Conclusion: The Last Lecture

I’m just a student in life, continually learning and growing. Business is an interesting world and over the last 15 years I’ve learned much. Take my advice, or don’t. Here’s what I know to be true, to help you maintain joy in your journey of life:

Don’t be afraid to dream – Have crazy ideas. Have dreams. Have really big plans. You are only limited by what you think you can do. Others will always be critics and may not support you and may laugh at your ideas. Use this as strength to try even harder to accomplish your dreams.

Don’t forget the people who helped you along the way – Loyalty is rare and cannot be bought. Those who support you and encourage you and believe in you are invaluable in your journey. Don’t leave them behind when success comes. Success may not be long-lasting, but the people who helped you along the way will always be there as long as you don’t forget them and show your appreciation.

Have balance – Life will always be full of work. Life will not always be full of the people we love. Tragedies come and we must handle death when we’re not ready or not expecting it. Those people we love are in our lives for a short time. You could suddenly die tomorrow and your employer will replace you within a couple weeks. The people in your life (family, friends, spouse, children) will never replace you. Make time for them as well as your work. Do not be so focused on work that you lose track of those who love you more than your work.

Do what you love – Work is part of life for everyone. Work can be miserable if you don’t enjoy it or are working to satisfy an employer instead of your dreams and goals. The happiest people in the workforce have a job that they love. If you dread going to work, its time to make a change. Find something you love and work hard at it and you will have great joy in your work as well as personal life.  

Have Integrity - Don’t be in a job that brings you down. Know what you will stand for and tolerate and be willing to go for it if you’re being asked to cross the line you’ve drawn. Don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe in and you stand for. Not everybody will understand and you may stand alone, but it is worth it to your soul and to those who look up to you to be true to yourself and keep your integrity.

Don’t ever forget where you came from – As I have travelled and worked through levels of leadership in my work life I’ve seen many types of people. Leaders, CEOs, who are very wealthy, powerful people and they treat others lower than them without any care. I’ve seen other leaders who treat those who may be working for them in hotels or as drivers or as wait staff with genuine kindness. We are all human beings. What you have achieved in life or been able to earn is great. For you. Your earnings don’t determine your rank in the world. There was once a time when you were that poor college student barely getting by before you achieved great success. Don’t forget that. Let those times keep you humble.

Week Twelve: A Journey of Gratitude

It seems rather fitting that the theme or motto of the week is “journey of gratitude”.  After spending the last two weeks in a foreign nation, a developing nation, I can’t help but have a greater sense of pride and gratitude for my own home and my own country.

Advice I appreciated from videos this week:

Stan Christensen, Stanford Instructor

People end up in the wrong careers often based on making unnecessary assumptions. Don’t do things based on it being what you think others would want you to do. You get to tell your story, craft it well based on your own choices. When it comes to picking a job, pick something you think is fun. People want you to specialize, but you should want to generalize. Have a broad variety of skills. Take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

Ted Zoller, Kauffman Foundation

Its not a bad idea to go work for a company and earn great rank and then back out to become an entrepreneur or work for a small corporation. You don’t have to work for and learn from a giant corporation in order to succeed. However, learn something you can leverage.

In the article from President Monson he talks about “An Attitude of Gratitude” and gives five topics to remember to increase our gratitude:

1.     Gratitude for our mothers

2.     Gratitude for our fathers

3.     Gratitude for our teachers

4.     Gratitude for our friends

5.     Gratitude for our country

6.     Gratitude for our Savior

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve lived in a country which I’ve adored and enjoyed exploring, but wouldn’t want to live in. Its been tough to be completely removed from people at home I love. Its been six months now since my sister passed away and I’ve been reminded at the incredible family and friends I have in my life. And were it not for my love of the Savior and faith to be able to let him succor me, I don’t know how I’d have survived this year.

Life is a grand adventure. I’ve learned its not predictable. I am grateful for all the opportunities I have and for the many others I didn’t even know were coming to me. I’ve also learned with support of family, friends and the Savior that anything is possible to survive.

Week Eleven: Changing the World

At the beginning of the week I was sure the world could be changed and I was going to do it. Then I left home and had a new reality. I’ve spent the last week in India, a developing nation that has amazing potential. And while I see potential and want to help change here, its an overwhelmingly huge task.

