Progress and a Good Reminder

 This week’s reading included The E Myth again by Michael E. Gerber. One of the things that stuck out to me was working on your business instead of working in your business. I liked the point he made about making sure the company is serving you because your business is not your life. I sometimes feel like I am working in my company, that I’m beholden to it. It takes a good read every now and then to be reminded that it is supposed to be working for me. In the case of my flag company, I want it to become a franchise, as it mentions in the book. I think this would be a great compliment to the business-that it could be a franchise due to its processes and successes being duplicatable.
Another great read was Elder Wirthlin’s talk on Opening the Windows of Heaven. I know there are a few things to work on, for me, like learning to serve others. I know how to serve, I just don’t feel like doing it (and for right now in my life, I don’t have a lot of time to do it). I know that’s something I will focus on again when my school load is reduced in December. Learning how to do Family History in the summer has opened my eyes up to so many possibilities when it comes to serving others.
Progress on the $100 challenge is…challenging. I put the $20 into adwords with Google and I have already started to send traffic to my t-shirt site. I talked to some co-workers and they gave me some more shirt ideas. I’m considering creating a couple more graphics to increase my storefront. This way, when traffic is sent to the t-shirt store I have set up, there will be multiple options instead of just one. I talked to an entrepreneur last week about his t-shirt business. It was enlightening and I hope to use some of his ideas. I got my shirt in on Tuesday, and I’m not terribly satisfied with the output, so I might move the graphic over to a couple t-shirt sites this entrepreneur told me about. I think there might be higher profit margins at some of the others anyway. Other than that, I’m trucking on and learning as I go in this new venture.

E-Myth and Things

This week, one of my favorite assignments was to read in the book, The E-Myth. The chapters this week spoke of a story that I find intriguing and the plot of a recent movie about Ray Kroc. One of the reasons the chapters spoke to me was because I have an idea I would like to turn into a franchise in the future. I have been working on this idea for years and have had my ups and downs with the idea. My father and I bought into a franchise in 2002, when I got back to the United States from Portugal. We bought into Maui Wowi. It was $50,000 and my portion was $5,000 in the deal. My dad set up arrangements with the local triple A baseball team stadiums and we started selling smoothies. It wasn't terribly profitable, but we made some money. I let my dad keep all the profits and I just got my $5,000 back out when I was ready to buy a house. I put the money in more to support my dad than to start my own business venture; however, I did see the value in the franchise.

Every time my dad would have to buy cups, he'd have to buy them from Maui Wowi, even though we could buy generic cups for less. When we wanted smoothies, we had to buy the mixes from Maui Wowi. When we wanted anything, we had to buy from Maui Wowi. They determined everything and all we had to do was follow their system. From a business perspective, it really made it easy to go from not owning a business to owning one. That's what a franchise is all about. When I realized most of our $50,000 went to the franchise, I realized I would love to create one some day.

Regarding 'Gather, Enhance, and Market,' it only makes sense. I have come to the realization many times in pondering moments that everyone essentially needs the same things to live and enjoy life; however, it is by those people who have creatively gathered their information and rearranged via enhancements who have enticed us (through marketing) to buy their products instead of someone else's. It's pure genius and yet, elementary.

In regard to the $100 challenge, I've started. I was challenged to spend no more than $20 on starting a business this semester and turn it into $100 by the end of the semester. I have chosen to create a graphic that will go on t-shirts. My profit should be about $2-$2.50 per shirt, so I'll need to encourage 40 people, at least, to buy these shirts. My plan is to advertise through Facebook. I'm hoping for the best. I have uploaded the image and it should get enough of an emotional response that I think I can sell 40 of them, and perhaps more. Good luck to me...by the way, all proceeds will be donated into a microlending program, so this is a charitable challenge. Here's the site:

