A Hero's Journey

This week we read Chapters 1 - 4 in "Mastery ".  I really enjoyed what I have read as it has really opened my eyes to the progressive destruction of those who sink into the trap of instant gratification.  After reading these chapters I have been especially cognizant  of how media is playing a part in this.  It's everywhere around us.  Fame, fortune, everybody's dream, all with little work or effort on the part of the recipient.  Who wouldn't be attracted to this.  The temptation of putting off hard work when the easy life is seemingly right in front of us ready for the taking is becoming more enticing every second.  I can see in my own life how I have taken shortcuts because I have been too impatient to run the long plateau of hard work and practice.  Knowing this I have become empowered to make a huge difference in my own life.

Another highlight from this week was watching "The Hero's Journey" by Brian Carter.  Brian emphasized again the importance of mastery.  We must become an expert in something.  We can do this though diligent effort, and faith.  We can find our  our mission in life by understanding what special talents we have been blessed with, what truly makes us happy (when we "flow"), and what need can we satisfy.  When these three things mesh we have likely found our mission in life, the thing we were born to do.  This is similar to the hedgehog concept.  I'm not sure who first coined this term, but I heard it first by Jim Collins in "Good To Great."

Do What You Love

Do What You Love

I felt inspired by this weeks video, "Do What You Love".  From the video Francis Coppolla is quoted as saying, "do what you love, not because you will be self interested, but because you will be better at it."  You are happier and motivated to do better work naturally when you feel good about what you are doing.  From the video we learned about an exercise, an experiment if you will, to help you find out what it is that makes you happy.  We have to ask ourselves, "What was I born to do, what about me am I the best at?"  The experiment involves a little self reflection, well a lot of self reflection.  Buy a Notebook, and in the notebook you will keep a daily journal wherein you will answer the questions, during the day when did I feel at my best, when did I really Flow, when was I at my happiest? After some time you will begin to recognize, what it is that truly makes us happy, and likely what it is that we are truly born to do. I feel like this will be a great exercise so I am taking on the challenge.

The formula for success

One of the biggest take aways from this weeks lesson was the formula for success, as presented by Jim Ritchie, author of "The Ministry of Business."  The formula is this:

1. get up early
2. work hard
3. Get your education
4. find oil
5. Make your mark
6. Prepare to serve

Get up early. No matter how early you wake up, your future competitor is already at his or her post. Rise early and get the day started right. There's no time for wasting the day by sleeping in, your competitor certainly isn't so why would you.

Work hard. When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden into the world in which we live in now they were counseled that they should acquire the things they needed by the sweat of their brow. They were to provide for themselves by hard work. There are no shortcuts to a happy successful and fulfilling life, and anyone who says there is is either deceiving or being deceived.

Get your education. Education is the key of success. This should be a lifelong pursuit, and not just a four year endeavor with a degree attached to it that says you're ready for a job. We must always be learning and seeking opportunities to improve. We must never become satisfied with where we are at life because we can always become better. By aspiring to become better through learning we set ourselves up for success.

Find oil. Find your passion, your niche, your oil. What is it that makes you amazing. Everyone has something. Find it, and let it flow.

Make your mark. Make your mark on the world by being you. Don't be afraid to think outside of the box, to be different, or to do it you're own way. Those who fit in are invisible and don't make any marks. Don't be afraid to stand out. You will take criticism for being different, but so did all of the great men and women in the world who left great marks on the world.

Finally, prepare to serve. Prepare to give back to the world. Give back in charitable service. Don't die with your music still in you. Give back and serve your community, your family, your world, and your God. A thousand or even a hundred years from now your careers and titles will fade into insignificant nothingness. What will remain will be how you served those around you.

Create a Life of Meaning

This week I really enjoyed our reading assignments.  We started reading “The Ministry of Business”, and I was really impressed by what I read.  I was particularly impressed with the principles taught.  I really enjoyed what was written about “coincidences” and would like to start keeping track of those things in my life one might consider a “coincidence”.  Another principle taught to us in chapter 2 is the importance of covenant making, and covenant keeping.  “Just as crops need water to grow, our entrepreneurial, professional, and other life efforts need divine guidance and aid to succeed.”  From chapter 3 I learned the importance of including, not excluding, my wife in my career decisions.  You cannot separate work from home, and anyone who tells you differently is lying to you, themselves, or both.  This has opened up entrepreneurial ideas that I haven’t considered before.

Randy Pausch’s last lecture was very interesting.  He spoke about achieving your childhood dreams.  Something he said really stood out to me about the doors that close in our lives, or the brick walls that “block” our dreams.  Walls are just there to show us how hard we are willing to work for something.  Those who want it hard enough will put forth the effort to overcome any obstacle.  This is how Randy was able to achieve so many of his own dreams.

