Briana's Entrepreneurial Journey Journal

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...

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...

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...

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 ...