November 28, 2015

What I have Learned:

Jim Ritchie shares how he was successful in three steps.

1. The 6 Step Success Formula
2. Terrific Marriage Partner
3. Principles from “The Richest Man in Babylon”

        Two ideas:

1. Pay Yourself First, Invest a part of every paycheck
2. Part of what you earn is yours to keep, never touch the principle

He explains that if we followed the steps he outlines anyone can become financially independent. “The reason while nearly everyone fails to make this happen is that they cheat. And if you are prone to cheat you’ll need to check out of this class and realize that you’ll probably live in mediocrity for the rest of your mortal life. But if you are willing to pay the price for a few years and set meaningful goals for what you want, you’ll discover the secret for accomplishing the worthy ambition of financial independence at any age.”

He says that we should have an Independence Account, a Budget Account, a Savings account and a God account.  

1. Independence Account,
1. a portion of each paycheck is saved
2. Budget Account,
1. living expenses
3. Savings Account,
1. Emergency fund, Gifts, Medical, vacations
4. Wish List Savings
1. Boat, cruise, fun stuff
5. Gold Account
1. Stock bonds, land, Principle is untouched.

He describes by first building the independence account we can then add to the gold account. “Tomorrows lesson begins at 5:30, and there ain't no free lunch”

What I have Yet to Learn:

Corey Bell shared an inspiring story of leaving behind regret and doing something that is worthwhile, he said, “If I believe I can do it, I try it. “

Ann Miura-Ko talked about striking balance between life and business. “It’s hard to say it’s balanced,” But she says that you have to believe it’s worth it.

Randy Komisar notices that there is no balanced life between being a CEO, because it is a 24/7 all consuming job, “you have to love what you do, it has to be your life.” Though he learned later that he needed something else, he describes it as a limited view he had to start living life, essentially giving up money for something he loved to do. As he developed a “whole-istic” view he was able to find that balance. “Never put yourself in a situation where you can’t say no”

Meg Cadoux Hirshberg says that entrepreneurs must develop a plan to balance their life. She mentions that as a business owner you can bring your kids to work and you should be able to talk and discuss work with them. Apart from sharing quality time with your spouse you can also invite them with you.

November 20, 2015

 
What I have learned:

A few of the points I have learned is to trust those you work with, find the passion in creating, learn to feed my correct emotions, and believe and seek for change. Here are some of the details.

Marissa Mayer, License to Pursue Dreams, describes how at Google 20% time is given to employees to work on whatever project they want. According to here review, 50% of Google’s projects came from the 20% time.

Passion and momentum build when skilled employees have access to great tools and the time to stretch them in new directions.

Kathy Hubers talks about how “there is a passion and joy about creating.”

Jim Ritchie: From Woody Woodwards book “Your Emotional Fingerprint”, He tells the story of the Cherokee of two wolves on Evil and One Good, the Evil represents bad emotions while the Good represents to the good ones. The question is asked which one wins and the answer is simple; What you feed grows. He concludes that by validating your emotions allows you to unlock your personal success.

A true entrepreneur seeks growth or change and believes they have the ability to realize goals.


What I have yet to learn:

Of all the lessons I have yet to learn it is this: to become. It's a life long journey, a process, a path, a way of life. I find comfort in the gospel of Jesus Christ because it gives be the motivation to become when all other sources fail. Elder Oaks talked about the Final Judgement being an acknowledgment of what we have become. "Conversion is a change of nature," where the gospel challenges us to do and to become. 

Taylor Richards says "Do not underestimate yourself, it’s not harder to be great than good."

What I learned:

This was a long week. Physically there were not anymore hours then any other week, but relatively it felt like this week I accomplished twice as much. On top of a busy schedule I spent most of the sick with some kind of cold. That's my rant for the week. Now what learned is that you can't trust a 12 year old to accomplish anything on their own. This seems like this should be a law of nature, written in stone. This is not a bad thing, it's just what it is. Today, my coworker Levi and I spent 8 hours teach scouts about Robotics. We do this every year at the Boy Scout STEM University. This year we were impressed to say that we had the most scouts complete the merit badge. I think this is because we paid our dues. We applied what Guy Kawasaki said about building success through trust. This may seem contradictory to the first natural law but it's not. This year we set out to get as many scouts to complete the merit badge, to do this we designed a low cost kit. Typically we put out detailed instructions, but we didn't with this kit. We gave them a box a parts and said use your imagination. Dozen's of scouts came back to class with creative, and impressive designs. So to rephrase my "law" I would say that it is more accurate to say that if you give a 12 year old the right tools, inspiration, and resources, and a few reminders they can accomplish anything. 


What I have yet to learn:

What I have yet to learn is taking it a step farther. How can we further challenge and inspire these scouts to not only excel in the robotics merit badge but then to go on even further inspire them for the future?

