The Best of the Best

"Hiring the best is your most important task."-Steve Jobs

This week I learned about the importance of finding the right people to work for you. Both Guy Kawasaki and Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of finding people who were “infected” with love for the product or service, and were aligned with the objective. They both stated that they would be more willing to hire raw talent, newbies from college, or someone with no degree rather than someone with education and work experience, if it meant that this person would be a lot more willing and passionate about developing new ideas than the other. Another great thing I learned was to seek to hire individuals who are better than you. This didn’t make sense at first, but Guy Kawasaki, explains that by hiring “A” players or “stars” we can maintain that level of high leadership. For a person to hire someone better than them, they must be humble, and have the confidence to recruit these kinds of people that will be able to teach them. Hiring the right people can make a huge difference in the companies success.

Besides learning the importance of finding the right people, I also learned a few steps to follow in order to get the right people at an organization. First, a clear job description must be identified and written. This helps to know what skills and qualities to look for in an individual. Second, take your time searching for the right candidate, and don’t settle for less. Giving the hiring process the necessary time and effort to find the right candidate at first will result less costly for the company down the road. Lastly, make sure to check potential applicant’s references, and take the time to train them and get to know them. If for any reason, you did hire a bad apple, it is crucial to get them “off the bus” or fire them immediately. This prevents from having that employee become a bigger cost. Of course, there is a process that must be followed in order to properly fire someone in order to avoid lawsuits.  The hiring process should start right after dismissing an employee.

This was all great information to learn for my future business endeavors. Hiring and firing are key factors in a company’s success. Making sure that the right people are on the bus, and in the right seats helps to launch a business more successfully. I hope to remember these things and apply them when it comes the time to finding people to hire for my business.

Be a Great Leader

This week through the readings, and the Leadership Style Survey, I was able to reflect on my leadership qualities, and leadership style. I learned that my leadership style was in a transition phase. I learned that I am becoming more of a “free rein”’ leader. This means that those that work for me or with me, are not closely managed, or micromanaged. Instead they have the ability to work independently and perform without much supervision. This made sense to me because I have been more of a team player lately, and feel like I have been most successful this way. I am not currently employed, however, being a leader for group projects I can definitely see how this style plays into effect. It makes me wonder if I am dominant in this style because I have been working in more group projects than before.

I enjoyed rereading the “Leadership with a Small ‘L’” talk by President Kim B. Clark. I like that it mentioned that in order to successfully lead we must lead by example, lead with a vision, and lead with love. This went hand in hand with what the article “What Makes a Leader?” by Daniel Goleman stated. The article was about emotional intelligence, and how it was a key ingredient to being a great leader. Having emotional intelligence was defined by having self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. These are the types of qualities that we should try and possess in order to be successful leaders. These qualities will help us be great leaders not only in our careers, but also in our homes, and communities.

I know that I want to continue to improve my leadership style to be more like the Savior and lead with a little ‘L,’ through example, and with love.

$100 Challenge Progress: 

A lot has been happening lately that I fell behind on my planned dates to execute the garage sale. Due to my husband returning back home from his deployment this past week, I put off the garage sale. I originally didn’t know when he would return, so I had planned a bit differently at the start. I have separated all the items that will be used for the garage sale, and have marked prices on them. I have not made the signs yet, due to location and date change, but I have the material to make them. I chose to change the date to the garage sale for the weekend of Thanksgiving, since more people will be off for the holiday, and so will my husband (so he can help me with carrying boxes). I also changed the location from San Diego, CA, to Somerton, Arizona. One reason for this is that I contacted my HOA (Homeowner’s association) in regards to doing a garage sale, and found out that since it is a gated community garage sales are not randomly allowed. What I was told is that once a year the HOA designates a date for everyone in the community who desires to participate in a garage sale to participate, and they help with advertising. I had not lived in this house for the past 3-½ years, and had never thought of having a garage sale before, so I didn’t know this information. Glad I called! So with that said, the new location for the garage sale will be at my cousins house in Somerton, which is a small town, but popular with garage sales. My cousin had a garage sale three weeks ago, and apparently made $150 from sales. This gave me hope after feeling a bit discouraged with all these changes. Hope to report great news next time.

