Your Entrepreneur’s Journal

       Out of the "7 Habits of a Highly Effective Person" created and written by Stephen R. Covey the first habit of being proactive was the one that was most meaningful to me. In the summary article of Covey's book; the main idea of the first habit of "Be Proactive" is, "we can choose our own response to any signals or information we receive. We have the ability to influence our own actions. Therefore, being proactive means to actively choose what our response will be in any situation rather than to react blindly." I agree that we are in control of our responses to a situation and we have a choice on how we react to them. It is very important for individuals to know that they are in control of themselves. This is hard because it means you need to be aware of how you will react in a situation that could make you upset, or mad. Being able to control your reactions will help in your personal and business life ...

  The topic for week 6 was "So you want to be an Entrepreneur." In the talk, "Success is Gauged by Self Mastery," by Elder N. Eldon Tanner was a very enlightening read. He shared a quote by Plato and it reads, "the first and best victory is to conquer self, by self." I found this quote very deep and meaningful to me. I spend hours a day trying to master my patience with my 4 children. Some days are great and others are very frustrating and I quickly run out of patience. My goal is to "conquer self, by self" while continually striving to be slow to anger and allow myself to be annoyed in certain situations. This will take daily practice and desire to accomplish my goal. The thought of self-mastery was continued as I was reading in the book "Mastery," by George Leonard. In chapter 10, "Why Resolutions Fall and What to Do About It," Leonard says, "every one of us resists significant change no matter whether it's for the ...

       This week we watched a video called "A Hero's Journey." The Speaker was not named so I will just call him the Speaker. In this video the Speaker talked about a paradox.  He said, "t he hero’s journey is all about you, but it’s not about you at all." A funny way to think about being an  entrepreneur. He was saying that being a business entrepreneur, you have to think about you, your business, and how you want to run it. You make the decisions that involve your influence. So in a way it is all about you, but the paradox is, your business should be all about others. The service that you provide for your customers, service to others in your community and the support and love you give to your family is what being an entrepreneur is all about. It's about helping or changing the world with your influence. The Speaker talked about 3 promises that would happen when becoming an entrepreneur. They are:...

      I really enjoyed this weeks readings on "How will you measure your life?"  Time just flies by and without you really noticing. The days can feel long, but months and years seem to fly by. During this week I was aware of my time and how I spent it, and it really hit home.  In Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin talk entitled "Little Things are Important,"  said, "life is made up of little things, and to manage the minute is the secret to success." This quote resonated with my soul because I took a 15-year break from college and regret now that I didn't use my time more wisely. I took the break in order to help my husband through law school and then we started having children. I am grateful to have been blessed with children but I could have managed my time better. I could have been working on finishing my degree or pursuing my passions in the same little moments I was caring for my children.  Instead, I wasted so much time on thinking that I needed peac...

    I really enjoyed this weeks reading about honesty and business ethics. I gleaned from listening to Elder Lynn G. Robbins's talk "Making a Living and a life." I liked that he asked the group a rhetorical question about "what did Satan have to tempt Adam and Eve with?" I had never really thought about what Satan could tempt them with. Adam and Eve didn't have any possessions, money, or others to compare themselves too until they had more children. The only thing that Satan had at he beginning was their PRIDE. Elder Robbins's quoted Ezra Taft Benson and he said, "pride [the universal sin] is essentially competitive by nature. The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinion, works, health and talent against them." This quote is very true when pertaining to the story of Cain and Able. Cain wanted to be better than Able and did whatever he could including killing his own brother to get there. Cain is the ...

For my journal entry today, I will be sharing my thoughts on Randy Pausch lecture entitled, "Last Lecture." Randy Pausch was able to achieve many of his childhood dreams because he had a positive attitude and a growth mindset. He didn't look as failure as the end of his dream just as a learning experience. Looking back at my childhood, I feel like a grew up with a fixed mindset. I would let failures defeat me and not motivate me to improve and learn. It is maybe sad to say I didn't have any major defining life dreams as a child to young adulthood. I guess my dream was good grades in school and go to college, get married and have a family. But to answer the question do you feel dreaming is important? The answer is yes. I feel like dreaming is important and wish that I would have done more of it when I was younger. To be honest i am actually living my dream of being married and having a family. I feel truly blessed for it. I have a new dream now, and my dream is to own ...

       This is the first week of my Intro to Entrepreneurship class at BYU-I. I am required to keep a weekly blog journal about that have learned from the course that will help me grow and learn about myself as I peruse in education to become a personal business owner.       After reading the article, "Living Life as an Entrepreneurial Hero" by Jeff Sandfer, I have more of a clear path on what I want to do with my photography business. A quote that stood out to me was, "how to I get started? It begins with a paradox: you have to dream big, but start with small steps."      I have been wanting to have a photography business since the first time I bought my first camera in 2010. I truly love taking pictures, and capturing special moments in time to then be enjoys for years to come. I have been taking small steps ever since. I have taken a few photography classes from local community colleges, read articles online and much mo...