Carry on

Last Lecture       

                Sometime In October, I wrote in this blog that I was very close to quitting. Last night I thought back to the day when this semester began. I recall sitting in hotel room in Arizona while the rest of my family slept, opening I-learn and seeing the mountain of work that was scheduled for each week for the classes I had signed up for. I almost immediately dropped one class. Then as the week progressed, I notice that though the work load dropped significantly, I began to understand that as a result of dropping that one class, my graduation date would change. The goal that I had set for myself was now different and expanded, and later than I planned, because I was afraid of a potential amount of work. Within a day or two, I had added the class back and began to tackle it. I noticed that two of the classes that I had were very similar. In fact, they were similar enough that I could use much of the work interchangeably between the two classes with some changes. Granted this only applied to a few assignments, but it dropped my average of 23 assignments each week down to just 18 or so. I was worried, and concerned and perhaps even afraid, but I kept on and am now finished. I had worried for nothing. It was difficult, but the only other options were quit, or expand my workload for another semester. Neither of these was an acceptable option. This was the first test.

                In October came another. While doing my graduation plan, it became apparent to me that I did not have five semesters left, but four full years, and possibly more, to finish my degree. I was heartbroken and numb. I spent a number of days struggling mightily before I told my wife. She suggested I might just quit, that it would be too hard. Perhaps she was right. But I had been waiting for something to come along for years that would allow me to finish my degree and go on to gets a Masters. For almost a full week, I stewed on it and finally decided that quitting wasn’t an option at all. That no matter how long it took, I was going to finish. I rationalized this myself a hundred ways, but ultimately decided that there were no options, forward and out was the only way. About three weeks later, I found out that the program I was using was faulty and that I had less than two years to go. I think back with tremendous gratitude that the Lord did not allow me to quit or I would have lost all the work I had done up to that point. All of it would have been in vain.

                I am sure that trials lie ahead. In Church, in business, in my family, more struggles are coming. In most things, the only real answer is to lower your head and plow on. Sometimes you will have the benefit of knowing it is only for a short time. Sometimes you will know in your heart that it is not a short time and that for whatever reason, your life has just fundamentally changed forever. There is no end, you must adjust to whatever the new situation is and learn to cope with it. I have always been impressed by the last words that Bruce R. McConkie reportedly said to his wife as he passed away, “Carry on.”

                And this is life, just carry on. In things big and small, just keep going. I learn this by doing and I gain a testimony of it by surviving. Find a way to carry on and excel if you can. Things will work out.

Annnnnddd...I'm done

Just done. What did I learn this week? Nothing. I didn't learn anything. I hammered through my assignments, sick, tied, torn tendon in my arm, way over worked, way overwhelmed. Dying mother in law, dying grandmother, mother who may have MS, children who are tyrants, wife who is crabby. I'm done. Nothing left. Three months of hunting season, so busy on every one of them I haven't had but one chance to sit in the woods. Too much homework from one class, more than all three of my other classes out together, a one credit class! Total nonsense. Drove 1800 miles this week in one fashion or another, performed service for those who may or may not have appreciated it, got harped on my some of the biddies in my ward who think their opinions on my life matter. I'm tired. I'm tried and I'm sore and I'm going to go take some medicine and sleep until I wake up without an alarm or when the two year old decides he wants to be up and jumps on me, but I'm. Flipping. Done.

Franchising

         So this weeks lessons have been all about franchising, something that has been on my mind a lot lately. I have been looking at a lot of franchises lately to see what might be a good fit for a hands off investor and have learned a lot about the process. I am surprised at the number of businesses I have never even heard of before that have franchise opportunities available. Business that I would have previously thought were either too small or had too small a market, or were too much of a niche market to even spread out, have franchise opportunities available and some of them at a wicked premium. Perhaps the market for some of these is much broader than I had imagined. I was surprised to find recently that popular places like Chik Fil A, have relatively inexpensive franchise opportunities but they are very demeaning in their scope they demand that the franchise be very hands on and not use the business as an investment in any way. As a matter of fact they want the franchisee to only service them and have no other franchises in their portfolio. Not bad though for the opportunities they provide and the name they bring to the table. Still an attractive proposal but I don't think it is really for me. I don't really want to be in the restaurant business myself, just make money from it. :D

No, turns out it isn't.

