Celebrating Life as a Disciple of God

I am privileged to be a student of this course, ENTREPRENEURSHIP.  To other students who will be taking this course, I would like to share with you the formula Jim Ritchie shared.  It is a powerful formula that will help you shape your life plan.

I advise you to PREPARE yourself very well.  Get the right education and the right experience to better face the entrepreneurial journey.  Also, communicate with God and meditate so you will have the right motivation and purpose for why you want to go into business.  I advise you to read the book "Launching Leaders" by heart.  This will help you be the kind of entrepreneur God wants you to be. 

A word of caution and advice in doing business.  The temptation and pride out of the love of gaining more money might lead you in the wrong direction.  Always calibrate and recalibrate your goals and desires with what God would want you to do.  Doing this will help you have God as your mentor as you do business.  Your network will improve if you improve your connection with God first.  I felt that is what happened when I went to Church first to network with God and I hope and prayed that He makes miracles to make a strong network of people that can help me in my business.  I testify that He did improve my network and that blessed me and the people around me.

You can also read my Week 14 takeaways!

It is interesting to know this week’s Acton Hero: Tom Monaghan – the owner of Domino’s Pizza lives in a dorm. He lived a simple life and donated some of his properties thinking he will not bring his money to heaven. He had done a lot of charity work. Such an attitude is worth emulating. Carole Carpenter said, “he really, really believed that the most important thing was eternal and it made such a difference in his life.”

I got a lot of plans in mind hoping I could be like him someday. But for now, I need to spread my wings and soar higher so that I may be capable of what he did. Whatever I have was only entrusted by God for the building of His kingdom on earth. However, I need to prepare myself for that calling.

Jim Ritchie said in this week’s video:

“I promise you that the closer you get to the other end of your mortal existence, the more you will look back and wonder what might have been if only you had been better prepared to fulfill your roles and perform your responsibilities. The life plan and constitution you’re writing will make a huge difference in how you attack your future and how others will respond to your attack. The life plan helps you to identify the areas in your life that require planning and preparation.”

I do not want to look back and ask myself, “what might have been if I am better prepared?” Having a plan, and preparing for the future is wiser. I can better serve God and my fellowmen if I am better prepared.

I never thought some people really do care if I succeed. Last week, one of our staff said he and his wife pray that we will have continuous orders. That of course is understandable because he is one of our carpenters and more orders means a continued job for him. But I am deeply touched by one boy who was attending our Self-Reliance Class (Personal Finance). He was hopeful to study college by having a job in our company. He was hoping to get a job from us to save for his mission. Will I not prepare more and do better for a child like him?

I need to be more focused. Focus and stick to it!

President Thomas Monson in his talk, “Finishers wanted” quoted:

“ Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come to the one who stays. Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life’s victories after a while.”

—Author Unknown

I thought starting a business is harder. I realized enduring well, and enduring happily in sustaining and expanding the business is harder. I, however, know that it is worth it.

There are valuable insights in the article, “Recognizing and Shaping Opportunities” which can help me. It states that there are three key categories of growth options an entrepreneur can consider:

1 Enhance. Make incremental improvements to an existing product or channel to market

2 Expand. Launch new products OR enter new markets

3 Explore. Launch new products AND enter new markets

These, I need to do urgently. Our company will soon be distributing some of our products in one mall. I need to think of products that really sell.

In the same article is stated:

"In the book Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck, experienced entrepreneur and venture investor Tony Tjan and his co-authors describe what all successful entrepreneurial teams possess as a combination of “heart” (passion and motivation), “smarts” (analytic and creative-thinking skills), “guts” (intuition based on education and experience, as well as the courage to take action), and “luck” (being in the right place at the right time).

Figuring out which traits [heart, smarts, guts, and luck] drive you and your decisions is the most important thing you can do to enhance your business leadership. Greater awareness of what you’re best at, and how and when you might need to turn up or turn down the volume of the other traits, is what separates the best business-builders from those who are very good. From an organizational perspective, knowing your own [qualities] allows you to better understand what kind of people best complement you during specific points of the business-building growth cycle—and, equally important—what type of person you might need to supplement (almost everyone needs a kindred spirit) or even succeed you."

I take those things as valuable counsel in running the business and hiring people. Now, I look forward to the future with greater faith. May God help me put all I have in mind into reality. I do not want to only dream but to achieve those things and make the world a better place. Entrepreneurship is truly a hero’s journey. I hope that I and my family can be blessed by God to be a hero for that child who wants a better life… for all those people like him praying for miracles to happen in their lives…  

A Journey of Gratitude

 Now at week 13!  I think I am going to party next week!  I am not only happy to finish the course but grateful of all the things I have learned.  It makes me feel that I am at the right track.  I never thought that Entrepreneurship is a journey of Gratitude.

"Because I have been given much, I too must give!"

I remember many years back when I felt alone and forsaken.  I cried to God to rescue me and help me rebuild myself.  I was wounded and I do not know how to live my life anymore.  And He did help me.  I suddenly received an opportunity to work in a big government hospital in Qatar.  There I learned to be more confident.  I was given a chance to train and manage people.  After almost seven years, I came back to the Philippines with my family.  God put us in Qatar to learn the things we need for our entrepreneurial journey.  

There were a lot of business ideas.   Unlike other businesses, I feel that we were led to our business.  There were some people who wanted to be our business partners who are not willing to invest their money and who do not even have the skills and wit.  I advised my husband to reject these people.  Eventually, we made it on our own.  Like what was mentioned in the article, Identifying and Exploiting the Right Entrepreneurial Journey:"

 After some business failures, luckily we were able to seize the right opportunity after another. Our CCTV Solar Company which is still up and running today led us to our furniture business. Furthermore, our furniture business gave us the opportunity to establish better relationships with other entrepreneurs. It also opened the idea of exporting. We received an email today informing us that our company is now a registered exporter.

President Thomas Monson quoted the hymn "Count your Blessings" in his talk, "A Journey of Gratitude."

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. …

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged; God is over all.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Learning to be full of gratitude despite the trials, and persecutions will heal an aching heart. And as I have healed from my personal tribulations, I pleaded with God to be a companion of others so that they may also escape their current melancholic state. At first, I thought it would be just by being a friend to some or being a leader in the church. God gave me a better opportunity to lift others through doing business and inspiring others to establish their own. I happily do that as I journey life with gratitude.

The article, Identifying and Exploiting the Right Entrepreneurial Journey states that opportunity recognition has three distinct activities:

1. Perceiving an unmet market need (new technology or capability)
2. Discovering the fit between the market need and the capabilities and resources of the entrepreneur
3. Creating a product or service solution...

As an entrepreneur, we must identify what the market needs and do our best to make a solution. As we do that, we create a product that is useful to society. There are some products that are not only developed to earn money but also to save lives, such as vaccines. Some are made out of love and passion.

I look forward to learning more next week about how to apply them to my life as an entrepreneur.