April 24, 2021
In the beginning... of Intro to Entrepreneurship class, BUS 110 at BYU-Idaho.
I was (am) at a bit of a loss as to what I'm going to document in this blog. It's been started through the motivation that I'm supposed to get it done, but I'm not 100% sure what I'm supposed to reflect on in the blog. I'm hoping that will become more clear and easier to understand as the semester continues.
Some thoughts I have at this point: after reading the "Your Entrepreneurs Journal" document provided, I look forward to keeping tabs on what I am learning through the semester to reference back on someday.
This week's focus was basically the syllabus and ice-breaker assignment online. From what I can tell, this class is as much a discover yourself kind of class as it is a place to obtain growth and knowledge. I appreciate this, because in my experience much more is obtained from situations of personal reflection than from direct lectures from a well-studied authority figure. And I don't say this as a disrespect to teachers, counselors, and others trying to help educate and promote the growth of the people they influence. I say it because in my experience, the Holy Ghost reaches out to me individually. In my experience, it's much easier to learn important, eternal truths when I don't feel urged to divert my attention away from spiritual promptings.
That's not to say I can only learn from my own efforts and these promptings. I have been blessed with great teachers and leaders over the years, and I recognize that it's important to let people in to your life. Especially when you're at a loss for the next path forward you can take.
Ending the tangent to get back to the suggestions listed in "Your Entrepreneurs Journal." It says to organize the journal into three sections: Lessons Learned, Lessons Not Yet Learned, and A Reference and Categorization Method. Knowing the way I think and how I study, I think I'm going to organize these blog posts based on this first attempted post. That is to say, I'll probably stick to diary-entry style rambling in the beginning, then go through and sift through what I put down for information relevant to these sections. So for today, that looks like this:
Lessons Learned
- Promptings from the Holy Ghost are a powerful source of learning
- People are important resources to fall back on when my own knowledge is insufficient
- I'm not great at consistent subject-verb agreement when writing in first-person in reference to myself, and frequently try to divert explanations into a second-person point of view.
- Related: I lack self-confidence and the courage to double-down on my own words
Lessons Not Yet Learned
- How to take ownership of my experiences and be OK with writing about my point of view in my point of view
- What is this blog ultimately supposed to be, and am I doing it right?
- When am I going to schedule the creation of new blog posts?
A Reference and Categorization Method
(I think this last section is supposed to fill out details from Lessons Learned in more detail, to help reinforce the learned lessons.)
I liked the video excerpt from Guy Kawasaki, "Do What You Love." I especially appreciate his comment at the end where he mentions in good humor that he considers himself smarter than many law students because he learned he hated law school and quit after ten days rather than following the path into practicing law and realizing much later in life that he hates what he's doing and where he's at in life. It resonates with me, because I firmly believe that shaping your behavior around any suggestion of peer-pressure is foolhardy and likely to result in personal failure. Our choices need to be determined in collaboration with God and no one else. OK... Maybe also with a spouse. I'm not yet married so I don't know whether I completely buy into that yet. But I've heard that it's important to make sacrifices for the sake of your eternal companion, and that logic makes sense to me at this point in my life.
In the reading "Living Life as an Entrepreneurial Hero," Mr. Jeff Standefer does something interesting in his introductory paragraphs. On the first page in the sixth paragraph, he begins with a question: "Why should my opinion matter?" He then proceeds to explain his credentials and how he should be in a position to talk about what he then discusses throughout the remainder of the article. But this question is interesting to me for a different reason. I don't think I have any satisfactory answer to the question. If I stop to ask myself why my opinion should matter, the voice in my head immediately and bluntly replies that there's no reason my opinion should matter. Not more than anyone else's opinion, at the very least, but even beyond that. I operate on my own opinion, but I don't have faith that I have the correct opinion. I have enough faith to justify using my opinion to shape my decisions and face my life's challenges, but I'm not about to fight to be heard or understood by other people. My opinion holds little to no sway on others, and I don't believe it should be used to pivot the decisions of others. I dunno... Maybe that's a weakness I need to work on.
OK... I think that's going to do it for my first blog post. More to come later...
