introspection was required of me. Now I am grateful for all of that time considering and pondering on my abilities, desires, needs, and passions. I'm also thankful for the opportunity and challenge to determine and state my core values, create my own set of ethical guardrails, and declare a personal code of ethics. Each of these challenges, along with other academic learning about entrepreneurship have made this class experience a good and worthwhile one.

If I were to give advice to someone seeking it for the purposes of benefiting their own entrepreneurial journey, I would tell them that they first need to know themselves before they can go about the entrepreneurial business of making the world a better place. That isn't to say that one needs to uncover every layer or mystery about themselves, but to know in their core who they are in the universe. For me, it's knowing that I am a daughter of God with limitless potential. I am a woman capable of much good. I know that I have something marvelous to offer the world, that my presence here on earth is to both my advantage and the advantage of others who come into contact with me. In knowing who I am, I also know who everyone else is: a son or daughter of God, with limitless potential and power to create amazing things and achieve the unimaginable. By first having at least a bit of a grip on one's true self, a proper foundation is in place for beginning an entrepreneurial journey.

Once we know who we are, we can better determine and define what we will and won't do. Knowing and actively remembering that we come from the Divine, we are more likely to behave with a higher sense of decorum. When commencing an entrepreneurial journey, it's so important to set ethical guardrails in place along either side of the path to where we want to go. Ethical guardrails are the "I will never" actions that keep us from becoming immoral and behaving badly in business and in life. Staying within our ethical guardrails ensures that we keep a clear conscience as we go about the business of making the world a better place and bettering our own personal lives too.

For a budding entrepreneur, I'd highly advise letting the mind dream. Purposely make time in the day to ponder, meditate, and allow the spirit within our bodies to work its magic, so to say. Each of us has limitless potential, but we stifle ourselves. We allow others to diminish our creative light. We end up settling with and believing the sad platitudes in life; that it is what it is. Dreaming is important because it allows us to be more in touch with the spiritual and less cumbered by the physical. We are spirits in mortal flesh. One day our flesh will be perfected/immortal, but until then, our flesh is a mortal overlay that can drown out what our spirits already know. Dreaming is detachment from flesh in a way. Dreaming can help us "remember" what our spirits already knew from before we were born. God sent us here with gifts, blessings, talents, and testimonies, and if we dare to dream, we can put all those things beautifully into motion for good. Dreaming allows us to gravitate toward our God-given desires, abilities, and inclinations. This is how we can change the world for the better.

President Thomas S. Monson said, 

"What an exciting life is available to each one of us today! We can be explorers in spirit with a mandate to make this world better by discovering improved ways of living and doing things. God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled, and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved that man might know the joys and glories of creation." 

By giving ourselves permission to dream and then do, we become the creators that God designed us to be in this life.

One last bit of advice I'd offer to someone wanting to spread their entrepreneurial wings is to seek to know their true calling in life. Knowing who we are at our cores is crucial in knowing what it is that we are to do with ourselves. Adhering to a firm and true set of ethics in life will allow for clearer vision. With clear eyes and a solid foundation of self, knowing what to do with ourselves as we walk ahead in business gives great purpose and satisfaction in life. Figuring out what we do better than anyone else, and loving that about ourselves is how we begin to understand our life's callings. When we can turn our righteous endeavors and passions into something marketable that will positively change the world, then we have truly gotten a good grip on our life's calling.

However, it is important to know that not everyone who has a desire to be an entrepreneur can or will succeed at being an entrepreneur. Not every entrepreneurial mind has been given the talents, skills, or blessings to be an entrepreneur. The markets in life don't necessarily always want or will always pay for our genius and creativity. But no matter what, it is important and necessary that in order to have a happy and full life, we must know who we truly are. We must choose to live a higher law. We must do that which God gave us talents, blessings, and abilities to do. And if it so happens that the entrepreneurial calling isn't ours, we should take heart. In a BYU devotional on June 1, 2010, Jeffrey Thompson said, 

"Finding your calling in life may not be a matter of finding the one right job. Instead, it may be that your calling is to bring your unique spiritual gifts to whatever position the Lord blesses you with."

