Giving Back

I was reading in the book Launching Leaders this week and read about the formula for a successful business.

 

The Formula is:

 

1. Get Up Early

 

2. Work Hard

 

3. Get an Education

 

4. Find Your Oil

 

5. Make Your Mark

 

6. Prepare to Serve/Give Back

 

I was really impressed by this because I have been thinking about number 6 for a few years now. We have always been the recipient at Christmastime because we don’t make a lot of money and we have a lot of kids. I remember the first Christmas with having a baby and our ward gave us diapers and some money. This has been happened every year for 8 years. The last two Christmases, I have been feeling a bit angry at myself that I am not the one giving. While I appreciate the help, I wish I could do the same for someone else. I have discovered that Christmas is better when I can give back. I started school again so that I can give back. So, when I saw this Formula, I knew I was in the right place.

We also learned about a lady named Magdalena Yesil who came from Turkey and pursued her dreams. She was foremost an early-stage analyst but was offered a job as a financier. She struggled to know what she wanted to do, and it was up to us to give our opinion on what she should do. Based off of the case study that we read, she loved being an entrepreneur because of the excitement of something challenging and difficult. I read some of my classmate’s viewpoints for the case study and it seemed like everyone got something different out of it depending on their own life experiences. For me, I could relate to her excitement for something new and challenging. She KNEW she was successful and could do it. She didn’t like being stuck in a cubicle by herself. And boy does that sound like me. I hate being cooped up without much interaction.

Everything about business is what I have been looking for. Numbers, math, dreams, excitement, and giving back. I am excited to keep learning and gaining more information and eventually be like Magdalena Yesil and become a successful entrepreneur.

Chasing Dreams

                    This week I learned about Randy Pausch. He had terminal pancreatic cancer and was given only a few months to live. He gave a lecture called “The Last Lecture” about achieving your childhood dreams. In his somewhat short lifetime, he was able to achieve his childhood dreams because he did not let brick walls stop him. He had big dreams with NASA and Disney as an Imagineer but was rejected. Did that stop him? No! He saw the challenge not as the end of the line, but the beginning for those who fought with everything they had to make their dreams a reality. He fought to make his dreams a reality!

 

                     When I was younger, my only dream was to have kids. I didn’t think about much else to be honest. My mom, grandma, sister, aunts were all homemakers. They had babies for 20 years and stayed home to raise them. I didn’t know anything else. My parents never really encouraged me to think of anything else. I married a man who gave me just that. I made my dream come true and had as many babies as I possibly could as fast as I could. John is a dreamer though and would talk to me about his plans for our future. I was happy for him to have these dreams, but I didn’t really invest much thinking into it because I was elbow deep in diapers. When my last baby turned 18 months, I started feeling sad because I didn’t think I had much of a purpose anymore. Being pregnant and having newborns was my purpose and without it I was feeling lost. I realized that I had accomplished all my dreams. I had didn’t realize that I needed dreams after getting all my babies earthside. So, I was left to wonder what to do with my life. I was only 33 years old and knew I had at least 33 more years to find something to look forward to instead of death. I wish someone had sat me down and told me that there is life after babies, and I need to figure out what I wanted out of that life. Now, I’ve made my husband’s dreams my dreams. I want to be with him for the rest of my life, and what better way to do that then to have the same dream and tailor it to fit us? I have learned that having dreams is crucial to your mental health, and I am going to encourage my kids to think of their dreams for the WHOLE life and then go for it!

 

                        Something that I learned in class this week that I have never done before is make a bucket list. As I watched the clip from the Bucket List, I got emotional because I want to make sure that I live a rich life full of experiences before I die. It was something I needed because like I said before, I hadn’t really thought of my life after babies. I am looking forward to learning more about how to find my dreams.

Week 1: Reflection

Hi there, my name is Leda and I am starting my journey to owning my own business. My husband is a pest control rodent specialist and one day hopes to be his own boss. In reality I will be his boss! I have always wanted to finish my degree and this is a good path for me. We want to be a team and build our life together to be better. We just can't do it without each other! 

John has been working for pest control companies for a few years now. When he was with a national company he would come home and complain almost daily about how dishonest the sales people are. They would exaggerate what they found and would sell services that didn't need to be done. John felt bad whenever he went to their houses to do the service only to find that they didn't need it. 

In class this week we talked about when we get to the end of our lives, what was the most important thing in our lives? 

We were asked to think about 3 questions: 

Did I accomplish something meaningful? 

Was I a good person? 

Who did I love and who loved me?

These questions made me think of John and the kinds of things he ran into in his career. It made me grateful that John has been such a good example to me of integrity and honesty. When I read these questions and started thinking about the ethics that go into selling a product, I had to ask myself would I be 100% honest when hard situations arise? Or would I be like those sales people and exaggerate an issue just to make money? 

These are good questions to live by as someone who owns their own business. Life is too short sell myself short. I want to create meaningful relationships full of honesty and integrity, and John will be a great partner not only as a husband but as a business partner.