LOYALTY TO FAMILY, LOYALTY TO GOD

    What stands out the most to me this week is Jan Newman’s lecture on “Loyalty to Family, Loyalty to God.” Maybe it’s because I have such a deep and abiding faith that tells me God is in ALL things…and that includes business, that I feel so drawn to this lecture. Maybe it is because Jan Newman is obviously of the same faith as I am and therefore we have very similar ideas. Or, maybe it’s just because what he is saying is TRUE!

    I have found, throughout my lifetime, that loyalty is a dying or lost art form. People don’t have it anymore. It’s even rare to find it among church members. That’s sad! Of all the people who should have, honor, and protect it, I would think it would be members of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. But, even there, it seems to be in short supply. Whenever I find someone who is loyal to their family and to God, I want to hug them.

    I like being around loyal people. I think you can almost “see it” on them. There is a different countenance about them. I love to frequent small “mom and pop” type establishments who have been run by the same people “forever” and all the employees have been there “forever,” because they scream LOYALTY to me. People stay because their bosses are loyal; they treat them fair. That shows when their employees, in turn, are loyal to them.

    Another part of that lecture that really got to me was when he said, and I’m paraphrasing a little, “Never be too busy to take a calling in the church. If you ever tell your Bishop you’re too busy, that’s the biggest mistake you’ll ever make because when you need the Lord’s help, He’ll know where your heart is, and it won’t be on His side.” How true is that? Who wants to be running a business and NOT have the Lord on his side? I certainly do not! I know I will need His help every step of the way.

    If we want the Lord to be our “partner” in life, we must always be loyal to Him. One way we show loyalty to Him is by being loyal to our families. If our eternal goal is to live together again as a family unit, then we MUST remain loyal at all times or else no one would want to spend the rest of eternity with us!

I am grateful for these wonderful reminders from Jan Newman. I love that he closed his talk by invoking a blessing on all in attendance. That was a great way to end that lecture and this blog! I pray that we will all remember to be loyal to our God and our families, no matter what we are pursuing!


(B183)

I WANT TO BE A PURPLE COW!!!

          Why on earth would anyone title his or her blog, “I WANT TO BE A PURPLE COW?” Thank you for asking! I want to be a purple cow because I read an article by Seth Godin entitled, “In Praise of the Purple Cow.” In this article, Mr. Godin talked about driving down a road and seeing cows. Everyone gets excited the first few cows they see, but after a while, they become “just cows.” I totally understand this because of my experiences while visiting Yellowstone National Park each summer. You see, they don’t have “cows” in the normal sense, but they do have bison or buffalo, as most Americans incorrectly refer to them (myself included). And, the female bison is called a cow, so they do have cows, in a very real sense. Anyway…I digress.

Every summer, my daughter and I go to Yellowstone to watch wolves. Where we go is a beautiful valley that is surrounded with bison. Every year, as we enter the park, we put on our “Yellowstone eyes” and start watching for wildlife. We get so excited anytime we see movement or a traffic jam because we know that most likely it will be some type of wildlife that is causing the rustling of the bushes or the brake lights of the cars ahead of us. “OH MAN! I WONDER WHAT IT IS???”

We get so excited. We start calling out animal names…bison, deer, elk, wolf, coyote, etc. The excitement is palpable within the car! “BISON” someone exclaims, or as we usually refer to them “Bee-sone” in our very best (lame) attempt at a French accent. We don’t know how or why that started, it just did. But that doesn’t matter…what matters is we are SO excited to see our first animal within the park boundaries! However, this excitement soon begins to wane as we are stuck in our first of many “bison jams,” as they are called. Traffic jams caused by bison on the road.

