Entrepreneurial Journal Week 14

Entrepreneurship is a difficult endeavor, and it's not for everybody. In order to start your own business, you have to be a fast learner, know a lot about the industry, be passionate about it, be willing to take big risks, and be good with people. I learned a lot from the case studies and from interviewing an entrepreneur in my ward. It's common for new businesses to go under, so you need to be willing to work for an unsteady paycheck and to change course as needed or alter your plans to make it work better or jump to a business that will work better or be more successful. It's critical to be able to look at the big picture and figure out what your passion is and where you want to end up so you can see how to get there. It's also good to have a back up plan for the worst case scenario so you know what will be necessary to survive if things don't go according to plan. It's good to be optimistic, but also realistic. Hope for the best but plan for the worst, just in case. You don't want to end up living on the streets because you didn't have enough personal savings to fall back on. It's also good to have role models and a support system so you have a mental board of advisers to turn to when you need advice. It's so much harder to go it on your own. Sometimes they can help you see something in a different light if you're too close to it, and they can help give you constructive criticism so you can see the opinions of others and know what people need. I'd say overall, follow your passion, work hard, do your homework, and have a fallback plan.

Entrepreneurial Journal Week 13

Gratitude is a topic that I've always felt strongly about. I feel that it's so incredibly important to let others know when you appreciate them, because nobody likes to be underappreciated, and nobody likes the person who seems ungrateful. My mom says that even as a baby I would look so grateful and happy when she fed me or changed my diaper. When my great Aunt died when I was 17, she had no children of her own, so my dad was the one who had to take care of her estate and go through her belongings. When he was going through her finances, he found a pattern. She kept all the thank you notes that she ever got, and he found that I was the only one of his kids she still sent a birthday check to each year because my mom always made sure I sent a thank you card every year, but when my older siblings moved out on their own and stopped sending thank you notes, she stopped sending them checks the very next year after they missed a note. She even sent me a couple of her custom paintings for my 16th birthday, even though I barely knew her and had only met her a couple times. It just goes to show that when you thank people for the things they do for you, it makes them feel good and makes them want to do more nice things for you in the future.