Week Fourteen

My Last Lecture

If I were to sum up everything I learned in this semester’s course with only one word, that one word would be: “Love”. Perhaps that sounds corny and maybe strange, since this was about business and not a marriage and family course. Even still, love is the word.

A successful life and business requires love for yourself, love for the work you are doing, love for your family and those that your business effects. One thing that is not a recommended love, is the love for money.  That kind of love can destroy you.

Think about what you want to do, and who you want to become. Develop a love for that objective and nothing can stop you.

This was an important learning for me because I always thought that starting my own business was going to be all about work and sacrifice. I thought that I was going to have to sacrifice time and happiness to accomplish a dream. The truth is that if we focus too hard on the end goal we might sacrifice too much. It is important not to lose the joy in the journey. If we do, we will find ourselves where we desired, but we might not enjoy every aspect of our lives after arriving there.

When you do what you love, it won’t matter if you finish rich or poor. It won’t matter what others think of the project. If you love what you do, you will finish satisfied and accomplished. That’s the road to happiness.

My favorite subject of the course was “service”. Service requires a lot of love. It requires love of self because you have to know you are of value to the world enough to give your time and talents. It also requires love of the work, because you will do it for free. And of course it requires love for others, because you have to be willing to devote much for the benefit and growth of others. This is the most beautiful part of a handmade business: the effect it has on others. Think of the mark you are about to make on the world around you.

So when you are making your ambitious plans, take a step back. Examine your grand goals and impressive steps that will get you there. Ask yourself, “Where is the love?”. Do you love the plan, the people you will surround yourself with, the waves you will make, the end result? Do you love every bit and every piece of it and what your life will become? If not, you won’t accomplish it without much pain and sorrow.

My notes from this week:
Thomas S. Monson
Shall I falter, or shall I finish?
Lust for power, greed of gold, and disdain of one’s honor have ever appeared as faces of failure in the panorama of life.
The Mark of Vision
True finishers have the capacity to visualize their objective.
The Mark of Effort.
Vision without effort is daydreaming; effort without vision is drudgery; but vision, coupled with effort, will obtain the prize.

Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come to the one who stays. Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life’s victories after a while.

The Mark of Faith

The Mark of Virtue.

The Mark of Courage

The Mark of Prayer.

My missionary accepted the challenge to read the book. Half laughing, half crying, he declared: “It will be good to read something I can understand.” Clouds of despair were dispelled by the sunshine of hope. He completed an honorable mission. He became a finisher.    

Lynda M Applegate

Carole Carlson

the increasingly global nature of business, coupled with new approaches to sharing information and coordinating work, allowed entrepreneurs such as Leo Fernandez, Robin Chase, and Antje Danielson to tweak a business model from one country to suit market needs in another. 

entrepreneurs use the discussion of the business model to identify and clarify the assumptions that drive revenues and costs as they forecast cash flow and design

experiments to test the validity of their business models.

(1) the industry or industries within which the venture will compete; (2) the markets to serve, the specific needs that will be met, and the timing for entering each market; (3) the products, services, and solutions that will be sold and the timing for rollout; (4) the price of these offerings and how they will be differentiated from the alternatives; and (5) the key stakeholders that make up the new venture’s business network (or business ecosystem),
Identify key trends
Don’t just look at what’s happening now—look at what’s changing
Identify the size of the overall market today
Identify potential users and decision makers; are they the same and, if not, what motivates each group?
Enhance Expand Explore
considering potential strategic growth options up front, they were able to develop the infrastructure that would be required to run a large, national business as they rolled out the new venture.
Identify advisers and other partners needed to attract talent and expertise identify core values and the processes for communicating them; ensure that people make decisions and take actions that are consistent with them
Identify how to determine when to pivot and refine your business model or exit
In the book Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck,e xperienced entrepreneur and venture investor Tony Tjan and his co-authors describe what all successful entrepreneurial teams possess as a combination of “heart” (passion and motivation), “smarts” (analytic and creative-thinking skills), “guts” (intuition based on education and experience, as well as the courage to take action), and “luck” (being in the right place at the right time).

Launching Leaders
Peek Performance
Most people fail in life bcause they do not how to balance their roles and responsibilities
Areas of life that require our attention:
I am financial self-reliant
I am Physically fit
I am identifying my skills and talents
I am a product of what I eat
I understand the value of humor
I am a leader
I am creative
I am mentally tough; I don't complain
I am a communicator
I can motivate without depreciating others
I am like the great enlightened masters of history
get prepared
It's time to make it happen