Posts

Course Reflection

If you had one final lecture to share with a group of students on what you have learned from this course, what would you share? This semester we have covered a ton of information in Intro to Entrepreneurship. As I sit her and reflect on what I would share with a group of students, the main thing I would say is that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. There are many things to consider when choosing a path of entrepreneurship and most of these things depend on your attitude and willingness to make sacrifices, take risks, and work hard.  Taking the time to weigh out all your options so that the best decision can be made. But we all have a mission, and it is up to us to figure out what we want to do with this life that we were given. I still love what Jeff Sandefer said to a group of BYU-Idaho students on February 3, 2015, in his address called, “A Hero’s Journey”. He said, “You have a very special mission on this earth. A mission that will succeed beyond your wildest dream...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gratitude in Business

Thomas S. Monson in his April 1992 talk, “An Attitude of Gratitude”, said, “Like the leprosy of yesteryear are the plagues of today. They linger; they debilitate; they destroy. They are to be found everywhere. Their pervasiveness knows no boundaries. We know them as selfishness, greed, indulgence, cruelty, and crime, to identify but a few. Surfeited with their poison, we tend to criticize, to complain, to blame, and, slowly but surely, to abandon the positives and adopt the negatives of life…We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts and attitude of gratitude. If we ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues.”  A ton has changed in my life during the past four years I have been in school, studying business. I have been able to use my own professional experiences to navigate my learning process at BYU-I. As many of my classes have...
Post a Comment
Read more

“What’s a Business For?” Report

For this blog post I am being asked to respond to specific questions from “What’s a Business For?” By Charles Handy. This article was published in 2002 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.  Based on what you read in the first two pages (pages 3 and 4), why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy? Virtue and integrity are vital and essential in our economy. Handy said it best when he said, “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 wone 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...
Post a Comment
Read more

My “Attitude On Money”

In our Entrepreneurial Journal this week, we have been asked to reflect on the talk given by Stephen W. Gibson in January of 2017 to BYU-Idaho students titled, “Attitude on Money”. I will reflect by responding to the following questions.  What is your attitude toward money? If I were to put on the filter of how I grew up, I would probably think much like Gibson’s sister who does not want to talk, think or show interest in money. Not that I didn’t think that money was important. But it was just something that I never grew up learning about or was taught how to save it.  Instead, I have been lucky to have some great mentors in my life, openly talk to me, coach me and teach me how to save and treat money. I have a different outlook and have spent years trying to have healthy investments and retirement savings.  My current attitude towards money is to openly talk about it, teach others about it, and learn from those who are better at managing their money than I am. I think th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dream Big

This week in my studies of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur coupled with interviewing an actual entrepreneur, I am realizing that dreaming big is easier with others on your side. Having a support system to act as sounding boards and cheerleaders helps one to keep pursuing and problem solving to obtain their dreams and reach for the stars. On top of family and friends it is also important to include the Lord in your venture. In a lecture, “Think Big” by Taylor Richards, Richards advises inspiring entrepreneurs that, “You can do it, you can accomplish your goals and dreams that you set and if you involve the Lord, you can do the impossible, you can do amazing things you can do great things…So I challenge you, peruse your goals and dreams. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. And involve the Lord.”  As I have had the opportunity to work in positions of leadership, I have often said that “Leadership is lonely” and the truth is, it can often be quite lonely as yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Golden Rule

This week the focus was on Disciple Leadership. We learn from Elder David A. Bedard’s address on August 31, 2004, to a group of Brigham Young University-Idaho students, that the definition of a disciple is one who follows or attends upon another for the express purpose of learning.  (Oxford English Dictionary On-Line, second edition, 1989) In Frank Levinson’s talk, “Hiring Ethical People” he said, “The whole goal of business is to weld customers to you and part of what does that is just treating them as you’d like to be treated or more.” My mother always called this, “The Golden Rule”.  Thus, I have concluded this week that Disciple Leadership is all about being the kind of leader that attends to others, tries to learn from others, and treats others as they would like to be treated, with kindness and respect. Also, if the “goal of a business is to weld customers to you”, I also believe it is the goal of every leader to weld teammates to you through treating them how you would ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hold On

This week in our Entrepreneur class, we studied and discussed overcoming challenges in business. I did find it interesting, that many of the challenges were often personal challenges that affected the business. Anyway, I think it is clear to assume that just as in life, in business, we are always going to be faced with challenges. Some major, and some minor, but knowing how to overcome the challenges, is crucial to being successful.  There were two major things that stood out to me this week, in relation to overcoming challenges: 1. Find your “why.”  2. Hold on. In David Carrington’s interview, he talked about how when he got cancer, it helped him to reassess his life and put things into perspective. He said, “I was able to take a step back and look at balance and decide that I was out of balance…We get so ingrained in what we’re doing, we don’t take a breath to see why we’re doing it.” When things get hard, or when challenges arise, it is usually because we are out of bal...
Post a Comment
Read more