Week 7

Finding Your Passion!

Today in class Team #3 gave their research project on finding your passion. They asked us three questions;

1.      What is your passion?

2.      What are your goals that go with that passion?

3.      If money wasn't a problem, what would you do with your life?

Questions I have answered before but writing them down and seeing them on paper was a bit different. They also made some key points I would like to touch on;

• When you know it’s not working, quite fast.

Don’t stay in a job, a relationship, a home, or career that isn’t working for you. Get out and get out fast. When you realize that something isn’t working for you then it is time to make a change.

• Take a risk, take action, get in the growth zone.

You aren’t going to go anywhere if you just stay in your comfort zone thinking of your passions. You have to get out there and learn what truly makes you tick. Take action every day that will bring you closer to your goals and dreams.

• Don't limit yourself.

Try new things. Uncover your hidden passions and talents by getting out of your comfort zone. You can’t say you aren’t good at anything if you haven’t ever tried anything! And given it your best shot at it. If you try it, give it your all. 

• "If you’re looking to spend the rest of your life doing something you love, the best way to start is to treat financial concerns as secondary."

Do it because you love it, because it is your passion, not just for the money. Your career should not just be seen as a source of income, you should love it. You’re spending your life doing it, get some meaning from it. 

• “You've got to find what you love. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, doing settle.”

From our reading/videos;

• ·         Gordon B. Hinckley counseled, have integrity, be honest, stay clean, be true to yourselves my friends, be true to others, mother, your Heavenly father, they care for you and are there to help you.
• ·         “Innovate, there comes a time when the old Ideas aren't good enough. keep learning, learn something every day.” -Carly Fiorina
• ·         “Enjoy it while you have it, there is plenty of time to suffer later.” Guy Kawaski, talked of getting an education, and getting the most out of it. Enjoying what you had in the moment you had it, and living it for all its worth.
• ·         Don't "take advantage" of your customers. -David Carrington
• ·         “Trust is fragile, once cracked it is never quite the same.” -Charles Handy

Week 6

Mentors!

That's what we focused on this week; Having mentors and learning how to find good ones. You always hear that you should find mentors and coaches, people to look up to, examples. Over and over you hear choose your friends wisely. but how often do we do that?

Every person around us determines who we are going to become and who we can progress to be.

"If you’re the smartest one in the room, you’re in the wrong room." And let me add, you need to get out of that room and that house and look for a place where you're not the smart one. 

Here’s my take always from this week’s readings and lesson, No one grows from just staying in one place or with one group of people, we must expand our horizons. I need to expand my horizons and be careful of becoming entangled with people who bring me down or are highly emotionally or mentally demanding. Because they will not get me to where I want to be. I need to be surrounded by successful and intelligent people.

I need to learn how to organize my time and use it to the best of my ability, so that one day when I have a family they can be my priority.

I should make a priority list, as part of my code of conduct, with family and God at the top.

One last thing, connected to those last few points, I need to get out of my box. When I see someone that I want to talk to, when I hear of a successful person I would like to get in touch with or learn more about, if I have an opportunity I need to take it. There is no place for fear of ‘shyness’ in my life anymore. That’s what I have learned from my mentors this week.

Take a risk. 

Week 5... 10/11/2017

This week was awesome, as it is every week. Unlike the other weeks though I was not ahead in my homework due to being out of town. Unfortunately, this did affect my intake on the assigned readings. However, I did make some interesting observations in class. 

First, team work is key! And nothing can beat preparation. My team had to give the research presentation in class yesterday and we did good. But it wasn’t until we all got on the same page about what we were doing that things came together. The week before we had done a motivational moment and I realized between the two that each person in our team has different strengths, I’m definitely better and the motivation part then the research but a couple others in our team were great at the research. In short, my point is, it is important to realize the strengths of the people you have in your teams so you can utilize them in the best way.

