The True Final Post...For Now.

Ladies and gentlemen this is once again, possibly my final post. It's been real and great.

What I want to write about tonight is learning. (SPOILER ALERT: this entry does deal with the more spiritual side of life and business so get excited or watch out depending on who you are).

The question I pose is this: is there a difference between spiritual and secular learning?

All growing up for some reason I've always liked to be stimulated a little intellectually. I've liked to hear new theories and mull them over a little and I've liked to gather quotes from people with wise words. Maybe it's the good side of me that really wants to improve things, or maybe it's just he prideful side that just likes to feel smart, I'm not sure. Anyways since returning from my mission last year that desire has increased and I have found myself learning more than ever about how to learn. I've been privileged to hae some fantastic Ph.D Professor's from whom I've learned to think differently and from a much broader perspective. Someone else who has influence my manner of thought and the way I seek to present things is Clayton Christensen, someone who I look up to as a great example and someone I'd probably like to be like (super smart, changes the business world with his theories, teaches at Harvard, and is a spiritual giant). Something that I noticed and loved that I read of his when I came home was an article called, "How Will You Measure Your Life?" What I loved so much about the article was the sheer soundness of his argument. It was very simple, straightforward, and yet so logically sound that whether you are a devout believer or an atheist you couldn't argue with his logic. I determined that that was the type of person I wanted to be like.

Now before you stop reading thinking this is going nowhere I promise my ramblings above have a purpose. The point is, gradually my brain has started to think more and more intellectually, factually, and logically. Theories and proofs have began have a serious role in my mind, along with a lot of doubt for things that are done by tradition or assumption. This certainly has it's positive elements. We do a lot of silly things as humans and believe a lot of silly things simply because we assume them. There are even elements of scripture and church history that we can seriously mistreat or misunderstand when we don't have enough background knowledge.

So we come back to the question: is there a difference between spiritual and secular learning? A girl in one of my Sunday school classes has continuously been saying yes.She's recently been finishing up her graduate degree and has mentioned on various occasions how she believes that some things just have to be understood by the spirit and by the heart.

When I first heard this I honestly thought to myself, "that sounds like a cop out to me."
"We can certainly admit that we don't know everything, of course, but we should constantly be in the pursuit of understanding it all."I thought to myself. And so went my logic.

The scriptures say that right? "teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom."  Maybe not quite.

I realized the other day that since I have been home I have been too concerned with understanding the Gospel and not enough with living it. The phrase came to mind, "it's not what you know but who you know." W usually kind of view that phrase with contempt but I think in a Gospel setting it is true. We don't get into heaven by knowing or understanding the gospel best. We get in by being like Christ. Some parts of the Gospel also make sense. But what I realized is that some things are simply understood with the heart and there is no other way to describe. The fact that I know that there is a God and a Christ are not proven in any sense by my mind. Sometimes life sucks and you could wonder if there was anyone out there. But when I look past that I realize again that there is a different kind of learning. A learning that truly takes place in the heart. That's the only way to describe it. I hope that all who read this can feel that one day. Thanks for reading and have a great life.

So remember that last post? Just kidding. There'll be one or two more

Good news!

I found out I can write a few more of these to increase my grade for my MCOMM class. So we'll have one or two more in the next two days.

Today I wanted to talk about another recent blog I read from the Harvard Business School titled: "Steve Jobs Solved the Innovator's Dilemma."

Before you roll your eyes on another article about Steve Jobs, consider this question that we talked about a few posts ago, "What is the purpose of business?"

As a little reminder I heard this exact question posed to an auditorium of Marriott School students recently. It caused me to pause and think and I anxiously anticipated a thoughtful response. But no sooner had those thoughts started to form in my mind than the whole auditorium promptly responded, "To make money."

"Exactly," replied the instructor who then moved on with her presentation.

I wrote earlier about how ridiculous I thought that was. And I still do. What I want to talk about today is an example that illustrates the point.

