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!