What the heck does this have to do with purple cows? Hang on…I’m getting there! You see, when we first get there, it is exciting to see the bison. We haven’t seen them for a year. During that year, we have forgotten just how annoying they can become when you are in a hurry to get somewhere else and BAM your forward momentum is stopped by a bison jam. To make matters worse, we have two dogs with us, who apparently think they are wild themselves and go completely psychotic with EVERY SINGLE BISON THEY SEE!!! The twelve-pound dog is not so bad…annoying, but handle-able. The eighty-pound dog…well, that is a much different story. His tale becomes a weapon of mass destruction, capable of and, almost always nearly knocking one of the human companions unconscious! By the end of our two weeks in the park, we not only could care less if we ever saw another bison, but we barely acknowledge their existence as we leave the park.

BUT…if there was a purple bison…you better believe we would stop and take notice. Heck, we would probably turn into the “tourons” we so desperately hate. You know, the “touristic moron” who stops his car, truck, van, RV, or bus in the middle of the road to take a picture of the one bison on the other side of the river, a half-mile away, instead of driving forward ¼ mile to see 300 bison on, and next to, the road!!! We would become that person for a purple bison.

All of that information to get to this point…I want my business to be a “purple cow” business. I want it to be something that otherwise intelligent human beings will stop in the middle of the road to look at! That is the point of the article…to make your business something that stands out! I don’t think I will ever forget the image of a purple cow (or bison) and I know I will try to implement that into my business.

Another thing that has been brought to my realization this week is that I am NOT as technologically savvy as I thought I was. In preparing my video for my $100 challenge, I realized I have no clue how to do this effectively. I would love to make it all professional looking and such, but I have no idea how! This could prove to be a bit more challenging than I had anticipated. Not to mention, I’m still not a fan of the $100 challenge…just sayin’!

Until next time…go out and try to be a purple cow yourself! In whatever you do, try to do it in a positive manner, a world-changing manner, which has you “standing out” from the crowd. I WANT TO BE A PURPLE COW!!!! Do you??

(B283)

WHAT DON'T I KNOW ABOUT BUSINESS...A LOT!

I guess the one thing that really stood out to me this week is how much I DON’T know about running a business! I really am starting at the bottom and learning my way. I mean, I’m not an idiot about business, but I certainly don’t know all the ins and outs of it. I’m grateful for all the readings and videos and especially for the HMM information. Those assessments at the end sure remind me how much information there is to learn. 

One of the other things I learned is I don’t want to be a “one man operation.” I want to have a good team around me, full of people who are smarter than I am, who can help me to run a successful business. I really like the idea of surrounding myself with people who are more knowledgeable than me, as well as people of character. I want to make sure that I surround myself with people who lift me up and help me to be a better person, a better disciple of Christ, a better mom, sister, aunt, cousin, and a better business woman. I think it is imperative to always strive to improve who you are. Surrounding yourself with people who have integrity, moral character, and grit with determination will only help to make you a better person. I would like to think I would rise up to their levels by learning from them.

I’ve never been very good with money because, to be honest, I was never taught how to be. So, at almost 50 years of age I am learning now. I want to run my life and my business as if I don’t have money to spend. I’ve learned that rich people stay rich because they are cheap! Well, some of them are. They buy when things are on sale and save wherever they can so they can splurge when they really want to. My boss is one of those people. While I do not believe she is rich, per se, I know she isn’t really hurting. However, she won’t even buy toilet paper unless it’s on sale. Thankfully, she doesn’t by the sandpaper type on sale, she does buy the good stuff, but only when it’s on sale. Then she buys in bulk. She is that way with everything. She wears a fur coat that I have a REAL problem with, but that is not the point. The point is, it was a $10,000 coat that she purchased for $650, on sale. Now, to me, $650 is still too much money to spend on a coat you only wear once in a while, but that is a steal of a deal. 

One thing I do have in my favor is that I don’t care about shopping “name-brand.” If I can’t get it at Wal-Mart or The Dollar Store, then I don’t need it. I don’t go to malls, not even outlet malls, because I think it is a waste of money. I don’t need the best of the best. One pair of jeans wears out the same as another. Actually, the cheaper ones seem to last me longer than the expensive ones. Not the point. The point is being frugal is the best way to run a business. HAVING SAID THAT, there is a time to spend money. You do have to spend money to make money, on occasion. Even then though, you can be frugal in what and how you spend it. 