In the article on Steve Jobs, the author James Allworth, (a Fellow of the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School) points out how he believes jobs solved the famous "Innovator's Dilemma." For those unfamiliar with it, the innovator's dilemma basically states that managers can follow all best practices in listening to customers and delivering what they want which is the logically accepted course for increasing profits but that they eventually kill their companies this way. The dilemma is that over and over again through business history it is shown that as companies do this they start making products that over serve their customers and miss opportunities for new technologies that eventually reshape the industry and thus disappear or downsize drastically. (Think Blockbuster and Redbox.) Implementing disruptive innovations as a major corporation has been seen as extremely difficult to manage and there are very few who have managed it, the main reason being that the new innovation eventually cannibalizes the sales of your other most popular products. For those reasons it truly the innovator's dilemma.

That's a lot of nitty gritty detail to get through but the author's point is this: Apple has bent the rules of disruptive innovation by focusing on great products rather than by profit maximizing. Over an over again they have reshaped and created new industries and markets by their innovations and have seemed to do so with ease.

My take on this is that a new era of innovation and entrepreneurship is going to come forward. There are going to be a lot more people a lot less concerned about only profits. And it should be understood that obviously profits are important and a business can't be run on good intentions. However when they take second place to the quality of a product or service I believe that profits will fall into place naturally. So hats off to Steve Jobs and Apple for being an example of what business could be like if everyone didn't focus so much on just "making money" but rather the quality and novelty and usefulness of their product.

Final Post....for now

This wraps up what has been a lovely old time of giving blogging a test drive. It's actually been pretty good. I may even see if I can write for the Marriott School blog after this. As it turns out I've got quite a few opinions stored up in my head and it feels good to get them out every once in a while. But until then, I'll leave with one ending thought:

"Just do it."

Nike got it right in a lot of ways with that statement. It's been something that I have been relearning the last couple of days and goes along with some of the previous posts. Often times in life, as we go making decisions both big and small we can easily get caught in "paralysis by analysis." This happens we look at a choice or a problem from so many angles that none of the solutions seems particularly good and we become stuck. Stuck in an ugly rut, that prevents us from progressing. Something that I have found is generally the case is:

1. make a choice and if it's totally off, and you really are believing it's the right choice and not just doing it because you secretly want to avoid the other choice, you will feel that it is not right and be guided to retract your choice, or you will learn a valuable lesson.
2. Often times it is the harder of the two choices, it is not always. That too can be taken to the extreme.
3. Although there are sometimes choices that are appropriate to mull over for a long time, you will almost always be happier if you just go for it and make a choice, or try it out, than if you stay in the same spot turning in circles because both sides look good or both sides look bad.
4. Last but not least sometimes you just need to "take no thought beforehand" of what you're going to say and just do it. This applies to sales. This applies to dating. This applies to business decisions. When we become overly calculated in what we do some of our power is lost because we trust our brains more than our hearts and feelings. There needs to be a steady balance where we use both.

Anyway some more food for thought. I hope it's been worthwhile. Until next blog.

A thought on how to stay out of time debt.

I read an interesting article after writing my last post about time debt. It was written very passionately and seriously and it was basically how to beat time debt. I'll give a little summary of what I got from it below. 

The writer began explaining the standard sales thing that you see on internet,"I'm going to teach you something here that will earn you thousands of dollars and that will change your life at a moments notice, etc. etc." At first I honestly felt a little like rolling my eyes, even though the person that wrote it is close to me. But I decided to read on because I know that person isn't a liar or a cheat and I must say I was impacted. It was a lot different than some of the usual approaches on the internet. Not necessarily something utterly new but something that is worth considering. He said to take pen and paper, sit where you would be interrupted and ask yourself and answer these questions:

"1. What have you intentionally stalled or put off in your work and life? Things you 

keep telling yourself you “should” be getting done…that keep getting put off or 

stalled…over & over again. 

2. What's delayed or incomplete? Things you started but have left hanging 

unfinished, that you feel are important to do. 3. What keeps recurring as an irritant, that you're no longer willing to tolerate? 

Something around the house or office...maybe a repair that's needed... 

something that, every time you see it, irritates you that it is not done... AND it 

NEVER seems to get done. 

4. What do you keep telling yourself you have to remember to remember? This 

kind of thing clutters your mind, creates STRESS… and the feeling of needing 

to "work even harder." 

