Week 7 - Moving Forward With a Driving Passion

The focus of this week is to move forward with a driving passion. I really like this title. I feel that there is a time for preparation and there is a time for action. I think it is easy to get caught up in "analysis paralysis", where one gets stuck contemplating opportunities and never actually moving forward with an idea or investment opportunity.

This week for study we read a summary of Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

I've never read this book, but may be adding it to my wish list on Audible-because I enjoyed reading the summary. I particularly liked the 3rd habit, putting first things first. The heart of effective time management is to spend the maximum time possible doing important jobs in a non-urgent atmosphere that increases your efficiency. He has 4 quadrants, with quadrant 2 being where we want to concentrate our time the most. This is time spent doing important things on a non-urgent basis. This is doing things like preventative maintenance, relationship building, creative thinking, planning and recreation.

Each of us wears many hats in our professional and personal lives. I'm a father, a husband, an emergency physician, a member of the trauma committee, a minister, a ministering secretary, etc. Since starting this class I have made a list of each of these roles and kept it by my bedside. There are times when I've become too focused on one or two roles, and neglected the others. Suddenly something will come up and it will be a quadrant 1task, done on an emergent basis at the last minute. To try and prevent this, I've begun reviewing this list each night before bed a thinking about what I need to do for each of them. That way, I am more mindful of deadlines and things that need to be done ahead of time.

Another quote I enjoyed from the summary is closely related to habit 3, but actually comes from habit 2, beginning with the end in mind:

It’s easy to get so caught up in climbing the ladder of success that you fail to make sure the ladder is leaning against the right wall. It’s easy to be busy without being effective, to score many hollow victories at the expense of critical events. We may be very busy, we may even be very efficient, but we will only be truly effective when we begin with an end in mind.

I really like this thought. I think it perfectly summarizes something I struggled with in medical school. For a while, I was so sick of studying hour after hour for days, weeks and months at a time that I allowed unimportant things to take precedence over more important tasks. I was elected to student government and allowed those less worthy tasks to take the place of my studying, and my grades dropped because of it. I still passed everything just fine, but rather than earning A's I began getting B's and C's. I hope to not repeat that mistake in other areas of life. I spent way too much time in quadrant 1 because I wasn't making time to accomplish my priorities.

This week I hope to figure out how I can move on beyond the contemplation phase and take actionable steps forward in starting a business.

Week 6 - So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

This week as I reflected upon the material a story came to mind.

My wife went to Hawaii as a teenager with her family. I've never been. All through medical school we talked about celebrating graduation by going to Hawaii. That time came, and we decided we needed the money to help us move to a new house in Oklahoma for residency. We decided to wait. All through residency when times got tough and we didn't get to see each other as often as we would've liked, we looked forward to going to Hawaii after residency. That time came, and my new job needed me to start the day after I got done with residency. There just wasn't time.

About a year later I decided I needed to make this trip happen. I looked online for tickets and found what I thought was a great deal for airfare. I just wasn't sure I should actually put money down without thinking it through a while longer. A couple of days later I made my decision and went to book the tickets - the price had gone up substantially!

Silently I kicked myself realizing that my lack of decisiveness literally costed me hundreds of dollars.  Throughout the readings this week we learned about understanding the industry we'd like to start a business in so that we can recognize opportunities when they come along. I do not want to make the same mistake that I made booking airfare. When I recognize a good deal or a good opportunity, I'm going to jump on it. Of course I'll do my due diligence, but I intend to not lose out on opportunities because of "analysis paralysis", where I'm so busy analyzing that I miss the opportunity altogether. I realize that in a competitive market, speed makes a big difference.

Being an entrepreneur will require just about anyone to get outside their comfort zone. That's part of what makes it challenging and exciting.

Week 5 - Skill, Character or Luck?

This week we watched a talk the asked 3 critical questions that each entrepreneur should ask themself.

1. Have I contributed something meaningful?

We're often taught the money is the root of all evil. However in Timothy 6:10 the verse states that the love of money is the root of all evil. I view money as a way to bless the lives of others. If you have a lot of money, and you have your priorities straight, having money should mean more free time. That gives you the opportunity to find ways to serve and to contribute in a meaningful way. Many philanthropists contribute money to causes they believe in. Many more people serve in quiet ways without much fanfare. I do think I've contributed to my family's happiness. I'd like to now find ways to contribute to the happiness of my neighbors, ward members and community.