I still hate the $100 challenge. I just do. I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. I just hate it. However, it will all work out. I’ve raised my capital and Monday will begin pulling the clothes needed to sell on consignment. It will be nice to have some cleaned out closet space because when I’m done losing my weight, I’m going to need that space for my new, inexpensive clothes. Heck, I will probably purchase them at the same consignment store I’m selling my stuff at. If I didn’t need the money to donate to KIVA, they would pay me two or three times the amount in store credit that they will give me in cash. Maybe when the challenge is done, I will still have some clothes to sell for that store credit! We will see.

A Hero's Journey...Am I on course?

Am I on course to be on “A Hero’s Journey?” Man, I sure hope so, but watching the video by Jeff Sandefer entitled “A Hero’s Journey” gave me a lot to think about. I pray the Lord will show me the direction he wants me to take. I believe he already has with Howling Heart, but I need to make sure I’m doing what HE would have me do.

I love how Mr. Sandefer explained the great Paradox of a Hero’s Journey of Entrepreneurship. He said, “The hero’s journey is all about you, but it’s not about you at all!” Now, that IS a great paradox and doesn’t seem to make any sense, but as you continue watching you learn what he’s saying.
Choosing a hero’s journey is something we all can do. I believe I have done it recently myself. I hope you all have a chance to learn about and pursue your own hero’s journey. You are probably thinking, “What the heck is a hero’s journey?” GREAT QUESTION!

To choose a hero’s journey means:

• Live every moment of your life like it mattered, because it does.
• Live as if you have an important mission, because you do!
• Look at struggles as adventures and setbacks as lessons. For example: Sir Lancelot and the Grail or Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. What matters isn’t the prize at the end, but how the hero is changed in the process!!

ISN’T THAT GREAT?????? Doesn’t that make you stop and think about who you are, what path you are on, and what path you WANT to be on? It sure did me! I want to be on the hero’s journey. I want my life to matter. I want to be remembered as someone who did something good in the world. I want to let my light shine, not hide under a bushel.

A fascinating bit of trivia from Mr. Sandefer. He said that all 60+ year aged people who were interviewed by the Acton students about their triumphs and regrets, as well as life’s lessons they wished they had learned earlier, said basically the same three questions were all that mattered at the end of their life. Those questions are:

1.    Have I contributed something meaningful?
2.    Am I a good person?
3.    Who did I love and who loved me?

That’s it. That’s all they cared about as the came toward the end of their mortal sojourn here on earth. They didn’t care about how much money they made or how famous they were. All they cared about were: Have I contributed something meaningful, am I a good person, and whom did I love and who loved me? That is ALL they were concerned with. So, maybe, just maybe, those are the very same things we should all be concerned about? Food for thought!

    I am grateful Mr. Sandefer didn’t just leave us hanging with those questions. Instead, he gave the secret to each one.

1.    The secret to unlocking the question “Have I contributed something meaningful” is to never give up your search for a calling. What is a “calling?” A calling, according to Mr. Sandefer, “is that special mission where you can find your greatest God-given gifts and use them in a way that brings you great joy, satisfying a deep, burning need in the world.” He suggests we all need to find a calling that fits our special gifts. We can do that by asking 5 people who know us well, pressing for specifics, examples, and evidence, the following question: “What do I do better than anyone else in the world?” Mr. Sandefer said you would be surprised at how consistent the answers will be. He also said you will be surprised because “your gift will be something you assumed was easy because it is easy, for you.” I hope my friends or family are ready for this because I’m getting ready to ask! Without getting too much further into all the details, he closed by saying the most important part of a calling is it MUST serve others and it MUST matter to you.

2.    The secret to unlocking the question “Was I a good person?” is that we must all set clear, ethical guardrails and make it easy to stay within them. He suggested we write a list of all our “I Will Not’s,” our moral boundaries we will never cross under any circumstances. Then, anticipate those moments when you will cross one of these moral boundaries and take it as a signal to stop and reflect and reevaluate the path you are on. One method to help yourself stay on track is to write your future self a letter for each one of the “I Will Not’s” and place it in an envelope labeled for that “I Will Not” and place it in your top desk drawer so that at the moment of greatest temptation you can hear a better voice! BRILLIANT!!! I love this idea!!! Financial success can bring on great PRIDE and that can bring terrible consequences when you cross one of those “I Will Not” guardrails!

