Last Lecture

After spending a mere semester learning about entrepreneurship, I hardly feel qualified to give a definitive lecture on the subject.  I have, however, learned a lot and a few key points have stayed with me.  I've learned how important it is to set ethical guardrails for yourself in place, to set clear and lofty goals, and to pro actively make a plan for keeping your life balanced.  I think that understanding and applying these key points will make a good beginning for any entrepreneur.

I've never been a blatantly dishonest person, but I've always been more of a cut-corners if you need to, make up your own rules kind of person.  Through case studies and lectures we read and watched in this class, I've realized how important it is to be exacting and honest.  I never saw myself as important enough for my actions to really impact the world, but now I realize that I've been given so many gifts, I really am in an elite group that has the potential to make the world a better place.  That makes all of my actions, even the small ones, feel more important.  It's important to commit to following God's laws as I understand them with exactness, to commit to not letting any other consideration change my behavior.  I'm reminded of a favorite quote from Jane Eyre,

     "I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?"

I hope I always remember this, no matter where life leads me, no matter what temptations might come my way.

Another key principle I've learned this semester is the "stars and stepping stones" idea.  It's important to set lofty goals, and then set the smaller stepping stone goals that will lead to the far-off star.  My patriarchal blessing tells me to "set noble goals and pursue them with a clear and keen eye, knowing they will be affirmed through prayer by your father in Heaven if they are righteous."  As a young teenager I set a goal to be married in the temple, to be a righteous mother.  The Lord has helped me to achieve those goals, and they are, of course, ongoing.  In the last couple of decades, though, I don't think I've taken my Heavenly Father up on that challenge.  Now is the time to sit down and ponder what the next phase of my life will be, set those goals, and pray for affirmation.

Work/ life balance is a big issue for entrepreneurs, and even putting it like that vastly oversimplifies a complex life.  If we only had to balance two areas, that would be comparatively easy.  But work itself contains many sub-areas and competing priorities, as does a personal life.  I feel like God/spiritual life deserves equal billing at least in the equation.  Work life, personal life, spiritual life.  It's important to set guardrails here to protect the important areas that you can't afford to neglect.  After all, the work life is supposed to support the family/personal life, and the spiritual life is the engine that runs all of it.  It's important not to make the mistake that money is the only and over-riding value.

This is not a complete map to success, a wise man I know once said that in order to be successful monetarily, you have to obey all of the laws of success and money, ie. paying your tithing and being a good person does not guarantee business and financial success.  But these are foundational principles that need to be in place before pursuing the other laws of success.