Rebirth...

Instead of creating a new journal blog for my entrepreneurial journey, I figured I would continue to write on the entrepreneurial journal I started two years ago. I had not gone back to read nor write in this blog for a while. I honestly had forgotten about it. Reading through what I wrote two years ago, I was reminded of all the things I have learned, and how I felt towards it at the moment. Why did I stop writing in it? I have gained so much more insights since then. I hope to continue to learn new things that will be useful for me in my journey to becoming an entrepreneur in this course  (B283-02 Small Business Creations) and hope to continue writing them down. 

Last week I reviewed a power point presentation titled The American Dream. The power point presentation demonstrated how very powerful figures like Horation Alger, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and Sam Walton, all started from humble beginnings yet through persistence they accomplished their dreams. The main message that I took away was, “It all begins with a Dream…” This phrase stuck with me last week, and it came to mind again this week as I read some blogs. One of my favorite blogs was from Penelope Trunk who is a wife, mother, entrepreneur, and successful blogger. One interesting thing that I learned from reading Penelope’s blog is that despite her living in rural Michigan, a farm, and homeschooling her children, she still was able to start up several companies. She even managed to make it to the “TechCrunch’s list of 30 Women Revolutionizing Tech,” along with Sheryl Sandberg (CEO of Facebook), Susan Wojcicki (CEO of YouTube), and other influential woman.

I was having a hard time this week pinpointing my “100 Challenge” small startup. I am still not quite sure exactly what small business I want to start. All the uncertainties that came with those thoughts had gotten me thinking that maybe I am not supposed to be an entrepreneur. I started doubting myself, and my dreams. These people all helped me to reflect on my dreams. They helped to rethink that although there are roadblocks in our way, we need not let them stop us from achieving our dreams. I do have dreams to start a business one day. I do want to look for opportunities and expand on them to open a business. I know that I too can become successful if I follow my dreams, and persevere.

So here starts the rebirth of my entrepreneurial journal, the creation of a small business, and the perseverance to follow my dreams….

My Last Lecture…

Now that we are in the end of this course, it is time to recap. There has been so much great, inspirational, and motivational information that I have learned. I am not about to write all the wonderful information I learned throughout the course, but I will share the great insights that stood out to me and I know that if every one of us applies these things we will have a more meaningful life. So this is my last lecture to any one who is pursuing a career as an entrepreneur, or anyone who wants to make some changes and living a life with more meaning.

My first piece of advice is to be careful whom you surround yourself with. I know this is may seem of common sense to some of us, but we do not really understand why it is important to do just that. We tend to become the people we associate ourselves with. For this reason we need to make sure we surround ourselves with great people we would like to become like. This will be very important in your entrepreneurial journey because you will need to build partnerships or teams, and you want to make sure that the people whom you choose are as passionate as you are in some aspects. When we choose to hang out with the wrong crowd we find ourselves being influenced to doing things we normally would not do, and end up picking up bad habits. Lets refrain from doing that, and instead choose to become better versions of ourselves. So again it is crucial in business as well as life to choose our friends wisely.

Second, believe in yourself even when all odds are against you. This is a very important piece of advice that many of us seem to fail to remember in trying times. In your entrepreneurial journey as in life, there will always be obstacles, or challenges that we are going to face. No one is safe from this. As human beings we will always face people who put us down, or people who do not believe in us, or our own worst critic, which is within each of us. So when the though gets going, do not give up or do not falter, but instead believe in yourself. Know that in order to get others to believe in you, your company, or your product, you first need to believe in yourself.

This brings me to my third advice, which is to stick with it. Again things will not come easy. They will not be handed in a silver platter for you or I, so we need to make sure that we are always working towards our goals. It is easy to give up and just call it quits, but when you give up on your goals and dreams you rob yourself from growing and reaching your full potential. The people who usually reap greatness in life are usually the people who had a vision and who stuck through the ups and downs and endured till the end.

Everyone one of us can follow these three simple pieces of advice. I can guarantee you that if you apply these three things in your life, you will not only succeed in pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams, but you will also live a more meaningful life. I encourage everyone to apply these three things into your life, as I have been trying myself and reap from the success that they will bring. 

