Entreprenurial Journal week 10 - B183

Entrepreneurial Journal Week 10 entry ----11-ish J?

This week the theme for our studies in B 183 Introduction to Entrepreneurship at BYU Idaho was:  Measuring the Cost: Life Balance.  We studied Thomas S. Monson’s March 1996 talk entitled “Formula for Success.”  We watched E-Corner Videos “Balancing your life and career successfully” by Randy Komisar and “Is work/life balance possible?” by Ana Miura-Ko.  We read the Action
Foundation’s “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Cautionary Tale.”  We read Stephen W. Gibson’s Article entilited ”Attitude on Money.”    We also studied two Mini-Cases: “The Night of Her First Dance Recital” and “Do You Follow Your Child?” and Continued reading “So You Think You Want to be an Entrepreneur?”

I love the instructional materials we have been using at BYU-I.  Each week there are so many points and lessons that guide us to become our best selves.  It is edifying and also occasionally annoying (usually when there is something huge that we have discovered about ourselves that we know we must change and it is something hard.) 

This week In Thomas S. Monson’s “Formula for success” He teaches us that “we, a chosen generation have a responsibility to be prepared, to be productive, to be faithful and to be fruitful.”  He teaches us the patterns and map and course that if we follow will we will have learned and accepted truth.  It is:

“Formula For Success:

1.       Fill your mind with truth

a.       “Search among those books and places where truth is most likely to be found.  You do not find truth groveling through error.  You find truth by searching the Holy word of God.”

b.      Our Resposibility- “Learn word of God, to understand word of God, and then to live His word. By doing so, we find we have learned and accepted truth.

c.       Joseph Smith counsel: “I made this my rule: When the Lord commands it, do it.”

2.       Fill your life with service

a.       Mosiah 2:17 When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.

b.      Remember: “A testimony is perishable. That which you selfishly keep, you lose.  That which you willingly share, you keep.  All of us benefit when we remember to magnify our callings.”

3.       Fill your heart with love

a.       Love Prompts Miracles

b.      Jesus is our teacher, Savior, redeemer, Son of God. He showed the way: He filled his mind with truth, life with service and heart with love. 

 Balancing your life and career I learned that balance is a dynamic question not a static question.  It is kind of like a pendulum in that it will swing back and forth. With the dynamic balance we need to “keep both ends in mind at the same time” and we need to “Never put yourself in a situation that you can’t say no.”  “Pay attention to the big picture, ask the right questions to keep life prioritized.”

Attitude on Money-Stephen W. Gibson

 “We all have filters in our minds which change the way we "see" things.  Remember, the ways we see things are a combination of what filters others have placed in our minds. These filters, ideas, beliefs, opinions and teachings get into our minds when we are very young and color and form the way we perceive or see things and issues. That is why so many of us think just like our parents think on so many issues when we are young.Part of the process of becoming adults is deciding if the lenses that we see things through are the correct lenses for us. As we shift through different concepts, principles and facts we decide which we accept. As we do, we become independent thinkers.”
When we are looking at money through his filters he teaches: 

1.      “The first thing we need understand about money is that is not evil. Money is neither good nor bad. The Love of money or the obsession with accumulating money from others unrighteously, no matter what the method, may be evil, but money in and of itself is neither good nor evil.

2.      The possession of excess Money often reveals or exposes what kind of a person the individual is.

3.      So number three is that Money reveals the kind of person we are.

4.      I believe this is number four. Money makes good men better.”

“It would certainly help you to understand three things better. One, money, two, you would know more about filters, and three, you would see how in a healthy marriage, the two partners can have very differing views on subjects, and feel very strongly about it, and still be friends and be happy and in love. However that is a subject for another talk”.

5.      “What money can't do. It cannot buy good health.“

“How do you make money? By following the laws it is predicated upon. (Doctrine and Covenants 130: 20-21).”

“So if you want to prosper:
Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him
Rule 2. Keep the commandments- that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings.
Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.
Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity.
Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.
Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.”

                        

As you leave today, you will receive a hand out that contains some rules. At the Academy, we call them rules of thumb for making money.
He has a handout of rules of thumb for making money he calls it PAC 45. They “have listed the practices of successful entrepreneurs. We have also listed the attitudes and habits of successful entrepreneurs. And finally we have listed the characteristics of businesses that will lead to success.”

I am not sure how I feel about his talk.  I feel like he is right on in many of his points, but I also feel he is on the edge of mingling percepts of men with scripture.  I get a warning when I read parts of this.  It was kind of the same as I studied “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Cautionary Tale.”

Some things they taught were:

“Once basic needs are satisfied, chasing more money, power, fame, or beauty will not lead to a happier life.”

“The secret to happiness: You are already quite happy.”

They teach happiness involves and can be increased or decreased by nature as well as nurture. They also teach that your empowering country, daily commute and peacefulness of your area surrounding your home, and place that you choose to work all can have an impact upon your happiness.  They also teach that life happens and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. 

You get happier as you are involved with wonderful meaningful relationships and friendships with people of all age ranges.   They divide life into a series of happiness stages:

1.       “Identity-understand who you are.

2.       Intimacy-Learn to live with others in a deep relationship.

3.       Career Consolidation-Learning to use your talents in the world.

4.       Generativity- unselfishly give to the next generation.

5.       Meaning- understanding ageless wisdom and virtue.

6.       Integrity- have spiritual sense of how you are connected to the transcendent.”

“The pursuit of happiness will keep you from finding fulfillment what nature distracts us to meaningless, addictive, a hollow grab for money, power and pleasure. “