"My Last Lecture"

The challenge for this week's post (which will be my last, as the class is not ending), was to consider what we might tell those who are embarking on their own entrepreneurial journey, if it was the last time we would ever get to speak. In many ways, this post will contain advice for myself, as I am one of those students contemplating trying to make it on my own.

 Okay, here it goes...

First off--don't be stupid.

That might sound a bit abrasive, but I recall the words of a wise and humble man, recorded in The Book of Mormon, which he spoke to his own people. He told them to "be wise", and then asked what he could say more. When it comes to being an entrepreneur, my ultimate advice is to not attempt becoming one unless you are clear about the risks (both acceptable and unacceptable), and are willing and able to abide the consequences of them.

As I have learned from reading about the experience of others, and drawing on the personal experiences of my own father in his struggle to run his family's business, I feel that I recognize more than ever that being an entrepreneur is not the easy road. Some may be tempted by the ethereal promise of "freedom" that running your own business or being self-employed offers, but like the Genie from Aladdin, "phenomenal cosmic power" (or "freedom"), comes with an "itty bitty living space". Even when you are self-employed, you are not your own boss. Yes, you have much more deciding power in how you want to run things, but if you plan on running your dream business any longer than a week, you need to understand that the client will end up being your boss in a lot of ways.

The point is, don't be deceived by the illusion of "freedom" in your work. You still have to operate within the world, whether you like it or not.

Another thing to consider is the fact that, whether you work solo or in a team, if it's your idea, you have to be excited about it, and be able to get others excited about it. No one will pay you to do something that you yourself find to be bad or uninteresting work. If you can find a project that you feel is worth your time and care, then that will end up being much easier to sell and do well at, than if you hate what you are doing.

This is necessary, not only for your own sanity, but in being able to lead those around you to support that idea. If you are on a team, then those are the people you need to convince. If you work solo, then it is your client whom you need to convince. Either way, leadership skills can and are a necessity in order to succeed.

Lastly, put your trust in God. and believe that everything will turn out alright, so long as you follow His counsel. God has a plan for each of us, whether it be as an entrepreneur or not. Consider His words to you through the scriptures, as well as the realities facing you at whatever time of your life that you are in. Be mindful also that the things in life that have true value are often the ones you have to work the hardest for.

It Really Will Be Okay

The focus of this week's lesson was on gratitude. This may or may not seem to be an odd subject when it comes to business, but I feel--especially after this week--that it is a crucial one.

Part of the goal of becoming successful is to be able to help those around you. This is something we established early on in the class. It shows gratitude to those who helped you on your journey, and gratitude to God for all He does in your life. And really, gratitude is a wonderful feeling, especially when acted upon.

The words of a hymn came to mind as I contemplated this subject:

"So, amid the conflict whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end."

Now, I realize this is really just going back to the idea of positive thinking, but as I considered all the things I had to be grateful for, all the many troubles that are facing our nation, and our world, I realized that everything would be okay. God really is "over all". 

Almost as a side note, another interesting bit of advice from this week came from Stan Christensen, an instructor from Stanford, about avoiding the "wrong" jobs. This doesn't mean the jobs that don't tend to make a lot of money, or some such thing. The "wrong" jobs in this case, are the jobs that you think that people want you to do. His advice is that you will never be able to keep ahead of people's expectations, and that you are better off doing something that you are passionate about. That was certainly encouraging to me, though in the end, one does have to work hard for those passions.

This has certainly been an amazing class. I hope I can continue to remember the lessons I have been taught here as I continue my life's journey.

The Meaning of our Journey

I suppose the great message or takeaway from this week's assignments was: there is more to life than making money. This might sound trite, but it actually means more than that. It really comes down to a simple question---"Why?" Why are we staring a business? Why are we making money?

A simple, yet still true, answer would be "to feed my family". And while that is one of the primary reasons we work at all, it is certainly not the only one, or in the case of business, the most crucial one. Because the fact is, doing work "digging ditches" could also earn money and feed one's family. The real question is: "Why start a business?" The answer must, of course, be deeper than "To make money."

Much of the material we went over had to do with answering this question, and the answer seemed to be that a business or freelancer must have a goal or a purpose. For me personally, I feel like my desire to tell stories through word and image puts me in a good position to create wholesome media that is also entertaining. I love certain types of fantasy and sci-fi stories, but more often than it should be, that media contains some elements that are less than wholesome. And thus the reasoning behind my hope of creating entertaining, wholesome media.

