Week 1 of school….it’s been awhile

This class certainly was helpful. I think that I learned a lot and it tested my resolve to finish. If I had to give my final advice to a group of students on what I learned from this course, it would be to live a life of meaning. If this course taught me anything, it was that I need to map out my life to put me on a path to happiness. That path is different for all of us. Some of us want to be entrepreneurs, some of us are just interested in it. Either way, we need to map out our lives and if we find out we are not on the right track, we need to slow down and change course, before it is too late.

If I was going to give any advice to someone starting on their own journey into entrepreneurship, I would say that they need to be prepared for loneliness and hardship. From the case studies, lots of people struggled. In fact, I think everyone struggled and faced extreme hardships at once point. Multiple people failed creating business, but their perseverance made them victorious in the end.

It’s funny that my advice is a lot like my caution, but I think it needs to be said. You have to be self aware of what you are good at and what you struggle at. Maybe entrepreneurship isn’t for you, maybe it is. But you need to know your weaknesses and vulnerabilities. We aren’t perfect, and we don’t know everything. That is ok. But if you start a business, hire people who complement you. Don’t do everything on your own, if you do, you could end up broke and alone. I think we are all in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves. Learn as much as you can and be humble.

Again, this course was helpful and I think I did learn a lot!

Wow this week has been crazy! Non-essential retail was shutdown here in Iowa, so I am at home mostly with my family. It is crazy to think that a virus can do this to the entire world. I’ve really taken health and wellness for granted. You don’t think that something like this could happen, until it does. I’m taking some of the extra time to spend with my family and take walks in the neighborhood and slow down a bit. That is one positive of the situation.

There was a part from the case study we read this week that I wrote about in an assignment. It says, “Most venture capitalists will tell you that of ten deals that they’ll do, on average, two will be total failures, two will be not so great, and somewhere between the remainder of one and six are going to be successful or moderately successful. So, I know already going into the entrepreneurial situation that something is going to fail. It still hurts, though, when you’re going through it, and real people are involved. You just feel like you misled people, or you could have done a better job as a leader.”

This week has given me multiple scenarios of which make me feel like Randy felt in that quote. We recently had to let people go because of the virus’s impact on our business. They were good people who put in time in our store. For no other reason were they let go than because of this dang virus.

I think that as we go on we will all be faced with tough decisions. The thing we have to realize is that these hard moments are just that….moments. We will all get through them and we will be stronger when we come out on the other side.

Virtue and integrity are key to a good economy. In the article “What’s a Business For”, Charles Handy says “Markets rely on rules and laws, but those rules and laws in turn depend on truth and trust. Conceal truth or erode trust, and the game becomes so unreliable that no one will want to play. The markets will empty and share prices will collapse, as ordinary people find other places to put their money – into their houses, maybe, or under their beds. The great virtue of capitalism – that it provides a way for the savings of society to be used for the creation of wealth–will have been eroded. 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.” I completely believe what he says. We are now experiencing extremely unique and difficult circumstances. Lots of Americans are banking on a stimulus bill to get passed to help them, yet our government had a very difficult time getting one done. Relying on our government to generate out wealth will always be a bad idea.

To continue in this article, Charles says that the purpose of a business is not to make a profit. It is to make a profit to do something better. It isn’t about a means to an end, but we need to make the world better around us. That’s what wealth should be used for.

Two solutions of his that I agree with are measuring success in terms of success for others, as well as ourselves, and serving the rich while serving the poor. I think these go hand in hand. You can make a good profit and serve others. Too many people view success as making a lot of money. But it is what you do with the money that makes a difference.

I think I see money as a step to a better life. As a kid, we always had money problems. We always struggled to find ways to pay our bills and buy groceries. Lots of times we didn’t pay the bills so we could buy groceries, and vice versa. So I see money as a necessary part of life and I certainly focus on making lots of it. A lot of that viewpoint has to do with my childhood, but I also have kids and I want to provide for them in a way that my family couldn’t for me and my sister.

I think that my view on money impacts the way I live in lots of ways. I have a good work ethic and I enjoy working hard and earning what I have. I have no interest in being given anything. Also, when I buy something it is usually something nice. It isn’t nice because I want the best, but I enjoy having things that last. I think only rich people can afford cheap things.

In the article we read for homework this week, there were 6 recommended rulse for porspering…
Rule 1. Seek the Lord 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. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity.
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.

After reading these rules, I think we need to use our wealth to help others. I think that is the best way to live.

This week was a nice week. I’ve gotten a lot accomplished despite some illness, and I have made some of my business goals a reality in these last couple months.

The learning this week was really nice. Dreaming big dreams was a topic that I liked this week. The idea stems around believing you can achieve a big goal. The part of my study this week that I liked the best was the idea of Google’s 20% time.

Google’s idea of 20% time says that you take one day a week to work on something that you want to work on (think of 1 day out of a traditional 5 day work week). Most of the time you can’t devote one whole day a week to working on a personal project, but more often it is parts of days that incorporate the full 20%.

The video I watched said that in 2005, 50% of Google’s projects that were released were done out of the 20% time. I almost couldn’t believe it but I know it is true. In my personal experience, I was able to spearhead a training program for a furniture franchise with about 6 other people in about 8 months. The project should have taken 1.5 years, but we were enthusiastic about it because it was our personal project.

It just goes to show if you let employees work on things they are passionate about they can produce great results. I think the same goes for our personal lives. If we pursue our dreams and passions the work we do never feels like work.

The learning this week was good. I really enjoyed learning about being a leader. I have always thought of myself as someone who could be considered a good leader. I feel that I am empathetic and I want the best for my employees. But sometimes I struggle with getting others to see the vision that I have for them. Sometimes I feel that I want something for them that they may not want themselves, so I have really worked on trying to understand the needs of my staff and working backwards from their goal.

