My Last Lecture

My Last Lecture

At the conclusion of 12 weeks of an entrepreneurial class there is a lot to reflect on. This class has gotten me to really analyze my life and myself as a person. Being an entrepreneur is not as easy as I once thought. My advice to anyone thinking about starting a business is to really take a good look at your self. Question your strengths and weaknesses; this will be one of the first indicators if you are prepared to open a business of any kind.

I have seen firsthand the trials of entrepreneurship, and I count myself incredibly fortunate to have seen the rewards. Let me tell you a little bit about my family. My father came to this country on his own at age 14. He left a difficult childhood behind for the hopes of a better life in America. He had less than $50 to his name when he arrived. He worked any job he could find to make ends meat and to find ways to better his life and the lives of his family.

I’m not sure whether entrepreneurship was something he had in mind from the beginning, or if it grew out of necessity, but he started early building his own business. First it was a tree trimming service and he was the only employee. Then, when that failed, he took a job as a janitor at a Silicon Valley tech company. But the drive to succeed and to take personal ownership was still in him. It wasn’t long before he learned the skills necessary to move from the janitorial staff to the IT staff. The company took note of his dedication and sent him to school. From there he progressed into more and more advanced positions and bounced between a few companies before finally ending up as a network engineer who represented the company in international transactions and travelled the world sharing his expertise – all without ever graduating from high school.
With success and a little financial stability, the entrepreneurial bug bit again, and my father took early retirement from his fulfilling career to start fresh in an entirely new business.
From building networks to perfecting recipes, my father soon became the owner of a Mexican restaurant. Well, not a restaurant as much as a mobile kitchen (you might know it as a food truck, but he is adamant that his mobile kitchen was not “one of those roach coaches”). From one truck to four, and then to three standing restaurant buildings, my father saw his dream of owning a little taco stand grow to owning one of the highest ranked and best reviewed Mexican food chains in the San Francisco Bay Area.
My point with this is simple: entrepreneurship is difficult – I can’t tell you the number of sleepless nights he spent worrying about the business. It is risky – he left a lucrative career with great opportunity for growth and advancement. It is stressful – let’s just say all the little gray hairs starting to peak through in his hair didn’t come from me! It often ends in failure – remember the tree trimming business? Sure, it put food on the table for a few years, but it is no more. But in the end, it can be wildly successful.
Who would have ever thought the little boy who came to this country with a few dollars in his pocket, and whose first kitchen table was little more than a refrigerator box with a sheet over it would one day be a self-made millionaire? Sure, it took 25 years of hard work, but what other investment can you make with that kind of return? From $40 to a million in 25 years. That’s some great ROI!

Entrepreneurship is an investment in yourself. Sure, it’s risky, but it’s also the only investment you can make where you have a direct influence on the future value. It’s not for everyone – but if you’re brave enough, dedicated enough, and crazy enough to try it, it might change your life – and the lives of many around you.

Week 12

This week we were giving a talk to read by President Monson An Attitude of Gratitude.

 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1992/04/an-attitude-of-gratitude

I think it is such a great reminder in this holiday season, when things get taken for granted. Monson expresses that we should be grateful for our parents, teachers and friends. I know I have many things to be grateful for. I am patiently waiting for the arrival of my first baby. It can be any day now. I know without the support of my parents, husband and family I wouldn’t have made it through these past nine months.

A couple of weeks ago I was assigned to give a talk at church regarding gratitude. However there was a twist, I had to talk about being grateful for our trials. It is easy to be grateful for the good things in life, but we also have to remember to be grateful for our trials that help us grow and learn. Although they suck at the time, they are really to our benefit.

President Monson quotes one of my favorite songs from the hymn book. One of the versus goes

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. …

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged; God is over all.

Count your many blessings; angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.”

During this holiday season remember what our blessings are. Right now I am excited that I only have two more assignments left in this course!!!!

Week 11

Christmas time is one my most beloved holidays. I love the decorations, the food the spirit of giving. I can list a whole bunch of things but one thing that I hadn’t thought about that unfortunately goes in had with these holidays is debt. President Monson’s talk Constant Truths for Changing Times really hit home for me. I see it all around me when people spend money they don’t have to try to make this holiday season more memorable. Putting it on a credit card… we need to live within our means. Which can be hard at times, but like the Grinch said “What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”

I am expecting my first baby right before Christmas on the 21^st. It has been a crazy shopping spree trying to get ready. Like most moms I want to be fully prepared and to be able to give my baby everything he needs. Have I gotten a carried away? Yes, yes I have.  I have had to make a couple of returns recently because some of the items I purchased are not really needed. I have spent more than my allotted budget that my husband and I came up with. Budgeting is what has helped us live within our means. Now that I am not working it is more important that I stick to this budget.

