Week Five: So You Want to be an Entrepreneur?

Since the focus of the lesson this week is wanting to be an entrepreneur,  I collected thoughts and learnings about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur:

If you’re single and you want to do start-ups, stay single. If you’re married and have children as an entrepreneur, set rules to keep your family a priority and in balance.

More important than capital or assets, is your time. The next 20 or 30 years are of great value to your life. Make them count. As an entrepreneur, plan to create value by growing with a project and taking it to the next stage. Be monogamous you’re your business as an entrepreneur. Don’t dream of selling your company, but rather developing it and making it valuable.

I thought the idea of being monogamous in business was really interesting. It is not an idea I always agree with. I’m a fan of developing an idea and selling it and then focusing on developing another idea to invest in. I think its valuable to have multiple ideas going and not putting complete investment into one. So this is a new idea that I’ll consider, but not sure that I agree with.

Jan Newman spoke at BYU and he had this advice that I wanted to remember: You can always have time for fun things, don’t ever be too busy for callings. When you need the Lord’s help, he’ll know where your heart is. The Lord isn’t giving you the opportunity for your great education so you can be wealthy and change business. Instead, its important to the Lord that you taught Sunday School and did your home teaching. Your greatest Legacy will be in your service to the Lord. One of the things the world lacks today is honesty and integrity – be full of it and stick out as an example.

Week Four: Mastery, Skill, Character, or Luck?

In a video we watched, Randy Komisar said,“My career only makes sense in the rear view mirror” and it resonated with me. I’m not sure I’d have planned the career I have 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Looking back however, it fits well and is very preparatory for whatever comes next.

With regards to success and being an amazing entrepreneur, David Friedberg said that

0.0006% of entrepreneurs are Rock Stars. He went on to say that your goal shouldn’t be super stardom and mega success because it isn’t realistic. Its so interesting that 0.006% of entrepreneurs are rock stars and the ones we talk about and hear about the most. This means that over 99% of entrepreneurs are just people making a living without amazing success and notoriety. Being awesomely famous and successful shouldn’t be a goal because statistically its not probable. He also mentions that if you get a job at an existing company, you have the chance to make an impact and there are lots of people there and lots of resources there. However, you will be limited by the company’s ideals and plans and limits set for you. To avoid those limits, people become entrepreneurs and make their own rules.

One of my favorite learnings this week came from Jeff Sandefer who spoke at BYU-I and we watched the recording. Jeff talked about living as if you have an important mission, because you do. Live as if it matters, because it does. What matters most is not the prize, but how the hero has changed in the process. Essentially he was saying the money you make is not the prize, but rather how much you grow and learn along the way is the prize.

He had some other valuable thoughts I appreciated:

Learning to learn and learning to listen and learning to live a life of meaning is more important to graduates than learning to make money.

When students at the Acton School of Business were interviewing mentors, the same values were common in those over 60 as they looked back on their lives:

Have I contributed something meaningful?

Am I a good person?

Who did I love, and who loved me?

What problem do you feel you were put on the earth to solve? The answer to this is your calling.

Write a list of “I will not” that are moral boundaries you will not cross. If you do cross those, and you will, stop and re-assess before you go down a long, slippery slope of misery. For each “I will not” write a letter to yourself that you can read in the future when you are considering crossing your moral boundary.

Great joke from his father-in-law: What is the difference between God and you? God never thinks He is you J

People who believe they are lucky, turn out to be the lucky ones. Believe what you can be and do and you will surprise yourself how much you accomplish.

Over this week the main idea that stood out was that your character determines your success. What you won’t stand for and what you work to accomplish and what lines you won’t cross are your most valuable assets. Luck will only get you so far in life. Without skill and character you could flounder and have a life without meaning.

Week Three: A Life Well Lived - How Will You Measure Your Life?

A few ideas that stood out to me this week:

From “How Will You Measure Your Life” by Clayton M. Christensen:

“It’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former class- mates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place”

What I love about this is he’s right. If you’re not 100% in a decision you’ll have doubt. If you’re not 100% in your commitment it will be easy to do it half way or skip things here and there. When people diet and they cheat a little, they always fail. You have to be fully committed to have something be a success and fully work out. You get what you give, so give 100%

“Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.