2. Was I a good person?

My goal is to be able to say I treated the people around me with respect and appreciation. In my line of work I often give orders to nurses whose job it is to carry them out. I do try to make a point to thank my nurses for a job well done and look for opportunities to compliment them on their work. The question of whether or not you're a good person is answered in the thousands of small interactions a person has with others each day.

3. Who did I love and who loved me?

This question really helps me focus on what is most important in life. Happiness and joy come through relationships. Your relationship with yourself. Your relationship with God. Your relationship with your spouse and children. I think reflecting on this question helps me remember that while I have to work, I should put my relationships first.

My hope is that by reflecting on these questions from time to time I'll be able to keep my priorities straight. One day I'll be old and reflecting on my life. I hope that I'll be able to answer these questions in a way I can be proud of.

Week 4 - How Will You Measure Your Life

This week we finished the book Launching Leaders, we also read a talk by Joseph B Wirthlin I liked about focusing on the small things as well as Clayton Christensen on how to measure your life. We also took some time to analyze our fears.

During the fear analysis worksheet, I realized that I have one fear that dominates over all the others. I fear, more than anything else, that I will someday get old, look back and regretfully wish I had started a business.

One of my core values is to "Be anxiously Engaged at Living a Good Life". What this means to me is that I seek out opportunities to experience as many good things as this world has to offer. I want to taste new foods, I want to see other parts of the world. I want to see as many historical sites as I can. I want to hear new kinds of music and experience life in a different country. I want to try flying, diving, waterskiing, bicycling across a country, backpacking, fishing, etc. Variety is the spice of life, and I'd like to make my life pretty spicy.

Experiencing the thrill of success in business is something I'd like to accomplish. I think it would be very satisfying to build something from the ground up. I also think it won't would enable me to be able to do more. To experience other countries and cultures. Having a successful business would also allow me to give more time, more money and more jobs.

I would rather try and fail at business than to not try at all. When I'm old I want to know that fear did not stop me from exploring my limits. Fear of failure is not an acceptable reason to not try and succeed.

Week 3 - Honesty and Business Ethics

The subject we've been studying this week is honest and business ethics. This weeks readings and videos have made me take a long look at myself. I've always considered myself to be an honest person. I think I've done pretty well at being honest. I've never cheated on a test. I've always given back change when a cashier rung me up incorrectly, even when I had to go out of my way to correct whatever mistake was made.

Lately I have struggled with a dilemma however. I bought a couple of new cell phones a few months back. As part of a promotion I was given 2 gift cards. However the process turned out to be a big disaster. The phone lines weren't set up properly, and I felt that I had been purposefully short-changed by the commission-based salesman just to "get the sale". I tried multiple ways to correct this problem however we were repeatedly told, "Sorry, this can't be fixed." So, after several days, I returned the phones for a full refund. When I returned the phones I forgot to give back the gift cards. Months later I found them in my closet. We tried to return them, however the attendant there did not know what to do with the cards or how to check them back into his system.

So for a few months these gift cards (basically free money) have been sitting in my closet. We tried unsuccessfully to return them. The temptation that I have is to keep them and use them "for my trouble". The whole situation turned out to be a big waste of time and stress for me and my wife, it feels like justice that we should be compensated in some way for all our time that these people wasted. We tried to return them, but the store wouldn't take them back. Shredding them feels like taking cash and cutting it up with scissors.

A big part of me still feels uneasy about using these gift cards. As I read about honesty and business ethics, this was the issue that continually came to mind for me. I otherwise have a clear conscience. I think to have a completely clear conscience I'll have to get rid of these cards somehow. As fun as it would be to spend this money, I don't feel it'll be worth it for me in the long run.

The other things that impressed me was the importance of finding a business partner with absolute integrity and upstanding business ethics. It makes complete sense. I wouldn't want to go into business with someone who wasn't completely honest. How do I find someone like that? It seems that most of my friends are employees and happy to work for someone else. How can I find like-minded people that want to take some calculated risks by branching out into a business? How can I find like-minded people who have integrity. Maybe we'll cover that in the upcoming weeks. Maybe there are classmates here at BYU-I Pathways Bus 110 course who would be interested in teaming up with me. I'll have to keep searching.