The last lecture

It's end of semester time and a time to reflect on the good things of life.

If from all the things I have written you had to chose one single item to take away, it definitively has to be the formula for success. There are many things that are important to be said and taken away but they can all find a way into this formula for success.

1)      Get up early

2)      Work hard

3)      Get you education

4)      Find oil

5)      Make your mark

6)      Prepare to serve / Give back

I've read several books which I can recommend but this all fits into get you education step #3 above from the formula for success. Interestingly enough most of them make reference to working hard and to staring early. Some make reference to early in life while a few make reference to early in the day.  One thing is for sure, time is precious and can not be wasted hence one must start early at whatever it is that one will do.

For example if I were writing to my kids, its important that they get first things done early in life, like forming good habits, getting their education and in general becoming good people, good citizens. They are to work hard at it and be educated on what exactly it means, once they are doing this then they need to go on and find oil, or be good at something and make a bold statement.

I have noticed that most of the books I read also made some sort of reference of giving back or serving other.  I enjoyed a book called “The Servant” by James Hunter, this book talks about how to be a good leader one must be ready to serve first. It is a cycle that keeps going.  One person takes the learning from one does the best they can and then takes the learning back to the community or society, it is also a form of giving back.

Take a moment to ponder on the steps of the formula like I did and you will realize that it will surely lead  to success. One can not go wrong doing these steps, yet one must take care not to get lost trying to overcomplicate things, it can be easy to get lost in all this because of the simplicity of the formula.

So, this is me giving back to whoever might read this. 

Apply the steps to your life, the steps are simple but they must be customized to what it means to you.

Working for a company, ok?

The question has been in my head for a while and this week I may have found an answer.

Am I doing right by working for another company if what I really want to do is be independent?

The answer is in the video Paths to an Entrepreneur Career. That may have just made it easy for me then. I have known that I need to do my best, I have seen my self excel in different areas, just have not been able to call it mine. Note to self:  I'm here for the learning more than the money.

Reflecting on where I am, I guess, life is good.  I am where I am now thanks to the great people I have met along the journey.  President Monson could not be more right when he talks about having an attitude of gratitude.  I often think about how little children are not able to survive on their own, even after being able to talk and walk, life is not that easy for humans and what would be of most of us if it weren't for our parents?  I am not sure if its just me and my head accident or everybody's memory fades out where I cant remember my childhood, I can't remember about my mother feeding me or anything. Sadly, I don't have memories of my early years, but I am capable of reasoning that she must have loved me to take care of me.

This week we also learned about living in the now, it reminds me of Eckhart Tolle.  His book the power of now is a great book, the past is in the past. I should learn from that but only live the present.

What is a Hero’s Journey?

This week as we finished reading the Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey it seems to all make sense. I want to assume that everyone one at least once wanted to do something great in life, yet life’s needs end up taking away that vision and those dreams fade away. It takes a Hero to set out to do something and accomplish it. Many, including myself at some point only think about money, but what is money for by itself?  How do we keep from becoming overly obsessive about it?  This is where the whole panorama fits in. It is important to have defined goals and then set out to work hard and achieve them. As I wrote the book summary I was able to reflect upon my own situation. I am sure glad that I have a purpose and know it. I am glad that I am not just lost without a truly meaningful goal like I was a few years back.

Reading a Harvard Business Review paper, I also went over a few key important aspects like: Why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy? – People will stop trusting and will soon and move their money elsewhere.  No one wants to do business with someone that has no integrity, not doing business means the economy and cash flow starts to slow down and possibly even coming to a halt.

According to Charles Handy, (HBR paper) the real justification for the existence of a business is for it to do “something” better, it’s not simply about making gross amounts of money, that leads to wrongdoing.

Handy writes that we, as charitable organizations do, should measure success in terms of outcomes for others as well as for ourselves.  I think this should be fundamental because even a business cannot exist for long without taking care of others.  He also writes that better corporate behavior is needed and less corporate democracy. I particularly think this is true, I have seen with employers and clients that the behavior is just not the right one, it is most of the times driven by the need to achieve certain goals, no matter what it takes or costs, doing a lot of damage in the process.

