The Last Lecture -- Some of My Takeaways

As I began this entrepreneurship class in September, I wasn't sure what to expect. After a couple of weeks, I wasn't sure if I could do it or if I even wanted to. The assignments were all about introspection and that frightened me. I am the kind of person who likes to get the answers right and there didn't seem to be any right or wrong answers. It was all about ME . . . what I thought, how I thought, and why I thought. However, I am so grateful that I stuck with the class even though it was hard for me because I have gained a wealth of knowledge not only about business and entrepreneurship but about myself.

The "takeaways" I have will play a major role in how I live the rest of my life. One of these is the importance of having guardrails. Some questions to ask yourself are: What am I willing to do or not do if my life depended on it? What attributes are most important to me in life and also in business? I enjoyed learning from the person I chose to interview about their entrepreneurial journey. Even though I knew him well as a friend, it struck a bit of fear in me to ask him about his business. However, I learned so much and am grateful for the experience. One thing he said to me was that "integrity is more important than business." Trust and honesty are two guardrails that are very important to me, whether in a business setting or in a personal setting. I love the saying from Handy, "Trust . . . is fragile. Like a piece of china, once cracked it will never be the same."

Another important thing to remember is to keep balance in your life -- work, family, personal, health. This is something that was mentioned almost every week of the semester. Randy Haykin reminds us to set limits so we don't let work/business cross over into our family time. It's not really worth it to have a successful business, a lot of money, or a big name for yourself if you are alone in the end.

Stephen R. Covey's advice to put first things first has already begun to help me:

One of my favorites from Randy Pausch
(The Last Lecture)

    1) Important and Urgent

    2) Important and Non-Urgent

    3) Urgent but Not Important

    4) Not Urgent and Not Important

I loved Covey’s advice that the heart of effective personal time management is to spend the maximum time possible doing important jobs in a non-urgent atmosphere that increases your efficiency. Wow! Not everything is a #1 and as I have done this I have felt less stress and have been able to accomplish more than when I was viewing everything as needing to be done all at once.

In the book Launching Leaders by Steven A. Hitz, the formula for success resonated with me and has stuck with me over the past months. In the book, Jim Ritchie explains the formula from what he learned from J. Paul Getty and David B. Haight. The formula is rather simple but will take discipline to make it work:

1. Get Up Early
2. Work Hard
3. Get Your Education
4. Find Your Oil
5. Make Your Mark
6. Give Back

In a talk I studied titled "Formula for Success", President Thomas S. Monson gives a similar formula for success but in a different way. He reminds us that we have the responsibility to be prepared, to be productive, to be faithful, and to be fruitful in all aspects of our life.

We must always be improving ourselves and helping others:

1. Fill your mind with truth: Search where truth is found; Turn to the truth of God; Learn the word of God, understand the word of God, and then live His word; When the Lord commands, do it! Truth can come when we seek help from our Heavenly Father
2. Fill your life with service: Missionaries particularly have a wonderful opportunity to give of their full time in sharing with all the world that commodity of such priceless value—a testimony of the gospel; Missionaries should go forward knowing that they are in the service of God, that they are going to share that most precious commodity—their testimonies. Remember, a testimony is perishable. That which you selfishly keep, you lose; that which you willingly share, you keep. All of us benefit when we remember to magnify our callings
3. Fill your heart with love: Love prompts miracles

A final takeaway that I want to share comes from President Thomas S. Monson. He reminds us to be FINISHERS. He shares the marks of a true finisher:

• Vision: We are constantly making small decisions, of which determine success or failure; at least look ahead and be prepared when the decision comes
• Effort: Vision without effort is daydreaming; effort without vision is drudgery; but vision, coupled with effort, will obtain the prize
• Faith: Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same place at the same time
• Virtue: Have clean thoughts and actions
• Courage: Have the courage to dream the impossible dream and reach the unreachable star
• Prayer: Communication with our Heavenly Father provides peace; sometimes God’s help comes silently but with a dramatic impact

As I listened to President Monson, I thought about my own life. I pondered the question: Do I prefer the comforts of earth to the treasures of heaven? I am always so concerned about finishing projects and know that I must be just as concerned about being a finisher in God's eyes as well. He wants me to live my best life as I continue to help others live theirs. I definitely want to finish strong and have the Savior tell me "Well done. You finished strong!"

These concepts and so many others have had an impact on me and will go with me on my own journey, whether that is becoming an entrepreneur in the business world or as a wife, mother, friend, and daughter of God.

Attitude, Gratefulness, and Leadership

I truly appreciated President Monson’s talk “Attitude of Gratitude” from April 1992. I think it’s easy to be thankful but to be grateful, we may need to reach deeper within ourselves. I think being grateful carries with it a sense of love as well.