5. What don’t you want to face, that you know you need to face, now?  

6. What do you resent having to do, that you're no longer willing to do? 

7. What bugs you that you keep not getting done? 

8. What do you keep not getting done that you said you’d get done? 

9. What are you ignoring? 

10. What don’t you want to deal with? 

11. What keeps recurring as an obstacle?"

He speaks on a little more about how all of these things interrupt the natural flow of life. It clogs up your brain, your patience, your confidence and your hopes and dreams and stops you from progressing. 

Admittedly I absolutely do not believe in cure-all solutions. They are fundamentally flawed I believe. But I do believe that what's mentioned above is indeed very valuable and would help whoever reads. So give it a shot and see what you think. Maybe things will be better than you thought. 

 

Time Debt

Debt is one of the great ills of this age. Fortunately I have never experienced it but reports indicate that there are huge incredible amounts of people in at least some kind of negative debt and that those rates keep rising. It comes from the basic principle of people spending too much and not bringing enough in. The concept of debt however I don't believe applies to just money. It applies to a number of other things, including what I would like to talk about which is time.

"Time is the great equalizer." 

That was a comment that stuck with me in one of the entrepreneurship lectures here at BYU. I had to wrestle it around in my mind a little bit to understand what it meant but I have come to very much believe it is true. We are all given equal amounts of the same currency, (time in this case) and are given the chance to spend it how we will. The phrase spend time is actually quite accurate. And depending on what we spend it on depends on what our returns will be, positive or negative, happy or sad, satisfying or not satisfying. That's where I believe the concept of time debt comes in. 

Time debt is essentially procrastination. It is when you spend too much of your time in a flippant way or towards things that aren't really what you need (or need to do) at the moment. And, like real debt, once one is found the grasp of time debt it is hard to get out. You basically have two options: you have get dragged through life a little bit and miss out on other things to be able to accomplish what you need to accomplish (in other words scrimp on your other activities in order to pay back your time debt), or you can openly fail whatever you had set out to do, be it a class, a project, and event etc. and lose reputation (declare bankruptcy). Neither solution is positive obviously and thus it is in our best interest to generally avoid time debt. 

If we do that time will work for us instead of against us and we will feel continually more happy as we accomplish more and more. 

Killing Babies

So I imagine that you're reading this specific post simply because of the title. A little shocking isn't it? Well let your curious mind rest assured that I am not talking about real babies. I'm talking about business babies, or new business ideas to be exact.

New business ideas are like babies. When your mind gives birth to them, so to speak, and you believe they have potential, there are few things more beautiful and satisfying. You think about them over and over, how nice they look, how nice they sound, how other people will love them, the places they'll go, the things they'll accomplish, the things you'll do together.

"Ahhhh the possibilities," you sigh contentedly.

You often even name your baby. Once that happens it becomes serious. It's like your namesake son, carrying on every positive attribute inside of you.

This goes on for some time, depending on who you are and depending on how serious you are about your ideas. But, more often than not, its doesn't last.

First, you start to share your baby with other people.

"Isn't it amazing?!" you say, expecting wells of excitement to burst out of them. But their responses aren't so kind.

"Hmm what about such and such?"

"Haven't I seen this before?"

"Are you sure people would actually buy that?"

"That's a nice idea, but have you looked for any real jobs lately?"

They're insulting your baby. They're calling him ugly.

"Well that was just a foolish person anyways," you say to yourself. "No need to listen to him. What does he know about the industry anyways? And where is he working that he has to brag about? People these days."

But the problem is the same thing happens with the next person. And similar after that. And even worse after that. Person after person, (aside from your occasional biggest fan) tells you honestly their not interested.

"My baby?! I loved you. I can't leave you. I, I, I even named you." Doubt, confusion and sadness follow. And then it happens. You know you have to kill your baby.

So goes the way of the entrepreneur. Killing business ideas left and right, with temporary pieces of his own heart, mind and soul inside of them in the attempt to find just the right one. It's a hard a lonely road but someone's got to do it. Until next time.
.

