Money Money Money

This week in my entrepreneurial journal, I was presented with three questions to answer. I wanted to share the three questions and break down my thoughts on what I learned and what was shared and hopefully give you something to think about in your own view of the questions. 

• What is your attitude toward money?

      I think that as long as attaining money is not your primary goal in life, it is a completely fine thing to work hard for. Money does a lot of good in the world in the sense that it helps feed the homeless, provide homes, speed up research for cures, relieve others from unexpected struggles such as natural disasters, pay for church supplies and keep the buildings running for a there to be a spiritually safe space for people to worship, and many other things. Money shouldn't be a priority in life, other than to ensure you can provide for your family and keep them safe from the craziness that exists in the world, but again there is nothing wrong with making more money or setting a goal to make more money, especially if you intend to do good with it. 

• How can your view of money affect the way you live?

      Some people view money as the most important thing in life, because they feel it brings them happiness. The problem with thinking this way is that there are a lot of people with that way of thinking that do illegal or shady things to obtain more money. Sometimes money brings out the absolute worst in people, which is why you have to be sure your intentions are pure when you make a lot of money or are working hard to make more. Heavenly Father knows our hearts. He is more likely to help those with pure intentions make more money than those who are making more money and simply stacking on their own greed and pride. 

• What rules are recommended for prospering?

      I feel it is important to note that there are some rules that are for everyone, and other rules that apply on a person to person basis. I am going to list a few that I feel apply to everyone and then some that depend on the person.

 

Rules that apply to everyone:

1. Never let money become more important than your family (spouse or kids at the bare minimum)

2. Be honest in all of your dealings with your fellow man, both in business and personal life. Those who lift up others, will be lifted up by others as well. 

3. Do everything with the intention of bettering yourself and the world around you. When the world around you is prospering because of your efforts, then things typically turn around for your good as well. 

Rules that apply to a person-to-person basis:

1. If you have no family (spouse or kids) to be accountable to, then find a good cause or source to put above money. Money should never be your primary goal, even if you aren't religious or have no family.

2. Not everyone is given the exact same resources to be prosperous. We all have the tools in some shape or form to get there, but the tools change person to person. Find what your available tools are and work with them so long as they are honest and sincere and aligned with the Lords will. 

Entrepreneur Interview Update

I am excited to share that I went through my entrepreneur interview this week, and it went great! I learned some things about starting a company that I had never thought about before. It turns out that the entrepreneur that I chose actually decided to start their business, because the first time they saw their daughter roll over was via a video call and it made him feel that he needed to be closer to home. At the start of making of your own business, it takes a lot of hours to get it off the ground, but once you do, you can be more flexible for family and other important aspects of life. He runs a healthcare consulting company that does very well, but learned some valuable lessons along the way. One of the lessons that stuck with me is that he suggests not running finances in house, but instead putting the liability on a third party company. The first year he started the business, he tried to do the finances in house and ended up getting tax penalties that were quite hefty. This makes sense to me, especially since I personally hate doing anything with finances. It is interesting that every entrepreneur gets into business for different reasons, and it seems one of his main reasons is to be closer to family but also provide for his employees. Speaking from first had experience, my boss does an amazing job running his business because he puts a lot of love and a faith towards his employees. I think that is such an important part about running a company. Too many companies forget about their employees and think too much about less important factors. I loved the advice that the entrepreneur gave about sticking with whatever motivates you when starting a business, because it doesn't help to do something you can't stand. If money motivates you, then use that motivation. If making employees and other people happy motivates you, then use that instead. It is whatever floats your boat and helps you get the work done. This interviewing process has been awesome and eye opening. I'm grateful for opportunities like this in school, because these are the true learning experiences for me. 

Entrepreneur Interview Preparation

Sometimes school is a pain and feels like busy work. This week, I had a really nice experience talking about how I can prepare for an interview with an entrepreneur. This class is all about learning how to master myself and prepare myself if I were to every decide to start my own business. One of the best ways that I can think to do that is to actually talk to an entrepreneur and learn how they started the process from the very start, even meaning how the business became a thought. There are a few specific questions that matter most to me. The first question that comes to mind is how much time does starting the business take away from family. Family is the number one most important thing to me, and I understand that some new business owners are drowned in work. That is not something I am overly interested in, but would love to know how it effected their time management in all aspects of their life. Another question I think would be important to know is what the risk was to them. If you think about it, a lot of business owners take out loans to get things started up, but others are financially backed by family or some other means. I would want to know if they had risk, or if someone took a chance on them to start the business. If there was risk involved, I would like to know what preparations the entrepreneur took to offset them if future problems occurred. I'm grateful for school when I feel like the lessons actually apply to a real life scenario that could happen in my life, and am excited to really get into the interview this week. 

Intro. to Entrepreneurship Interview Preparations!

Good evening everyone!

