Week 5

This week I had the opportunity to continue working through the book Mastery.  As I started my college education, around 20 years ago, I never thought that BYUI would be where I was finishing my Bachelors Degree.  I am grateful that a mission, marriage, helping my husband get his education, and having children allowed me to put my educational pursuits on the back burner.  If I had finished 20 years ago I would not have the life experience that I know have to go hand in hand with the principles and concepts that I am learning through my courses.  I'm not sure I would be as touched as I am by the concept of loving plateaus that is discussed in the book.  I am grateful that the Lord allowed the blessing of Pathway to come into my life so that I can not only learn and grow in my degree program but also learn and grow in the principles of the gospel.


Steve Blank

List of what I did to preserve my family 

Wences Carsares

I am stuck with being an entrepreneur (this is who I am).

Time is our greatest possession. (What am I going to do for the next 30 years).

Don’t sale yourself short, stick with it, taking it to the next level.

Jan Newman

Unwise individual crunch their family and the Lord, so that they can keep “their fun things.”  Don’t crunch the IMPORTANT things.

The Lord doesn’t need you to make a lot of money to build his kingdom, what he needs if for you to DO your home/visiting teaching.

Week 4

This week I have started the book Mastery.  I love how our classes have material that have not only a scholastic application but also builds us spiritually.  I know that there are going to some very valuable lessons contained in this book that are going to help me in many aspects of my life.

Advice from Randy Komisar…create a portfolio of passions and them marry this portfolio with the opportunities that are in front of you

I also liked what he said about choices…"The hardest thing isn't choosing between right and wrong (that's easy) the hardest thing is to choose between two or more right choices."


Are Successful Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Jeff Sandefer

It takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. That’s three hours a day of practice, every day, for ten years. I knew a lot more people with raw, unused talent than I did people with the dedication and perseverance that are critical for entrepreneurial success.

The used car tycoon agreed, “Entrepreneurial success isn’t about money; it’s about

freedom. The goal isn’t to make more than you need, it’s to spend less than you make. Because that way your free time belongs to you.”

“You can be the luckiest person on earth,” another added, “but when luck comes to someone who is unprepared or lacking in character, or sees money as the most important thing in life, nothing good ever comes of it.”

Perseverance Pres. Faust

Paul Harvey, the famous news analyst and author, once said: “Someday I hope to enjoy enough of what the world calls success so that someone will ask me, ‘What’s the secret of it?’ I shall say simply this: ‘I get up when I fall down.’

At the first press conference when President Gordon B. Hinckley was introduced to the press as the President of the Church in 1995, he was asked what his focus would be. He answered: “Carry on. Yes. Our theme will be to carry on the great work which has been furthered by our predecessors.” 7 This is a great theme for all of us. We need to carry on and endure to the end.

Week 3

Although the book Good to Great is part of another class I feel like the two classes I am taking at this time build on and support one another.  The Stockdale Paradox means a lot to me because I think that it is what we are taught through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are never to lose FAITH no matter how hard things are, yet we must be willing to confront the brutal facts of what our current situation is and do all in our power to work through them and the Lord has promised as long as we yoke ourselves to Him then we will be able to endure and overcome.  I also liked from the book the teachings of being a level 5 leader, once again I think this goes hand in hand with the teachings of the Savior.  We don't force people to be motivated and we don't look for all the glory.  We try to help others reach their potential through persuasion and we realize that it is through others that we are able to learn and reach our potential.  If we seek for the glory then we take the glory away from Him who all glory belongs to. I feel so blessed to be able to have gospel teachings integrated into my courses, the talks by both Elder Wirthlin and Brother Christensen remind us of why we are here and the importance of making choices that will bring us eternal happiness not earthly pleasure or prestige.

From the book Good to Great The Stockdale Paradox "Retain FAITH that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."  

Create a culture wherein people have a tremendous opportunity to be hear and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard.  Creating a climate where the truth is heard involves four basic practices: 1. Lead with questions, not answers, 2. Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion, 3. Conduct autopsies, without blame, 4. Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored.

Spending time and energy trying to "motivate" people is a waste of effort.  The real question is not, "how do we motivate our people?" If you have the right people, they will be self-motivated.  The key is to not de-motivate them.  One of the primary ways to de-motivate people is to ignore the brutal facts of reality.

Little Things Are Important Elder Wirthlin

Each minute is a little thing and yet, with respect to our personal productivity, to manage the minute is the secret of success.

Do you take the time to remember some of the simple courtesies that are so important in relationships with others? Do you remember the smile, the compliment, the positive comment, and the word of encouragement? We should do these important little things without hesitation.

When creating our spiritual bodies, our Heavenly Father took great care to place in each of us every little potential of character, of compassion, joy, and of knowledge that we would need for our personal growth. The beginnings of each godly character trait is in each and every one of us. With that assurance, we are truly able to become gods as he has commanded us. Do you recall the Savior’s words to the Nephites, “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am” (3 Ne. 27:27).

How will you measure your life? Clayton Christensen

If you want your kids to have strong self- esteem and confidence that they can solve hard problems, those qualities won’t magically materialize in high school. You have to design them into your family’s culture—and you have to think about this very early on. Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.

One characteristic of these humble people stood out: They had a high level of self-esteem.

…if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited. Generally, you can be humble only if you feel really good about yourself—and you want to help those around you feel really good about themselves, too. When we see people acting in an abusive, arrogant, or demeaning manner toward others, their behavior almost always is a symptom of their lack of self-esteem. They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.

I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.