Briana's Entrepreneurial Journey Journal

This week I was faced with the reality that what I do with my life, truly matters, and living my life to the fullest really depends on how I will personally measure my life and the standards and values I have for me. This week, while studying entrepreneurship, I was acutely made aware that I needed to define what it is that I value in life.  In studying “Launching Leaders – An Empowering Journey for a New Generation” by. Steven A. Hitz, I was inspired by his “Cycle of Spiritual Guidance”. This cycle should help a person to focus on their true, core values and less on external factor. Building my foundation on God and my core values rather than a title, career, or wealth, will allow me to be truer to myself, but also, better able be lead by God. The steps in “The Cycle of Spiritual Guidance” are:      1. Discover your true identity.      2. Trust your inner voice.      3. Have faith to act right away.      4. Be at ...

Risky Business January 23, 2024 Why is having skin in the game important? This week I watched a lecture, “Risks in Business”, by Jan Newman on BYU-Idaho Online Learning. In the lecture Newman shores a story about a startup business where originally, he did not need to invest any personal capital, but a moment came where payroll was not going to be made until Newman personally contributed $60,000. He officially had “skin in the game”.  Things change when there is “skin in the game”. Newman said, “some things changed and turned, and it just took off after that…I learned something about business. It’s important that you get people to have skin in the game. Weather it’s time, effort, they take a lower salary, whatever it is. You have them put some skin in the game, because then they’re aligned with what you’re aligned with. You give them equity, you get them to put skin in the game, and away the business goes. And then you just do whatever it takes to get the business done. But you nev...

The Last Lecture by. Randy Pauch Randy Pauch is actually one of my mentors and his book, “The Last Lecture” has changed my life. I have read it countless times and have even taught large seminars based on his teachings. I believe that everyone could use a bit of Randy in their lives, especially leaders.  In this Entrepreneurial Journal Blog Post, I will answer question posed by my instructor about Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.  Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams? One of the things that Pauch talks about in his lecture is the “benefits of tenacity”. He said, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” What a cool outlook. I think that often people have dreams that they never even try to accomplish. But as Pauch explains, you can’t ever achieve a dream if you never try. He talks about obstacles as brick walls. He said, “brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show ...

Here I sit at the beginning of another semester in school, but only 7 months (22 credits) away from graduating with a bachelor’s degree in applied business management, and yet, I still don’t know how to answer the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s funny, that question, it seems like at 43 years old and one successful career in the books, it would be easy to answer that question, especially after working hard for the last four year on a formal education. But the truth is, all I know right now, is that I am good with others, I am a strong and compassionate leader, and I want to do something that helps others.  A Lesson Learned:  This first week in BUS 110 – Intro to Entrepreneurship at BYU-Idaho, I learned that there are three major purposes of this course:  1. Start the journey with the end in mind.  2. “The start-up of you”  3. To ask yourself:       a. What is my calling in life?       b. How will ...