We all want to be successful and have a good life. What is a success is as individual as the one seeking the success. And if you never receive a reward or have some banquet where you’re honored, you’re still a success. Some of my favorite people are those who serve and donate quietly. They don’t want their name on a building. They want to be a success and be able to look back and see their trail of success and joy from how they lived not from the accolades received.

From Jeff Hawkins:

Success is not about working hard, but about making the right decisions

Any organization that focuses on making better daily decisions will have the opportunity for broad and deep success.

We make decisions daily. Hundreds of them. We decide what time to wake up and what route to take to work and if we’re taking our lunch or going out, or even just turning left or right out of our neighborhood. Our decisions bring us results. And we can have those results be failures or success based on making the right decisions.

Week Two: Honesty and Business Ethics

I have strong opinions toward having integrity and ethics as a human being. I carry those feelings and values into my work and don't settle. As a young adult I learned firsthand the importance of these values through a dishonest family member who stole from and mishandled the money of a minor. In business as well as life, ethics and integrity should never be compromised.

Here's some examples from our learnings this week that I most enjoyed:

Why Ethics are Important  - People can feel if an environment is ethical right away. People innately gravitate to an ethical environment. An ethical environment is something that should be created in a business early, from the first steps and it should never be deviated from. There is a right way to treat people, and its simply treating them good and not basing treatment of them on what they look like or their gender.

In a talk by Sherri Dew we were reminded that “If a leader can’t be trusted, they can’t really lead”. I appreciated this statement. When a person is dishonest and its discovered all their actions after are questioned and there is a cloud of doubt over them and their intentions. One you lose people’s trust you really never get it fully back. It is more important to tell the truth despite the angst or consequences that may come.

Top 10 Must haves for a start-up

1. A great partner – choose them carefully, make sure they are fanatically ethical, choose someone who is not a duplicate of you but is a good compliment to you

2. Sales – well if you don’t have sales you don’t have a company. Customers place POs and send checks. You need these to have sales. Listen to customers

3. Have confidence you will have 1000s of great ideas – don’t plan a company based on your first good idea. Sell some of your good ideas and think up some more.

4. Like surfing real waves – Don’t try to make your own

5. A supportive Family – Don’t give up every part of your life. Even if they come to you, be part of their lives as well as your business.

6. The pride of a fat baby – No pride. Do what it takes to stay in business and keep customers happy

7. Common Sense – you need profit and customers to continue

8. Too little money – growth and ideas happen best in lean companies

9. Put up a sign – tell the world you exist

10. Buy comfortable, cheap furniture and spend everything you can on great people and great equipment.

Week 1: Creating a Life of Meaning

One of my favorite gifts to give people is a book based off the lecture given by Randy Pausch about achieving childhood dreams that he gave for his children as he was dying. We read that lecture this week and I was reminded why I loved Randy. He was a man with a zest for life. He had an energy that drove him. He was willing to try and learn just for the experience. And most importantly he was genuine. Randy was a what you see is what you get kind of guy. I love those kinds of people. And those who just have fun in life despite what comes at them.

In Randy’s book he mentions a story that isn’t in his lecture, but is a great metaphor for living. He talks about how he married later in life and before he met his wife and they had children he made sure to take care of his sister’s children and have fun with them. Randy bought a new car and went to take his niece and nephew out for a day at the fair. The kids were nervous to get in and didn’t want to hurt the car. Randy cracked open a soda and poured it in the car. He said he didn’t want the kids afraid of messing it up if they got sick after a full day of junk food and carnival rides. He goes on to say that people mean more than things and he wanted to make sure his niece an nephew knew they meant more to him than a car, even a brand new one.

In one of the videos this week I loved the advice to treat life as an experiment. What the speaker was saying was be willing to try and see what happens rather than being afraid  to try or thinking you’ll fail.  We set our own limits, and when we see life as an experiment we’re more willing to see what happens next and take risks instead of sitting on the sidelines unsure what we can do

I learned this week that James Dyson, the man known for the expensive but awesome vacuums failed many times before succeeding. He failed 5,128 times before he succeeded. It seems like a lot to keep track of, but imagine how he felt when he stopped counting and was able to say he’d met his goal.