Week 14

As I reflect upon this course and the individual learning experiences, I have had in this course I can’t help but to be thankful. Grateful for all the study articles and videos we have had over the semester and for all that I have learned. I learned so much and loved every week of our study articles and videos! If I did have one final lecture to share with a group of students on what I have learned from this course, I would say to them to keep learning all you can from your mentors, teachers, and anyone in the business. The last bit of advice I would share to someone wanting to begin their entrepreneur journey is to be prepared in everything and anything. I would also share something that Jim Ritchie quotes, “Get prepared because opportunities will come and if you are not striving to be in an ideal performance state or at your best, your days of standing on the victory podium will pass to another.” He said this in the video for this week, and I loved it because it’s true. We need to be prepared in all things so that when different opportunities we are there to scoop them up and use them to our advantage. I will also share with them that Jim Ritchie says that most people fail in life when they do not understand how to balance their roles and responsibilities. The last thing I would say is that whatever journey you take with entrepreneurship to always seek and ask for guidance from the Lord. We should always be satisfied with the knowledge of what the Lord wants us to be doing to do His will for us, and to also have the integrity and honesty to do the right things when it comes to dealing with others, business, and entrepreneurship.

Week 13

I loved all of the articles and videos for this week. I learned from Ted Zoller that there are different paths to your entrepreneurial career. He said learn something in the companies you work for so that you can leverage it when you are building your entrepreneur career. I thought this was interesting, and to me it meant to gain and learn all you can from the different enterprises and corporations you will be working for because there will be a time where you can use it as leverage with building your own entrepreneur career. Another article that stuck out to me this week was President Thomas S. Monson’s article on An Attitude of Gratitude. Reading the article just gave me this deep gratitude for all that I have and especially for this opportunity to take classes through BYU-Idaho. After graduating high school, I always had planned to graduate with my bachelor’s degree. This opportunity to learn and grow at BYU-Idaho has made me so thankful for the chance to be able to get to go back to school and finish something I started out over 20 years ago. President Monson said, “This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless.” I loved that he said this because it’s so true especially during this 21st century of so many opportunities! I also loved this quote from President Monson where he says, “We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.” He is basically saying that we can choose not to be negative, and that when we choose this, we can lift ourselves and others and harvest within us an attitude of gratitude. I really liked this and printed out and put it up in my room so I could always remember this. I am looking forward to learning all that I learned from this week’s articles and videos and being able to apply it to my own entrepreneurial journey. I am also looking forward to experiencing learning all that I can from my mentor’s and from my classes to help me as well.

Week 12

A lot of the terms in this article was a little difficult to understand for me, but I did my best. I think that virtue and integrity are extremely vital to an economy. If no one was trustworthy in their business affairs their businesses wouldn’t be able to continue anymore. Charles Handy says, “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.” Basically, saying that if there are no businesses out there, we would have to heavily on the government, and that’s something we don’t want to happen as they have always done such a bad job doing it. When people and businesses have the virtue and integrity everything is trusted, people trust them that they’ll do a great job, and there are no worries wondering if the business is accountable or credible. Also, when you do have that virtue and integrity, you stick out like a sore thumb, and people and businesses will want to work with you and want you on their team because you are trustworthy. If you didn’t have integrity and virtue no one would want, you on their team either. According to Charles Handy the real justification for the existence of businesses is to get wealthy from what I understood, is through stock market capitalism. Charles Handy talks of stock market capitalism, and the criterion of success is the shareholder value, as expressed by a company’s share price. He talks of ways to influence share price which are proposed solutions such as 1) buying and selling businesses and 2) cutting or postponing expenditures that are geared to the future will increase profits immediately. I agree with Charles Handy because these two ways can influence the share price which is what someone wants in order to make money according to the article.

Week 11

I don’t really have an attitude towards money other than I know that money is able to help us get ahead in certain aspects. It helps us to live in a way that can help ourselves and our families to be able to do the Lord’s will and what He wants us to do. Money can’t buy us happiness or fix our health or bring someone back from the dead. \We can use money to help us with our health such as using money to buy a gym membership or personal trainer. Money can help us get ahead and can affect the way we live. Having a healthy attitude with money can help us to have financial security, and not to have to worry about our needs. The way that we view money can also affect the way we live such as using money not within our means. The Lord does want us to be self-reliant, and so he expects us to work hard for the things that we need. Brother Gibson shares the scripture Mosiah 1:7 and lists 6 rules from this scripture if we want to prosper. They are: Rule 1. Seek the Lords and have hope in Him. Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings. Rule 3. Think 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 (being educated) 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. I did like these rules that Brother Gibson specifically lists because it’s what we should do and what the Lord wants us to do as well.