How does this tie into business? Well you have to manage the money coming in and out don’t you. Well being involved in your finances is what will make or break a business.

Week 10

This week’s reading and assignments have definitely opened my mind to reflection. From time management between work and family, to attitude about money, to what I need to really focus on to be successful.

In the talk given by President Thomas S. Monson Formula for Success, he gives three steps for success. He says “First, fill your mind with truth; second, fill your life with service; and third, fill your heart with love.”

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1996/03/formula-for-success

I agree with his statement but the one that had me thinking the most is filling my life with service. Over the years I have been involved in many a service project for either school or for church. I remember for some reason I always had something else I could do that would be more fun or entertaining. I also remember the job I would get from helping others and I know that my time was better spent serving others.

Time… we have so little of it and there is always so much to do I find. I am very dedicated to my job. I do the best that I can in the time that I have, but sometimes I have to spend more time in the office to get things done, and the same goes for my husband. We are currently excepting our first child (any time now) so I have to think how we can put our family first. Children grow up so fast and both my husband and I don’t want to miss out on it because of work. Of course working pays the bills but on the flip side family needs to come first.

Last reflection from this week’s assignment is money will not buy us happiness. Sure it would help and it would be nice not having to live paycheck to paycheck. However, it has always been my experience that more money does not mean an easier life. We have to be happy with what we have or we won’t be happy when we have more…

Week 9

A couple of weeks ago I was at a stake conference and one of the speakers said something that really stood out to me. “Goals aren't started with maybe's and there are no spots on your calendar for sometime.”

I often find myself saying maybe ill do that, or I will find sometime to get that one thing done. These words only hold me back and don’t let me progress. I am my own worst enemy, Elder Oaks in his talk The Challenge to Become said, “In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something.”

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/11/the-challenge-to-become

I learned that I need to challenge myself. I tend to under estimate my abilities and think that I wont be able to do it and end up failing, but the thought occurred to me that if I don’t try I have already failed! Taylor Richards emphasized this in the video “Think Big”. http://vimeo.com/27928168

I made a goal this week to at least get through 2 of my art projects that have been sitting around on my desk for the past year. Giving myself a timeline and then sticking to it helped. I found that my problem all along was time management. Something I was good at while I was in the work force. At home… not so much.

Week 8

Loyalty and Leadership

This week were assigned to read a talk by President Kim B. Clark called

Leadership with a Small "L".

President Clark said “To you mothers and fathers and prospective mothers and fathers, the very most important thing you can do for your children is to love each other and support each other and help each other become everything Heavenly Father wants you to be.  You stand before God and your children as husband and wife, father and mother, equal partners in the sacred responsibility of creating an eternal family.

Lead by example.”

How true is this principle in family life but also in the business world?

A while ago I had a customer service job that you had to answer the phone as the calls came in. There were 4 girls in the office (it was a small company), there were some days the phone would ring three times and we would all look at each other and see who would pick it up. I was new and still afraid of running into problems with the callers so I would hesitate and not answer and let someone else take the call. As with customer service jobs there is a high turn over rate. I remember one girl coming in a few days after I was hired that would always be the first to answer the phone and just take charge. She didn’t know all the answers but she took charge and tried. Soon after I saw a difference in the office. I no longer saw anyone hesitate to answer the phones. With her example the office productivity changed in a good way. She led by example, and she is what I call a doer personality, she got things done.

Since thing I have tried to follow her example. I have seen what a difference it can make in an office environment when you are willing to go just a bit over the call of duty. Managers notice it and other employees as well, not to mention it can be contagious.

I try to live my life as an example. “Woody Allen said that 90% of life is “just showing up.” If so, the most important 10% of life is execution. Far too few people do either consistently. But if the ability to execute is so valuable, why is it so rare?”

