Priorities

Prioritizing is a task that many struggle with. There are so many demands in this life and often times it's difficult to know what is urgent, and what can be put on the back burner. Lack of prioritizing accounts for many problems in the work place and in the home as well. We saw most often though, the family suffering because of failure to prioritize, or placing the family lower on the scale when prioritizing duties.
While maintaining a happy family life along with a successful career is a difficult task, it's not one that's impossible. I have seen many families that have hard working parents that still manage to find time for their children. One thing all of these families that I've seen have in common though is that they're centered on Christ and the gospel. President Thomas S. Monson included filling out minds with truth, filling our hearts with love, and filling our lives with service as the formula for success and I feel that is because if we are doing those things, we are building our foundation on Christ and when we are built on Christ, we cannot fail. That doesn't mean that it will be easy to balance everything, but it does mean that we will have the support of the Lord through the trials. It's so important that we maintain an eternal perspective and put what's most important first. Then, have faith that the rest will follow as we strive to live the gospel and put our families first.

Becoming

From the readings this week, I found the talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks titled "The Challenge to Become" the most impactful to me. I love that the gospel is a gospel of change. Without the ability to change, we would never progress or learn. We would be stagnant. To me, the knowledge that I have a great eternal potential that I can reach has always been a source of great hope and comfort to me. I know that I can become something much better than what I currently am and that motivates me to work hard. It inspires me to keep the commandments and serve those around me knowing that if I do my part, Heavenly Father will keep his promises to me as well.
When I think of being an entrepreneur, I think of all of the many necessary attributes that I lack. It can be overwhelming when I think about all of my imperfections. Then I remember that my imperfections don't have to stay that way. I can overcome the many things that pull me down and change. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, I can become a completely different person and reach the eternal potential my Heavenly Father has given me. While change requires time, patience, and dedication, it's one of the purposes of this earthly life. Whether it be changing things in order to become an entrepreneur, a better friend, or a better disciple of Jesus Christ, it's so important to set goals and always remind myself that I can become whatever I want to be if I set my mind to it. Having that mindset is something that will greatly bless me not only as an entrepreneur, but in every other aspect of my life as well.

Being a Trustworthy Person

When I think of people in my life that I looked up to as leaders, one thing they all had in common is that they were trustworthy people. I sincerely trusted them and knew that they trusted me. Trust is a very important element in all aspects of life. It's extremely important in the work place as well. It's important to not only be trusted but to also be able to trust those around you. If you are trusted, then your employer will be able to delegate work to you, rely on you, and it will help in moving up in the work place as well. As a leader, being trusted by your employees means that your employees will be able to confide in you and be honest with you which will make your job as a leader much easier. Guy Kawasaki used an analogy for a trustworthy person and untrustworthy person. He compared them to a baker and an eater. An eater is someone who just uses people and is always thinking about what that person can do for them. However, a baker is always thinking about what they can do for others. They give more than they take.

In the article "small l leadership" we learn that Christ was the ultimate example of this. He went about doing good. Although he was someone many people looked up to, rather than having them serve him, he served them. He was trustworthy and he trusted those around him. He loved and he led by example. By loving, serving, and leading by example, you will be seen as a trustworthy person in not only everyday life, but in the workplace as well. Being trustworthy is something that will bless every aspect of your life and is one of the most important attributes someone can develop. 

Shoot for the Stars

There is no such thing as a goal that is too high. It's normal to feel intimidated when thinking of a goal that's a bit lofty. However, that should never stop us from trying. All successful people have failed multiple times in their lives because achieving big goals requires risk and risk is usually always accompanied by falling down a time or two. The most important thing though is to never let that failure stop you from trying again and again. Elder Holland shared his story about his repeated failures as a young father but he never let those failures be final. He learned from them then pressed forward and we must learn to do the same.
I think another important aspect of setting your goals high is trusting in the Lord- both his abilities and his timing.  I really liked how Taylor Richards used the example of Nephi building a boat. Was that a lofty and seemingly impossible goal to reach? Of course it was! However, Nephi trusted that if it was what the Lord wanted him to do, then it was possible. We should always involve the Lord in our goal setting to make sure that we are following his will and relying on him for help. With the help of the Lord, anything is possible. While we might not reach our goals right away, or at the exact time that we want to, we will reach them when we need to and the Lord is the only person who knows when that is.