Week 10

One thing that stuck out to me in our readings and videos was the article by Elder Dallin H. Oaks on “The Challenge to Become.” He says that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what children of God are supposed to be come. He continues to say that we have to continually be steady in our keeping our covenants, ordinances, actions, making right choices, and continuing repentance to have a spotless and perfected state. I like the scripture he shares along with this in Alma 34:32 where it says, “This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God.” This whole phrase of him talking about what we are to become is all through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is the challenge is whether we are going to continue in keeping our covenants with God. I also liked how he says how we should all be working toward our own personal conversion and how important that is. Elder Oaks talks about the process of conversion and how the gospel challenges us to be converted to testify the to the truthfulness of the gospel. A lot of good principles in this article that stuck out to me. One other video that stuck out to me was the video of Kathy Huber. She was one of the first women who graduated from MIT in the 1960s and how she had to keep going and not let anyone tell her that she can’t graduate or be going to school there. She talked about the type of tenacity and perseverance she had to have to continue her degree. I am looking forward to learning and experiencing more about being able to dream and thinking big. Whatever it is that we think is what we are and what we can become.

Week 9

There was a lot of good videos and articles for week 9, and I loved them all. Within all the videos and articles, they talked about different topics such as: trustworthiness, hiring honest and ethical people, and what a leader is to name a few. There was a couple of things that stuck out to me and that was Elder Bednar’s talk on BYU-Idaho being a disciple preparation center and Jim Ritchie’s video on achieving higher ground. With Elder Bednar’s talk I loved his whole talk, but I would say I really liked the way he talked of BYU-Idaho and the rest of the church schools being similar to the 17 Missionary Training Center’s across the world. They were mostly isolated geographically, most were located near a temple etc. Elder Bednar quotes, “…We are blessed to be in a special place – a Disciple Preparation Center – and to be engaged at a pivotal time in an essential work. As disciples we have important lessons to learn; we have an eternally important work to do.” After reading this it made me think about my time at BYU-Idaho and why I am there and what I will be doing after graduating, and what a blessing that I am able to prepare myself while taking classes to be a better prepared disciple of Christ. The whole BYU-Pathway program through BYU-Idaho was inspired of God and we are able to finish our degrees while at the same time preparing ourselves for discipleship at an affordable price! What a blessing that is for all of us! In Jim Ritchie’s video on achieving higher ground, I really liked how he talked about Captain Moroni and Abinadi from the Book of Mormon, and how they were true leaders who took others to higher ground. They were obedient, they worked hard, they sacrificed, they were prepared in all things as leaders. We can look to them as examples as to how we should be conducting ourselves with ourselves.

Week 8

I really enjoyed the video on Taylor Richards at the Rollins center at BYU. I liked how he referenced Nephi in the Book of Mormon and how Nephi always kept pushing ahead, and always moving forward despite some of the trials he went through. I loved it because sometimes in life we deal with hard times, and we have wonderful prophets and people to look to who have paved the way and set an example for us to keep on carrying on no matter how hard the journey. I also liked that brother Richards talked about not underestimating ourselves or the Lord’s – and that whatever we put our mind to we can accomplish and do. It got me thinking that whatever we choose to do in business or in our life, that we need to believe in ourselves and not doubt that we can’t accomplish anything we set our minds to. Another article that I enjoyed reading was the one from Elder and Sister Holland. The whole article had great points and principles throughout, but what stood out to me was what Sister Holland said. She said, “Be all that you can be! If you have oil in your lamps, you will find how often you get a chance to light them. If you have cared enough to prepare, your light will attract many, both men and women who will seek and cherish your companionship.” She said to be all we can be, to be prepared in all things and to be a light to the world. Elder Holland also talked about preservice and determination which I liked because those are the two things, we should have to keep on going in life with our goals and ambitions in life. I have enjoyed all that we have learned thus far in this class. I look forward to learning and experiencing much more about entrepreneurship through our articles and videos.

Week 7

I liked this article we read about the 7 Habits. I have never read the entire book all the way through, but I did take a class on it a few years ago. After reading the article I decided that I liked the first three habits – Being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. They referred to these first three habits as the private victories that one had to achieve first before the public victories. If I were to choose the one habit that has most meaning for me, I would choose putting first things first. I can always use improvement in using my time more wisely and not procrastinating. This habit refers to personal time management and how well one can prioritize the important and urgent things from the non-important and non-urgent things. This stuck out to me because I’m not the best with time management and deciphering what is a priority and what isn’t at times, only because everything to me is important and priority. I think that the 7 Habits can help fill our life with passion and purpose as we seek to achieve both a private and public victory. The first three habits refer to private victories, and the importance of accomplishing those first before the next habits. The article quotes, “You can’t be successful with other people if you haven’t paid the price of success with yourself first.” I felt like this spoke volumes in terms of first mastering the first three habits prior to making the public victories. We definitely can’t be successful with others without first being successful with ourselves as the article says. I also feel like the 7 Habits can help us decipher what is most important in our lives so we can fill it with passion and purpose by seeking to achieve both the private and public victories.