This question is one that seems to have become a major issue for larger businesses today. An article by Charles Handy titled “What’s a Business For?” explores the degradation and loss of real purpose in modern companies.

He says, “The purpose of a business, in other words, is not to make a profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better. That ‘something’ becomes the real justification for the business.”

When a company has a purpose beyond making money, such as Facebook’s early mission (as related by Sheryl Sandberg in a presentation to Stanford students in 2009), which was to make available the “information that matters to you”—that is, information about your friends and associates whom you care about. This kind of “higher purpose” provides the energy in a company to rise above the base goal of making money.

It is when companies (and individuals, for that matter) lose sight of this goal, and focus only on making money, that corruption and far too fluid morals begin to creep in.

In his article, Handy describes the loss of public faith in the average company: “A Gallup poll conducted early this year found that 90% of Americans felt that people running corporations could not be trusted to look after the interests of their employees, and only 18% thought that corporations looked after their shareholders a great deal. Forty-three percent, in fact, believed that senior executives were only in it for themselves.”  

One thing that Handy describes as helping in these issues would be changing the self-identity to fit that of a money-making community, with the employees informed and included as much as is reasonable in the performance and finances of the company as a whole. This, one would hope, would help the whole company gain a community-like feel, and employees would be more invested in the good performance of the company as a whole, and their department in particular.

The Hard Questions

This week, the study materials and assignments were focused on creating a balanced life. The part that certainly had the most impact on me were some mini case studies we had to respond to.

It was one question in particular that really made me think. The situation went something like this:

Your 7-year old daughter’s first dance recital is tonight, and you promised you “wouldn’t miss it for the world”. Right before the show, you get a call from your biggest client, telling you that their plant is on fire (I assume they meant a plant as in a factory), and they want YOU specifically to be there, or else you will lose their business forever.

First of all, I felt that this scenario is lacking in detail about what exactly is going on. What kind of company am I supposed to be running, exactly? If my crew is supposed to be there putting out the fire, that is a vastly different scenario than if I’m a financial advisor or something.

I suppose in the end, it doesn’t matter, though. My first instinct, though, was to do what I could for the customer—within reason. If my presence there would do nothing, I am not sure I could justify breaking a promise to my daughter. I would do what I could to reason with them, and assure them that a second-in-command would be sufficient. Because if my customer cannot trust my second-in-command, then I have bigger issues than the customer in question. One thing I have understood about myself is that a lot of my decisions would likely be influenced by the example of my own parents and others whose example I’ve observed. They, of course, might make different decisions than the one I’ve described here—I might also, depending on the exact circumstances.  My feelings at the time I was giving my answer were that having a plant on fire is a very serious situation, and it would be irresponsible to ignore such a thing.

But again, if I were something like a financial advisor or something, I’m certain that having me be present would not have any sort of benefit. Although the scenario described the client as ceasing to do business with us if I did not personally come, I think that on the whole, people are more reasonable than that—sure they might make demands like that fairly frequently, but I believe most people would accept the service of a second-in-command that they themselves trusted in such a situation.  

These are certainly difficult questions, and often they are ones that we cannot answer for certain until we are in the situation.

One part of this week’s assignments we were asked to respond to was an article entitled “Attitude on Money” by Stephen W. Gibson. He describes how in life, everyone has “filters” when it comes to the way we see things. In the case of money, his sister viewed money as something to avoid discussing or even thinking about. Gibson, on the other hand views money as something to be understood, because “No matter who we are or what we are doing in life, money is a necessary part of it.” I am inclined to agree with Gibson—money is a necessary part of life, but in practice, I dread looking at my bank account because it is such a stressful subject for me.

This is likely to be (and in a lot of ways already is) a problem for me, because lately I haven’t been as mindful of what I spend. Seeing that number that represents the limit of my resources causes me to be more careful in how I spend. And although I haven’t been very good at laying out a budget, if I am aware of what I have, I am much more likely to be cautious in what I buy.

Some interesting rules are laid out in the article about how to prosper in life. They go as follows:

“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.”