Second, sometimes slow is better. We read a case called Warm Fuzzy Cards. The question that was put to us in class was, "Should the founder of the company peruse fast or slow-paced growth?" The class split to two different sides of the room depending on our opinions and then we had a small debate. The arguments were interesting and both compelling but what it really came down to was what the founder wanted/felt she should do and her capabilities of expanding. Neither fast or slow growth was wrong necessarily, but in the end, we decided that for her company in her situation it would be best to peruse slow growth. (I chose slow growth to begin with)

Third, if you’re going to argue, know your argument. But more importantly know your audience. One kid in the class tried to take the side that as a mother the woman in the case had a first duty to her family and wouldn't be able to handle an expanding company. Now let me just say he almost got eaten alive by the 3 very activist women in that class. Even though I knew what he meant and understood his reasoning, the way he formed his words left him in a bad situation. Be aware of what you’re saying. "It takes a life time to build a reputation, and only a few seconds to destroy one."

Fourth, everyone is born an entrepreneur, you just have to make yourself one. We read an article titled, “Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?” the author asked a group of successful entrepreneurs, “What is most important? Skill, Character or luck?” The answer came out to be character because nothing can by that. Skills can be learned by those with the right attitude, and luck only determines “the difference between making $100 or $1000.” Remember that every skill can be learned, but it’s up to you to have the character in order to be worthy of those skills. Character is being persistent, continuing to get up every time you’ve been knocked down. We may all be born with an entrepreneurial ability, but few nurture the character required for success.

One last thing, The Formula,

1.      Wake Up Early

2.      Work Hard

3.      Get Educated

4.      Find Your Oil (what makes you unique)

5.      Make Your Mark

Week 4...

We were asked this week as one of the assignments to make a personal constitution as well as a code of conduct. Pretty much to just map out what our care values would be as entrepreneurs, the do's and don'ts. I put a bunch of values, honesty, strength, leadership etc. But after the readings for this week I realized that I have made a big oversight. I didn't mention family in either assignment. I believe in putting family first. I will always put my family and my kids first before my career. That is what is on the top of my Code of Conduct, that is what my Personal Constitution consists of. My kids, my spouse, my God comes first, always, no questions asked.

I loved the readings and videos for this week (as I do every week) but truly I think you should read them;

1.      Read "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton M. Christensen

2.      Read A Journey of Personal Transformation

3.      Read Chapter 7, "The Personal Constitution," from The Ministry of Business book.

4.      Read Chapter 8: Fighting the Dragon from Hero's Journey book.

I'm not going to talk about the reading simply because I have more to write about.

This week we had an awesome opportunity to go to Boise for 'Boise Start Up Week', a entrepreneurial conference. It was awesome!

Key points I learned from this week from both the lectures as well as observing while on the tours through different startups;

1.      Team work should be priority. the companies we walked through were set up in such a way as to encourage as much collaboration between employees as possible. As well as having people separated into teams work together, they made is possible for different teams to work together in person. 

2.      ‘Keep it light. Gotta have some fun or you’ll go crazy.’ Have fun, be open, your employees are responsible for their own productivity. If you or your employees work best if they can take a walk at exactly 1120 everyday, or take a 10-minute nap at 1pm, or play a game of basketball to get their mind rolling, if they team needs to have some food while they are collaborating, have that available. They are still expected to work 8 hours. but they better be the most productive 8 hours they can give. 

3.      Design of work space is highly important. The work place, or study room, should inspire creativity and ingenuity.

4.      Start with the why. That is what inspires and dives people.

5.      Make some noise, talk about your dreams to everyone. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, ‘I want to surprise everyone’ or ‘I don’t want anyone to take my idea’. Get people fired up about your ideas before you even bring them to life.

6.      The moment you take a dollar from someone else it is no longer your company. Your first responsibility is to your investors, they make the rules.

7.      For every 10 start ups you see, 11 of them fail. Failure is real, it’s a part of life, get up and move on blessing the day you failed and learned why.

8.      Validate Your Idea

·         Talk to potential customers

·         Survey

·         Presale product

·         Talk about it, get people excited

9.      Form an Entity, Identify IP, own your IP, Protect your IP, Monotize IP.

10.  People will not give you real feedback till they have ‘skin in the game’.

11.  Get a good team.

·         Passionate

·         Diverse

·         Talented

·         High values

·         Mentors and advisors

12.  Anyone who creatively or technically touches your idea or product must sign an IP assignment and NDA

13.  IP-the legal stuff. Patent your ideas. (I now know how, and have an idea of what it will take)

14.  If you can’t explain your goal in 30 seconds or less, then you haven’t boiled it down enough.

15.  Don’t let your fist go around be your last. When you finally get success, shoot for it again.