My thoughts on $!

This week has been very full of work. I worked very hard and I notices everything was smother after I took the time to clean my office.
This week was the first institute class of the semester. Preparing institute classes (as a teacher) takes a lot of time and it was very nice to meet my new students and see how well prepared they are.
Institute teaching is an important part of my schedule as it takes up time I would otherwise be using to study or work.
I could see the tender mercies of the Lord as some of my students canceled classes and I could finish preparing my institute class.
I was also humbled: I am an on-line tutor, and this was my first on-line institute teaching experience... It is very different to teach to a whole group instead of just to a single student, as I do on a daily basis.
I also believe that learning how to manage my agenda as I have many activities to accomplish will help me to be a better entrepreneur.
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About the article:

• What is your attitude toward money?
  I never spend more than what I have. This was a decision my husband and I took before we got married and we have happily lived by this rule. If we want something we save the money first and purchase it later.
  I have savings. I am starting to make my money work for me as I start doing little investments with the bank. 
• How can your view of money affect the way you live?
  It can bring me peace of mind for the present and for the future! I know I can leave a few months without an income. As an entrepreneur I am have plans, but a change in the economy might change my income drastically, having savings -and a good food storage- helps me to have peace.
• What rules are recommended for prospering?
  According to the article "Attitude on Money", the recommendations are:
  Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him 
• Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings. 
• Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant. 
• Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity. 
• Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated. 
• Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive

One Step at the Time

This is my entrepreneur journal and here I have set the goal to record items I don't want to forget, that will be of help in the future to me in my entrepreneur journey.
This week I would like to register about studying. Many may say it is not related to entrepreneurship but I highly disagree: an entrepreneur is someone who is constantly learning and progressing personally.
I have found out that dedicating several hours to studying is not a lost time that is taking me away from my business and my family, but rather it is making me to become someone better, someone who can make better choices.
In this journey at BYUI I have used audiobooks, mp3s and Text To Speech apps as much as I can, but this week I couldn't really understand the math of my economy class until I sat down and read the book. So, to be effective and to really learn I have to combine my audio techniques with time reading, mainly when it involves math. I know I will do better this way.
I am happy and eternally grateful for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I believe in the enabling power of the atonement and I know I can become whomever I wish to become because of it. What a great blessing it is to know that through repentance and through Christ we can be the kind of person we want to be.

Crazy week

This week has been different. It was the biggest holiday of the year and the city was empty.
My husband had to work on the holiday so I also scheduled some classes. It was a good time to update some tasks that were being left behind at the office.
It made me realize how much more time I actually have to spend doing office work.
My favorite thing about the readings was to study about "Good to Great". It is actually one of my very favorite business books. One of the ones I gained more insights from.
My favorite part is when the author talks about having the right people on the bus. I have had business partners in 3 different occasions in my life and I know how hard it can be to make a project grow without having the right people to work with.
Another point of the book I have been trying to ncorporate in my life is the hedgehog principle.
This week I have also learned very much from my econ class. We had a test and I scored 96%. I know I did so well in such a difficult test because I worked hard and prayed hard.
I want to remember these formulas so I can understand how to better set prices and better understand the demand (and the elasticity) from different products.
I hope I can make my company to become great. I have often pondered about the book's teachings, now is time to start applying those teachings to my life! I love being an entrepreneur!

We can do amazing things when we are in His side!