As President Monson spoke about plagues of today and how they linger, debilitate, and destroy, I was thinking about things that make us physically sick. However, he went on to say that, “They are to be found everywhere. Their pervasiveness knows no boundaries.” When he talked about these modern plagues of today, I pondered about where I am when it comes to each of them:

• Selfishness
• Greed
• Indulgence
• Cruelty
• Crime
• Criticize
• Complain
• Blame
• Slowly but surely, to abandon the positives and adopt the negatives of life

While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.

Some other takeaways that I got from his talk are:

We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. I loved the story he told and pulled this advice from it:

1. The past is behind . . . learn from it
2. The future is ahead . . . prepare for it
3. The presence is here . . . live in it
4. It is more blessed to give than to receive

Be Grateful For:

• Mother
• Father
• Teachers
• Friends/Spouse
• Country
• Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

Other things I appreciated learning and studying in this week came from Larry North, Acton Hero:

• Wake up with a good attitude every day
• Believe in yourself, your family, your community, those around you
• Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; dust yourself off and get back up again

These seem like they should be pretty simple things to do, yet most struggle with one or more of them throughout their life. It is very important for me to keep these in the forefront of my mind so that I can make a conscious effort to remember them and apply them in my own life as well as to teach them to my family.

In the article “Recognizing and Shaping Opportunities,” I appreciated the advice that we need to set ourselves up to be ‘lucky’. We can all make things happen and make our dreams and goals come true when we prepare our minds to recognize and create new ideas and then shape them into opportunities.

I love the advice from Stan Christensen in “Avoid the Wrong Job.” He reminds us to tell our own story rather than doing what you think other people want you to do. There is no way we can outguess other people and we may not enjoy what they think we should do. You may not love everything about your job at the moment, but find even one thing that you enjoy about it.

The case study about Randy Haykin’s entrepreneurial journey was very inspiring to me and my takeaways from that are:

• Little battles are fought day to day
• Know each other before partnering; have some work experience together even if it’s extracurricular
• Choose someone who will complement your own skills
• Leadership evolves as you go through different stages in the lifecycle of a company
• Eventually, you should be able to step back as the leader, and let other people's ideas shape the business
• Leaders have an emotional element – charisma; just naturally having fun in what they are doing.
• Too many people in the business world are disillusioned because their actions and their day-to-day routines do not match their values
• People like to see others having fun, enjoying themselves, and still moving forward
• Good leaders not only have vision, they see an end point
• Build relationships and trust
• Remember to thank/reward people . . . no matter what
• Relax and be less judgmental – even of ourselves
• Have good role models
• Find people who have had similar successes and bounce ideas off of them as you are growing
• Keep work life balanced with family, personal, spiritual, and health – set limits
• Don’t forget the simple things
• Keep your focus

This week was very inspiring as I read and studied about attitude, gratefulness and leadership. I know I can be successful when I remember these key points that have resonated with me.

What's a Business For?

In the paper "What's a Business For?" by Charles Handy, why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy?

Virtue and integrity are of utmost importance because they are the basis of trust. Consumers are not going to want to do business with you if they don't feel that they can trust you. Charles Handy reminds us that markets in the economy rely on rules and laws, but these depend on truth and trust. He goes on to say,  "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." If this were to completely happen, I think our economy would truly suffer and possibly even crash because there would be no stimulation of the economy with buying and selling of goods, stock prices would fluctuate and my no longer exist for some companies.

I appreciated Handy's analogy of business to a piece of china and how both are fragile. Once either is cracked, it will never be the same. With trust, you may be able to gain it back with hard work and effort but people will always be leary and wonder if they will lose your trust again.

According to Charles Handy, the “real justification” for the existence of businesses is to make money so that they can do more good for others, not to make money just to better themselves. "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." Obviously businesses need to keep their investors and shareholders in mind, but this can't be their sole purpose for doing business and turning a profit.

As I read through this article, two solutions that Charles Handy proposes that I agree with are:

1. Business executives should not be paid based on their title but rather on the amount of work they put into the company. Even in my own employment, I recognize the inequities of "higher ups" vs what I like to call the "worker bees". Without the employees who report to the executives, there wouldn't be a business. Salaries that reward employees based on their contribution to the company, sales, work, etc. will go a long way to keep employees happy and satisfied with their jobs as well as with the company as a whole. They will know they can trust that the executives care about them and what they are doing for the company.
2. Instead of the financiers, investors, etc. "owning" the company, those who provide the intellectual property or ideas, who contribute their time and talents rather than their money, should have some rights, some say in the future of what they also think of as “their” company. I think people would feel more invested in the company if they knew that what they were contributing was truly being appreciated.