My Last Lecture

I have never felt entrepreneurial. The only reason I took this class is because it’s a requirement. My ideas have changed in fourteen weeks. Even though I may not have ideas for companies, I have learned that I have an entrepreneurial mindset and view of business. Whether or not you start your own company, having that mindset is crucial to doing business in today’s ever changing world.

Here are some key principles I have learned in this course.

Jeff Sandefer, in talking about living life as an entrepreneurial hero, teaches the concept of choosing your fellow travelers well. 

I read somewhere that you are the aggregate of the five people you spend the most time with. I had to stop and think - am I spending time with people who lift me, make me better, share my goals and morals? Sandefer said that “No matter how talented the person is, life is too short to put up with jerks. And life is too long to associate with liars or cheats or gossips.”

We are like chameleons; we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.

                                                                                                   --John Locke

Lesson Learned: Choose carefully those with whom you associate, because you will likely become as they are.

Stepping Stones:

As Steven Covey teaches, you must start with the end in mind. How can you get where you are going, if you don’t know what the ultimate destination is? You need to determine what it is that you really want and what will remain important to you throughout your life. Create a bucket list. Make goals. Write down your dreams. Make them real. These goals become your stepping stones to your ultimate destination.

The ultimate horror is not death. The ultimate horror is to wake up at age fifty-five or sixty and realize that you have wasted your life; either that time has slipped past while your dreams waited, or that you never had any dreams at all.

-          Jeff Sandefer

Lesson Learned: Decide what your ultimate destination is and determine the stepping stones that will get you there.

What is Irrelevant:

Magdalena Yesil grew up in Turkey in the 1960’s and went on to become a respected product design engineer, businesswoman, entrepreneur, and angel investor in Silicon Valley during the 1980’s and 90’s. As a young girl she somehow developed a deep abiding belief that gender was irrelevant to accomplishment. This had a huge impact on me. I feel that you can change the word “gender” to anything that fits your situation.

 “_________ is irrelevant to accomplishment.”

I am working toward my Bachelor degree in my late 40’s. Age is irrelevant to accomplishment. I can do this even if I will be 50 when I graduate. 

What is it you think is holding you back? Determine that it is irrelevant to that accomplishment and go do it!

Lesson Learned: “_________ is irrelevant to accomplishment!”

How Will You Measure Your Life:

Professor Clayton M. Christensen’s HBR article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” made a huge impression on me. At the end of his course he asks his students to answer these three questions:

·         How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?

·         How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and family become and enduring source of happiness?

·         How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?

He isn’t flippant in asking question #3. Two of his Rhodes Scholar classmates spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron was his classmate at HBS. Christensen said “these were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.” 

What do we learn about going off in the wrong direction? “Allocation choices can make your life turn out to be very different from what you intended.” If we don’t spend our time doing what we want to become, we will become what we spend our time doing.

Regarding question one Christensen says: “Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people. I want students to leave my classroom knowing that.”

Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team.

-          Clayton Christensen

Speaking to question 3 he states: “justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of ‘just this once.’” He gives an example of his college basketball days when his resolve to never play on Sunday was tested. He was pressured by coaches and players alike. He remained strong and didn’t play. After that experience he learned it was one of the most important decisions of his life. Why?

My life has been one unending stream of extenuating circumstances. Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed. The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.
-- Clayton Christensen

Lessons Learned: Build up others to receive truly deep rewards and spend time doing what you want to become.

Ethical Guardrails:

While you are creating your goals, dreams, and visions, decide on your ethical guardrails. Think of these as the bumper guards children use in bowling alleys. These are things that you will either always do or will never do. Decide now so that when situations come up, similar to Christensen’s “never play on Sunday” rule, the decision will already be made. 

Ethical guardrails will help keep you from going off course and making decisions that go against who and what you want to become.

Lesson Learned: Ethical guardrails can help keep you safe.

Resources
How Will You Measure Your Life, Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business Review

Of Measurements and Repetition

This week we read How Will You Measure Your Life? by Professor Clayton M. Christensen of the Harvard Business School (HBS). It was published in the Harvard Business Review in 2010. His class at HBS is structured to “help [his] students understand what good management theory is and how it is built.” On the last day of class he asks his students to answer three questions:

1. How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?
2. How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and family become and enduring source of happiness?
3. How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?

He isn’t flippant about question three. Two of the 32 people in his Rhodes Scholar class at HBS spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was his classmate. He said “these were the good guys – but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.”

