Week One

9/26/15
This week we learned a lot about beginning our entreprenuial journey.  And in order to start you first have to figure out where you want to be in your life and what goals you want to accomplish.  There were many great inspirational articles and videos that helped me to think deeper about what good I want to do in the world and how I can coincide that with my personal goals and aspirations to have a fulfilling and happy career.

Lessons Learned:
The book titled The Ministry of Business provides so much insight into the right ways to become a successful entrepreneur and how to tie that into our faith as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Chapter one discusses divine guidance in business and how important it is to recognize God's hand in all things.  I love how he talks about attending the temple for personal revelation and to listen to promptings.  I think one key piece of business that many people do not live by is to stick to your moral codes and values that you know to be true.  This can make all the difference in having a true and honest company that is doing good in the world.  Chapter two is about the power of covenants.  He shared his experience of leaving a current successful job in order to build his own company and the trials that stemmed from that, including a lengthy and hurtful lawsuit.  It is important to listen to divine inspiration, and uphold your covenants with God both in your personal life and business life.  Chapter three is called beware the double life.  This chapter really resonated with me, especially because my husband and I currently live our lives in a manner where we share everything with each other.  I never wanted to be in a marriage where work and home lives are kept separate.  I love that my husband and I are able to discuss everything about our day and to offer each other advice and counsel when we are struggling or in need of it.  Sharing and trusting with your spouse in every aspect of life is important.

Lessons Not Yet Learned:
I have not learned enough about myself to know what entrepreneur goals I have.  I still have more work to do in order to figure out where I want to be and how I want to get there.  Starting a family is very important to me and I know that I will not be able to reach all of my business goals and be the best mom that I can be.  So I may start changing my goals to help my husband get to where he wants to be first and then figure out how I can accomplish my own goals in the later years when my kids are in school.

A Reference and Categorization Method:
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was a very strong lecture and is something that I think everyone should see. His advice applies to everyone, business oriented or not.
The link to part of his speech is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVIvHKTNsqg
The link to the entire transcript of his lecture is: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf


My professor also asked that we respond to a few questions in regard to Randy Pausch's Last Lecture.


Q: Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?
A: Randy Pausch was a very determined and imaginative person.  He had that special personality already alive inside of him to achieve anything he set his mind to.  I do believe that some people have this stronger inside of them than others, but everyone has the potential.  He worked extremely hard and did not give up.  He was able to learn from his mistakes, learn from those around him, and use his creativity and perfect his skills.

Q: Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?
A: Yes dreaming is very important, it is how we begin to create our goals and aspirations, based off dreams.  If we never dreamed of the incredible things we could do in life to make us happy then we would have pretty pathetic goals and would not have achieved as much.

Q: Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.
A: One of my childhood dreams was to work in a Zoo.  I absolutely love animals and always wanted to work with them and experience their world.  Although as I have gotten older my desire to work in a zoo has decreased I have altered that dream to helping animals instead.  I cannot volunteer for the zoo because they require a long training period and I work full-time, but I have in the past and still do volunteer with animal shelters or local animal rescues.  My husband and I used to go to the Humane Society bi-weekly to play with and care for the animals there.  We would also help encourage people to take them home and adopt.  My love for animals is still relevant and although my childhood dream may have changed slightly, I can still achieve my dream of working with animals through volunteer work.  And someday I still would like to volunteer at the zoo, possibly when I am no loner working.