In the end, we need to do the very best we can with what we have, and express gratitude in all things, every day. For the entrepreneur, there is no slacking or coasting our way to success and happiness all the while. An entrepreneur's journey is intentional and personal, and it will always make the entrepreneur see themselves and life in a more true and revealing light.

Week 13: A Journey of Gratitude

This week you will make your thirteenth journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

It's such a nice experience to begin my weekly lessons with spiritual talks that most certainly translate well into temporal life. This week is about gratitude. The opening reading/talk was by President Thomas S. Monson from April 1992 called "An Attitude of Gratitude." It is one of his hallmark talks and has been oft quoted for the past 26 years. I found his words particularly moving this week as I've studied the concept of gratitude in business. "We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate an attitude of gratitude." I've heard that countless times since 1992, yet I never once thought about it specifically in business terms. Oh sure, I've thought that in every aspect of my life, I must exercise and practice gratitude. I've been in yucky work situations where I told myself I just needed to be grateful. But I hadn't every pondered the whole talk and his teachings on gratitude through the lens of employment or business creation. Early in the talk, he spoke about the plagues of today: selfishness; greed; indulgence; cruelty; crime. Of course now I see how this talk relates to business! If I aim to bless the lives of my family and others with the fruits of my labors, then I had better be going about my business with an attitude of gratitude for my abilities, blessings, and all goodness from the Lord. Failing to do so will leave me feeling less full or abundant, and I may be tempted to choose the wrong in those times. 

"Chance favors only the prepared mind." ~Louis Pasteur

The parable of the sower comes to mind as I ponder on Pasteur's thought. I must prepare myself, my mind, my home, my résumé, and my life to be able to do all that is required of me and to be ready to encounter whatever dragons I may be called to slay. How terrible would it be for a brilliant opportunity to just pass me by because I was too lazy/oblivious/unprepared to get ready for it.

I like something that Larry North said. To the effect, he said that I shouldn't just collect advice, but that I must use it. Again, another parable comes to mind... the parable of the talents. Use it or lose it!

I'm really looking forward to learning more in this journey. Right now I'm just so thankful that I get to FINALLY go to school. I know I have a long road ahead of me, but how cool is it that I'm actually on that road! God is good.

Week 12: Becoming a Change-Maker

This week you will make your twelfth journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

I LOVED the readings and talks for this week. It's surely happened already, but I cannot remember the last time I wept for 20 minutes (out of tenderness, not frustration) during a college class. "Entrepreneurship & Consecration" by Elder Robert C. Gay has made an impact on me. He teaches that through business, we provide for basic needs, and then we rescue others as prescribed by the Lord. THAT is what business is for. THAT is what Handy never said in "What's a Business For?" Elder Gay taught that we have been prepared from the foundations of the world to LIFT this world! Empowering stuff!

Elder Holland's "Are We All Not Beggars?" was equally stirring. I loved hearing that talk the first time a few years ago. I am moved by the following...

I do not know all the reasons why the circumstances of birth, health, education, and economic opportunities vary so widely here in mortality, but when I see the want among so many, I do know that “there but for the grace of God go I.”18 I also know that although I may not be my brother’s keeper, I am my brother’s brother, and “because I have been given much, I too must give.”

We all have higher purpose. We need to love as Jesus loved. Nowhere in the scriptures have I ever found that Jesus really loved money, but I know He loved people. I need to follow His example and take care of myself, my family, and others.

Also, after reading What’s a Business For?, answer the following questions in your journal writing in ADDITION to your normal writing for this week.

Q1) Based on what you read in the first two pages (pages 3 and 4), why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy?

Q2) According to Charles Handy, what is the “real justification” for the existence of businesses?

Q3) What are two solutions proposed by Handy that you agree with? Why?

