Entrepreneur & Family

This week we learned about Mastery and being an entrepreneur with family life. What I found to be really relevant in my life right now is prioritizing God and family along with everything else I have going on. In the video from our studies called “Loyalty to God and Family” by Jan Newman. In the beginning he talks about how once you’re married and older you have more responsibilities with the same amount of time you had when all you did was school and personal life. He says that most people compromise on the things that matter the most, like family and God, to make time for their fun hobbies. Jan states “There are a couple of pieces that you can never let get compromised. That’s your loyalty to the lord and loyalty to your spouse and family”. The lord will know where your heart is when you prioritized what is the most important to do with your time. As I embark on many new, exciting, time consuming adventures in my life, I need to remember to put God and my family first. It is easy to neglect them because they will always be around but building strong relationships with them will be eternally gratifying.  In the future, I hope to be able to reflect back to this post when I feel I am letting things take over my time that shouldn’t be and that this post will help me to get back on track.

Live a Life of Meaning

This week we watched a video called A Hero’s Journey. I wanted to basically copy the whole talk because it was so good and so applicable. He talks about finding an entrepreneurial calling and The Hero’s Journey paradox. However, what really made an impression on me where these three questions:

1.     Have I contributed something meaningful?

2.     Was I a good person?

3.     Who did I love and who loved me?

These three questions are incredibly important. When you look back on your life when your 50 and you ask yourself these questions. Will you look back on your life with regret? I don’t want to realize that I have wasted the past 50 years of my life. I want to do something that makes a positive influence on the world. I want to be kind to everyone. I want people to like me and my family to know how much I loved them. It is my personal goal to live a life of meaning. This quote in particular made a huge impact on me. “Choose your fellow travelers well. For it is a trip you only take once… Be surrounded by people of character, you will come to be like people that surround you”.

Fear of Failure

This week was very thought provoking. We wrote our personal constitutions, what values we want to have, and we wrote down our fears and how we can overcome them. In entrepreneurism I think it is hard for us to admit our fears. When people ask me "Why haven't you started your blog yet?" or "When are you going to be blogging?" I usually just blow it off and just say something like "Oh thats just something I would like to do someday, maybe I'll just do one like a journal". To be honest, I am afraid of trying because what if I fail at it? The deconstructing fears assignment we did forced me to be honest with myself. To face what my fears truly are and realize that they are holding me back from trying to pursue something I have been dreaming of for the past 4 years.

If you pursue your calling with discipline, intentionality, and the help of fellow travelers, what are the chances that your worst case scenario will really happen? If I am being really honest with myself, I think I could be really successful at it. It would take a lot of hard work and years to become successful, but it is possible. As I go over my list of fears, which are: What will people think of me, failure, nobody liking my content, and no companies wanting to work with me, I realize that all my fears have to do with what other people think. All of my fears are mental obstacles I need to overcome. I think that I am my biggest obstacle. If I never try I will always be wondering what if and regretting never going for it. In the end it doesn't matter what other people think. Right now I just need to start. All my fears are premeditated, I haven't even started my journey yet. So who is to say that my fears will even happen. If I try my hardest and stick to my values, then even if I fail I will gain so much more than I will lose.

My Personal Code of Conduct

This week we were given an assignment to create our own code of conduct containing  “I will never” and “I will always” statements. The following is what I have so far in my personal code of conduct:

I Will Never:

1. I will never give false advertisement on products/things for the money.

2. I will never compromise my beliefs to fit in better or to get more attention to my brand.

3. I will never put down others even if our dealings may not be face to face.

I Will Always:

1. I will always be honest in my dealings and conversations.

2. I will always be true to my beliefs and myself.

3. I will always be kind and grateful for the opportunities that I am given.

This assignment really stuck out to me out of all the things we have done thus far. I believe it is so, so important for us to set these ethical guardrails before we start any journey. We need to know what is personally important to us and know what boundaries we will absolutely never cross. I think it is especially important to do this in the beginning. Why? Because you may have always thought you would never do something in the back of your head but you were never approached with that issue before. Well when the issue does come up, by setting a definite code of conduct in the beginning you wont even have to give something a second thought. You will already know that it is out of the question. I really liked that we had to do an “I will always” portion as well. Its easy to think of the bad things we wouldn’t want to do, but what about the good things that we want to make sure happen regardless of the situation? The first two I put down I feel like every person would probably have on their lists, but the last one was more personal to me. I want to make sure I am always kind to people. I think that kindness will get you far, even if its just making a acquaintance. You never know what doors may open for you by being kind to someone.