A few things I learned this week

The video Good Things to Come was a powerful inspirational video. After watching it I didn't realize that Elder Holland was the young father in the video until I took the quiz and found out the hard way. The one thing I learned from that video it to keep pressing on. I felt like I related very closely to the young father, not so much in the specific instances of a car breaking down on a long road trip, but in the fact that I know that there is a long road ahead of myself and my family and I've often struggled with the idea of getting there, or even to keep on going. I've taken a lesson out from the lesson from Taylor Richards, "you can do anything you can set your mind to." Just today I studied and passed my exam for a Ham radio technicians license. Up until the point I got my results back I questioned and doubted that I had completed it. I went so far to say the exact number of question I know I had missed, marking each of them. According to my guess I would be one short of passing the exam, where I had thought I got a 25 and I needed a 26. To my surprise I got 33 out of the 35 correct, and passed, going on to answer correctly an additional 20 correct answers on the general exam which was the next higher (although I didn't pass it, I would have needed 26.) In both cases though it shows that my own self perception greatly underestimated my actual knowledge. Today I've learned that I can actually do anything I set my mind to because I took the ham radio course and passed. 

What I have yet to learn.

This is the hard part, recognizing what I have yet to learn, is ultimately my potential. This may be something that I doubt every day but taking a note from 'Mastery' by George Leonard he says "Whatever your age, you upbringing, or you education, what you are made of is mostly unused potential." My hope is one day I will have a better knowledge of my potential, but today I am satisfied that I can become it or anything I set my mind to.

What I have learned:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. First things First
4. Think “Win-Win”
5. First seek to understand, then seek to be understood
6. Create Synergy
7. Sharpen the Saw

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

What I have yet to learn, a few thoughts from mastery:

Good Horse, Bad Horse

In his book Zen mind, beginner's Mind, Zen master Shunryu Suzuki approaches the question of fast and slow learners in terms of horses. “In our scriptures, it is said that there are four kinds of horses; excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the drivers will, before it sees the shadow of the whip; the second best will run as well as the first one, just before the whip reaches its skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn to run.

    When we hear this story, almost all of us want to be the best horse. If it is impossible to be the best one, we want to be the second best.” But this is a mistake, Master Suzuki says. When you learn too easily, you’re tempted not to work hard, not to penetrate to the marrow of  a practice.

    “If you study calligraphy, you will find that those who are not so clever usually become the best calligraphers. Those who are very clever with their hands often encounter great difficulty after they have reached a certain stage. This is also true in art, and  in life.” The best horse, according to Suzuki, may be the worst horse. And the worst horse can be the best, for if it perseveres, it will have learned whatever it is practicing all the way to the marrow of its bones.

    Suzuki’s parable of the four horses has haunted me ever since I first heard it. For one thing, it poses a clear challenge for the person with exceptional talent: to achieve his or her full potential, this person will have to work just as diligently as those with less innate ability.

(George Leonard, Mastery, p 66-67)

Thoughts from 23 October 2015

What I learned?

From the ‘The Entrepreneur and the Family’ by Steve Blank, that “If you’re starting a startup stay single” he joked. But he made the valuable point that “You must be able to balance your life with the startup. For example working with your family. Make sure that you include time for your family and your work.”

From ‘Three Lessons About What It Means to Be an Entrepreneur’ by Wences Casares. He said, “I’m stuck with being an Entrepreneur.” He outlined three things: 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.    

What I have yet to learn?

From ‘Loyalty to God and Family’ by Jan Newman I learned a few important things. He mentioned the people who aren’t wise crunch down the important things to make room for other unimportant things. Always make time for these two things the Lord, your Family, and the third if you added one your Career.

A profound statement he learned from his calculus teacher, he said: “I want to give you a bit of advice, a lot of you in this room are going to make a lot of money in your careers, and you are probably think that is what the Lord wants you to do, he’s putting you in this situation where you can go out and make lots of money to help build the kingdom, but you are wrong. Do you know what the Lord needs from you? He needs you to do your home teaching.”  D&C 64:34 says,  “Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind.” The only thing that will matter in a 1000’s years is your service in the kingdom of God and your family. Lastly he said “Honesty and integrity will help you to stick out in the world.”

This points I note are things I have yet to learn because I want to make sure that I set my priorities and I can do that by placing God and my family first. Though I may already understand this topic it is one that is not yet learned because I must apply it everyday for the rest of my life.

                                                                           

                           

17 October 2015

This week was busy! I felt like I had to do lots of work so it's nice to be able to take a look at everything that I accomplished. When I took the quiz I noticed that there were a few questions that I struggled on, so I thought I would take another look at them.

What I learned:

When President Gordon B. Hinckley was introduced to the press as the President of the Church in 1995, what did he say his focus would be?

This was found in the talk by Elder James E. Faust. He said "At the first press conference when President Gordon B. Hinckley was introduced to the press as the President of the Church in 1995, he was asked what his focus would be. He answered: “Carry on. Yes. Our theme will be to carry on the great work which has been furthered by our predecessors.” ⁷ This is a great theme for all of us. We need to carry on and endure to the end."

Combined with the theme this week of mastery I thought that of how important this principle is the need to master a subject or skill and carry on.

Another question I had was: Which of the following is not a skill that was mentioned to be a successful entrepreneur?

This was found in the article "Are Successful Entrepreneurs Born or Made?" The list of skills were:

• "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."
• “Being curious enough to uncover and unravel the strategies of competitors. 

According to President Faust, "____________ is usually earned by persevering and not becoming discouraged when we encounter challenges."

The answer to this was success. 



What I have yet to learn:

I wasn't able to answer this question:

In the interviews conducted with people over the age of 60 in a Hero's journey, they all came to a conclusion that only a few things will matter. Which of the following was not one of the questions mentioned?