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….