Follow Your Dreams

Taken from getfitwithnikki.com

What I learned

This week we were asked to read a case study about Magdalena Yesil, a very successful entrepreneur who also excelled in marketing and individual investing. She grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, and had dreams of pursuing a career in technology. She knew that in order to have this kind of career she would need to attend college in United States. This eventually led her to California where she received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Stanford. Her education at Stanford landed her a job right out of college in engineering. After a few years there, she left and started working in marketing. Despite having a background in technology and engineering, she didn’t let this stop her and she became a self-taught marketing guru. She then later went on to become a very successful individual investor. I think Yesil’s story is a great example of pushing yourself to always learn more and achieve more. She used every experience she had to push herself forward in pursuing her dreams. Reading her story makes me wonder what it is that motivates me to achieve my dreams. Motivation can come from external sources as well as from within. I hope that I can find the motivation to pursue my passions and dreams and fearlessly as Magdalena Yesil did.

Lessons Not Yet Learned

In this week's lesson we also discussed the topics of honesty and business ethics. We were asked to define ethical guardrails that we would never cross. The obvious ones such a lying, cheating, and stealing are pretty easy for me to commit to never doing. However, I feel that there can be some grey areas sometimes when it comes to ethics in business. I'm still trying to figure out how to best navigate those tricky situations without compromising my values while remaining a loyal employee. 

Weekly Goals

Ponder what motivates me to accomplish my dreams and pushes me to pursue my passions.

Creating a Life of Meaning

What I Learned:

This week we spent time discovering what we really want in life. We were asked to create a Bucket List of 50 things we’d like to accomplish during our lifetime. We also worked on creating a plan to help us achieve our “star,” or what is most important to us in life. One of the big takeaways I got from the lesson this week was that it’s important to not be afraid to dream big. The most memorable aspect of the lesson this week was reading the transcript of Randy Pausch’s last lecture that he gave back in 2007. In his lecture, he emphasized the importance of dreaming big and chasing your childhood dreams. Pausch said, “It is important to have specific dreams. Dream Big. Dream without fear.” In order to accomplish those dreams it is important to come up with a plan on how you’re going to get there. Steven Covey gave the advice, “to begin with the end in mind.” Without a game plan on how to achieve my goals in life, it is going to be much harder to reach them.

As part of the lesson this week, we were asked to watch a video titled “Treat Life As an Experiment” in which Tom Kelley, General Manager at IDEO, talked about when we treat life like an experiment we need to be prepared for some failures. He said that failures are okay as long as you’re failing forward. It is important to remember that all failures teach you something that can help in progressing you on the path to your big dreams. One of the things that Randy Pausch said that I loved was, “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.” Never let failures or brick walls get in the way of achieving what you really want in life.

Lessons Not Yet Learned:

This week I spent a lot of time thinking about what gives my personal life meaning and I was able to come up with some good answers. However, I was unable to come up with an answer to what will give my professional life meaning. I am hopeful that as this course continues I will be able to figure out what I want to get out of my professional career so that I can develop a plan on how to get there. 

Weekly Goal:

Spend time thinking about what will give my profession life meaning. 

Questions:

Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?

I think persistence and determination were key factors to why Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams. He never let anything stand in his way of what he really wanted. This question makes me think back to the quote I mentioned in the “What I Learned” section about brick walls. Randy Pausch never saw brick walls as a dead end, but rather an opportunity for him to push himself harder.

Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?

I feel that dreaming is important because it allows you to think about what it is that you really want to accomplish in life. When we dream big, it helps to push ourselves further than we may have gone otherwise. I think that following your dreams will lead to a life of happiness, accomplishment, and fulfillment. 

Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.

One of my biggest childhood dreams was to become a doctor. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be a doctor, though the type of doctor changed from time to time. When I started at BYU my original major was Biology and I started on the path to medical school. However, due to life changes I put my education on hold for a while and now that I am back in school I am majoring in Business Management. While my childhood dream of becoming a doctor is no longer part of my plan, it is still possible for me to help others, which was the reason I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. 

The Start-Up of You

Taken from thefourthestate.com

In the article "Your Entrepreneurs Journal" by Jeff Sandefer, he recommends splitting up each entrepreneur journal entry into different sections. The sections I have selected for my journal are What I Learned, Lessons Not Yet Learned, and my Weekly Goal.

What I Learned

One of the big takeaways for me this week came from one of the readings titled, "The Start-Up of You." The executive summary of the book explores the idea that individuals should treat their career as they would a start-up company. Successful entrepreneurs create successful start-up companies by being willing to take intelligent risks, developing a network, figuring out what sets them apart from others, and by being willing to adapt the plan when necessary. Professional success can be found by applying these skills to any type of career, start-up or not. 

A quote that I really appreciated from one of the readings this week said, "To put it simply, living a life of meaning is about living life with intent. It's about deeply, honestly knowing ourselves. And it's about developing the wisdom to appreciate that this brief spark of consciousness of ours is an enormous, rare privilege–one in which we're capable of extraordinary things."

I am really looking forward to this course and all that it has to offer. I am excited to spend time discovering what my life plan is through self-reflection and learning about other successful entrepreneurs.  I am hopeful that in learning more about what my professional life plan should be that I will be able to then live a life with intent and accomplish extraordinary things.

Lessons Not Yet Learned

The idea of permanent beta was discussed in a couple of different readings and videos this week. My understanding of permanent beta is that it's this idea that careers are always a work in progress, similar to how something in a beta testing phase is not in its final and complete phase. I would like to learn more about how I can best apply the idea of permanent beta to my future professional career.

Weekly Goal

My goal this week is to establish a schedule for accomplishing the various assignments required each week in this class. I find that I am able to get the most out of a class when I have a well-defined scheduled for when assignments are to be completed each week.