He teaches that the “powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements,” which brought him to this conclusion: 

Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team.

What do we learn about going off in the wrong direction? “Allocation choices can make your life turn out to be very different from what you intended.” If we don’t spend our time doing what we want to become, we will become what we spend our time doing.

Speaking to question 3 he states: “justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of ‘just this once.’” He gives an example of his college basketball days when his resolve to never play on Sunday was tested. He was pressured by coaches and players alike. He remained strong and didn’t play. After that experience he learned it was one of the most important decisions of his life. Why?

My life has been one unending stream of extenuating circumstances. Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed. The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.

So where does Repetition come in? I read both this and another speech this week, in a previous class. I was thinking to myself “someone really didn’t plan these courses well because they are duplicating the reading.” 

Tuesday was devotional and Elder David A. Bednar spoke. His focus was on repetition. His example was the repetition in visits and message from Moroni to the young Joseph Smith. “This repetitious teaching was intended to emphasize the deep significance of the things that had been communicated.” He then pointed out that even though the message was the same each time, it was different because new information was given with each succeeding visitation. 

BAM! Palm to the forehead moment for me! The information I had read in a previous class was so important, it was presented to me again, however this time it was given with additional information.

Lesson Learned: Stick to your principles all the time. Don’t give in to the “just once won’t hurt” lie.

References:

Clayton M. Christensen, How Will You Measure Your Life?  Harvard Business Review, 2010

David A. Bednar, Repeat Over Again . . the Same Things as Before, BYU-Idaho Speech, January 2016

Of Fellow Travelers and Chameleons

What is an entrepreneurial hero? It is someone who lives life as an adventure, as did Sir Lancelot or Harry Potter—or any other mythical childhood hero. It is one who digs deeply to find special talents and gifts, then uses them to bring joy, enrich life, and serve others. This isn’t an easy journey, which is why it is called heroic.

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.

—M. Scott Peck

In learning about living life as an entrepreneurial hero, one of the ideas that stood out was the concept of choosing your fellow travelers well. 

I read somewhere that you are the aggregate of the five people you spend the most time with. I had to stop and think - am I spending time with people who lift me, make me better, share my goals and morals?

We are like chameleons; we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.

                                                                                                    --John Locke

According to Jeff Sandefer of the Action Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence, "Choosing your fellow travelers may not seem as exciting as slaying the dragons of competition, but it may well be the most important decision an entrepreneurial hero will make."

And – “No matter how talented the person is, life is too short to put up with jerks. And life is too long to associate with liars or cheats or gossips.”

Lesson Learned: Surround yourself with people you want to be like. Not jerks.

Reference:

Sandefer, Jeff. "Living Life as an Entrepreneurial Hero." n.d.

Of Stepping Stones, Callings, and Stars

This week we worked on discovering what we want to be when we grow up and how we are going to get there.

First, we created a Bucket List. This is something I've never put down on pen and paper. There have been things that I want to do, but I've never taken the time to create an actual bucket list. I think I felt like -- if I don’t actually tell anyone, then I won’t be as disappointed if I don’t get them done.

My top three items were very easy. Visit the pyramids in Egypt, do a photo safari in Africa, and finish my degree in Business Management. The first two things I have wanted to do for a long time. I quickly put in a few more, but then had to really stop and think. I looked on the internet for ideas, that sparked more ideas, and I also included things I have already accomplished. A few are very simple such as take a pottery class. Others will take a lot of time, planning, or money, such as ride an elephant, learn Italian, and discover my true calling in life.

Next, we created a Stars and Stepping Stones chart. This is following the premise taught by Steven Covey of beginning with the end in mind. Your star is your calling in life. 

Picking your own star involves understanding what is important to you in life, and what is likely to remain important.

We visualized ourselves at age seventy then thought of what we would like to have said about us if at an awards dinner. What do we want to have accomplished? etc. Then work backward to fifty. What do we need to do to get there? This was an interesting exercise to actually put in writing. Again, similar to my bucket list, putting things in writing is like admitting I really want it. What if it doesn’t happen?

The ultimate horror is not death. The ultimate horror is to wake up at age fifty-five or sixty and realize that you have wasted your life; either that time has slipped past while your dreams waited, or that you never had any dreams at all.

Lesson Learned: Having dreams is good. Making them come true is better.

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Reference: Sandefer, Jeff. "Stars & Steppingstones: Some choices only come around once." actonfoundation.org, n.d