3.    The secret to “Who did I love and who loved me?” is simple…”choose your fellow travelers well, for it is a trip you only take once.” It is of vital importance that we surround ourselves by people of character because you will come to be like the people who surround you! SO, CHOOSE WISELY!!
So, going back to the great paradox from the beginning “It’s not about you, it’s all about you.” It’s not about your happiness. You will have more setbacks and battles because the stakes will be higher, but you’ll fight those battles and be more satisfied and fulfilled because you will have made a difference! It’s all about you because using your gifts to change the world will change you in the process and make you realize you serve a force and universe that is far bigger than you are.

I loved this video so much. Mr. Sandefer closes by asking this: “Do you have the courage to take the first step on the hero’s journey and will you take it today? If you don’t choose a hero’s journey then who will and if not now, then when?” I choose a hero’s journey. Time to get to work!
I am grateful beyond words, for this video. As you can guess, I pretty much wrote down 95% of the video because everything seemed important, like it applied to my life and me. I’ve read a lot this week on Mastery and the E-Myth Revisited and even in the book Return by Elder Hales, but the biggest impact this week was this 22-minute video. It has changed me. I want to look back in 10-20 years and ask those very same questions, (have I contributed something meaningful, am I a good person, and who did I love and who loved me) and find the answers to be something positive. I want to watch my funeral from above and see lots of people who are sad that I am gone because I meant something to them; I made a difference in their lives.

So, let’s get out there. Let’s move forward. Let us make the world a better place. We are in the last days prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ. I want to make sure I am living a life of meaning so when He comes He will know me as His disciple. When I die, I want to hear the words found in the Book of Matthew in the New Testament: “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

$100 Challenge...a thorn in my side!

I'm not going to lie...I am NOT a fan of the $100 challenge in my B283 class. I get the purpose of it, but it is a thorn in my side. You see, when I don't want to do something, it is very difficult for me to do it. For some reason, I decided, I believe subconsciously, a while back that I did not want to participate in the $100 challenge and so, I think I've had a mental block against it from the get-go! I need to snap out of this! I am trying, but I'm not finding it very easy to do.

I decided to change my challenge because I just don't have the time to dedicate to making chocolate or caramel gourmet apples or strawberries. Between work, school, and church, I don't have time to make things. I just don't. I already get up at 3am every day and usually don't get to bed much before 10 or 11pm. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. SO, I decided to change my $100 challenge to something I need to do anyway. "Better Than Average" gently used clothing for the plus sized woman!

Now, you might ask yourself what I would need to do with gently used plus sized clothing, so here's your answer: since the end of September 2014, I have lost 60 pounds and am still losing. What this means is I have a bunch of clothes that I can no longer wear. I take pretty good care of my clothing, so it is what I would consider "gently-used." I also was given several bags worth of plus-sized clothes from a friend of mine who dropped well over 100 pounds herself. I have never taken the time to go through them because I never thought I was small enough to wear them. However, she recently informed me that I may be TOO SMALL to wear them now. Needless to say, I need to go through them. I also received a bunch of business casual clothes from another friend who also lost weight. I literally have clothes hanging/piled all over my house! There isn't a drop of space available in any of my closets, as well as several portable wardrobes. It's time to clean out my closets!

Better Than Average is my answer to my clothing surplus dilemma. I am going to take all the extra clothes I have and sell them to a local business called "My Best Friend's Closet." They will pay me for each item and then they will sell them in their store. While I won't make as much selling the items this way as I might by selling them myself online, at least this way they will get sold. I don't have time to put them all on eBay or some other site to sell. I need to go through them, load them in the car and drop them off some where. At least this way I can make some money to donate to KIVA.org. My goal is to earn a minimum of $100. If I don't have enough clothing myself, then I will be calling all my friends and asking for donations! So, look out friends, I may be calling you!

