Last Lecture

It has been fourteen weeks.  They have not all been easy but they have been rewarding.  During this time we have read the thoughts of many great leaders and spiritual men.  We have watched videos on others who have gone on to be great successes in the business arena.  Along the way we have been challenged to venture outside our comfort zone to reach our entrepreneurial potential.  All this information and advice has been beneficial and enlightening, so now what? Where do we go next?

Now, we start!  We come up with our idea, if we haven’t already, and we make a plan.  During these last weeks we have been given tools to form our ideas and take well thought out steps to action.  So now we do just that.  Look ahead to possible pitfalls, so you can have the answers already in place if those obstacles show up.  Seek out those with your best interest at heart and ask for their thoughts and incorporate the most advantageous into your plan.

Now go!  Take that next step, rent the space or get the business license or print those business cards.  Take a step.  Do not run headlong into the unknown but take well planned steady steps.  Always keep yourself open to new avenues of expansion but temper those adventures with your well established priorities.  It is so easy to chase after the newest shiny goal and leave behind what really matters most.  Make your priorities early and stick to them.  It may be that each of us will not become filthy rich or world famous but to those in our lives and those who seek our services we will be heroes.  Throughout all the lesson material, with all its myriad of stories and advice, the one thing that stuck out to me the most was to be true to who you are and who you want to become.  If I have learned one thing in my years as a business owner it is that have a lot of money is not the best thing about being a business owner, it is doing something you enjoy and finishing a job well done.  Don’t get me wrong if you don’t make some money you won’t be in business long but it doesn’t have to be the end all of why you do this.  Find the non-monetary reason for being in business for yourself and the journey will be a whole lot more enjoyable.

A Journey of Gratitude

It has been thirteen weeks since I started this class and have enjoyed most all the articles and videos I have reviewed.  This week was filled with knowledge on how to make the most of the entrepreneurial experience and having gratitude for the opportunity.  I most related to the Randy Haykin's article.  While I do not claim to have had as successful a career, I faced many of the same events as he.  I had to balance many o the same priorities as well.  Being successful on a large or small scale still requires you to make many of the same decisions.  Reading about how Randy handled the decisions made me appreciate the choices I made in the past.  It also made me grateful for the opportunities I have been blessed with and the people I got to work with along the way.  We don't always see it but we are influenced by so many around us.  We need to take time, regularly, to remember all those who help us along the way.  Whether they make large or small impacts, they still effect us.

Vision

It is almost over.  I have spent the last 3 months learning about being an entrepreneur and being encouraged to figure out what kind of entrepreneur I want to be.  There has been amazing articles and videos discussing planning and integrity and vision.  There have been discussion boards where we shared our thoughts and dreams.  Through it all I have used the information and evaluated how I did as an entrepreneur in the past and what if anything I would change going forward.  I can see where I could have made different decision and there is more than one cautionary tale that I wish I had heard decades ago but by and large I follow many the admonition with the benefit of having them pointed out.  So much of what was shared is based on being a good person first.  Even the  articles evaluating the idea of less capitalism in the business community was enlightening and worthy of evaluation.  I agreed with the thoughts that perhaps upper management personnel were more concerned with their gain then that welfare of those under them.  I identified with premises that business owners should consider employees and assets not cost to be reduced.  However having been in business for so many years myself I believe a level of compromise is needed for a business to truly succeed.  While employees are assets, too many assets can overburden a business and it will fail.  Likewise if upper management does not get fairly compensated for the level of time and responsibility that is required then no one will be willing to take control and lead a business through the difficult times.  In the end I think the only way to fulfill a dream of the perfect company is to keep it a dream.  Otherwise an entrepreneur simply needs to do the best he can and never get to full of himself to remember the start.