Last Week - Final bit of advice

If I had one final lecture I would break it up into different sections.  Secular and Spiritual. We know however that all things are spiritual in the end.

First spiritual. My advice to you would be to get yourself in a place where you can be consistent in your spiritual habits and patterns before you ever worry about the secular stuff. Find out how to draw close to God so that your life can have a Divine Director. No matter what you are enthusiastic about or what your passions and desires are, you will benefit greatly by listening to the promptings provided by and an all-knowing Being such as our Father in Heaven. He can guide and direct you better than I will ever be able to and provide you with specific, personalized direction.

My second piece of advice would be to get married to someone that lifts you up, encourages you and is not demeaning. I would encourage you to find someone that challenges you both in your ideas and thoughts and also to be a better person. I would advise that you find someone that is willing to participate with you on your journeys especially when it gets hard, because it will always get hard. That can either bring you closer or split you apart.

I would also advise you to learn how to learn. We can all attend school but the thing that will make it that much better for you is by learning how you learn. If that’s by reading, visually, listening or hands on practice, understand yourself and how it works for you. If you can figure that out, you will be able to figure out anything required of you in life.

Keep learning. Never finish. Always be reading, writing, and practicing. New hobbies are a great way I have personally found very enjoyable and instructive. I would recommend finding hobbies on the other end of the spectrum of what you do for work. I personally work white collar, service based jobs, but I enjoy building things out of wood or metal.

Doing all of these things brings me to my last piece of advice. Vanquish your fears. Working on projects, understanding how you learn and having a Divine Director are all keys to allowing you to become the best possible you. By taking calculated risk, overcoming your fears of the unknown, you will find that anything becomes possible and even fun. Relish the trials and experiences you have, and learn what you can from each one. Things that have been difficult are the best teachers in life as they cause you to either grow and get stronger, or give up and become weaker. They are the refiner’s fire in life and will help you to reach your full potential.

Week 13 - Randy Haykin

This week is our second to last week. I was so excited that we were so close that I just did all the readings and a lot of the work on Monday. When I had watched the videos and taken the quiz, I realized in my excitement that I had actually done all of Week 14's readings, video watching and quiz. I guess I got it done early. :)

This week, even though it was the 2nd week I had done this week, was still very good. We did a case study on Randy Haykin which was interesting. A few quick points I wanted to share about what I liked about him and that I thought were worth learning and noting. A list of do's if you will

• Always be learning
• Acknowledge your strengths as well as your weaknesses
• Balance your work and personal life
• Minimize your risk by using opportunities presented to you
• A partnership is like a good marriage, with multiple checks and balances as well as a complementary relationship

Another thing I thought that was interesting was in the paper we had to write. It asks the question, "What has Haykin's "toughest hurdle" as a business leader?" - There's actually a paragraph dedicated to what he felt it was. He basically said it was failure. In my paper, I chose the balance of work and life as my own toughest hurdle as I feel like I am personally acquainted with failure and to me it seems like something there to teach us more, but the struggle for balance never goes away. 

Until "next" week. :)

Week 12 - A Hero's Journey

First off... week 12! Semester is almost over which is crazy to think about. I've got my first 9 credit hours in the last 2 years of school almost done and with all A's ( I hope I can finish with )

This week was good as always. I wrote a book report on the book, A Hero's Journey. It was interesting and has lots of really good little stories, poems, etc, that are both interesting and inspiring.

There were some great quotes and thoughts given in the book.

Invictus:

“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” 

This has always inspired me. It brought to mind one of my favorite quotes from a movie:

We listened to a great talk which basically addressed the question of what one does with their money when they have been blessed with a lot but also addressed what one does in service regardless of the money.

Elder Holland also had a great talk that I liked a lot. I always enjoy his talks. He puts a capital P in Passion.

3 questions were included for the journal this week:

• Based on what you read in the first two pages (pages 3 and 4), why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy?
• According to Charles Handy, what is the “real justification” for the existence of businesses?
• What are two solutions proposed by Handy that you agree with? Why?

Answers:

1) Essentially, they are so important because without them, we could not transact business. If we didn't have trust or confidence in a merchant that they would either provide quality of merchandise or service, we wouldn't buy from them. See also, confidence in the reality ( or lack thereof ) in the story of JSG Boggs who is an artist that did a social experiment on the value of money.

2) "It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better.That “something”becomes the real justification for the business. Owners know this. Investors needn’t care."

3) Serving Neglected Customers and Associating with a Cause. I believe that the value of money diminishes if it is not attached to something. See the intro for the JSG Boggs documentary. If we can find value to the people, the money will come.

It's been a good week. On to the next!

Until next week.