Overcoming Challenges - Week 7

This week we were assigned to read a talk by Elder Jeffrey Holland, An High Priest of Good Things to Come.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/11/an-high-priest-of-good-things-to-come

Elder Holland said, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

This week has been tough on me. I want to be done with my degree but there is so much left to do still. Right now I have this great opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom and still have help from my family to pay for school. It must be the pregnancy hormones or something but I got this overwhelming depressed feeling that school will never end. I know this isn’t true but that is how I was feeling at the time when I read Elder Holland’s talk.

I took much comfort from this quote. “Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. Moroni spoke of it in the Book of Mormon as “hope for a better world.” For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of “good things to come.”

School is a challenge for me. I have to work hard because it doesn’t come naturally. My husband is a genius when it comes to writing papers. For me on the other hand I get stuck writing introductions to my essays for hours at a time! I have faith that I can overcome my challenges and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually my son will be born and I will graduate with my degree. Till then I have to wait and work hard.

Week 6

Asking questions… When you learn something new or try something new we are taught from a young age to ask questions. It is a simple thing, but it is something I struggle with. I often try to figure things out on my own instead of taking the time to ask a question. This is probably something I should work on if I want to start my own business. In one of the videos assigned this week, Carly Fiorina talks about three things you need for leadership. Capability, Collaboration and Character. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1719

She goes on to talk about learning. She says to always keep learning and trying new things that it will keep you vibrant.

Another talk that assigned to be read this week was a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley Stand True and Faithful.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1996/04/stand-true-and-faithful

What I most enjoyed about his talk that he tells women to continue learning. Often times in the church I see women give up on their education to start families. Don’t get me wrong having a family is very important. One of my top of my priorities even. However, just like Carly Fiorina said we have to continue learning to be effective leaders. I want my children to be able to come to me to learn new things. To make this possible I have to constantly adapt and learn new things. Just like I would in my (hopefully) future business.

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

While watching the Rich Grad Lesson #5 video when he talks about being financially illiterate. He goes through the key terms that you need to know to becoming financially literate. He shows how poor people go from income to expense (basically living paycheck to paycheck). He back tracks and says he was poor once but being poor is a state a mind. I am not saying you can magically decide to have more money but you can choose to pity yourself when you are living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet. We all have a choice. In the BYU Marriott School of Personal Finance webpage,  http://personalfinance.byu.edu/?q=node/12

I found a quote that really stood out to me. “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we “give,” brothers and sisters, are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours to give! (Neal A. Maxwell, “Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 22).”

We have our agency that was given to us and we get to decide what to do with it. We can choose to be happy or sad with our personal finances, we can choose to go to church and live righteous lives. We get to decide.

Perseverance

I like to think of myself as a determined person. I work hard and I know I can do certain things really well. There is one thing that I fail consistently with; I have this bad habit of quitting things when it gets too hard.

I took a military fitness class just to say that I could. It was at 6:00 am that was three times a week in the middle of winter. I remember after the first week I was ready to be done with the class. I kept thinking to myself when my alarm went off, if I don’t get up will regret it later. Like reading my scriptures I felt good about myself when I would got to crazy workout of a class. I felt like a better person for sticking it out and I even got most improved at the end of the semester.

This was one of the first things that was really difficult for me that I saw through to the end.  

The underlying theme that I read about in this weeks reading was perseverance. I find it interesting how something like sticking it through to the end could relate to the business world and to personal everyday life.

The most successful people I know worked hard and kept working hard even when they didn’t have to work as hard anymore. I don’t believe it was easy for them or that they succeed on their first couple of tries. However, that is what set them apart as being successful… is that they persevered.

Honesty and Business Ethics

What does a cow drink? First thought that jumps in my head is MILK. I promise I am not dumb, let me explain my answer…

In the Rich Grad Video #3 – (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXv_hg-PdEM)

The speaker had us focusing on the color white and when he asked the question, “What do cows drink?” the first thing that came to my mind was milk, because of the association  I had just made with the color white. I know that cows drink WATER, but it was interesting to see how he had just conditioned my mind to believe that it was milk.

The speaker then said, “You have to be mindful of your beliefs. Your beliefs will create your reality.” My life is composed of what I believe in, from where I live to how I spend my money. To get out of the “rat race,” as the speaker puts it, you have to change your beliefs. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing but if you ever have to compromise your integrity that is when I see a problem.

