Last Lecture

Dear friends and future entrepreneurs,

As this semester comes to an end, I want to share with you some of the many meaningful things I have learned from this course. I hope that you will be able to apply these things to your lives because they have changed my life for the better.

To begin, I want you to know that I put God and my family first, above all else. This principle has been woven into this course and I am grateful for that. Balance is key in this life and if we can learn how to effectively balance our family with our work, we won’t regret it and we will be blessed. I would also like to add the importance of service. As we work hard to succeed ourselves, we also need to work hard to serve those around us.

Next, I challenge you to become a lifelong learner. I hadn’t thought of this concept until I came to school here. By building on our skills, learning from our mistakes, taking risks, and seeking help from others, we begin a pattern of lifelong learning. This will greatly improve our lives and our confidence as well as our knowledge. Knowledge is the one thing we are able to take with us from this earth, so it is important that we gain as much as we can.

With that, I want to share a quote from an article written by Elder Clayton M. Christensen:

“As I think about my former classmates who inadvertently invested for lives of hollow unhappiness, I can’t help believing that their troubles relate right back to a short-term perspective.”

Having an eternal perspective is something that I always strive for in my life. My daily life may be long and hard at times, but with an eternal perspective, I know that my Heavenly Father is with me always and that much can be learned through my trials. I hope that you too can have an eternal perspective.

So you want to be an entrepreneur?

Here’s some excellent advice I have noted throughout this term:

Advice from Stan Christensen-

•          “Don’t do things because it’s what you think other people want you to do”
•          “If you do things you feel passionately about, you will find similarly minded people or people who appreciate your experience and you will fit in somewhere”
•       “You get to tell your story!”
•         “Pick a career you think is fun, that you’re going to enjoy. You’re going to prosper, do well in things that you’re having fun with”
•         “Choosing a career or a job is not necessarily a long-term decision. There’s plenty of time to try lots of different things”
•        “People think that the first job out of school is such a huge decision and I don’t think it is”

Advice from Jim Richey on “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” written by Stephen R. Covey-
(My notes in the parentheses)

1.       Be proactive (Act, don’t wait to be acted upon!)
2.       Begin with the end in mind (Eternal perspective)
3.       Put first things first (God and family obligations come first always)
4.       Think win/win (Serve others and you will be blessed and feel happy)
5.       Seek first to understand…then to be understood (Don’t be selfish, help others and everything will fall into place)
6.       Synergize- “synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, each of the parts combine to create new and exciting unexpected discoveries that were not possible before. It is a creative force of unparalleled power created in the principles of creative cooperation.”
7.       Sharpen the saw (Allow yourself time to rest, recuperate, and re-gather your thoughts. Don’t overwork yourself)

Last, but not least, this quote by Jeffrey R. Holland says it all:

“Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”

The work of an entrepreneur is hard, but it can be so rewarding. Challenging yourself is good, just remember to prioritize, plan ahead, pick yourself back up and learn from past experiences.