Also this week I ran into a roadblock with my eBay store. I run an eBay store where I do retail arbitrage. It has been successful but I recently ventured into drop shipping. eBay’s rules say drop shipping is allowed, but you have to have the product before hand. That is fine when I do retail arbitrage, but retail arbitrage isn’t exactly drop shipping. So I think I may open a Shopify store so I can drop ship. A concern I have is the coronavirus in China. Lot’s of products come from overseas, so I may wait to see how that ends up first.

Also I conducted one of my interviews this week for my entrepreneur paper. It was an old boss of mine. It was really nice to talk to him and learn about his new franchise that he bought. I am really happy for him and I am glad he is doing well. I’m glad I get to write about him. What is funny is that when I was hired I told him I’d work a year then go back to school. Well 10 years later I’m going back, and I once took his position when he changed stores. It’s funny how life works out sometimes.

There couldn’t have been a more appropriate title for this weeks blog entry. Quite honestly, I can’t think of a worse 10 days that I’ve experienced so far. I had my Grandmother pass away and my wife and I experienced our 2nd miscarriage in the last 6 months. It was during my Grandma’s funeral that we started to have the symptoms of her miscarriage show and it was unbelievable. I just couldn’t imagine how this could happen to us, again!

It has been hard to function or even think these last 10 days. I can honestly say I just wish the world stop and let me breathe for a minute, but it doesn’t. I still have to work and I still have to be strong and carry on. In this weeks reading President Monson has a quote where he says, “We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but He will comfort and lead you with love through whatever storm you face.”

I can say that I have been able to feel comforted, despite the seeming inability to perform any task at a high level. I know that I am not alone, and that my Heavenly Father is there for me. I think the same could be said for business in general. If we are struggling we should turn to God for peace and strength and wisdom to continue doing whatever it is we are doing. God won’t abandon us and he will show us the way.

The habit that had the most meaning to me was “be proactive”. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People defines being proactive as being able to “choose our own response to any signals or information we receive. We have the ability to influence our own actions. Therefore, being proactive means to actively choose what our response will be in any situation rather than to react blindly.”

I have always thought of this as one of the most important things that I have learned in my life. Being able to hold myself accountable for how I respond or react in any situation has given me great happiness. It gives me happiness because it gives me control over my life. I know that no matter what scenario I am faced with I have the capacity and ability to respond positively to it.

The 7 habits can fill my life with passion and purpose as I seek professional and personal achievement, because they give balance to my life. The habits focus on areas like self-mastery and private victories. They help to build upon each other and help us work in harmony with others. I like what the 6^th habit of synergy talks about when it says, “You literally can achieve more as a combined group than you ever could alone. Whole new worlds of insights, new perspectives, new paradigms leading to new options and alternatives are opened to your vision.” This habit of synergy uses all the prior habits to work together. We all go through this life with others. We have to learn how to communicate and work together and build trust with our fellow man. If we try and go through life alone, we will fail and we never would be able to achieve our full potential.

I believe the 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People helps us to be one with each other. It provides a solid foundation to be able to communicate better and work together with everyone in our lives. I think that by using and developing these habits I’ll be able to achieve great things in my life.

This week’s study material was great. I really had some moments where I felt that the material was really directed at me. I spend over 50 hours a week working, 30+ hours on school work, and I’m trying to start an online business and I have felt a bit drained. At times, I have felt I was sacrificing family time for work time. The readings and the videos this week were definitely something that I needed to hear, and something I’ve taken to heart.

We can get so focused on ourselves, that we don’t see the impact it has on others. Sometimes that impact is positive, and sometimes it is negative. But regardless of that, we need to take regular inventory of our lives so we don’t get too far off course. I’ve started taking an inventory of my time to see where I spend it. My purpose is to see if I can find more time to spend with my family, and decrease the amount of wasted time so that I can be more productive and happy.

Like the video above says, we shouldn’t crunch the things that don’t need crunching, like our family time or our devotion to the Lord. Holding on to hobbies or other things that we don’t need to hold on to, can potentially harm our relationships with those who we love the most. We only have so much time in one day and in one lifetime. We should strive to use it more wisely.

I am super excited to see where this journey takes me and I am excited to have a deeper and more meaningful relationship with my family as a result. I’m sure it would benefit all of us to take a regular inventory of our life to see where we can improve and better ourselves.

“A wise person does it once, a fool does it last.” This was the quote that I’ve had time to reflect on this week.

What I normally say is “better late than never”. But that phrase contradicts the quote from the video. Although I have heard the quote about the fool before, only phrased differently, this time I spent time pondering its meaning. For me, “A wise person does it once, a fool does it last”, means that the saying “better late than never”, isn’t true.

I think that entrepreneurs who spend too much time waiting and debating decisions, will ultimately lose. I’m someone who prefers speed over everything. I believe that we won’t know the alternatives of our decisions, so we might as well make the most well informed decision as fast as possible and respond positively if things don’t go as we planned.

Procrastination can be a killer. I’ve been guilty of procrastinating doing work that I know I can get done quickly. Sometimes I procrastinate for no reason, but effective people get things done, and they get them done quickly. If we don’t take care of the things that we need to take care of now, we won’t have time to do the things we want to when we want to do them.

That thought applies to our finances in some respects also. If we spend money on things that we shouldn’t, if we take on unnecessary debt, we end up being slaves to our money.

I think that this weeks learning was pretty good. I had some good experiences and I think that we can all learn how to manage our time better and plan our futures better. Taking time out of our schedules to better ourselves or to take care of something that we have been putting off will make a noticeable difference in our quality of life.