Sustainable Help

The word sustainable seems to be the goal of just about everything in business. Sustainable growth, sustainable business models, sustainable sales and the list goes one. That is indeed what I am searching for as well; a sustainable solution for my need to make a living, and my desire to do good and create change. What I'm seeing a lot of is one or the other solutions.

Privately owned businesses usually tout killer returns, income, and wealth. Non-profits tout social good and a warm and fuzzy feeling. I want both.

Do I know how I'm going to do it? I do not. I do however feel pretty strongly that you should try and stop poverty on the home front and then go and end it on the foreign front. In other words I would feel a lot happier having created an enterprise and then going and teaching that to people rather than just going straight to teaching it. I also don't want ti to be just a good month or two experience. I want it to be a ginormous part of what I do. That's why micro-franchising interests me. It has the potential to offer both solutions.

Come summer 2012 and wherever I decide to go, we'll see what happens. Hopefully my above assumption is correct.

Happy Thanksgiving

There was an interesting thought given in my finance class yesterday about Thanksgiving. These facts are somewhat unverified because they were just spouted off by the Professor without any references but the message is convincing. He spoke of the first thanksgiving and how it all took place. He said we all often hear how the pilgrims had a grand feast with the Indians and like now we think it must have been an abundance. T/he reality is however, that an English ship for some reason had recently gone to port at Jamestown and had had to take many of the rations that they had there. The year had still been rough crop wise and the colonists knew that winter was coming and honestly that most of them would die, because of exposure. But they had a small celebration and gave thanks. So what, if they were planning on many of them dying that next winter, were they thankful for? According to this Professor, it was for freedom. Despite their terrible condition and pretty dim looking future in the new world they were grateful to be free. And, he said, that is the real reason for this holiday. It isn't just a celebration that says wow we have a ton of food and live somewhat in luxury so thanks God. It's about being thankful for freedom. 

Now whether all that is true or not I have no idea but I think it is a powerful principle either way and a more meaningful outlook on Thanksgiving in general. So let's keep that in mind this thanksgiving and besides thinking up random lists of what we feel thankful for, we can remember to be thankful to be free. 

Honestly just some random thoughts

Sometimes I feel like I just want to get going on life. I want to start a company now, get married now, move out of the country and solve the worlds problems now and so on. I just want to get it done. Part of that desire I believe is good. It leads me toward progress and toward the goals I have set for myself. 

Part of that however I also believe is not good. It distracts from the blessings and the good things to be learned from the here and now. There is a cool quote I heard quoted recently from the writer Oliver Wendell Holmes that says, "Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out." (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/o/oliverwend104426.html#ixzz1dw0GQVj7)

For some reason this quote has stuck with me this whole week. It's very true and it's very sad and it's something that I want to avoid and something that I am all too often guilty of. How often do we do what he speaks of? Prepare to be happy at some point down the road, prepare to be fulfilled, prepare to be help other people more, or prepare to actually just be ourselves and be happy with ourselves. These are things that are important for us to live a full life and things that are often overlooked. So that is the challenge for the week: not to be silly and over spontaneous and "live like we're dying" and be ridiculously cliche but to just get going on what is important to you and do it now. 

A Dabbling in Leadership

In a recent meeting about the admissions process of one of the top graduate schools in the country three key elements were listed as the qualifiers for applicants. The first was obvious: analytical skills, or in other words smarts The second was surprising and refreshing: a desire to not just make money but to make a difference. The third was at once standard and intimidating: leadership. It is that third trait of successful grad school applicants that I'd like you to think about for a moment.

Being in the Marriott Business School and attending endless amounts of lectures, networking events, talks about interviewing and resumes, etc., etc., I am constantly reminded of the need to be a good leader. And to their credit they do a good job of providing opportunities. Just about everyone in the school is the Board Director, Committee Leader, or Vice President of something. Add that to mission experience and maybe even being a district or zone leader or assistant to the President and you ought to be just fine right?

Frankly that had been my thoughts until recently. Through an experience that I will relate at another time, I was reminded that that is not the case. There are plenty of leadership positions but actually being a leader is entirely different. It requires a whole different skill set than simply administrating.