Habits of Success

I really liked learning about the 7 habits of highly successful people this week. When I see entrepreneurs, or anyone in general that has become very successful, I often wonder how they made it happen and after learning about these 7 habits I realized that it's because there is an art to success. Success doesn't just happen by chance. As I studied these 7 habits of success I realized that there's several that I need to work on. Especially being someone that is considering pursuing entrepreneurship, it would be necessary that I work on developing those habits because it would require a lot of discipline because being an entrepreneur is not an easy task. 

For me, the two that stood out to me the most were learning to put first things first and sharpening the saw. Putting first things first stood out to me because prioritizing can be difficult with all of the duties we all have. He gave us a way to categorize things by important and urgent, important and non-urgent, not important but urgent, and not important and not urgent. This could be something that would come in very useful not only as an entrepreneur trying to manage and balance many different things but also in everyday life. Learning how to prioritize helps to prevent procrastination and helps to relieve stress as well. Sharpening the saw is another important habit to develop because it involves continually bettering yourself. Sometimes we just go through the motions and before we know it we aren't progressing anymore we are just stuck in a rut. Another common thing that happens is getting so preoccupied with other things that you forget to take care of yourself. By doing self-checks you can check how you are doing mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The one thing all of the habits have in common is that they require self-discipline and goal setting. 

Self-Mastery

Being an entrepreneur is not an easy task. It's one that takes dedication, lots of hours, and hard work. That's why we read so often that being an entrepreneur is not for everybody. There's a certain skill set that being an entrepreneur requires and it also requires a lot of sacrifice. That's why when embarking on this endeavor it's very important that you're prepared to do so and aware of what you're getting yourself into. I think from the lesson this week I learned that one of the most important ways to prepare to be an entrepreneur is to learn the art of self-mastery. In the talk by Eldon Tanner shared a quote from Plato in his talk that said-

"the first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile."

This quote really hit me because it made me realize that if I want to pursue entrepreneurship, develop the necessary skill set, and be able to balance it all, I first need to learn self-mastery. I must learn how to conquer myself. One who has self-mastery has the ability to really do anything they put their mind to because they've learned the self-discipline necessary to make it happen.

Another entrepreneur talked about how he and his wife set rules that they would have dinner every night at 7 PM and that he would be there to help put the kids to bed. After that, he would go back to work for many more hours. Without self-mastery, it would be easy to make exceptions and miss dinner or bedtime in order to finish your work earlier but this entrepreneur was able to balance because he knew how to be disciplined. With discipline and self-mastery, it isn't hard to work long hours, manage your time effectively so that your family doesn't fall to the way side, or make sacrifices for the sake of your family or moral values. The most important thing any person could do for themselves is develop self-mastery because it will then in turn bless you in every aspect of your life.

The Reason Why

This week we watched a talk given by Jeff Sandefer entitled "A Hero's Journey". This talk was very impactful to me because it talked a lot about the "why" behind entrepreneurship. When thinking about pursuing the difficult and challenging, yet rewarding course of entrepreneurship, we need to self- assess why we are doing it. If we are doing it for the money or personal gain then that's not the right reason to do it. Having money as the only motivation when things get rough, makes it harder to carry forward. However there are many wonderful reasons that we can decide to pursue entrepreneurship. Whether it's a passion, your family, or for me, my desire to make a positive difference in the world we must have something bigger than money as our reason behind why we pursue entrepreneurship. 

One thing that really struck me that Sandefer said was that at the end of our life we will look back and ask ourselves three questions- Did I accomplish something meaningful? Was I a good person? Who did I love and who loved me? 

At the end of the day, those are the things that really matter. As I pondered these questions I realized how important it is to go on this entrepreneurial journey living by my personal code of conduct and with those questions in mind. Sandefer and people who knew learned this the hard way but we have the privilege of having this knowledge to guide us as we begin this journey. If anything I'm doing in the world of entrepreneurship is not meaningful, makes me a worse person and compromises my standards, or takes me away from my family and damages my relationships, then I'll know that I need to redirect my course. It's so important that we always examine the why behind all that we do so that when this life comes to a close, we will have no regrets and we will know that our life had impact for good.