Week 11: Measuring the Cost

A talk by Stephen Gibson titled "Attitude on Money" caught my attention this week. One of the things that he discussed was whether money was an evil thing. I think that many of us are raised to think that money itself is evil, however Stephen Gibson points out that money itself is neither good nor evil. It is what is done with it that makes a difference. You could make the same point with rockets. Are they used to destroy cities, or are they used to explore space? Are guns evil? The gun itself is not, but evil people may use it for evil purposes. Same with cars. Most cars to accomplish work, however some people have used cars as weapons to cars harm. What about social media? The internet? There are many examples. The point is that money itself is not evil. It is a tool that can be used for good or for ill. Money is extremely powerful. Money management is something that kids need to be taught.

In our family, each of my children have 3 jars. One for spending, one for savings, and one for tithing. My kids get an allowance. Each week they place 10% in their tithing jar. They put 50% of the remaining money in spending and 50% in their savings jar. The lesson that my wife and I are trying to reinforce is that a portion of every paycheck should be made to work for you. This is a principle I learned from The Richest Man in Babylon. I'd like the children to understand that a portion of their income should be placed in their long term savings. I'd like them to develop the habit. Hopefully it will be ingrained from a young age, and they'l; reap the rewards later in life.

One of the 6 rules of money that Stephen Gibson pointed out was "Think about money and plan how you can become self reliant". I love the idea of retirement planning and setting and achieving financial goals. I believe that the earlier in life one makes and commits to a specific and well thought out plan, the more likely they'll reach a point where they can comfortably retire. All the while maintaining an emergency fund for unexpected expenses along the way.

Week 10: Dream Big Dreams

One of the videos we watched this week talked about the approach that Google takes to encouraging and nurturing creativity. Google recognizes that any company must be innovative to continue to push boundaries remain the leader in its field. And no type of company requires continual innovation more than a technology company. The field is rapidly changing and companies have to be responsive to remain at the top of their industry.

Google had practice the 70/20/10 model since it's early days. 70% of its projects are dedicated to its core business. 20% is related to its core business and 10% or unrelated. They try to promote of culture of "yes" rather than "no" to promote out of the box thinking. One of the videos stated that google engineers are encouraged to dedicate one day a week to a project they are interested in.

This got me thinking about creativity in my own life. I don't think of myself as a creative person. However, I wonder if the reason I'm not creative is because I rarely try to be creative. I wonder what would happen if I would dedicate some time to creative pursuits. I could use this dedicated time thinking about problems in my work place, and ways to solve them. I enjoy doing some graphic design and could come up with all sorts of fun icons, powerpoint backgrounds, infographics, etc.

I think creativity is the essence of most businesses. You're offering something that people can't get elsewhere, or else you are offering it at a lower cost or for some other reason you outperform your competitors. Problem solving takes creativity. I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to try and dedicate some time to creative pursuits and see if anything productive comes out of it.

Week 9: Disciple Leadership

The topic of the week is leadership. This came at an opportune time for me. I've recently been asked if I'd like to take over leadership of the trauma committee at my hospital. This committee does have some important functions. We review all the trauma cases that come into our emergency department and try to analyze how our trauma systems work, and how our systems can be improved. When lives hang in the balance, it feels like a weighty responsibility. The physician who has been leading the trauma committee is stepping down, and leaving big shoes to fill. He is well loved by everyone, he's a solid clinician and surgeon who is very well respected around our hospital and around the community.

I have to admit I feel taking the lead of this committee will be a challenge for me. I'm rather new to the committee myself. The article of "Leadership With A Small l" stood out to me. The savior led the way by example. He also led with vision. He knew where he wanted to lead his disciples to. And He led with love. I'm going to try and remember these principles and step up to the challenge of leading this trauma committee. I'm going to do my best to make a positive impact on the trauma program at my hospital, as well as reinvigorate everyone involved with the committee to look for ways to improve.

Week 8: Overcoming Challenges

Entrepreneurship can be a long and challenging road. Even a lonely road. One thing that every entrepreneur can count on is challenges. One of the key attributes that an aspiring entrepreneur must have is the ability to overcome challenges. Problems are guaranteed to arise in the day-to-day operations, with your customers and also in terms of "big picture" decisions. 

There was a talk given by Elder Jeffrey Holland relating the story of him trying to move his family across the country, but having car trouble before making it very far. This story struck a chord with me, as a few years ago I had the experience of moving my family across the country for graduate school. I distinctly remember that morning waking at 4AM and getting myself, my wife and my 1 year old son into our moving truck. I felt like I was driving a train because it was the longest Penske truck the had (though I didn't request such a large truck) and behind that was a car trailer with our Chevy Malibu.  We pulled out of the church parking lot and headed east on I-80. Our emotions were a mix of fear from the unknown, excitement about a new beginning and the apprehension of failing, wondering if we could really pull this off. I think persistence is what got us through medical training. There were challenging times and good times, but through it all we continued to move forward and eventually succeeded. 

I enjoyed the quote from Elder Holland concerning the most valuable things in life. They generally require sacrifice, persistence and great effort to obtain. 

"Though nothing in our lives seems to require the courage and patient long-suffering of those early Latter-day Saints, still almost every worthwhile endeavor I can imagine takes something of that same determination."

My goal going forward to is have the persistence and dedication to overcome challenges and obstacles as they arise.