Entrepreneur's Journal

If you have ever played games with my siblings, you will quickly learn you won’t win unless you cheat. I don’t win much.  Will a business ever prosper without cheating? I found this week my Economics reading was interesting as we learned about collusion. I was left wondering how that is an honest business practice, but maybe only because the heading included cartels. And well, maybe this is a concept I will need to unlearn as Charles Handy teaches in “What is business For?” in 2002 Harvard Business school publishing. There is an element of trust that can erode quickly as a shareholder only wants more in his pocketbook and the owner wants to make a difference, or at least did, until profit margin was the most important aspect of business. Businesses are pushing their losses into the future so they can realize gains now. Stockholders want profit, not loss. So with that pushing off the inevitable loss, they are creating a false bubble that will eventually pop the economy. Without real...

 Money: a dreaded topic to some, and an exciting topic to others.  A topic that cannot be avoided as it affects every part of our lives. One cannot live without it and it will manage you if you don’t manage it. The best advice I received, when just newly married, is to live today like no one else will, so you can live tomorrow like no one else can. Dave Ramsey would call that rice and beans, beans and rice. Live on less than you make and you will always have enough.  We have tried hard to live within, and even below, our means all our lives and as we are more successful, it is harder to be as tight. But I guess this also follows that when you leave this life, you can’t take it with you. It is interesting how that money will truly manage you, if you don’t manage it. I remember a time early in our marriage stressing about where the money was coming from for a bill.  I am not a frivolous person, at all. So believe me when I say we were living on pennies. We had decided ...

When I was a little girl, I had typical dreams of marrying a handsome prince who was tall, dark and handsome. He would, of course, carry my off to his amazing castle where we would live happily ever after.  This is a fun childhood dream that carried me into the reality of adulthood where I found my handsome prince and we work daily to keep our marriage happily ever after. We live in a great house that we are working hard to make an amazing castle, as we have all the previous houses. Reality is that work, hard work is what this life is all about.  So when I think dream big. What are my dreams? How will I accomplish them? Well, one thing that is certain is I will have to work my tail off to get those dreams. Achieving your goals is not just handed to you. A person that works for their gain is a confident person. Elder Dallin H Oaks said, “We do not obtain our heavenly reward by punching a time clock. What is essential is that our labors in the workplace of the Lord have caused u...

When a person considers leadership, one imagines an ideal leadership initially. Maybe that picture looks like how they can be an amazing, inspiring leader that people all want to follow. Or maybe they imagine people flocking to work with them. Or maybe that picture is missing a few real moments of when things get messy. But hopefully they have a good outlook on what their leadership will really look like.  In order to be a good leader, or even maybe just a good person, a few questions need to be asked. What do you want out of life? Do I have what it takes to succeed? Can I do it without losing my soul? Do I have a good role model to follow? Do I have good friends, especially when things get rough, who will tell me like it is?  One question I really liked this week is “have I contributed something meaningful?” Reflecting on this question reminds me that I will leave a legacy no matter whether I am intentional about that legacy or not. So it hit me hard realizing that I need to ...