After the reading and videos this week I felt excitement, I
felt that there are so many possibilities and that I need to find all the
places I can learn from and do my best to absorb the information and apply it
into my life.
I love it when we combine gospel principles and
teachings form our prophets with lessons learned from successful businessmen. I
know that they are interconnected and that as we work to become better in our
spiritual life that we will be better in our business life as well.
These are my favorite quotes from
the readings.
These wounds hurt, but wounds like
these often provide fuel for entrepreneurial heroes. Properly harnessed, they
give you something to fight against and the emotional energy to keep moving
forward. Scenes of formative struggles help explain why Sir Lancelot searches
for the Grail or why Harry Potter must defeat Voldemort. Because, for one, good
must triumph over evil, even when part of that evil is inside of you.
Pity those who’ve had an easy and
uneventful life. Sure, some may stay hopeful and curious and use those things
as fuel for a hero’s journey, but this is rare. Those who haven’t tasted much
in the way of pain or defeat will have the most difficult time. And, if you’re
one of those people, you might even be secretly angry that your parents tried
to mold you to serve their dreams or
didn’t trust you enough to let you
make your own mistakes. And, if so, now you might feel like a fraud, just
trying to keep up appearances to please a parent or impress friends and peers.
Take it from me, the first step is
the hardest, but win or lose, it gets easier in time. Because having the
courage to pick yourself up after you’ve been knocked to the ground is what
makes life worth living.
Entrepreneurial heroes forge
themselves one hard decision at a time, never giving up, always moving forward.
You start by making difficult decisions. Over time, this becomes a habit. And
the way you face these decisions etches character onto your soul, and that
character determines your destiny. All of this requires intention. Because
heroes don’t fritter away time, they invest it.
I’ve also learned how seeing life
as a journey and looking for archetypal patterns in people and in businesses
have helped me make much more sense of the world. Yes, I’ve still got a lot
more lessons to learn in my own life, but I wouldn’t trade lives with anyone,
not for any price.
We are like chameleons, we take
our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.
—John Locke
I wish I had learned that earlier.
For too many years I was too determined to do it on my own and was too stingy
with rewards. I didn’t spend enough time appreciating or deeply respecting
those walking along with me.
Here’s another lesson about fellow
travelers I wish I had learned earlier. No matter how talented the person, life
is too short to put up with jerks. And life is too long to associate with liars
or cheats or gossips.
I have also learned that as you
grow older, your sense of gratitude grows stronger. Victories and successes
once credited to individual initiative and drive now seem equally the result of
good fortune, the help of others, or divine intervention. The sense of calling
that at times seemed so difficult to discern, now seems to be made of clearly
defined threads, tying together the critical scenes and struggles, and
explaining the motives of the characters.
I agree with Elder Bednar when he talked about how if we
take the road with least resistance we will not reach our full potential. We must push ourselves and learn as much as we
can.
These are the questions I need to ask myself often to know
if I am on the right track.
1.
Did I contribute something meaningful?
2.
Was I a good person?
3.
Who did I love and who loved me?
Discover an entrepreneurial “calling”
I believe that we all have a calling from God, we are on the
earth for a purpose and we need to make sure we are not waiting our chances to fulfil
oir calling or mission here. It will take effort to discover what this calling
is. I often wonder what my calling is and if I am doing what the Lord wants me
to be doing.
Select your next “steppingstone job”
My current job has a lot of things that I like ad know that
they are a blessing, I have many concerns as well and I do not feel that this
is where I am going to land. As I say this I realize that I will most likely
have many jobs before I am “done” and I hope that I do. I like the term “steppingstone
job” because I do not ever plan to settle and sit still in one position. This is
not my personality.