        Last week I wrote a post pondering if it, meaning some of the more stringent difficulty of late, were over yet. Turns out they are not. Still supporting four sick little kids, a sick wife who is spending far too much times trying to make others' lives easier and trying to maintain my work and school schedule. Just when you think you have everything in a row, you catch a high and inside fastball right in the earhole. The crap keeps piling up. The air conditioning went out on my car this week This might seem to be a summer problem, and it would be, if it wasn't 90 this week in SoCal. My good friends are moving away this week as well, and I'm swimming in a sea of depression watching them go. I feel like I'm sinking.
        Of all the more valuable things I have learned, I am coming to realize even more as I get older, that there are times in life when hope is dwindling or gone, there are few great things on the near horizon and the suck just keeps coming. You can't quit and you can't stop, so all you can do is lower your head and plow ahead, taking the hits and hoping they don't knock you down more than a little. Business is the same way at many times. I read a book called, "The Dip", that really was about this very thing. You either keep going, or you quit. And you simply can't quit some things, at least not easily, and you can't just do nothing, so you pack up and keep moving. That's all I have this week. My head is down and my eyes are closed, and I'm just plowing on.

Is it over yet?

         Recently my four year old talked my wife into going on a scary ride at Disneyland. My wife didn't want to go but i sure wasn't going so off she went, dragged by an excited kid with no fear. When they emerged 45 minutes later, my son was grinning from ear to ear and my wife had a grimace on her face. My son related that my wife spent much of the ride with her hands over her eyes and when they neared the end she wailed, "Is it over yet!?"

        That was this week for me. Trying to finish several projects for both school and work, all in time to leave town on Friday night for a trio that never materialized and then the anguish for my dear wife of having to put her mother in a home this Thursday on what may be the long slide towards her final days on this earth. This week left me half dead on the ground bleeding out of my ears.

        Nothing is left but to just get up and do it all over again. Just like in business, you;re only defeated if you just lay there. So Monday is another day, and thankfully just a three day work week and I may actually get to do some hunting this weekend.  We'll see.

Getting better

                  This week has been a good one. I found out this week that my time in school should be shorter than I had originally thought. And any amount of time less than what I figured is a good thing.

                  The most important thing I learned this week was in a study of JetBlue airlines. Jetblue focused a toe on energy, long before their official open date, on making their employees and customers happy. It wasn’t about money or the business model, but their sole drive from the outset was to have happy customers. This was a new thought to me. I had always focused on how to make a product or service and then worry about employees and customers as an afterthought. Jetblue put their customers and employees first and built the whole rest of the business model on and after that. This sort of modeling, especially coupled with the huge amount of capital that JetBlue started with, is sure to make a winner. Even without the capital, if a customer is focus on their employees, the happy employees will drive the economical success of a business, providing they have a product the public wants.
                     My goal is to turn my thinking towards this train of thought instead of focusing on the strictly business oriented acts that have occupied my thoughts. 
                      The softball season wrapped up this week and we made a net profit of $132! My daughter and I had a lot of fun together. I think I enjoyed that aspect of this more than anything else. She is an awesome kid. 

Struggling this week

This week I struggled to do just about everything. My health issues decided to flair up and I spent four days in bed. The only productive thing I can say I accomplished is getting some sleep.
     I did learn something, however, and that was how to address the human problems behind whatever business problems there are in your organization. Short of actual hardware or software problems, every problem in the business can be traced back to a human cause. How you deal with that human cause likely determines how successful you will be in you endeavors. Probably the most difficult aspect of business in general is dealing with the wide variety of people that either work for you, work with you, or walk through your doors. The customer may always be right, but sometimes he isn't, and then he needs to be dealt with accordingly. Some of the best managers and leaders I have ever known have the particular gift of being able to tell someone how wrong they are and they believe it.
     Still trucking along on my $100 challenge. Had to sit more than I worked and let the minions do most of the heavy lifting this week but at least we were out of the house.