I think that these largely boil down to this: Act and plan responsibly for your financial future (both in the short term and in the long-term), and love and trust the Lord in all that you do. I have been better about doing some of these things at certain times of my life than others, but I hope to become better about all of them in the near future.

The Twenty Percent

As always, this course teaches me so much more than I could have dreamed it would. One of the more interesting things this week comes from the words of Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience at Google.

She explains that Google has a unique policy of giving their employees one day a week--Friday--to work on whatever project they would like to work on. This might seem like a dangerous way to manage their productivity, as undisciplined human nature tends to influence a person to find anything else to do but what they is supposed to do, when given unstructured time.

However, by her own estimation, Mayer found that fifty percent (50%) of what Google produced in terms of new launches came from the efforts spent in those "twenty percent" hours. The reasoning behind this, of course, is that when a person has something to work on that they are passionate about, they are more likely to give their best effort and make the most breakthroughs.

All this is largely in preface to the point that, whatever our dreams may be, and however hard it might be to achieve them, the results--as well as the personal growth--will be well worth the effort.

A Hero Does Not Say "Can't"

Much of what we have been learning this week has been geared toward becoming a leader in our homes, businesses, and so forth. But the lesson that I really needed to learn came from a book that we are reading: "A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey" by Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico. The first chapter in particular (aptly named "The First Step") struck me with a lot of force.

I, as I imagine many of us do, face a daily struggle with a little voice telling me that I cannot make it in life. "Your art is not good enough." "You will never be able to overcome your personal failings." "You have not seen enough of life--you do not know enough." Such are the sayings of the voices of doubt within me.

I have heard of the "tell yourself you can" strategy--the story of "The Little Train Who Could" is a prime example. But to read it in this book was especially encouraging and powerful. This is the quote that really brought it home for me:

"Do we see ourselves as merely passive biological entities that are essentially acted upon from without? Or do we understand that we are beings of august dignity who possess meaning and purpose in this world and within our nature--a sense of calling and vocation?

"If you want to be a hero, you must decide to be a person who acts, rather than a person who says 'I can't.' You can. You can make deliberate choices that will change your life. You can take steps--many small ones, occasionally a big one--toward your chosen goal, your star, your grail."

These words of inspired encouragement are rare, in that I felt them directed so squarely at me. I have been telling myself that "I can't" for so long in my life, that it has limited what I can do. I have been so worried about overexerting myself and being cautious (not necessarily a bad thing, but I think that I could have used a little more encouragement to take risks when I was younger) that I haven't been able to grow like I could have been.

I wish I could recount all that I learned in this chapter, but there were so many things that were inspiring and insightful, that I could not do them justice in a single post. Suffice it to say, your ability to do is not determined by what is in you. What is in you are seeds of divinity and ability that are wholly unique to you.

What determines your ability to do is your willingness to take risks (while of course being wise and prepared in the risks that you take) and your ability to learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes of those who have traveled that road before. Seldom will you make a mistake that ruins your chances of success, as long as you stay true to the divinity within you, and take the higher road when given a choice.

These truths are ones that I am still learning to apply in my life, but I hope that as I continue to open my heart to the possibilities that are before me, I will be able to know and feel the truth of these words firsthand.

To Face A Dragon

I do not think there could have been a more timely set of reading assignments for this week. The general theme for this week was working through difficult circumstances and not getting discouraged.

I have had cause to wonder for a long while--but particularity this week--how in the world I am going to make it in life. The immediate future seems to only spell a long time of adjusting to and figuring out life after college.

But the words of Elder Jeffery R. Holland (an Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), as well as a quote from our current assigned reading book, help me to feel a little less apprehensive about the future.

Elder Holland, in recounting a personal experience that illustrated how difficult (sometimes absurdly so) life can be, imagines what he would say to the younger version of himself: "'Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.'" ("Good Things to Come")

Another quote with a similar message is found in the reading assignment we had this week. A couple of times, the victims of the Holocaust of World War II are mentioned. One victim was said to have scribbled on his wall these words: "'I believe in the sun even when it is not shining, I believe in love even when I do not feel it, I believe in God even when He is silent."  To me, this is a perfect example of faith at it's best. We can be assured that as long as we are doing our best to follow God and the example of His Son, we may be guided and strengthened, even in the "tunnels of misfortune" in our life that seem to go on forever. The bad times will end. We will be able to handle whatever comes our way, if we only put our trust in the Lord.