One of those skills or attributes that came to mind was from D&C 121: the attribute of persuasion. "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained" simply because of our position. No matter if you have the right answer and the right authority you cannot force people into any path, it will simply complicate things. We are to persuade by "pure knowledge...without hypocrisy and without guile." None of the joys that those who lust after leadership positions really exist. In real leadership there is not extra power in forcing people to do as you see fit. There is simply a greater responsibility to persuade, to see things from all sides and present your case "with kindness" and real understanding of what would be best and then to work through that with your associates that you are working with.

This is true leadership as taught directly from Heaven and is something that was beneficial for me and that I believe we could all benefit from reviewing  as we lead in our respective spheres. And if we do we will likely be better prepared for challenges that come our way, be it grad school, church positions, or simply leading a school project.

The Quest for more continues

In continuance from the discussion from last week I'd like to discuss again the why of work. And I pose that question to you right now: why do you go to work everyday? Is it habit? Is it for security? Is it for your family? Is it to attain a position? Is it because that's what you've done for the last several years? As with most things I don't think there is one correct answer but it's worth considering. Why do we do what we will spend around 20% of our entire waking lives doing every day?

Here's some thoughts from Guy Kawasaki, Author of Art of the Start and former Chief Evangelist for Apple, on why we should work:



"If you make meaning, you will probably make money."
Agreed.

I've been pondering these reasons lately mainly because I am at the shaping stage basically of how I will live the rest of my life and I've been noticing the need for  balance. As I go progressing through school and learning the principles of business, I am learning that I have to constantly balance and give perspective to those principles by equally indoctrinating myself with truth and religious principles. Otherwise I go flying off course without a direction other than to "make it" or make money, or get the next good job, internship, etc. I am, and I think we all are, in continual need of a reminder and refresher of the why behind what we do.

And if we do examine that I think we may all be a little bit happier with life.

The Monetization of Life

 I am currently enrolled in the Marriott Business school at Brigham Young University. In this school are some of the best and brightest going out into the business world. Accountants, Strategists, Financial Analysts and other business professionals are prepared by some of the top players in their respective fields to "go forth and serve". 

          I am a huge advocate of just about everything that has to do with BYU and it's business program, however I do believe that one of the main elements and fallacies of mainstream business does seep in and pervert just a little bit of the "higher goal" of BYU in general. This can be summed up in my experience in a  recent lecture series that I attended. While talking about the interviewing process that companies go through the teacher asked simply, "what is the purpose of business?" This question excited me as I reflected on the many ways that business effects people and the good things that can be done through them,  the personal development etc. However a student promptly answered with a plain response, "to make money."

"Exactly," replied the instructor, who then moved on with her presentation. 

         My question is: is it really? Is that really all there is to it?

For some people obviously the answer is a resounding yes! For most people in fact. That is something that I believe is one of the greatest errors and plagues of the modern workplace. People don't go to work to do what they love, to make a difference, to grow and develop, to lift their organization etc. -- they do it to make money. To make money, stick it in their pockets, take it home and feel a little big more secure about life. Stuck, or perceiving to be stuck in "this economy" they find whatever job they can drudge their way to work everyday. This of course can be a temporary and maybe even a necessary solution for those in extreme debt or poverty, where creditors are calling and circumstances worsen everyday but muy argument is that in most cases people can get out of their rut, the very moment that they decide to not go to work just for the money.

         As an illustration let us think for a moment how long the average human being spends at work in their lifetime. We'll say the average person has a lifespan of 80 years (which is generous), retires at 65, works the standard 40 hr. work week starting at age 24 and takes 2 weeks of vacation a year. That person during their work years will have a total of 2,000 hours on the job every single year. He'll complete the equivalent of working for 9.3 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

       

        With that said can we really believe that a loving and purposeful God put us here in life to spend 9 years of it in drudgery "just to get by."

I argue that the answer is an absolute NO. We are sent here to do more than that and not only to suffer our way through life. We CAN decide to have a happy and fulfilling life but it takes a leap of faith. To start out, we need to commit to ourselves to not do only what will get us the money but do what will help us do what love.

I've approached the subject in somewhat of a round about way, but you can rest assured that you will hear more about it in the coming posts. For now go find something that you love to do and do it because you love it.