Winter weather

          This week the weather changed. Here in Southern California, we don't have fall. We have a Thursday that is still smoldering and then Friday requires a down jacket. Snow and rain and all sorts of crap mean that the things I planned get done on my lone free Saturday will be relegated to the next day that is over 80 degrees, or in other words, next week.
          Tackling some honey do's inside caused me to think a lot about the lesson I learned this week about a company who pays it's employees to quit. This is overly simplistic, of course, and leaves out why and how they do it. They introduce their new hires to their business model and suggest that if they cannot handle it or don't want to, then they will pay them a modest sum to leave then and there. At first blush this seems like a good program and likely works for them, but leaves out the fact that the economy is in the toilet and wise people will do their best to go with the flow as the modest sum they would be paid to leave may not keep them afloat until they found another job. In this day and age, one would be wise to take just about any job and labor intensely to keep things together at least until some sufficient money has been made. In short, I do not know if I agree with this practice but it has certainly given rise to a lot of thoughts about how to retain employees and have them be emotionally invested in the company. Without happy employees, your business will not succeed.
          When I first started with my current company, and for some time afterward,  I was very pleased with my job. In the last year, that has changed dramatically. The company currently owes me a lot of money, and though it is not quite their fault that we all have not been paid, I feel my satisfaction slipping away. Once it is gone, it won't be coming back, so I am struggling with how to make myself happier in this situation, as it is still the best situation for me, at least for the next nine months. The rain isn't helping.
          We had another successful week with the $100 challenge and were very productive and on pace to finish well.

Third gear

           There are times in life when you go along and it's kind of like a road trip in traffic. You know you have a long way to go but things are not really humming along. You're moving, but only about 40 or 50 and even though you know you will get there in time, you're just cruising along in third gear. You're eating up ground, but not getting where you want fast enough.
            That's what this week mostly consisted of, third gear cruising. Maybe the wind is picking up, or maybe I worked harder, or maybe something. I don't know. But for whatever reason, I had no major hiccups, but no hurts of speed either.
           I was looking very forward this week to a major infusion of cash that I have been waiting on for more than a year Well, it was supposed to have been sent a hundred times, but then this last week was the drop dead date. Turns out the guy I work for misread the contract and the bank actually has another week. This infusion of cash will, or should, really kick off some new investment or entrepreneurial ideas for me and I am really looking forward to it. So next Tuesday it is. here is to hoping I am in 4th gear and doing 75 by next Friday
          My lone employee and I are working on the $100 challenge and are making progress and are up to $40 already, way more than I expected in two weeks.

Badwater

          Badwater basin is the lowest spot on in North America. For many years it was considered the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere, but there a place was discovered in Argentina that was 60 or so feet lower. Badwater is appropriately located in Death Valley, Ca, likely one of the most inhospitable places on earth. By comparison, but totally not germane to this post, Mount Whitney is the highest point in the contiguous United States and it is only about 85 miles away.
          If last week was a valley, it was only a mountain valley, and this week is Badwater basin to last weeks mid level low. I found out this week that what was supposed to be 18 months to finish my business degree is now more likely to be three years plus. I was devastated and struggled the whole week.
         Despite the difficulties, I was able to speak to someone about some future investments and entrepreneurial opportunities. I was very excited even though a lot needs to happen before either of these ideas will come to fruition. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of, the difficulties faced earlier in the week, I was very, very excited to at least be moving in the direction of my dreams. It was a challenge to think positively and realize that movement and action do not depend on my degree. I need to be moving.
         If nothing else I was reminded this week of the need to keep moving. Slowing or even stopping due to despair or setback is a crime. Stop your whining and get to work.
         On my $100 challenge, I have my business plan fully underway, have my investor in place, have my financing complete and am currently building my customer base. Next week is our first day of work!

The valleys after the sunrise

             I like to hike. A lot. I would hike all the time if I could. Hiking, as in life, has ups and downs. When you stand on the edge of a great vista and can see some great beauty or for miles and miles, it is easy to be pumped up about what lies ahead. Sunrise in the mountains in particularly sweet, when the long shadows leave a mark on the land and your soul that takes a bit to wash away. Much more difficult are the days or miles when you see long, busy valleys before you where you can barely see around the next turn. The miles pass slowly and the trees seems to hide a consistent variety of uphills and downhills that hurt your legs and your spirit.
             This week was the long, low valley after last weeks high I had a great deal of work that I had to get done no later than Thursday, as I was supposed to be gone for a business trip. I worked too much Monday through Wednesday and took on some assignments that I was not prepared for and as a result did not do well on. Only once my business trip was canceled was I able to breath a but but the damage was done. I was tired in body and soul and could't make my brain work at all. All the other things that remained went on the back burner as I spent friday sitting at my desk at work staring at the walls.
             I spent very little time working on both my school entrepreneurial goals and also the list of things I had decided to work on this week as a result of last weeks epiphanies. I have a new goal facing me as I go into this week. I am going to get more sleep, have fewer caffeinated drinks, and focus more on the things that matter. I want to go hiking. I have a trip planned in six weeks, I am going to keep that in my mind as I try to pile up the miles through this current valley.