Week 6

 

I am always thankful for all the videos and articles we are assigned each week because I learn something from each one of them.  I enjoyed reading the article by President N. Eldon Tanner on self-mastery. He first starts out by stating that we are here on this earth to prepare ourselves for the immortality and eternal life of man. He is right. We are all here to prepare, prepare, and prepare. One of the ways we can prepare is by having self-discipline and self-mastery. I also like how he mentions that Satan is continually at work and will try to tempt us through our passions and appetites. He continues to say that we cannot afford to waver in any way because there are those looking at our examples and can and will be influenced by our actions. We have to be watching and continually preparing ourselves by self-mastery to do the things we were called to do on this earth. I also enjoyed Jan Newman’s video on loyalty God and Family. He talked about how our priorities should be God first and then Family. One thing that stuck out to me was where he said that we should never be too busy to not accept a calling in church. I agree with him. In my mind, when you turn down a calling, you’re saying your too busy for the Lord and can’t help Him with His work. Another thing that stuck out to me was when he said we should always be a light to the world through our actions and integrity. He said the world lacks integrity and honesty and when we do have integrity and honesty we will stick out like a sore thumb because there’s not many who have it. I liked this because it’s true! We should always be sharing our light to others by being honest and having integrity. Who wants to do business with someone who isn’t trustworthy or honest? There were a lot of good advice and tips to ponder about as I think of what it is I want to do as an entrepreneur. I am looking forward to learning and experiencing more on entrepreneurship. There’s a lot that I don’t know much about, but I have already learned so much about what to do and how to go about starting a business.

Week 5

I loved this week’s video “A Hero’s Journey!” There were so many different key takeaways for me I don’t know where to start. I’ll first start with what the speaker said in the beginning, where he said that what matters most isn’t the prize at the end, but how the hero has changed in the process. To me this was everything because as we ponder on entrepreneurship one may think of how much money they can make or how profitable they want their business to grow, but we first must think of how the whole process has changed us for the better because that’s the most important thing.  That was something to ponder about as I watched the video. I also liked how he talked about finding great role models or mentors. He talks about how people that were over age 60 were asked what kind of advice they would give someone and he said there were three things that were common. These three things were 1) Have I contributed something meaningful 2) Was I good person and 3) Who did I love and who loved me. Hearing these questions were pretty deep to me because money or success doesn’t matter if we didn’t contribute something meaningful and/or  if we were a good and loving person. Another thing I really liked was how he talked about an experiment we could do with 5 people. He said to choose 5 people that know us pretty well, and to ask them for specifics, evidence, and examples of what they think they see in ourselves. He said in this way we can discover what some of our gifts are and what we are good at when we think those things are easy. I thought this was pretty neat and pondered on what a great idea this would be. Doing this can really help us find what we are good at and what some of our talents are if we don’t think of them already. All in all this was by far one of my favorite videos we have seen thus far since class started, and I’m glad I was able to listen to it all the way through!

Week 3 - Ethics/Integrity

 I really liked the article that Elder Lynn G. Robbins wrote entitled, "Making a Living and a Life." It talked a lot about different things such as work motives in the workplace, pride, and integrity. He explains that at the A-level, the Lord established the correct order with priorities, and that at this level the primary motivation is a love of God and our fellowman. Of necessity, there is a secondary motivation to earn a living." He compares an A-level and a D-level of work and how we want to strive to follow the A-level of work and how we want to strive to do things. Elder Robbins also shares Jacob 2:18-19 which talks about not seeking for riches but seeking to build the kingdom of God. I love this because so many times in the world there are always those seeking out wealth and riches. They also don't have the integrity to do the right things and in building the kingdom of God.

I also really loved a learned a lot from Sister Sheri Dew's talk on Integrity. She quotes, "It is a virtue that will ultimately make you or break you. It will make you or break you as a husband or wife, father or mother, brother or sister, colleague or friend or leader. It will make or break your career. And most significantly, it will make or break your efforts to achieve exaltation. For it will define your relationship with God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost." After reading and pondering upon this, it made me realize of the importance of truly having integrity in all things. Whether in a marriage, family or friend relationship integrity can really make or break that particular relationship as Sister Dew talks about. I am definitely looking forward to continuing to learn more about entrepreneurship and how to prepare for that!

Week 2

 I think that Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams because he never gave up. He explains in his video about how brick walls are there in our life for a reason. What he means by brick walls are trials and obstacles. He says, “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.” I loved this because any dream that we have can come to life without giving up. If we have any setbacks with our dreams or goals, we don’t give up and we keep finding a way to get through that brick wall. I think dreaming is important because it gives us the hope and motivation to accomplish what we desire. One of my childhood dreams was to get married and have a family. I have always believed that I would someday get married and have children and I did!

 I wasn't sure whether or not I would like this class or not, but after reading the assigned articles and videos, my mind has begun to wander about the possibilities about becoming a successful entrepreneur. I have enjoyed learning about what each video and article has had to say about entrepreneurship. I really loved President Hinckley’s video and what he had to say. One of the things that stood out to me was when he said, “Now be faithful. Be true. Go forward. Be ambitious. Don’t short circuits yourself. Don’t stop now. Keep going. Keep going. Educate your minds. And your spirits and never lose sight of the fact that you’re a child of God with a divine destiny and capable of doing great and good and wonderful thing.” I know that with each coming week there will be so much more I will get out of, and I am excited about that.

I am looking forward to writing in my journal blog about the things I learn and get better at as I read weekly and watch the assigned videos. I am really excited about this class!