Entrepreneurial Journal Blog

 This week we had the opportunity to study some good videos/readings.  One of my favorite is from Marissa Mayer.  She talks about how they allow their engineers to work on whatever they want 20% of the time.  I think that this is something that we should apply to our lives as well.  I think a lot of entrepreneurs start out with a 9-5.  I think that's fine, but I think it's important to apply this principle as well.  Outside of our 9-5, what are we doing to start our business?  What are we doing to chase our dreams?  What was cool was that 50% of the products that google launched that year (the year in which the video was taken) came from the 20% of time that they were allowed to work on whatever they wanted.  I think that that is a powerful message that we can all learn from.  I also liked Dallin H Oaks talk called "The Challenge to Become."  I liked the story of the rich man and his concern with giving his inheritance to his c...

 I think I liked the video from Guy Kawasaki.  I tend to gravitate towards his messages and teachings because his book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is the first book that I read on my own outside of school/church purposes. In his video, he talks about trust and how it works.  Something that I never really thought of before is if we want to be trusted by others, we must trust them first.  He shares an example of Zappos.  I personally haven't heard of them, but I guess they are a women's shoe company.  He shares an example of how Zappos was able to get women to buy their shoes online without trying them on.  Zappos "trusted" their customers by saying that they would pay for shipping and handling both ways.  So if their customers ended up not liking the shoes that they tried on, they could ship them back no cost to them and they would receive their money back.  That "trust" took all the risk out of buying shoes online, and it was a big success. ...

 This week had a lot of good study material that I enjoyed.  I'd like to start off by sharing what brother and sister Holland shared back in 1983.  One of them shared the following quote: "Only a small portion of what we are [is developed] and there is enormous potential in the human being." I think that one of the biggest projects that we can work on is ourselves.  Self-improvement is something that can greatly benefit our lives.  It's important for us to realize that we do in fact have control over our lives, and that we have the free will to make the improvements that we want.   I also liked the quick clip about not underestimating ourselves.  I think that we can achieve a lot more than we think we can.  Someone that I look up to is David Goggins.  In a lot of his motivation videos, he says that when we feel like quitting, we have only achieved 40% of what we are actually capable of.  It is up to us to push through the barrier an...

 Based on the reflection criteria this week, I will go over some of the 7 habits that were most meaningful to me, and which ones will help me find my passion and purpose.    I think that all 7 habits are extremely important, but I think that the most vital one for me is "Beginning with the End in Mind."  To me, this has been the one that I have lacked the most.  I think it is something that I haven't done a good job of doing lately, which has caused me to lack a sense of direction of what I am doing with my life.  It was good for me to sit down and think about what I want to accomplish here in the next 1,5, and 10 years of my life.  Where do I want to be when I'm 33?  I think that asking myself those kinds of questions helped me realize that... A) Our time is limited B) My actions today determine who I am tomorrow C) I need to put first things first!   By beginning with the end in mind, it helps create clarity in my life and a sense of p...

 I think that I learned a lot of valuable lessons this week.  I think that something that I really need to improve is my self-mastery.  I think that it is something that has somewhat held me back.  I think we all have dreams that we haven't acted upon.  We have all said at some point "One day I'll do it."  I think now that I'm getting closer to being done with college, I've realized that I've been saying that for a couple of years now.  One of those things for me has been going to the gym.  I used to be in really good shape when I was playing football in high school.  I had a couple of knee surgeries my senior year, and ever since then I truly haven't gotten back to what I used to be.  Not saying that I'm out of shape, but I'm nowhere close to what I used to be.  I can remember myself getting back from my mission and saying that I would get consistent again.  The longest that I've stayed consistent is probably 4 months straight...