I enjoyed very much this week's readings and videos. Here are the point I want to remember, extracted from the week's material:
-People might laugh at you, but with the Lord you can do amazing things.
-Take inputs and come up with solutions
-We have to run our businesses. They can't run our lives.
-Stop back and think: "why am I doing it?"
-Some blessings come soon, some come later, some come only in Heaven, but they come!
-When facing a problem and when we don't have time to solve it completely, try the 5W's and
tackle at least one thing / one improvement in each area.
I had a very nice week and I just came back home from a date with my husband. We went to the movies and watched a new arrival directed by Mel Gibson called "Hacksaw Ridge". It tells about the life of a righteous man who wanted to serve his country in the war, but had promised the Lord that he would never touch in weapons (just like the anti-nephi-lehies did). He then went into war and faced opposition, but stayed true to his faith and became a hero saving many wounded soldiers.
The movie portraits how he saved all those man with the help of the Lord and got to be respected by his opponents, later. He believed in Revelation and received it to save the lives of many.
(The movie also had the most realistic battle scenes I have ever seen. I felt I could have a glimpse of what it really was to be there, and to bound with ones mat-soldiers in the field (like mission companions). The film is strong and made me ponder about how stupid wars actually are...)
This is a real story, and it made me ponder a lot about how we are made strong when we have the Lord in our side.
I am taking time recording this because I want to remember how I felt, and how grateful I feel for all the opportunities I receive from the Lord: living in a peaceful country, having the chance to run my own business and for knowing I can be made super strong -the strongest!- when I am in His side.

Setting Priorities.

This week I really enjoyed the readings and videos. When watching the video about Stephen R. covey “The 7 habits of highly effective people”, I specially pondered about the third one, “Put First Things First”.

Setting priorities is a hard task for me. In my days I have many things to do and I struggle to find out what are the priorities. Moreover, I have been feeling that I haven’t put the Lord first in my life the way I should, so I took action upon it.

I took some time to go to the temple, to read more the scriptures and to look for revelation in a more specific way.  I feel that these decisions lead me to be a more productive person this week. I could identify some tender mercies from the Lord this week and I feel grateful for those moments.

I also enjoyed learning about the keys to Mastery, in George Leonard’s book. As a teacher, the process of learning and of overcoming plateaus  are very interesting topics that have direct influence in my job.

I have also enjoyed the book because I love learning. I think I fall into the “hacker” category of learners, those who start and plateau after some time, and are ok with it. I have had several hobbies in my life and have been interested in many different things. I know I have plateau in many, many areas and because of this I can do one thousand different things but I don’t excel in many. I want to excel in many areas, and I hope I can apply the principles from the book in my own life.

Being a Natural...

This week I really enjoyed the videos we had to watch. I could relate to Wences Casares and how he feels he is a natural entrepreneur. 
Casares states that he hasn't chosen to be an entrepreneur, but that rather it is something he has a tendency of doing. He illustrated his feeling by telling us of a time he was traveling with his wife in India, and while she was learning Buddhism, he was interested in how much money the fisherman could make, and about the costs of their boats.
As Casares do, I also often analise different business in my mind and thing of their possibilities of growth and how is the return different entrepreneurs have.
I also liked very much Steve Blank's ideas on family and on having a company. I fell I already need to set some boundaries for how I spend my time. Blanks tells us about some of his family's rules and about how he would always have dinner with his kids at 7, put them to bed and continue to work from home for  5 more hours!
I don't have kids yet, but I always try to stop my work or studies to have dinner as a family with my husband. I hope I can learn to balance my time even better, and to set my priorities straight. 

Letter to my future self

Last week we finished reading "The Ministry of Business", by Steve Hitz. I really enjoyed the book and its teachings, and I hope I can apply all of the steps of the formula into my life.
Now, we have started reading the second book of the semester, "Mastery". I am looking forward to learn very much with this book.
I like to read and I feel I don't have enough time (or don't MAKE enough time) to read as much as I would like to, so I really enjoy when reading books become part of the courses curriculum.
This week, among the many interesting material we read and watched, we have the "Hero's Journey" -Which by the way, I wasn't very clear on the speaker's name... the link doesn't describe it, and his introduction was cut out of the clip.
The Speaker shares with us his opinions about entrepreneurs and about humility. I loved his teachings about not feeling the smartest person in the room (being constantly humble) and about the letters for our future selves, for when hard times may arrive.
I will definitely apply those teachings into my life, and take some time tomorrow to prayerfully ponder about my hardships and trials, and write letter for myself! I want to write letter for myself even for other areas now, for example, for when I achieve a goal, or feel sad about something. I loved the idea!