Week 14: Final Reflection

I have really learned a lot from this class and it felt like we finished strong with this final week's study. As I reflect on what I gain from participating in this BUS 110 "Intro to Entrepreneurship" much of what remains with me has come from the spiritual talks that accompanied our academic study each week. I also found a lot of value in learning from successful entrepreneurs and their personal journey.

We had the opportunity to learn about Tom Monaghan the founder of Domino's Pizza. It was so interesting to discover that in his early success he got caught up with buying tons of worldly treasures but all that changed when he read "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis. Tom said "it had a chapter in there on pride, and I always knew that I had a lot of pride. I mean the biggest sin, I confessed, I went to confession over the years,  is that I was too obsessed with impressing people and I knew that was something I always had to battle. I don’t know if it was because I was brought up so poor or what. And that chapter in that book just hit  me right between the eyes, and he basically was telling me that the reason you work so hard and try to accomplish all you had was to have more. Not just more but more than other people and that hit me right between the eyes that I couldn't sleep that night." 

So he decided to change his life..."I wanted my money to go where it did the most good and save the most souls. I very easily narrowed that down to education, and I narrowed education down to higher education".

The other talk that left me feeling inspired was from President Thomas S. Monson called "Finishers Wanted". My favorite quote from this talk was...

Times change and circumstances vary, but the true marks of a finisher remain. Note them well, for they are vital to our success.

1. The Mark of Vision. It has been said that the door of history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. We are constantly making small decisions. The outcome determines the success or failure of our lives. That is why it is worthwhile to look ahead, to set a course, and at least be partly ready when the moment of decision comes. True finishers have the capacity to visualize their objective.

2. The Mark of Effort. Vision without effort is daydreaming; effort without vision is drudgery; but vision, coupled with effort, will obtain the prize.

Week 12: A Journey of Gratitude

 The article that had the most impact on me this week was from President Monson called "An Attitude of Gratitude". In this talk he gives us six specific areas that we should show gratitude for...

1. Mothers

2. Fathers

3. Teachers

4. Friends

5. Country

6. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

In an ever darkening world, it is so important to combat this darkness by expressing gratitude. This simple act has the power to bring hope and light into our lives. President Monson said it this way...

"We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues."

Week 12: Becoming a Change-Maker

 This week's study had a very powerful article for me, it was called "Microlending: Toward a Poverty-Free World" by Muhammad Yunus. He gave this speech while excepting an honorary doctorate from BYU. What I like so much about this talk was that he spoke about one of the largest problems on earth, poverty. He had come up with a real solution for some of the world's poorest people, by lending them a small amount of money so they could make even more money. I think he has some pretty revolutionary ideas and I gain a lot from his talk. My favorite quote is...

"1 strongly believe that we can create a poverty free world if we want to we can create a world where there won t be a single human being who may be described as a poor person in that kind of a world the only place you could see poverty would be in the museums school children on tour in the poverty museums would be horrified to see the misery and indignity of human beings in the past they would blame their ancestors in a massive way for allowing this inhuman condition to continue my work in grameen gradeen has given me a faith an unshakable faith in the creativity of human beings that leads me to believe that human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty they have much more important things to do than struggle for physical survival."