Last Lecture

The first thing that I think is very important when it comes to considering becoming an entrepreneur is to look deep within yourself.  Throughout this class there have been activities, assignments, quizzes and books that all point toward looking deep within you and evaluating your qualities.  It is very important to know about yourself and the things you can and cannot do before you try to open up a business. 
Finding your own skills and abilities and being honest with yourself is something that will help you in opening up a business.  Also seeing the qualities that you may not have yet but feel that with work and effort you can attain is important.  Being an entrepreneur is something that requires many skills some of which you may have, some of which you may want to have and work to achieve and others in which someone close to you has that is willing to help you.
Another thing that I have learned that I think is very important for an LDS entrepreneur is that you need to realize that everything in your life will have a gospel principle in it.  Our religion is in every aspect of our lives and should be.  If we act the way God would want us to in our business as well as personal life, we will be blessed in both.  We need to use what we learn in church, in the scriptures, and through our prophets to bless our entire life including our business.  In the past I have heard people complain about BYUI and how they try to pull the gospel into all of the classes including classes that don’t seem to have anything to do with the gospel like math.  I believe differently.  I believe that it is in every part of our lives and should be.  We must put God in our business if we want to succeed.
One of the best things that I have learned is that it is important to realize that before you leap into owning a business you not only have to do research into the market you are trying to target and your area, but research into yourself.  You have to realize that you will not be able to do everything all on your own.  You will need help from others.  You need to be able to rely on your friends and family.  You need a support system in place and ready to help you when you need it.  You will need people that can either help you develop the skills that you need or someone who has them that is willing to help you.
I really enjoyed the looks into myself.  I was able to see that I don’t have all of the qualities that I want or need to be an entrepreneur, but I realized that with the support of family and friends I can open my business and have it be successful.

Week 12

What I learned

I really liked reflecting this week about the book So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur.  It was good to go over my notes again as well as the mentor sessions that I completed.  I enjoyed taking a look back at the last eight weeks of the mentor sessions and seeing what I have written and how much I have learned.

I also really liked reading the talk from President Monson about gratitude.  I think that it is a good reminder to be thankful for each of the many blessing that I have.  I need to remember to count my many blessings even if at times it is hard to think of any.  Sometimes I write them down on a paper or in my journal when things get hard.  I need to remember this practice so that I can always be happy and not dwell on all of my trials.

What I want to learn

With this being so close to the end of the semester, I think that the things that I would want to learn the most are all coming from within me.  I need to see if I truly have what it takes to become an entrepreneur.  I am looking forward to looking into myself to find out if I will be willing to do what it takes to be successful.

Week 11

What I learned this week

This week I relearned quite a few things.  I was able to reanalyze things that I said earlier in the semester.  I was also able to re-listen to a talk that I haven’t heard for a few years by President Monson.  It helped me to re-evaluate things that I am doing in my life.  When I first heard the talk, I was pregnant with my first child, so the part where he talked about letting children help with household chores made sense to me but didn’t apply yet.  Now that I have older children and I realize how frustrating it can be to let them help and to teach them how to do things, the part about letting them help you hit me again.  It has always made sense to let them help and to teach them, but that doesn’t mean that it is an easy thing to do.  I really liked being reminded of that.  I really think that it can also apply to business.  If you open up a business, you will most likely have employees at some point.  You need to let them help you and you need to teach them how otherwise you won’t have a very successful business.

What I want to learn

I am excited about finishing up the course and re-evaluating myself and finding out what I have learned about myself through the course of this semester.

Week 10

What I learned this week

This week I really enjoyed thinking about my attitude about money.  I realized that I really don’t like money much.  I think that it is something that we have to deal with to live and sometimes wish that it didn’t exist.  Although I am not sure that I would be a good pioneer or early when people traded for what they had.  It would be nice though.  It is hard these days to be able to make enough money just to live, but I realize that throughout my life as long as I have done what I was supposed to be doing, I have never been left out or wanting for anything.  We have always had a roof and food and transportation.  That is all that we have needed.  We don’t need all the big expensive toys. 

What I want to learn

I am really looking forward to finding out how the semester will end and wrap everything up.  I am looking forward to looking back and seeing how far I have come each week and how much I have learned since the beginning of the semester.  Each week I have learned a lot more about myself and if I have what it takes to become an entrepreneur. 

Week 9

What I learned this week

This week I really enjoyed the LDS reading and applying it to my entrepreneur thinking.  The idea of challenge to become intrigues me.  Yes it is a challenge to become all that our Heavenly Father wants us to be, but we have to think about every aspect in our life from our spirituality to our business to our home life.  I think once we do that we will realize as I did this week that every aspect of our lives are connected.  There will always be spirituality in our business and our home life if we are truly doing what the Lord wants us to do.

I also really enjoyed watching the videos.  I like the short ones partly because my internet is very slow and it takes a really long time to load but because I seem to be able to come away with principles that I can use a little bit easier.

What I want to learn

I am hoping to learn a few steps that it would take to open a business.  That was one of the main reasons why I wanted to take the class.  I have learned a lot about myself but I am hoping to be able to see clear steps of what I should be doing now in order to get my business opened.