https://www.zazzle.com/united_we_stand_t_shirt-235685357150126604

My Farewell Address to the Next Class

         I get one opportunity to share with you what I learned from this course. I learned a lot. I have always known that passion is an important part of being an entrepreneur. I have known that failure is a temporary thing and not a permanence, even though it feels that way at times. It’s easy to say, it’s much harder to go through.
There are few things in this life that require more attention than one’s family. I beg and plead for the sakes of our communities and the generations that follow you that you find out how to balance life and work. It is true that we must absolutely have money to fulfill our lives. Money is not an evil, it is a tool that perpetuates a quality of life. Wealth itself does not make someone happy; however, lack of wealth can cause unhappiness. Even then, one can be happy without wealth as long as their basic needs are met. Take time to learn about money and why it is important for your survival. Don’t put accumulation of wealth over the importance of your family. If you were to do this, at the end of your life, you could be extremely wealthy, but have no one to share it with. At that point, what was it worth. Make a balance.
Push through the hard times. Some of the most successful people that are household names got there because they pushed through the times that were most difficult in their lives. When we are challenged with an obstacle in life, it is crucial that we don’t give up on our most important goals. We may have to change the path on which we’re travelling, but the destination should be the same-to live with God again with our families. This also means that when fears come our way, we need to face them. We must see a fear as an unattended problem. This means we have to address the fear. Determine what the outcomes would be if each of our fears took place. You’re likely to find that facing the fears that haunt you will dispel them and leave a wide open road ahead. Then, when all is going crazy about you and you have your head on straight, and you’re working like a mad man, non-stop, don’t forget to take a break. Sharpen your saw, as Stephen Covey suggests. Keep your mind sharp by taking a break from any obstacle that comes your way and you’re likely to find a solution when you least expect it.
Set guidelines for your life. You will not be the master of your life until it is over, so just keep being the best you can be. Don’t let yourself fall into traps of unethical behavior, or even the appearance of it. Your financial freedom is worth the effort, but keep your integrity, for without integrity, again, no one will be there to celebrate with you when your funds have been counted.
In the end, your wealth will not go with you after you die. It will rot or burn a hole in someone else’s pocket, so cherish the moments you have with your family…and take the class—you’ll discover what kind of entrepreneur you are or want to be!

Growth and Entrepreneurial Evolution

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. An entrepreneur does need to understand most all of his or her business, at least to the point of how they want it run. Henry Ford is accredited for saying he doesn't have to be the smartest person in the room, he just needs to be able to hire them, or similar to that.


I think Haykin did a great job in evolving with his roles and with the industry. This is definitely a lesson we can take-that keeping an eye open to the movement within the industry can cause us to float with the successors rather than sink with the failures. For instance, those who fought the electric car in the early 2000's are now playing catch up because of the likes of Tesla. Blackberry failed to see the benefit of the iPhone UI. I think the banking industry better look to cryptocurrencies as the next wave of the future blaring at us in our eyes. It will be interesting to see what leaders are able to envision the future. Adaptability is crucial as an entrepreneur.

From this lesson, I found that as we adapt to our environments, we become increasingly valuable. If we find weaknesses within our own lives that we can't overcome easily, it is important that we find partners who can complement us. This will create the most interdependence and the sum of the two halves will be greater than the whole, so to speak.

Capitalism Has Made More People Rich Than Any Other System in the History of the World

It was nice having to listen to "Entrepreneurship and Consecration" this week. There were a couple quotes I had to write down. The first was, "God gives man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things." This quote reminds me that God trusts man to be able to create and innovate. He isn't going to give us ease and lawn chairs with cold drinks in our hands. In being an entrepreneur, it is our job to find something of value in the raw materials we've been given. If we can build upon something that is already created to make it better, we've added value to the world.

The next idea that stuck was that an entrepreneur can't be a person who only does what they're told to do. We need people who can solve problems. I feel like the schooling system as it stands now is a system to teach people to follow directions and work for someone else. One of the reasons I home school my children is so I can teach them how to be problem solvers. It's a mindset that needs to be broken in our schools, in my opinion.

When, "Earth hasn’t provided the answer, perhaps we should try heaven." Relating closely with the first quote I mentioned, when man has tried as hard as they could to fix the problems that face them and still hit a wall, it's time to ask God. It seems those are the best times to receive inspiration-when we're down to our last push.

