Success Is Gauged by Self-Mastery

This week I very much appreciated Elder Tanner’s address title “Success Is Gauged by Self-Mastery”. The phrase that accurately sums up the point in this message is found within the article: “The Lord is always looking for men in whom He can place His full confidence, who can represent Him in the mission field, and men who can be rusted in every way and who are prepared to help build His kingdom.” (Tanner, N. Eldon). Elder Tanner said: “… as you accepted the priesthood you made a covenant with the Lord that you would honor the priesthood and live worthy of it.” To accomplish this great and divine task, Elder Tanner continues, is to conquer self. He then quoted a few philosophers: “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile” (Plato); “He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others” (da Vinci); “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Prov 16: 32).  Elder Tanner suggests that “we must never relax or forget who we are and what we are trying to accomplish.” As we continue to honor the priesthood and remain worthy to have the priesthood in our lives, the Lord will continue to trust and place His confidence on us so that we can help Him bless the lives of others through service and sacrifice. I am indeed thankful for this principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

   

Another fundamental principle that I was reminded this week is the loyalty to God, wife and family are the most critical priorities in our lives. I enjoyed watching Jan Newman's video https://vimeo.com/28075977 as Newman suggested to take care of business in these areas. Newman warns us not to pass on opportunities to serve in callings because we are too busy with life and our professional careers. Because we need the Lord’s help, He’ll know where our hearts are, and they won’t be on His side.

   

Also, I enjoyed watching the “Three Lesson About What It Means to Be an Entrepreneur” by Wences Casares. He shares three most important insights as Casares counsels that 1) Entrepreneurship is a calling that chooses us—it is inescapable. 2) Time is our most valuable asset and 3) Entrepreneurs create the most value by doing the same thing for a very long time.

  

Finally, after reading the article titled “Don’t Jump in Unprepared”, I learned there are three areas of knowledge that are critical for starting a successful business: 1. In-depth knowledge of the competitive structure of an industry and a network of contact within that industry; 2. The skills to run that daily operations of a small, rapidly growing company; and 3. The ability to raise capital. This reading taught me a few great lessons. The fact that almost without exception, when it comes to industry knowledge we must be immersed in an industry for years to pick up nuances. Regarding day-to-day operations, if the company is flawed, almost any strategy is in jeopardy. As for raising capital, reputation is everything. “A good money raiser is part salesman, but that salesmanship is built brick by brick on a foundation of competence and honesty”. 

Mastery: Skill, Character, or Luck

This week was filled with great learning, readings, and knowledge associated with becoming an entrepreneur.

   

Jeff Sandefer’s article on Skill, Character or Luck? Discussed the various characteristics of an average entrepreneurs. Important skills were highlighted: “The ability to find good salespeople and manage a sales force”; “Having a firm grasp of which numbers are important”; Knowing how to put together an assembly line or service delivery process”; “Being able to communicate clearly”; “Listening and questioning customers”; “Being a Problem Solver; thinking”, etc. were a few skills mentioned in this article.  I learned that talent and dedication are important traits to entrepreneurship. Other important character traits we outlined: “Basic curiosity”; “Fairness”; “Courage”; “Relentless pursuit of opportunity” were among other traits. Most of the characters and master critical skills for entrepreneurs are perseverance and honesty. However, what made them different from others is that they stayed the course. Day after day; year after year.

   

Another reading that I enjoyed this week as I learned “How You Find Your Passion and How Do you Pursue It?" Randy Komisar highlighted the following questions: What's the ultimate question? What is the ultimate thing that you're going to do with your life? What is the ultimate mark you're going to make? What is the farthest horizon that you can articulate? Then, Randy asked two additional questions on What are my values? What do I care about? This approach gives us directions and guidance. Optimization is ultimately the critical mindset that allow entrepreneurs see the opportunity in front of them. In fact, as entrepreneurs we need to look at all opportunities available to us makes it easier to decide and move forward.

I thought this synchronized nicely to another one of the articles that we studied this week. Elder Faust’s address about the importance of persevering. As I began to read his address, I was impressed that the article would provide important instruction as to organize my life for success; I wasn’t disappointed. Elder Faust listed off blessings of knowledge and habits that come from serving a mission. He mentioned: “How to organize time wisely; the importance of hard work; leadership skills; people skills; the value of gospel study; respect for authority; the importance of prayer; humility and dependability on the Lord” (Faust, James). Elder Faust taught important principles attributed to success, he pointed: “Success is usually earned by persevering and not becoming discouraged when we encounter challenges” (Faust). Life is all about getting up when we get knocked down, if someone is willing to keep fighting, the paths to success will reveal themselves.

Finally, I would like to highlight the three promises in the video “A Hero’s Journey” by Jeff Sandefer: We promised that students will learn; We promise that they will make money; We promise that they have a life of meaning. At the end, students felt they had learned and made money from the principles taught during the Hero’s Journey. However, from a survey conducted with people interviewed that were older than 60 years old said that three following questions are what they were mostly influenced by:

 

1.      Have I contributed to something that was meaningful?

2.      Am I a good person?

3.      Who did I love and who loved me?

  

Upon reflecting on these questions, I realized that as I build my life around the role of an entrepreneur, I need to keep in mind these questions as nothing else will ultimately influence my personal life and my business.

