my final thoughts

My most important realization from taking this course is the importance of making sure that your business career never takes priority over your family. If you do not have a family currently, I urge you to never stop searching. Never let your work consume you entirely. If you currently have a family, make sure that you spend the needed time with them not only for their benefit but also for your own. Make sure that you attend important family events, even if it means you cannot accomplish what needs done at work. I do not believe that the following thought was ever stated during the duration of this class, but it is something that I have thought about continually. The reason that family is so important in business is because being an entrepreneur or a manager of some sort will not be easy. It will be hard, time consuming and sometimes frustrating. The only way that one can find true success and happiness while in a position like this is to rely on family to give them the strength and the drive to do well. While some may not agree with this, I personally feel very strongly that this is very true. I have seen it in my own life and career thus far and I know that I will continue to see it in greater amounts in the future.

Another very important principle taught to me this semester is that of making sure that you surround yourself with a strong, reliable, smart, and diverse team. This will always provide a measure of success that will not otherwise be had. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you must first realize that you will not find success by yourself. There will always be a need for others and you must be willing to accept that. This does not mean that you cannot be in charge. A good leader allows others to do the work needed as well as the work that they are good at particularly, but makes sure that it is done right and done in the best way possible. One thing to remember is that you need them in order to achieve success, so make sure you always are kind, and show them that you are a team and that you truly do care for them. They should be your support system for you, you are the foundation that holds them up, but without them, you are just a useless foundation. 

week 13

This weeks reading had me thinking a great deal about my current job. We read quite a bit this week dealing with the importance of not only finding a job that you are good at and can provide you with financial security, but also making sure that you enjoy your job. If you are not happy, are you truly ever successful? That is a question that I kept asking myself this week. I love my current job. I work in the retail firearms industry. I feel that it is one of the few jobs that can be your hobby as well. Currently it makes me very happy. I have realized that this is the industry that I want to be in. After graduation from college, I plan to stay in this industry whether it is where I am at currently or whether it is with another company or a company of my own. I love this job, and I am grateful. Like president Monson said, I need to always have an attitude of gratitude. He has blessed me immensely in my current career and will continue to do so. I feel that if you are grateful for what you have and what you have been taught, you will make it a point to find a job that I feel that if you are grateful for what you have and what you have been taught, you will make it a point to find a job that you love. 

week 12

One of the greatest traits in a successful businessman is what he does for others. While many say that you cannot be wealthy if you give to others, I know this to not be true. God blesses those who serve others. One of the things that I constantly recognize, and consequently thank my Heavenly Father for is the success and financial stability that he has given me. All of my success has been given to me from above, and I must always remember that. Humility goes a long way in the world of business.

One of the articles stated that trust is fragile in business and one must always remember that. I have a distributor that I order quite a bit of product from who has fallen out of us trusting them. Because of this, we do not order as much from him, and place our orders with others. The lack of trust has hurt both parties. We sometimes struggle finding hard to get product from other distributors, and his sales numbers are obviously down. But trust is everything. If you cannot trust someone who you are doing business with, nothing good will come of it. The Harvard article that talked about it was very interesting to me. 

The name of that article is: Whats a business for?

https://hbr.org/2002/12/whats-a-business-for

week 11

This week’s reading and material built upon the principles of family and making sure that one’s family is always put before a career. While the world may look at entrepreneurs who only focus on their business or career as successful, I feel that that is the farther thing from the truth. I really liked a few of the articles and videos this week that dealt with balancing ones career with one’s family. I feel that this is crucial to overall success. Currently I work in the retail industry. While the position I am in allows me to have time off when needed, I do work quite a few evenings as well as Saturday. An example of how I balance my job and my family is on my days off, I try my hardest to stay off of social media and I do not check my work email. This allows me the time that my family needs me to devote to them. Not only do they need it, but I need it. That is one of the major things that I learned this week. In order to be successful, you must be balanced. If your only focus is on work, than you will never measure up to your full potential.

A few questions that I was asked to answer are as follows:

What is my attitude towards money? Money is a good thing, as long as it is not your primary focus. There is nothing wrong with it being important, but the moment it becomes the most important thing in a person’s life, that person has failed. The way you live will change, the way you interact will change. My father used to tell me growing up that the more you earn the more you spend. That is and always will be a dangerous habit.