Attitude toward money

There was a time when I didn’t have money and I wanted it so much, I worked hard to get some money and it made me feel secure and confident.  I could not go out if I didn’t have enough money on my wallet. I was very conscious about how much I had and how I spent it, spending it meant my security and confidence level was decreasing and my panic levels were increasing. Then I got married and had kids, It was a strange change and at first thought I needed to have more money to feel secure.  I can go for days now without money in my pocket.  Yeah strange but my attitude towards money has changed.  I still have the need to make enough to cover for my expenses and those of my family but now its about them and not about me.  As long as my family is taken care of I am good. I have learned to live by a budget and to have an emergency fund.

I think that my view of money can affect my life if I let it control me, or us.  Money is not or should not be the end goal. Money should be the means to achieve those things that are needed, money is the means though which we trade in these days.  How much money we need depends on our goals and lifestyle but it is important take care of it, to make sure we don’t just ignore it and pretend that it will always be available, failing to plan for the future will probably result in disaster. Being too obsessive about it will probably also lead to disaster as we lose track of the important thing.

What rules are recommended for prospering?

My number one rule it to be grateful. This means giving back, paying tithes, helping the needy etc.  Then the second rule is to keep it under control, I have seen how some people just lose control of their income and expenses. People just go on shopping sprees on credit cards and how does that end?  Never good.  Living with les

Leadeship dashboards

This week has been a slow but good one.  Travel to client site was a very insightful conversation, I was asked where I saw myself in next 3 year?  Maybe outside the organization I answered.  I am trying to eliminate dependencies from my job.  The fellow  traveler was a bit surprised by my answer  I guess, he might have wanted to hear me say that I wanted the next level in the corporate ladder but it is really not my desire.  Reading Robin Sharma a couple years back got me thinking that its about what and who you are on the inside and not on the outside.  I feel like I'm already a leader, I don't think I need to prove it to anyone.  I am not looking for personal glory in any specific company, I am looking out for my family and these are my goals and my motivators.  

My friend asked why I didn't see myself in the organization and rather outside.  I simply stated that I don’t mind, but I know that I am just a resource and don't want to be at somebody's mercy so I am taking control of my life and future. 

In the meantime, this week was a good lesson to reflect on whether I am good or great. Yeah, I may see myself a bit good, but I want to get to great. How do I score as a leader my self?

I started creating a leader dashboard based on the items that we have learned from the book summary. Good to great. 

An interesting week

Well this is a bit odd, strange or staged from above.  This week was a short week in both my classes, it was also a week that needed a lot of attention at work and home. I was having several thins to do and just felt like dropping the ball on some, as I was watching this weeks material, the concepts resonated with me.  Keep going said one.  Ok, I thought so I started doing budgets and planning again.  Another problem came up and root cause analysis was incorrectly done by one of our team leads twice.  Well, there was the video of The Five Whys and solved our problem, human problems.  Guess that works out.

We had a short brainstorming session at work and people only came up with a few ideas, low hanging fruit said David Carrington.  I invited our team to think a bit more and come up with a few more ideas.

 

This is something I need to remember, seems like a magic formula for increasing business so I’ll just leave it here.

1)      Increase number of customers

2)      Increase frequency of purchase

3)      Increase the average order

But what I like most is Elder Hollands advise to keep going “Victory at all cost”  I thinks whatever we are doing like a web business or at this moment building a future for my family.  The same applies, keep going.

 

Advertising with a purpose

Amazing, I have learned something new this week. I used to think that this activity of creating ads was just as simple as throwing some words on to the add and what ever made sense.  I realized today that there are some best practices that everyone shares.  For example. Headline 1 an Headline 2 are not just two spaces, they have a purpose. one is related to what the user is looking for and the second to what we can offer.  I also had not realized that the URL can have a path, but now that I think about it, it only makes sense.  By having different paths associated to different ads, it is possible to have different groups and different adds showing different information all on the same website.  how call is that?

Things to remember from this week. Ads need to have the same domain, google will verify the domain, no all caps allowed, and no special symbols either.