A1) VIRTUE & INTEGRITY are vital to an economy because people need to be able to trust, otherwise they'll take their money out of play. "Markets rely on rules and laws, but those rules and laws in turn depend on truth and trust. Conceal truth or erode trust, and the game becomes so unreliable that no one will want to play. The markets will empty and share prices will collapse, as ordinary people find other places to put their money – into their houses, maybe, or under their beds. The great virtue of capitalism – that it provides a way for the savings of society to be used for the creation of wealth–will have been eroded. So we will be left to rely increasingly on governments for the creation of our wealth, something that they have always been conspicuously bad at doing."

A2) Handy's "real justification" for the existence of a business is to make a profit so that it can do something beyond, or greater than just achieving profit... something more or better than profit in and of itself. He says that business owners understand this, but that investors don't get it and don't care either.

A3) I agree with a call for businesses to consider trying their hand at making profit serving the poor as well as serving those more abundantly blessed. I agree with this because it's acknowledging that every human being has dignity and is a child of God. Lifting others up AND turning a profit, or turning a profit then lifting the poor... either way... is one of the reasons we're here: to serve one another. Heaven isn't going to be full of unkind, uncharitable, dismissive people, after all.

I also agree with the call for more honesty and reality in the reporting of results. Requiring more honesty & reality in reporting results, and somehow holding those feet to the fire, throughout the entire business would have people keeping each other honest. With everyone's tail now on the line, there is greater ownership in the whole situation. It would be awfully nice at this point for ownership to pay dividends to the key contributors, not just shareholders. The responsibility and ownership of the work from top to bottom will increase productivity, efficiency, and pride. Nothing bad, in the truth of all things, will come from more honesty.

Week 11: Measuring the Cost... Life Balance

This week you will make your eleventh journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

Balance is such an interesting word. When I think of "balance," I think of harmony, equal, and good. I think that everything is right. I'm learning that almost everyone who considers the term "work-life balance" thinks it means anything but harmony, equal, or good. Work-life balance may not even exist, and could have been a conjured up term by an HR team somewhere trying to get ahead of the angry, stressed out, sick, and tired mob of less-than-desired productive, overworked employees. In any case, trying to get the mix of work focus, family focus, and personal focus just right is a constant juggling act. Just about everything is always but a fraction of a step from falling to the ground. It's worth trying though.

In the video "Is Work/Life Balance Possible?" with Ann Miura-Ko, she explains during the "seed time" of your business that "balance" is truly out of whack, and this is where true passion comes in to play. If you're not truly passionate about the venture, then there will be a crisis of conscience. I know I've experienced this before... not in my own business, but in giving far too much for someone else's business. It's a terrible way to live, feeling as if you're always giving your best to the wrong place. For years I said, "I want to care about something worth caring about." This is where personal passion for the endeavor comes in to play. Something worth caring about will even out the balance a bit, when so much time, energy, effort, thought, and resources are going into the venture.

I really enjoyed the short video with Meg Hirschberg called "Surviving the Entrepreneurial Life: Work & Family." I think it's pretty swell that in the college setting I'm being taught to truly care for my family, to have date nights and daily time together as a couple, and to serve together regularly. It's comforting to be in a business major where it's not all just numbers, strategy, terminology, etc.

After you've read the article Attitude On Money, answer the questions listed below and add it to your journal comments for the week in ADDITION to your normal writing. Be sure to answer each question.

• What is your attitude toward money?
• How can your view of money affect the way you live?
• What rules are recommended for prospering?

1) 

My attitude toward money is pretty much that it is better to make money your slave and to be its master than the other way around. It's a necessary thing that represents my my work & accomplishments, and having more of it than I spend keeps me self-reliant.

2) 

I think that the way I view money is healthy. I don't blame problems on money. It's not as if it could change its behavior and give a better outcome. It has no feelings. It has no ability to choose. Everything money-related in my life that is positive is because I or someone else affecting me made it that way. Everything money-related in my life that is negative is because I or someone else affecting me made it that way. I choose to use money to my advantage because I'm not here to choose a life of disadvantage... life brings its own circumstances regardless of whether money is lacking or in abundance. I like to make my money work for me. I like to be generous with it when I can. I like to not feel burdened by lack of money too. Viewing money as a necessary tool for a decent life helps me and my family to choose to be smart & not so frivolous with our spending.