The following are some good rules to follow if you want to prosper:

Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him

Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings.

Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.

Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity.

Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.

Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.

week 10

One of the greatest realizations that I have taken from this weeks reading was from the talk that Dallin H. Oaks gave about the challenge to become. He said, “ In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something.” This really made me think about how we are children of our heavenly father. I liken that relationship to that of myself and my earthly father. He wants me to be happy, he wants me to succeed and he wants me to always make sure that I am stretching myself so that I can continue to grow. This is exactly what our heavenly father wants for us as well.

From a presentation entitled Think Big, Taylor Richards encourages us to do just that. Thinking big is a form a challenging yourself to become something or someone that is successful, reliable, honest, and respected.  His example of how his boat dealership was listed in the very top of the best 100 dealers in the nation for multiple years shows that he was following his own advice. When he filled out the application to be ranked, he was not planning on making it. He was a new dealer at that point in time, but wanted to create a goal or a path for his dealership.

I really enjoyed the readings this week and invite anyone who would like to follow the posted links and check them out.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2000/10/the-challenge-to-become?lang=eng&query=challenge+become+(name%3a%22Dallin+H.+Oaks%22)

https://vimeo.com/27928168

week 9

In this week’s readings on that stuck out to me was called Message to Garcia. It spoke about the rarest of all skills, the ability to execute. I feel that this is crucial to any success. If one cannot execute in whatever capacity they are in, they cannot find success. I see this in my current career. I am in a buying position for the company, if I do not make sure that I execute the needed purchases for the company, the product is not available for sale in our store. As a result of not having needed product, the store does not make the sales needed to turn a profit. Along with the ability to execute comes the ability to designate jobs/tasks. Often, because you just want to make sure that things that need to be done ultimately get done, you do them yourself. This will hamper success. You need to make sure that you have people around you that are competent and that you can delegate tasks to.

I also feel that my enrollment in BYU-Idaho and the classes that I have taken thus far have truly been a benefit to me. Elder Bednar says that this university is a disciple preparation center. The oxford dictionary says that a disciple is one who follows or attends upon another for the express purpose of learning. That is how we find success, we learn from others and then we become good at executing what we have learned. 

week 8

This weeks material couldn’t have came at a better time for me personally. My wife lost her mother this week unexpectedly. I had read a talk from Elder Holland (a leader of the LDS faith that I am a member of) about never giving up no matter how long it takes to achieve something. I am not going to speak about my family other than to say the material has helped me cope this week with the loss of a loved one. Throughout my career as a business leader, I will experience challenges that will make me want to quit, or to step back. Taking those actions will never bring me happiness, success, or growth. No matter how long the challenge or task takes, I need to see it through. There probably will be challenges that I might never overcome, but I need to keep trying. I need to never give up. That is the only way to truly find reward in life. I remember a quote from my mission president from years ago that I feel pertains to this weeks material, “coasting is not progression.” Coasting in life and or business will never lead you towards growth.

Eric Reis’s 5 whys were also very helpful to me this week. He said the 5 whys are so important to development and I whole heartedly agree with him. I feel that the example of a server going down and everyone felt that the server needed attention, while in the end it was actually a manager not doing the proper training because he didn’t believe it in. 

This week I spent a great deal of time discussing mastery and how to achieve it. For me it helped me realize the importance of prioritizing and remaining energized. Having a 10 month old sometimes makes it really easy to be lazy when she is sleeping or is out shopping with her mom. I need to make sure that I stay active so that I have the energy to be a good father and succeed at work each day as well. 

For me, the most important habit would be to seek to understand, then be understood. I am a problem solver. Quite often, my wife wants to talk about something, and all I want to do is fix whatever she is struggling with. While this is not a bad thing, sometimes the easiest fix is to just listen to her. Most often, she just wants to vent and tell me about whatever is troubling her. She knows that by me listening, the problem will work itself out. This is where I tend to go wrong as well and why it is the most important of the 7 habits discussed in this weeks reading. I feel that this is where I need the most improvement currently. 