In the talk given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Making a Living and a Life he says,

“Working in this world to make a living was part of the Lord’s plan for His children, not just to survive, but to see how we would get along with others in making that living – to see if we would be honest in our dealings with our fellowmen.   Satan quickly recognized the work environment as a strategic setting to stir up all manner of sin, including covetousness, jealousies, self-indulgence, living beyond one’s means, anger, contention in marriages, infidelity, greed and envy, selfishness, even theft and murder.”

I believe that sometimes we have to change our way of thinking to get ahead in life, but on the same turn we have to be careful to not let others change our perspective and how we view things.

Rule #1 from Rich Grad, “Money is not the most important thing in life, however the most important things in life require money.” Where we live, where we go to school, what we eat, these are very important things in my life that require money. To be able to pay for them I have to have money… well that is a given.

It is easy, when listening to men of the world to become conditioned to the world view that they have. If money becomes our primary objective, we may lose sight of the truly important things.  I never want to get to the point where someone asks me what is the most important thing to me and I instinctively say “my career.” Just as I know cows drink water, I know that my family is and will always be most important to me – no matter what the world conditions me to believe.

Create a Life of Meaning

When I was a kid I wanted to be and do so many different things. As a teenager I wrote down a bucket list of things I wanted to do when I was older. I recently pulled it out for a class assignment and I just had to laugh at my teenage self. What I wanted to do then has changed so drastically from what I want now.

I think the reason for this is how much my life has changed since I was a teenager. I am now married and expecting a baby, I guess you can say my calling in life has changed.

I read an article by Jeffery Thomson, titled What Is Your Calling in Life? One quote paragraph in particular stood out to me, it reads “their sense of calling—they were part of it. The work was meaningful because of the trials and burdens. That is an important lesson. We can’t expect deep meaningfulness from our calling unless we are willing to assume its burdens as well.”

Now that I am about to be a mother I can see how my priorities have changed. I know what the rewards of being a mother can be (from examples of my own mother), but I also know that they don’t come easily. It will be a long and hard road but I am excited to do it.

Many of my choices in life have led me to this junction. Randy Pausch said “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” There is an ironic truth to this. I can see how many things that didn’t pan out or go exactly how I wanted them to but it benefitted me in the end. It is a hard lesson to learn to fail, even harder sometimes to keep going, but that is what this life is for. We are supposed to fail and learn and to try again.

I think a lot of creating a life of meaning comes from finding meaning in life’s failures or life’s unexpected blessings. No one will end up on the exact path the expect, but we can always find a purpose and a motivation to better ourselves from where we currently are. I think that’s how we create a life of meaning.

Introduction Week

First week of the semester is always exciting for me: a new class, new people and new opportunities to learn new ideas regarding the business world. I love the idea behind this journal. However, in the past I haven’t been very diligent with my personal journal writing. The bits that I have done I do enjoy looking back and seeing where I was in the time of my life when I wrote the entry.

Over the years, I have taken many excellent courses that gave me amazing references, ideas and quotes, but I never bothered to write them down. Looking back, I wish I had so I could reference them. I hope this journal will be the beginning of a wonderful habit.

This week - Lessons Learned

I watched an incredibly inspirational video from President Hinckley. He said “… your responsibility [is] to do your very best.” School has never come easily to me. I struggle constantly and I tend to be tough on myself. President Hinckley’s reminder to do your very best stood out to me; it reminded me that I just have to try (and not be lazy). I don’t have to do everyone’s best – just my own best.

This week my younger sister entered the MTC in Provo, Utah. I am incredibly proud and happy that she has taken this step in her life. While reading Elder Bandar’s talk his reference to 1 Corinthians 2:16 popped out at me. “A disciple of Christ is one who is following and learning to be like Christ – learning to think, to feel, and to act as He does. He or she is striving to gain… the mind of Christ.” My sister is off serving the Lord and I am working towards my degree, but we are both learning to be disciples and are preparing ourselves for future service to the Lord, to our families, and to our community.

Lessons Not Yet learned

From the e-Corner video, “Doing what you love – the money will come later,” I was reminded that patience has never been one of my best qualities. I need to see results right away.  Yet I know life isn’t like that. I have historically been quick to give up on ideas if they didn’t seem lucrative. In fact, that’s why I’m in this program. I started out in Interior Design, but quickly realized that the future and earning potential in that field were going to be limited except for an extremely competitive few who would have to fight for the few entry level positions in the field that actually paid enough to make it all worthwhile.