These are just some of the few insights I gained from starting my entrepreneurial journey, and I hope that they will serve you well, as they have served me. Thanks for your time, and best of luck in your journey! 

Balancing Life

“We have the responsibility to be prepared, to be productive, to be faithful, and to be fruitful as well (Thomas S. Monson).” How do we do all of this? How do we maintain balance in our lives with the many responsibilities we have? A way to balance our lives and careers successfully is to love what we do. Ann Miura-Ko, in her video “Is Work/Life Balance Possible,” stated that it is always a struggle to balance work and life, but that when we are passionate about our work, and we believe that what we are doing will be worth it in the end, then it will feel like taking time away from family is a “worthy trade off.”

This week helped me reflect on what entrepreneurial life will be like. It helped me reflect on what I need to focus on in order to be a successful entrepreneurial. There will be challenges no doubt, but if I prepare myself ahead of time to know when to cut back or press forward I will save myself and others a lot of trouble. Being that keeping a balance between an entrepreneurial career and life will be a struggle, I need to make sure to figure out now how I will measure my success now. I need to figure out what combination of family time, and wealth will be the most rewarding for me. The reason that I need to make sure I make this point clear is that when I am faced with adversary I can evaluate where I am at and make the necessary changes to maintain a balanced life and keep everyone as happy as possible. I hope to get this figured out early in my entrepreneurial journey so I can save myself a lot of future trouble.

The big entrepreneurial dream...

This week we were faced with the question “what is at the heart of entrepreneurship?” In their article, The Heart of Entrepreneurship, Howard H. Stevenson, and David E. Gumpert, explained “everybody wants to be innovative, flexible, and creative,” yet many fail in their pursuit. So why might this happen? What I understood to be the answer to this question and to the question of “what is at the heart of entrepreneurship” is a person’s mindset and behavior. It is okay for us to want to be innovative, flexible, creative, and to dream big dreams, but if we do not examine our behaviors and mentalities to be in par with an entrepreneurs then we are setting ourselves for failure. In order for us to be successful entrepreneurs it is necessary for us to seize up opportunities, and to accept change and make the most of it and find ways to profit from it. When we learn to apply these principles to match entrepreneurs we contribute ideas and innovation that help bring about competition and productivity in our society.

         In pursuing our big dreams and entrepreneurial dreams, when we have the positive mindset to grow, sacrifice, and persevere, we need to make sure that our behavior is responsive to these thoughts. We can want and dream many things, but if we don’t actually act then we will most likely never attain those things. In the article, The Challenge to Become, Dallin H. Oaks mentioned that it is not just enough for us to believe, but that we must seek to become it. He went on to say that, “What is important in the end is what we have become by our labors.” This was one of my favorite quotes this week. I agree that in the end what will matter the most will be how we decided to spend our days doing, and what we ended up becoming. This motivates me more to continue to dream big and pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. 

Loyalty & Leadership

This week as I was reading about loyalty and leadership, I reflected a lot on my level of loyalty and how I was able to lead because of it. Thinking back, due to my high level of loyalty and willingness to get the job done, my employers had felt confident in giving me more tasks to fulfill, and entrusted me with the power to lead. As I read this week, I realized how essential loyalty is to leadership. We must be true and loyal in all of our dealings with others and with ourselves. When people come to know that you are a person that can be counted on to get the job done effectively, they will gravitate towards you. This is essential in entrepreneurial leadership, where we will be required to perform effectively. I gained great insights about the ability to execute from the reading, “A message to Garcia.” There is no greater feeling than being entrusted to take on a new task or project because you can be depended on to take on the job and run with it. Part of properly executing a job is to learn to delegate important tasks to others who are capable. For some of us this may be a difficult thing to do, but we need to teach and lead to the best of our ability and trust that things will get done. Leaders who are honest and loyal are always sought for. As mentioned in “Leadership with a Small ‘L,’” the three great principles that we will need in life to successfully lead are, lead by example, lead with a vision, and lead with love. These three principles will help us lead in our homes, in our communities, and in our own entrepreneurial ventures. I know that I will continue to strive to be loyal in all of my dealings and to lead by example, and with love. I hope to always remember these key principles and use them in my entrepreneurial journey.