I am happily married to a wonderful woman and I have a beautiful perfect little daughter. Throughout this week, I kept thinking of the importance of making sure that they both always come first. Along with making them a priority, I need to make sure that I my faith and my continued relationship with God a priority as well. While a major goal of mine in life is to succeed financially and to be able to retire somewhat early, I can not ever allow that want to overtake my relationship with my wife, my children and my Father in heaven. I am only 26, and I have already been presented with choices that would probably very well have taken me down the path to financial success, but the path that would have kept me with my family was clearly a different one. I know that I will continue to be presented opportunities and decisions that will test my relationship and my want for my families happiness. As long as I make sure to always put them first, I will one day be blessed with the financial success that I want. I will say however, that I do not ever see myself being happy when I do have financial success if my wife, children and my Heavenly Father are not there to experience it with me.

Personal Board Of Directors

This week we had an assignment to create a board of directors for ourselves. We could choose whomever we wanted to sit on the board. They would be people that we felt would help us succeed in life as a businessman and a person. This was not a new assignment to me personally. I have had 3 other classes that have required me to complete the same assignment. This time around however, a thought came to me that I want to share with you. Each time I have done this assignment, I have thought to myself, how cool would it be if I actually did have these people on my board of directors? While completing this assignment for my current class, the thought came to me that I already do have the people that I chose on my personal board.

Let me Explain…….

What I mean by that statement is that anytime I am in a spot where I need to make a decision, I should think about these people and what they would do, or what they would recommend to me. Doing this will most definitely help me make better, smarter decision in life. I feel that by doing this I will be a better person and a more successful businessman. 

Week 4 Personal actions that will lead to success

This week I studied readings and video presentations from various people concerning your personal attitude toward business and how success is determined from that attitude. One of my favorite parts of this weeks material was learning about Personal Constitutions and how to create one for myself. I feel that by creating a personal constitution, I am setting myself up for success.

Having a personal constitution might help you in the following ways:

1. You will have a moral compass that you can continually follow.
2. You will have goals in sight and have a game plan to reach them.
3. Anyone who is involved with business will at some point be put in a decision that will make or break the company. If you have a personal constitution in place, those decisions will be much easier to make.

These are just 3 examples of benefits that come from creating a personal constitution to live by as well as to incorporate into your careers.

There is one thing pertaining to this constitution that I feel is the keystone. You must make sure to be constantly revising the document. It is not something that you can make one day and say that is good, that is all I will ever need. Life is constantly changing as well as your career. Your personal constitution must change with it.

My thoughts for week 3

Business can take up much of ones life. For some, the saying that you are married to your business is very true. I feel that in some ways this can be a good thing because the potential for your business to succeed is greater if you are closely involved.
To me, my family is everything. This weeks material taught me the importance of your family in business and making sure that you always put them first. Business opportunities will always come and go, but your family will not.
One other item that I would like to make mention of is trying new business ventures. Sometimes success will only come when we are out of our comfort zones and trying new things. This is how we grow and become more diversified. By doing this, our areas of weakness or lack of experience in certain areas can become areas of strength and growth. Some might argue that this is not always the case and that this can lead to failure in many examples. I agree with that, but I feel that that is all in how determined we are as well as our own personal work ethic. If we do not want to try new things or are scared of messing up, we will never be successful businessmen or entrepreneurs.

-Josh

Business week 1/ journal entry week 1

To set down such choice experiences that my own writings may inspire me and at last I may make wholes of parts . . . Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid.

—Henry David Thoreau, journal entry for January 22, 1852

When it comes to blogging, I am about experiences. That is why I started my fishing blog years ago. It was a blog to share my experiences with others,  and not really for myself in any way. This blog that I am starting for my business class will be for myself! It is for my thoughts and experiences, and a way for me to publish and remember things that are important to me. 

I will admit right up front, I was not very excited about having to blog for this class. I have came across other students from time to time who said it was worthless to them. I always said, I will never take a class that makes me blog. Well, here I am, I am blogging, and I am excited to do it. I feel that it will help me in business and break me out of my comfort zone. I hope you all enjoy my posts. In order for me to post them here i feel it is safe to say that I did as well.