Enjoying Each Stage of Life

As part of this week’s lesson, we were asked to watch a video presentation given by Guy Kawasaki at Stanford. In his presentation he talked about the importance of valuing where you are in life. He told the students in attendance that he used to dream about his life post-graduation and having fancy cars that he could drive around Stanford's campus, like he saw a lot of people do. He then said that when he got to that point in his life, he wished that he was back at Stanford when life seemed much simpler. I interpreted that to mean that it is important to enjoy the stage of life that you are currently in, whatever it may be. I have been guilty of being so anxious to graduate, that sometimes I haven’t stopped to realize how blessed I am to be getting an education right now. I'm not taking the time to appreciate all of the knowledge I am gaining through my experiences in school. I hope that I can learn from Guy Kawasaki and slow down for a minute to fully appreciate whatever stage of life I am currently in. I hope to be able to make the most out of my time studying at BYU-Idaho, and apply the things I am learning now to my future endeavors.

This week we also learned about the 7 Habits of High Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. The habit that has the most meaning for me is “Sharpen The Saw.” The main idea behind sharpen the saw is making sure that you take time to recharge your physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional batteries. In order for individuals to be effective in executing the other 6 habits, they need to have the energy and focus that comes when the saw is sharp.

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur

In this week’s lesson we learned about what specific skills are needed in order to become a successful entrepreneur. In the article, “So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur” by the Acton Foundation, it suggests that there are three different areas of knowledge that one must gain in order to start a successful business. They are:

1.     In-depth knowledge of the competitive structure of an industry and a network of contacts within that industry;

2.     The skills to run the daily operations of a small, rapidly growing company; and

3.     The ability to raise money.

These three areas of knowledge are what successful entrepreneurs become masters of. The most valuable of the three areas is to have an in-depth knowledge of the industry in which your company operates. When you have a wide knowledge of how the industry is structured, the competitors within the industry, and your target customer, you can more easily identify unique opportunities for your business to pursue.

In the article it states, “…millions of people who have never seen the inside of a business school are running successful companies.” You don’t have to get your MBA in order to be a successful entrepreneur. As long as individuals can develop a mastery of industry knowledge, the day-to-day operations of the company, and how to raise money, anyone can become an entrepreneur, even me!

Making a Life of Meaning

In this week’s lesson we were asked to watch a video clip of a speech given by Jeff Sandefer at BYU-Idaho. In this speech he mentioned that when people over the age of 60 are interviewed about what they feel really matters in life, there were three common questions that they valued the answers to most:

1. Was I a good person?

2. Have I contributed something meaningful?

3. Who did I love, and who loved me?

This really struck a cord with me, and caused me to think about the purpose of the education I am receiving right now and what my goals are in life. It really put the meaning of life into the forefront of my mind. If at the end of my life I am going to be concerned with whether or not I have made an impact in this world, then I need to set up my life now so that I can achieve this. I found a lot of value in the exercise we completed a few weeks ago where we determined the individual stepping-stones that will help us reach our star, or ultimate goal. Going through this exercise was really helpful and something that I want to continue to do to help me reach the goals in life that I value most. 

Governing Values

This week’s lesson was based on Clayton Christensen’s article in the Harvard Business Review titled “How Will You Measure Your Life?” In this article, Clayton Christensen asks three important, introspective questions:

1. How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?
2. How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and family become an enduring source of happiness?
3. How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?

These three questions were questions that Christensen posed to his HBS students at the end of the semester to help them think about how to find meaning and fulfillment in their own lives. I really appreciated the examples Clayton Christensen shared from his own life on how he personally answers these questions.

One of the assignments from the lesson this week asked us to create a Personal Constitution. A Personal Constitution is a document that contains governing values that provide a foundation for our lives. These governing values are values or personal qualities that you highly value. Some of the qualities I wrote down were honesty, righteousness, love, and trustworthiness. Then, based on these qualities I down “I am” statements about each of them to help reinforce that I want to become a person that demonstrates those qualities. I then created long term and short term goals that started with “I will” to help me achieve my goal of becoming a person that displays those governing values. I found this exercise to be really educational and helped me personally answer the questions that were posed by Clayton Christensen.