It’s important to dream, because it gives us something to go after.  Dreaming allows us to stretch ourselves and reach our greatest potential.  As a child I dreamt about becoming an inventor.  I feel like I have lived that dream at least partially.  I have always wanted to work with my hands, and have found great enjoyment in fixing and creating things.  I have even blogged about some of the things I have created in an attempt to experiment with affiliate marketing with some success.  In the future I would like to continue to live this dream and see where it takes me.

B183 Week 1

A new semester is under way which means new classes, and new topics!  This semester I will be taking and writing about an introduction to entrepreneurship.  I'm taking this course for the second time because I failed it the first time around (complements to a life busier than most); however the most negative can be turned around to be a positive with enough effort and work.  So here I am, round two!  In this blog I will explore such subjects as creating a life full of meaning, business ethics, life measurements, mastery, driving passion, overcoming challenges, disciple leadership, dreaming big, life balance, becoming a change-maker, and a journey of gratitude.  I'm excited to get started and hope to share everything I learn here.

Week 13 Journal Update

Capstone Journal Entry

It's the final week in this class and I have some time to reflect on what I've learned.  Some of the most important things I want to take with me are knowing the customer, first who then what, be great not good.  Know who your target customer is so you can make informed decisions about your business.  Each decision should have the customer in mind.  The first order of any business is who, not what.  First you must find the right people, and then you must drive the business.  By finding the right people first you will find the drive is easier, and the people actually assist in the driving.  Good is the enemy of great, creating good content is pointless because there is so many out there that do just that.  There is a lack of great content because so many are just good.   Being great makes you, your business, your product, your service stand out so much more than those who are merely good.

This has been a very enjoyable semester.  I really learned a lot from the $100 challenge project as I was able to apply the principles and lessons we learned in class to real life at least on a small scale.  From the project I was able to see the importance of knowing the target customer and how this can effect your decisions.  I learned about the impact marketing can play in advertising your products or services.  I learned about challenges that may arise and how to deal with them.  You can either see them as a problem, or an opportunity.  Finally I was able to see the importance of giving back.  We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father.  I had this great opportunity to try out a few business ideas and had some success.  I was able to share that with someone around the world who probably felt more blessed than I ever would from my meager earnings.

Week 12 Journal Update

Failing Forward

To brace us for entrepreneurship we studied the lives of well known entrepreneurs who had to overcome great odds and failure before achieving success.  I wrote about Thomas Edison:

Often, the hardest endeavors in life are also the most rewarding.  The reward is won through hard work, and often many struggles and setbacks.  Building a successful business is no stranger to this principle.  In fact many of business’ most well known Entrepreneurs have struggled with failure until they finally achieved success.  Steve Jobs was fired from his own business, Milton Hershey started three unsuccessful candy companies before his success, and even Walt Disney was fired and told he lacked creativity.  What these men have in common is not how they fell down in failure, but how they picked themselves back up again and again in order to achieve success.   What makes all the difference is not how you fail, but how you handle that failure.  One such failure was Thomas Edison.  The man who failed over 1,000 times before finally inventing (or re-creating) a successful light bulb.

One thing that we can learn from Thomas Edison is he never dwelt on the past mistakes.  When we hear about Thomas Edison we almost always hear about the light bulb because that is his big success.  We don’t hear about his failures, and he had plenty of them.  Despite all of his failures however, Edison remained optimistic.  When questioned about all of his failures his response was, “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

This response shows me that he looked upon his failures in a positive light.  When we realize that we will have failure, or low points in our careers, we can become better by learning from those mistakes.  Even if we fail a thousand, or 10,000 times, that one success can more than make up for those failures.

Having a clear vision of my goals and how to reach those goals can help with this.  A well detailed business plan can help with this.  When we know where we are driving the bus, we can easily get back up after each speed bump, or failure.  Thomas Edison knew the light bulb could work (he wasn’t the only one to do it), and knew he could find a way to make it work.  If he hadn’t made it a success someone else surely would have; but he didn’t give up.  By knowing what we are after and having confidence in that vision we are empowered to press on regardless of any failed attempts.  For Edison, it was the light bulb.  We can learn from him, and from many great entrepreneurs the quality of perseverance.  With it we can overcome all things.

$100 Challenge Update

My final project has exploded over the past week that it has been online.  The homemade crossbow was a huge success.  I'm hoping the wind doesn't die down, but carries on in time.  Today it has seen 30,000 views in just a week.  I am glad I have taken on affiliate marketing for this project.  I have learned a great deal from it.  This week we submitted a powerpoint presentation on our projects.  Here is a link to mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWCzp3pf5lQ