How to Measure My Life

I have really enjoyed this week setting up and accomplishing goals in the past but have never specifically identified and set apart governing principles (Cover Values) to act as the base and support for achieving my goals. The real question comes to life as we have been counseled to “beginning with the end in mind”. Listing long term goals, constantly striving to accomplish short term goals, and accomplishing daily tasks are all parts of how I can effectively measure my life. Thus far the articles and video podcasts presented have said a lot about how to live a good life.

The assignment on Deconstructing my Fear Experience came to heart as I faced my worse fears and learned how to tackle them. I learned that when pursuing your calling with discipline and receiving the help of others will help me not to worry and waste my time on the things I cannot control. As to what is the core of what fear means? For example, my fear of losing and going broke is by far my worst fear. My plan is to mitigate this fear by removing the money question altogether and rather put an emphasis on the skills, talents, and experience I have acquired over the years.

Also, I learned another great insight from Clayton Christensen’s address talks about “allocation choices”. Mr. Christensen suggests using allocation choices as someone may break down on how to spend their personal time, energy, talent, and other resources to shape their lives strategy. Clayton Christensen talks about the natural occurrence that takes place when someone wisely invests their resources he states: “When people who have a high need for achievement...they’ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments” (Christensen). After I had read that statement I asked myself “how do I stimulate my ‘high need for accomplishment’.

In addition, I learned that through this week the book report assignment on Launching Leaders gives people strategies and resources and tools they can be adopted in business and personal life. The book provides practical guidance along with principles that are faith-based which will help people become they want. Hitz introduced to the reader the Cycle of Spiritual Guidance as it spells out exactly what a person needs to do to bring their life into alignment with God. (Hitz, 27). These items include: Discover your true identity, Trust your inner voice, come what may, Have faith to act right away, Be at peace with Heaven’s timing, and Live well. Hitz suggests incorporating the Cycle of Spiritual Guidance into one’s personal foundation to actively believe and trust in a higher power. 

Honesty Business Ethics

This week, I appreciated reading the talk on “Making a Living and a Life” by Lynn G. Robbins.  It is interesting to realize that during Adam and Eve’s time, Satan could not tempt them as they were alone in this world until “the human race began to multiply and he could use competition and comparisons to appeal to the pride of man”. After pondering about this truth, pride is the essence of wickedness and sin. We see it in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon (Helaman 3:33-34), and in today’s society. I learned that as the Lord commanded Adam to make our every day’s living through “the sweat of our face”, we need to be cautioned as the Lord warns of a big difference between God and mammon. Mammon is the “love of money” as it is “the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). I learned that the real distinction of our motives in the work place are not necessarily what is important to us. Rather, our motives should align with the Lord’s objectives in the work place. May each of us are guided by the Spirit in all our employment decisions:

·         Are building His kingdom including strong and valiant families.

·         Are honest in your dealings with your fellowmen and using your God-given talents in their service.

·         Filling your life with good works, that positively impact your community and world.

The grading scale used by Elder Robbins illustrate accurately the different types of employees, business owners, entrepreneur, leaders, parents, children, etc. I think that an entrepreneur that fall under a Category-A person: reflects a person who loves God, and his fellowmen as himself/herself. Let’s be clear and concise, Category-A person loves to God and fellowmen is the primary motivation and not money. (Jacob 2: 18-19).  In summary, according to Elder Robbins if our primary motivation if love of God and fellowmen, then “the working man or women will be a kingdom builder and a full-tithe payer.”

In addition, I learned an invaluable lesson on the importance and accountability of establishing our personal code of ethics. As we learned last week, our ethical guardrails are the things that we can rely on to keep our heading in the right direction. During this week, I enjoyed establishing my 8-9 “I will never …” and “I will always …” personal ethical guardrails that will guide and keep me safe towards stepping stones and ultimately to my personal star destination.

Last but not least, I like to summarize the Harvard Business School (HBS) article on the accomplishments, success and setups of Magdalena Yesil.  It was a great aha moment for me to read and learn about this incredible woman life’s journey. Magdalena Yesil’s early passion for learning and developing skills launched her career in the direction of starting new companies as well as her investor/partners and business founder opportunities. Leveraging from her solid education, talent, and experience, and later as an entrepreneur and investment partner, Magdalena’s thrived first in turning marketing strategies into product design. Later, she went into creating investments into a variety of technology start-ups and successful business ventures. Yasil attributed her success to her parent’s beliefs that she could do anything she wanted to do, if she was willing to pay the price. With her education background in the engineering industry, she found herself solving every hurdle into a tangible solution. Early in age, Magdalena believed that “gender was irrelevant to accomplishment.” With this in mind, she started as a student immigrant from Istanbul, Turkey who showed up in America with no support, or money but had a good sound destination as a goal star in mind “to pursue a technology career in the United States”. After obtaining her Master Degree in Electrical Engineering, she quickly moved up from company to company, acquiring additional experience and talents. She thrived when working with people and acquiring more knowledge. Later in her career she was developing marketing strategies, tactics, promotions, and advertising campaigns. Magdalena continued with determination and ingenuity allowing her to create her niche in business ventures, investments, starts-ups, and venture capitalist opportunities among other business expertise.