Entrepreneurial Weekly Journal

Which of the 7 habits has the most meaning for you? I like the habit Sharpen the Saw the best. You need to take care of yourself physically, mentally and spiritually to be your best self. A dull saw doesn’t get much work done. Why will the 7 habits help you fill your life with passion and purpose as you seek to achieve both a private and public victory? We used these habits in school growing up. We memorized all of them. I think if we apply them to our lives we will find passion and purpose as we seek to achieve private and public victories. I also enjoyed listening to President Hinckley’s conference talk “Stand True and Faithful”. Some quotes that stood out to me were:  “Let me first speak about being true to ourselves. Our 13th article of faith says that we believe in being honest and true. We believe in being true. How very important it is to be true to ourselves. Each of us has a thing we call conscience. We know the difference between right and wrong. We do not have to be inst...

I really like Elder N. Eldon Tanner’s talk in our reading this week from April 1975 General Conference called Success is Gauged by Self-Mastery. He quoted several different philosophers. I really thought they were some good quotes. Plato said: “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.” I like how Plato compared self-mastery to conquering yourself. Self-mastery is like a battle with yourself. Leonardo da Vinci said: “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.” Then he goes on to say that “the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery, the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. … And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” Da Vinci’s quote states that if you can’t have self-mastery over yourself, you won’t make a good leader over other people. I think this applies well to b...

This week we watched the video, “A Hero’s Journey” for class. I learned that anyone can change the world in their own way. You can have a career that you love and can impact peoples lives at the same time by serving them. All you need is some faith and courage, and you can find your entrepreneurial calling. Also, we need to live every moment like it’s your last. Live every moment like it matters because it does. So, you need to make sure you have a very good relationship with everyone you love and live your life with meaning. We also need to learn as much as we can. We need to ask questions and try our hardest at everything we do. You need to have good role models and friends because who you talk to and hang around with affects you as a person and influences who you become. Another thing that stood out to me was when he said to make a list of I will nots. When you do this, it helps to create moral boundaries and guardrails for you when temptations come up in life. If you have already d...

  This week I learned a lot. One of my favorite things I read was an address from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin that he gave in 1986 at Brigham Young University. Elder Wirthlin said, “I have been impressed recently with the thought that this life is made up of little things—little things that are very important. I believe that the little things are very important in our relationship with ourselves, in our relationship with others, and in our relationship with God. The Lord has said, “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” ( D&C 64:33 ). I have often thought that some of the most common little things in our lives are the minutes that pass in each hour of the day. For each human being, time is a necessary resource. It can neither be ignored nor changed. We must spend it at a fixed rate of 60 minutes every hour. We cannot add to or take from the number of minutes in a day. ...

What did you learn from this week’s readings and videos?  I really enjoyed the video from Jim Ritchie this week. He shared about a formula for success that worked for his life, and he promised it could work for mine, too. Part of his formula comes from Elder David B. Haight that was told to Elder Ritchie when he was a young missionary and some comes from J. Paul Getty, a wealthy oil tycoon, who shared his tips for a successful life at his retirement. This is his formula for success: 1. Get up early. 2. Work hard. 3. Get your education. 4. Find your oil. (a product, idea or service that is unique to your talents & gifts) 5. Make your mark. (Be good a something!) 6. Prepare to serve and to give back. I look forward to trying the formula and seeing it work for my life. One that I need to really work on the getting up earlier. In the book Launching Leaders it quotes Aristotle, “It is well to be up before day-break, for such a habit contributes to health, wealth, and wisdom.” And of...