3) 

Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in Him.

Rule 2. Keep the commandments (including tithing & fast offerings).

Rule 3. Thin about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.

Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education is the key to opportunity (Pres. Hinckley)

Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.

Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.

Week 10: Dream Big Dreams

Juno Ellen GIF from Juno GIFs

This week you will make your tenth journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

This week I worked hard on my Entrepreneur Interview paper. I re-listened to the interview a few times really soaking it all in. I had noted my impressions and went back over those notes seeing if my impressions had changed from when I first heard Jo's comments to now. First impressions remained the same. That in and of itself was interesting to me.

I particularly enjoyed the short video "License to Pursue Dreams" by Marissa Mayer at Google. She said that passion and momentum build when skilled employees have access to great tools and the time to stretch them in new directions. My ears perked up a bit with this one. Jo Day, my entrepreneur interviewee, and her husband Kevin created their company out of frustration with the tools made available to them at their jobs. This goes hand in hand with "necessity is the mother of invention." Our lives are made better because of great tools. As humans, we gauge the animal kingdom's intelligence in part based on a species' use of tools. As God's crowning creation, we can be better too with the creation and use of better tools. I loved what Ms. Mayer added though, that the time to stretch ourselves in new directions is critical too.

Another lovely bit I learned this week in the videos was from Acton Hero Kathy Huber. When asked about thinking outside of the box, she said she always liked to play with problems. I loved that she used the word "play." Do we allow our children enough time to play and to figure out their own problems? Do we allow them to struggle enough? Or do we fix everything, make it better, eliminate failure possibilities, refusing to see them as growth, strength, and character builders? I think yes.

My favorite assignment for the week was watching/reading (then) Elder Dallin H. Oaks' talk "The Challenge to Become." He said,

Now is the time for each of us to work toward our personal conversion, toward becoming what our Heavenly Father desires us to become. As we do so, we should remember that our family relationships—even more than our Church callings—are the setting in which the most important part of that development can occur. The conversion we must achieve requires us to be a good husband and father or a good wife and mother. Being a successful Church leader is not enough. Exaltation is an eternal family experience, and it is our mortal family experiences that are best suited to prepare us for it.

I LOVE how President Oaks ALWAYS nails a concept. He is a prophet, seer, and revelator indeed. My husband and I discussed this talk quite a bit this week. It helps us to remember that charity is not an act, but a condition or state of being. We must be changed into better creatures--into Christlike creatures--by our actions & choices. And we must know and remember that it is in the family situation where this is most likely to happen. It was wonderful reading this again as 2018 comes to a close and 2019 brings changes in format at church. So many people are focused on only 2 hours of church that they're missing the point. The point is 1 more hour of instruction and practice in the home, the most holy of places on earth next to the temple! What a wonderful time to be alive!

Week 9: Disciple Leadership

This week you will make your ninth journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

I am always in awe every time I read "Brigham Young University-Idaho: A Disciple Preparation Center (DPC)" by David A. Bednar and "Leadership with a Small "L" by Kim B. Clark. I imagine reading these two talks will be required of me a few more times in various classes before I complete my degree at BYUI, and I am quite happy to do so. These talks teach me that I am here for a great purpose, one far greater than running any department or company--even those may be wonderful endeavors, to do them without leading others to Christ in one way or another would be a waste of my God-given talent and neglecting my call. I am here to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to help bring others to the Lord. My time with BYUI is more rewarding and beneficial than I can imagine with any other college or university because of this unique training I'm receiving. Following the Savior's example to lead with love, lead with vision, and lead by example will not only bring joy to those around me, but will bring me to my greatest joy too.