On another note, one of the things I learned this week came while reading the book The E-Myth Revisited. This book talks about how many businesses are started when someone has what the author calls "The Entrepreneurial Seizure." This is when someone has a brilliant idea for a business and suddenly decides to be the boss and do it better than their current boss and from that moment on, there was no stopping them. They jump in full force without any thought of the details of being an Entrepreneur. Mr. Gerber talks about the three types of people who are needed to run a business properly: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician. If you want to succeed, you need to be all three, but most are not. While I may not be all three, I did discover I'm not just a Technician because I didn't just jump in head first without first checking to see the depth of the water. This made me happy. 

I think I'm on a good path for success and I believe Howling Heart will be successful, but it will take time to get it open and running. Patience is the key. I believe that is the lesson I learned more this week than ever...if you want to have a successful business, you MUST be patient and do the hard work up front. If you will do that, you stand a great chance at success. I think I'm on my way...$100 Challenge or not!  

Some GREAT questions to think about...

There are some questions I've been asked to answer in my journal and since this blog IS my journal, I guess this is where I will answer them. They are:

1. If you pursue your calling with discipline, intentionality, and the help of fellow travelers, what are the chances that your worst case scenario will really happen?

I do not believe we can fail unless we truly sabotage ourselves. I truly believe this is a Divinely inspired idea and when you have Heaven on your side, you have to work at failure. I believe we have the potential to help families and students and anyone who comes through our gate!


2. As you look at your list of fears, what themes emerge? What is at the core of what you really fear? Financial ruin? The judgment or disapproval of others? Physical harm? Endangering the ones you love? Embarrassment?

I think my biggest fear is financial ruin, but to be honest, I'm not really all that afraid of it. I believe this is Divinely inspired and so I know the money will come to open and run the business, as long as we operate within the guidelines the Lord has set forth.

3. What is the risk of taking no action – not following your calling? How do you plan to deal with fear when it pops up on your entrepreneurial journey?

If I don't follow my heart, I will stay just where I am. I will keep working for someone else, never realizing my full potential or joy. I will keep living, but not living with a purpose.

Well, that wasn't too painful! I don't really fear opening our business. I know it will be hard, but anything worth doing or having has its challenges. I know this is going to require a lot of great minds and resources, but I also know this is what the Lord wants me to do, so I know these will all come. I'm not worried...I'm really not. I think I'm more worried that I'm so calm about something THIS big, than I am about actually doing it. Crazy!

How will YOU measure your life?

Have you ever wondered if your life matters? For example, (now some of you might find this morbid, but here goes…) have you ever wondered who or HOW MANY would show up to your funeral? I have. Have you ever been to a funeral and there were hundreds of people in attendance or worse, only a few? I have. Those moments got me to thinking about my life and whether or not it would matter to anyone if I died suddenly. I KNOW it would matter to my daughter, to my parents and most of my family, but outside of them, would anyone show up?

There’s a popular LDS hymn entitled, “Have I Done Any Good?” and it asks,

“Have I done any good in the world today,

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?

If not, I have failed indeed.

Has anyone’s burden been lighter today

Because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

Then wake up and do something more,

Than dream of your mansion above.

Doing good is a pleasure,

A joy beyond measure,

A blessing and duty and love.”

(“Have I Done Any Good,” LDS Hymns, Will L. Thompson, 1847-1909, alt. P. 223)

This is kind of my theme song and I feel like it is something I was reminded of in my studies this week. I don’t know if the lesson material really stressed these points or not, but this is what the Holy Ghost taught me.

Life is short and the older you get, the shorter it becomes. This is an unchangeable fact. What you do with the time you have left, in my opinion, determines who you are. Have YOU done any good in the world? Have YOU made someone feel glad? Have you set your priorities on the things of this life or the next?

This seems a bit like what Clayton M. Christensen was referring to in his article in his Harvard Business Review article entitled How Will You Measure Your Life. Will your life be measured by the number of meetings you attended, golf rounds you played, or school recitals and plays you missed? Or will it be measured by the number of lives you helped change for the better?