Muhammad Yunus created Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He offers lending to those in Bangladesh villages that other banks turn down. His small act of change that was $27 from his pocket has turned into lending to 2.3 million in 39,000 villages and 94% of those borrowers are women. Amazing accomplishment for a humble beginning! He is an example that change is absolutely possible with just being willing to try.  

Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook

Admitted to never wanting to work for a company. She wanted to make a difference and didn’t think working for a company could accomplish making a difference. Information is available now and more accessible than ever. What was once just available to the super elite is available by any person with wifi. A vision that works has to be personal and has to scale. Great leadership compels people with the “why” and the what you’re doing is the why.

Larry Brilliant, Google.org Executive Director

More people died of smallpox than all the wars in the entire world. But there was a cure found. If there can be a cure for a disease that has existed since the beginning of time that had a cure found, one can never be pessimistic for other great accomplishments to develop. Doing great things takes great will. 

In the end, I may not be one to change the world. I’m one person. I can’t do it on my own. I can however be an example and work hard to accomplish my dreams and pass along inspiration and kindness to others, which will make a difference to them. I will be one that makes difference to another’s life and that change will continue to be paid forward and contribute toward un-ending change in the lives of the world. Eating an elephant can be done, one bit at a time. Life changes can happen, one change at a time.

Week Ten: Measuring the Cost:Life Balance

Which is more important: Being happy? Being wealthy?

Or can you have both? Sure! But it requires discipline and balance.

Steps for Success per Thomas S. Monson:

1.     Fill our minds with truth

2.     Fill our lives with service

3.     Fill our hearts with love

Ann Miura-Ko

The work life balance is hard to say it is actually balanced. Most entrepreneurs have a struggle with a work/life balance. Any job has to have the balance, not just entrepreneurial work.

Randy Komisar

Take opportunities as they come, THEN you can do what you want. Make priorities in your life and work to be in harmony with them. A balanced life is a dynamic question. Being balanced means having a holistic view. He advises to never put yourself in a position where you can’t say no. Increasing income doesn’t increase happiness. At some point in life your kids are the most important thing and at others its your salary and at others its your education. Have priorities and adapt as time goes on.

Money: We all need it and want it, but it should not consume our lives or be our sole purpose of existence. In order to be successful with our money we should abide by the rules for prospering:

1.     Seek the Lord and have hope in Him

2.     Keep the commandments (tithes and fast offerings)

3.     Think about money and plan how to be self-reliant

4.     Take advantage of chances for learning so you are not ignorant about your money

5.     Learn the laws the blessings of wealth are predicated upon

6.     Do not send away the naked, hungry, thirsty, sick, or those held captive.

Life will always be full of choices. Life will always involve work. As mortals we are working to become eternal beings and we can’t do that without our families. In our pursuit of success as mortals we can’t leave our families behind or we won’t be able to achieve eternal joy.

Week Nine: Dream Big Dreams

Life is to pursue goals. Dream big dreams and do the work it takes to make them come to pass.

In my life, I’ve surpassed every goal that was had for me. I don’t come from a family of college graduates. I’ll be the first woman with a degree. I don’t have family members who have had careers, rather they have had jobs that barely took care of living expenses and had no 401k or retirement plan.

I wanted more. I wanted to live a better way and I learned early nobody was going to hand anything to me. And I got to work. And now I’m in a career for the 3^rd largest mining company in the world. I had a dream to be more than I was shown. And along with my dream I did the work it takes to bring life to my dream.

This week I was reminded the importance of the gospel teachings in my life. A thought I particularly loved was that “to testify is to know and to declare. The gospel challenges us to be converted which requires us to do and become”.

We can know what we want and declare it. Words do not mean anything without action behind them. Nothing comes until we take the action needed to do and become what we dream.

In addition to our dreams, we have a plan for our life from the gospel of our church. From our reading this week I loved the thought, “The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become”.

When we focus our lives on becoming as Christ, we have a pattern for becoming in other aspects of life. Being a success is as individual as the person making the goals. If we are to succeed in career goals we need to have balance and perspective and a way of living that I have found is more productive when it involves gospel principles and commandments and covenants than just business pursuits alone.