A new, exciting week and hiking as a calling

      For many years, I wanted to start backpacking and hiking. I would come across places I wanted to see in my travels and think that I wanted to go hike there, but I never got around to doing it, I didm;t even know where to start.
      Then one day, I was called to be Elders Quorum President. I went to a training session with the Stake Presidency. They talked about the need for the Elder's Quorum President to interface with the young men and to do things with them so there wasn't a gap from the Aaronic Priesthood to the Melchizedek Priesthood.  They said, "When those boys go hiking, YOU GO HIKING!"
     So the next time the boys planned a hike, I gathered what little I had and went with them. And I nearly died. I am pretty sure I saw visions at one point. Maybe hallucinations is a better word.  And then we got out of the car and started moving. I made the hike, and made it home, and even learned a few things. Actually, I learned a lot. Within months I had a bought a few things and changed a few things and very quickly I was a master backpacker. I was going for a week at a time and making 10-20 miles a day rather than the 5 I had done that first time with the boys. It took just one time for my thinking to take a quantum leap.
       I feel like this week has been a similar experience. I read some things and worked on some things, and all of a sudden I saw a clear path through to where I want to go and how I want to get there. I have been taking some accounting classes and side work, and that, coupled with a better reading of some entrepreneurship principles, helped me to focus the jumble of thoughts I have had for years into a single focused beam of thinking. My wife and I sat down and made some plans, and I finally am moving down the path to the goal I didn't have before.
       I was also very moved by a principle that I read about how to run a gospel centered business and making sure that we put people first. these two things together propelled me forward in the same quantum leap in my entrepreneurial future and I am excited for what the future holds. Now to put my thoughts into action.
   

Entrepreneur Journal

This week, I read an article called, Stars and Stepping Stones, that made me think of something that happens to me occasionally. I like to hike long distances, Occasionally, when I am tired, or bored, or mostly in a hurry, I put my head down and hustle along just as fast as my feet will carry me. Sometimes, this leads me to take to my very shortened point of view, to be the trail, but after having gone ten feet or so, or to the edge of a cliff, it is clear that whatever I am on is not the trail and if I don't remember to look up once in a while, I walk right off a cliff. I do this in life, too. There are times when I am bored, or stressed, or tired, or in a hurry, that I put my head down and old along, and only realize I have stepped off the cliff when I am falling.  In both instances, I have been reminded this week, I need to look up and look forward, even when I think I know what is ahead, lest I be surprised, either pleasantly or most unpleasantly.

         I also watched a short video about the power of doing and trusting in the Lord to help me. This made me think of a stumbling block I have run in to from time to time. When I built my first off road vehicle from the ground up, I spent the first night when I had assembled most of the parts, staring at them on the floor of my garage, realizing that I had no idea how to do what I had started out to do. So I went to bed. And in the morning, I woke up, and I started building the chassis. And then the axles, and then the motor, and before long, I had a working car that a few months earlier had been a pile of steel and parts.  I woke up that morning with the thought that people do what I was attempting to do all over the world, every minute of every day. Why couldn't I? I am no less smart or talented than they are, so what am I waiting for. People do difficult and challenging things all the time, that sometimes leave the rest us scratching our heads. They do it, why can't we?

What challenge sits before you that you have balked at because you think you are not up to the task? What can you do today to get started at defeating this dragon? Who told you that you couldn't do whatever it is you have to do today? Why are you standing in your own way? 

First weeks posts

          Since this journal is supposed to be about my experience in BYUI's online program, I am going to start with my first thoughts about it. One, I am not happy that the sole focus allowed is in entrepreneurship. I had hope to focus on finance with my Business Management degree, with a plan to go on and get my MBA, but that seems not to be an option at this point. I am a bit nervous this week, as classes started while I was on vacation, and it was a challenge to come in from long days on the beach to have to do school work, but thankfully this week the load was light and all seemed to have gone well.
         The LDS perspectives this week have particular meaning for me, especially Elder Bednars talk, as there are a number of ways that it applies to me. Even though I get good grades, I am struggling with just getting through some classes, when I would like to say I have been learning something. This week i feel I have only learned that I do not care for an emphasis on entrepreneurship, but I need to perform to the best of my ability, so that I can learn and grow, and not just be doing the work.