This week I interviewed an entrepreneur. I ended up choosing to interview someone other than who I had originally wanted to interview. I am so happy I listened to the still small voice inside that was nudging me in a different direction! I interviewed one of my husband's bosses: Jo Day. She and her husband own Trumpet, Inc. One thing that I was reminded of during my time with Jo is that I have a knack for interviewing. It's been years since I interviewed people thought. As I've grown a little older and wiser, I believe my listening and understanding have improved. Interviewing Jo gave me an opportunity to probe and dig further, to learn intentionally. I'm excited to keep moving on my writing assignment about what I learned from her. I'm sure during the writing process I will have more insight... I'm so thankful I recorded our interview!

In a short video called "Aspects of Building Trust," Guy Kawasaki taught that it is imperative as a business leader to TRUST FIRST. He gave three retail examples: Amazon, Zappos, and Nordstrom. Each company has a stellar reputation for their customer service and ease in both buying and returning products. I'm a bona fide Amazon & Nordstrom girl! These were examples that sang straight to my heart. Each of these companies first trusted that their customers would love the products and services provided well enough that they were happy to create return policies that were simple, hassle-free, and made the customer feel appreciated no matter what. Wow! Because the customer was first trusted this way, customers now trust these companies to always wow them. These companies bought loyalty with trust.

Guy Kawasaki also taught to "default to yes." Rather than looking at the people or world and asking "What can I gain from this?" I ought to look at people or the world and ask myself "How can I help or improve this?" I feel that this is excellent advice not just in business, but most certainly in every aspect of life. To me, this falls into the same place as Love One Another. Defaulting to yes is choosing to see beauty instead of instantly picking out the flaws. Defaulting to yes makes me an innovator & creator instead of a destroyer. Defaulting to yes opens the world to me instead of closing me in to limited possibilities. Defaulting to yes is positive. I liked this advice very much.

Frank Levinson reminded me that the Golden Rule is still a terrific practice. He said that the goal of any company is to "weld" customers to the business, so it's advisable to treat those customers like I'd want to be treated... or even better. He also taught that unethical members of any team will cause stress, tension, and division. Yikes! He likes to hire nice people. That sounds good to me. After all, mean people suck.☹️ This somewhat flies in the face of the stereotypical business woman in the movies, who's so tough, cut-throat and cold. That just seems so exhausting. Being nice is just better for everyone.

Week 8: Overcoming Challenges

This week you will make your eighth journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

I have to admit, I'm super excited about the entrepreneur interview coming up! I'm looking forward to picking this person's brain a bit and learning why he went the direction he did. He was pre-med at ASU and now has nothing to do with the medical profession. It will be interesting indeed.

This week's readings were less about business this-or-that and more about positive thinking and true reliance on Christ. I love how I'm being taught that business this-or-that absolutely needs to involve reliance on the Lord if I'm to truly have success in life. I understand that doesn't necessarily equate to the largest net profits, but it can equate to large blessings of all kinds.

Taylor Richards taught in a little video segment called "You Can Do Anything" that if I involve the Lord in all I do, then He'll open doors and ways for me. He advised to not doubt myself, my abilities, or the Lord. It brought to mind the talk I gave in sacrament in my ward last month on Sabbath observance, "Worry Less, Worship More."

Eric Ries said in "The Five Whys" video that typically when a breakdown or problem occurs, the root cause is generally a human problem. To get to the root of the problem or technical failure of some sort, keep asking why and you'll get back to the person problem. I wholeheartedly believe this to be true. I am a root cause finder. Getting right down to the real source of any problem brings clarity for the failure, but more importantly, it brings clarity for the solution. Taking the time to ask five (six, seven, ten, twenty) whys will bring you to the solution faster and more completely than treating symptoms instead of the cause.

Elder Holland gave this sweet advice, which is always a treat to hear:

"Don't you quit.
You keep walking.
You keep trying.
There is help and happiness ahead.
Some blessings come soon.
Some come late.
Some don't come 'til heaven.
But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."

How I love him and how thankful I am this week's work/readings/videos fed my soul!