Regarding the other readings, I found the reading on micro lending to be the most interesting. I had heard of micro lending years ago. The only reason I never got involved was because I need to increase the size of my golden goose before I can pass out her eggs, so to speak. I love the idea and to hear it again in this class is not only heartwarming, but a welcome reminder of what good we can do in this world for others around the world. It is truly a great way to “teach a man to fish.”

Additional questions:

Based on what you read in the first two pages (pages 3 and 4), why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy?

The first pages of the reading has somewhat of a pessimistic feel to it. The reasons virtue and integrity are so important is that businesses use the savings of ‘everyday people’ to invest. When the leaders of the businesses lie, cheat, or steal in the name of capitalism, or because “it wasn’t against the rules,” they are stealing from people in general and everyone else suffers. It affects society as a whole.

According to Charles Handy, what is the “real justification” for the existence of businesses?

“It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better” (emphasis added).

Make it a Life-Work Balance, rather than a Work-Life Balance.

In another class I'm taking, I was required to have an interview with someone as high up as possible within my work's organization. I interviewed someone just below the Director level. Within my interview, I asked how this person balanced home and church with his work role. He told me that he takes one week every year to leave the country. When he leaves the country, he doesn't check emails or take phone calls. During this week is when he really focuses on family. The rest of the year, even when on "vacation," he still checks his phone and emails. I couldn't believe it when he said it. For me, I work to provide for my family, not to fulfill my life. When I go to work, I realize it means I'm leaving my family behind. I have several people with whom I work that say, "It's so hard to take my required number of hours of vacation each year." It shocks me every time I hear it. I've often asked, "Why do you work here?" I remind them that I'm here to put food on my table and take care of my kids. I have never had a problem taking all my vacation time and have often jested that they can donate their vacation time to me.

I do work hard and I work many hours. I am a youtuber and a blogger on the SteemIt platform. Both of these are done with the intent to earn money for my family. SteemIt is more long term as I build an audience, and YouTube is more long term because once a video is made and posted, it becomes a cash machine. I never have to make the same video twice and as long as it remains relevant and interesting, it keeps earning me passive income...really passive income. I also invest in real estate, including rentals. The idea, again, is passive income. If I can fill my life with streams of passive income, I will not have to leave my family for work. Instead, I'm able to provide for my family and be with them at the same time. That's the work-life balance I look forward to; however, I also realize that Brigham Young taught that money should not sit in a bank account. He said if you have money, you should use it to build up the Kingdom of God. He suggested that if you had money in the bank, it should be used to create a business to put another saint to work for the benefit of all. We should work, but we should work wisely and provide enough that we can enjoy our families and they can enjoy us. For our children, they need a proper example, because they're most likely to follow in our footsteps and repeat what we do.

Just a Mouse Dreaming of Becoming an Elephant

This week's lesson included Kathy Huber who spoke about a passion in creating. She also spoke about the joy of creating something. Taylor Richards spoke of his excitement in being in the top 20 and top 10 of top boating dealerships 2 years in a row. I have found when I create material for others, I get excited, especially when I can see they benefit from it. This is one of the reasons I do YouTube. While I don't get a whole lot of money from it, I do get more than I would have had than if I had done nothing. More than the money, though, I get satisfaction that others are enjoying something I've made. Earning from my work helps by showing me I've made something of good quality. My goal is to always create content that is better than what I have done previously. This is the passion that I have. For instance, I have been studying for the last month or two on how to improve the audio on my videos. Before that, I studied how to edit my video in better ways. Any time I focus my efforts on improving my content in any small way, I feel it affects in a great way. Eventually, I believe that my content will resemble a very professional output, also resulting in financial benefits for my family and me.

Similar to previous lessons, I feel the subject of passion stood out. As an entrepreneur, it's not about starting big, it's about taking an idea that you can envision becoming giganticly successful  and constantly trying to perfect it.  Starting small is difficult, but hugely beneficial. Through perfecting the system, product, or other kind of output, the customer is benefited and can comprehend the increased value. Not only that, but by the time your business becomes "viral," you're already putting out a great product. I feel that's more important than trying to start huge and losing your audience or customer base because you haven't had the trial of fire to get through the kinks in the bad product. This is what makes an entrepreneur successful.