I am grateful for the opportunity share with you some of the things that I learned about being an entrepreneur this week. One of the assignments that we have to do in class is focus on talking with an entrepreneur in an industry we are interested in. It never really crossed my mind that it would be appropriate to ask someone in the industry for some pointers. The way that I was thinking about it is that I am asking someone successful in my preferred industry how I can become a competitor for them. My thinking wasn't on point in that I wouldn't have to start my business in their region for starters, and even though we live in a competitive age people still want other people to be successful too. If someone were to approach me seeking counsel on how to better themselves for a situation, I would gladly help them out. Between the 8 billion people on Earth, there is an endless pool of knowledge to pull from to increase our capabilities of starting a successful business or even work on ourselves. Heavenly Father wants each of us to share our gifts and talents with each other to make our mortal journey easier. It is a good thing that we are all different, because if you approach someone for guidance, and they have nothing new or beneficial to offer you then this world wouldn’t be near as successful as it could be. From my experience, it is best to make sure all pride is put the side. Whether you are teaching or being taught how to do something, be open minded to the idea that other people were put into our lives for an important reason and they should be treated as such.

Master Your Life!

Hello everyone!

This week I had the opportunity to reflect on George Leonard's book Mastery and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Both books offer advice that anyone can apply in their life to be more effective in reaching their goals and dreams. The habit that meant the most to me this time around was "Think Win/Win." Usually when I am trying to accomplish something or am working on a goal, it is something that I am doing for myself. I love the idea of a win/win situation, because it benefits all parties in a meaningful and uplifting way. Truthfully, it is sad that the world has become so competitive that it seems that win/win situations occur less. I was even more impressed by Stephen Covey’s thoughts on a win/win or no deal situation. A win/win or no deal situation means exactly how it sounds. No deal will occur unless both parties are guaranteed a win. This should always be the case, whether it has to do with personal, spiritual, or even professional matters.

I really enjoyed reading through Mastery the past few weeks because it is a book that not only breaks down the challenges that you face mastering a skill, but ways to do it more effectively. We all tend to make new years resolutions about things that we want to accomplish or skills we want to obtain. The problem is we tend to fall short on those goals. George Leonard offers advice on how to not only find strength to attain mastery in different aspects of our lives, but how to accomplish it as well. If you haven’t read either of these books, they aren’t just for people in school. They are literally for everyone and can legit make a difference in your life.

My Entrepreneurial Self Discovery Journal Entry

Hello everyone!

Yet again, I have the opportunity to share with you some cool insights that I learned from my Intro to Entrepreneurship. This week we got to hear from a couple of speakers that stood out to me. The first speaker, Steve Blank, is talking about the journey to starting a new business. He expressed that it can be soul sucking and very time consuming to start a new company and get it off the ground. If you are single, he said it is much easier to start a company than if you have a family as well. Steve had a family when he started working on his own business, but he wanted to be sure that he had time for them. To ensure he could balance his time wisely, he made a set of rules with his wife and kids specifically regarding how he would handle time management while running the company. It was through his set of rules that his company didn't take over his personal life and time with family. Every entrepreneur should be doing this, because controlling your type is typically one of the benefits of personalized time management of the company. The next person that I wanted to briefly touch on is Wences Casares, founder of Lemon Bank and Wanako Games. He shared an idea that I agree and disagree with. The idea is that if you want to do really well at something, stick with it for a long time. What he meant is that if you are an entrepreneur, don't just give up on what you are working on, but instead stick with it for the long hall. Where I agree is that if the product or project is consistently moving forward in a positive way, then stick with it, but where I disagree is that sometimes staying with something is a bad idea. I work in healthcare contracting, where I contract doctors for health plans. Sometimes they don't want to join the plan I am contracting for, so instead of pursuing a dead lead, I move on to someone new. The same applies to business, in the sense that if you aren't seeing any kind of positive success, then it would be better to spend your time and resources on something different. I'm not saying the product/project has to be completely different from the first, but you don't want to stick with something that is getting you nowhere and using up your time and resources. It is important to really try and find that right balance. 

The Journey of a True Hero

This week, I am pleased to have the opportunity to share my thoughts on a video that I watched titled
"A Hero's Journey." The main speaker was a man named Corey Bell, who basically shares why and how he became an entrepreneur. He starts off by talking about how he worked at several different jobs, but yet none of them made him feel fulfilled. He wanted to be able to serve other people better and felt that the best way to do that would be to risk losing a steady job and starting his own business. Even though it worried his wife, and he ended up having 9 of his siblings live with him, he pushed through  the challenges and became a successful entrepreneur. His main points explained that we can  do anything that we put our mind to, and that the word "can't" shouldn't be used in our vocabularies. Where I agree with Corey is that we are all children of God and with that being said, we all have infinite potential. If we want to start a business, we just have to find the right motivation and make a move. If you don't try then you will fail, but if you try and fail, at least you had a chance for success. Obviously with any entrepreneur, there is always the risk of failing, but Corey points out that there are always a million jobs to go back to if it doesn't work out. We all have to ask ourselves what we want to accomplish in this life, and how we can serve the world around us. Corey's reasons for starting a business may be different from mine, but as long as the reasoning is pure then it is worth trying. The most important thing that stuck to my mind from the video is that Corey points out that the graveyard is the richest place in the world. What he meant is that the graveyard has many people who have passed away that never attempted to live up to the dreams or goals. It is a shame when people with amazing talents and ideas don't share them because it could have been world changing. As you go through focusing on your professional choices, make sure you are doing something that will help you feel fulfilled in the end. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of your life and have a long list of "what if's." You don't want to look back and wonder why you didn't take any risks to achieve the things you wanted most out of life.