All of these questions gave me heart palpitations! While I’m not yet a tycoon in business, I wonder if I have ever chosen to put something ahead of my family or serving others that really could have waited until later. I hope not.

I also learned something else this week…even if I have put other things first on occasion, there is this wonderful gift called repentance wherein we ask forgiveness from those we have mistreated or put on the back-burner. That works in life, but it also works in business. I find an apology goes a long way. But sometimes that is not enough. An apology is just words if the poor action is not changed. Unfortunately an apology won’t ALWAYS make things better, but it never hurts.

I guess what I’m trying to say is in business, as in life; we need to make choices about what is important to us. I think the key is to decide early in our careers what matters most to us and then always strive to place that in a position of importance. My father, a very prominent attorney in our city, set the standard relating to this. My brother and I were taught that NO MATTER WHAT, if we needed to speak to him, as long as he was near a phone, all we had to do was call. He didn’t care if he was in an important meeting or deposition. If we needed him, he answered the call. Period. I have made the same decision and with each position I have held, I made it clear before hiring on that my family would always come first. So far, it has not been an issue.

I am hopeful that I can learn a great deal more about how to be successful in business. I want to find ways to serve my business, family, friends and customers. For me, these are the instructions I am hoping to receive in my business classes. So far, so good! 

I ask you the same question I asked myself, "How will YOU measure your life?"

                   

How do you college kids keep up?

I'll tell you how...YOU'RE YOUNG! Going back to college is not for the faint of heart, but I'm glad I am doing it. I have learned so much already. I'm supposed to answer the questions from our Readings and Videos activity, but I'm really not sure to what the course is referring. I hope I've covered it. :-/

An example of something I learned came while I was reading the book The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber wrote, "The problem is that everybody who goes into business is actually three-people-in-one: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician.

The Entrepreneur is basically the dreamer who comes up with all the great ideas; everything is “an exceptional opportunity.” The Entrepreneur is the “visionary in all of us.”

The Manager is “pragmatic.” While the Entrepreneur lives in the future, The Manager lives in the past. The Manager is the organizer, the arranger, the one who needs to be in control of everything, while The Entrepreneur loves change. The Manger is the one who sees all the problems The Entrepreneur sees as exciting new opportunities.

Finally we have The Technician. The Technician doesn’t like either one of the other guys because he just needs to get stuff done and they get in his way. The Entrepreneur is always coming up with “the next great thing” and The Manager is always on his back to be more efficient. The Technician is the doer and would love to just “do,” if everyone else would get out of his way.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this scenario if you want to see your business fail. None of us can do it all. THAT’S the great lesson in all this. I’m excited to continue reading and learning from this book, to discover how to start AND KEEP our business running! I think this book will help.

Another thing I realized this week is my $100 challenge project wouldn’t work with the timing of the class. Needless to say it was back to the drawing board. I THINK my project will still work, but it would have to be advertised as either a graduation gift or maybe even end of school year gift, rather than a Mother’s Day gift. I think I can still make it work, I just need to figure out the timing of it all. Wish me luck. GOURMET COVERED APPLES ANYONE??? Maybe some lovely chocolate covered strawberries or pretzels??? sounds tempting, don’t they? I think so.

The down side…how am I supposed to create all of these yummies and stay true to my diet? Willpower? Yeah…no…I don’t think so. Maybe a lot of prayer? Yep…I think that is the answer. Wish me luck!

As for you college age kids who are thinking of blowing off college or dropping out…a word of advice: DO NOT DO IT! College can be so exciting and rewarding. Take advantage of it while you are still young enough to actually enjoy it! Go to campus activities. Get involved. Have fun. LEARN SOMETHING!! In the end, you will be grateful you did it. Not only that, but it would be a really cool thing to tell your kids you actually did it!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! It just so happens to be my birthday that same day and I get to celebrate with my family and with a SKYPE call from my missionary. Life just keeps getting better and better!