Last Lecture

This semester has flown by! I'm so grateful that I chose to take this class. It helped me in multiple ways and I feel better prepared to begin my entrepreneur journey. I would want a group of students to know a few things that I have learned from this class. I came up with a list of valuable lessons that I've learned from this class.

1. You can do anything that you put your mind to
Have goals and crush them. If we don't have goals and set plans in life, where are we going to end up? Write down your goals and do whatever it takes to accomplish them.

2. Stay Positive & push out the negativity
There will always be people that will tell you that you an't do it and that you're not good enough. You need to have the power within yourself to push out all of the negative voices around you. Don't listen to those people and go for what you want!

3. Pursue your dreams & believe you can do it!
I feel like this was stressed a lot in this class. With watching the videos and reading the talks and articles, this was a common theme. We were placed on this earth to SUCCEED. Heavenly Father didn't want to see us fail, He wanted to see us succeed and to succeed greatly. I know that it's so important to believe in yourself. One and three are very similar in that aspect. It all starts with a belief in yourself and your goals/dreams.

4. Never, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever Give up!
This is a common theme in my life. I know the importance of never giving up when you want something so badly. Keep going, trying and growing, no matter how hard the journey is, it will be worth it.

Overall, believe that you can literally do anything that you put your mind to and DO IT.

Belief

Welcome to Week 13 of my thoughts. I can't believe how fast this semester has flown by. I also can't believe that we only have one week left! It was a great semester taking this class and learning all that I could about entrepreneurs. I am glad that I was able to learn more about what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

I think one of the main lessons that I took away from this week and from this class overall, is BELIEF. You need to believe in yourself because who else will? When you feel like no one believes in you or your ideas, you need to have the capacity to believe in yourself. Belief is such a powerful tool that we all need to be able to tap into. It can carry us through some hard times. We have read and/or watched quite a few videos this week of people that had hard lives but they believed in themselves and knew that they could get through anything because of that knowledge. I know that it will be hard to start my own company and to make it successful and to keep going but if I believe in myself, my dreams and ideas then I think that I am off to a great start. 

What's a Business For?

This was a good week of learning about businesses and how we can grow them. I liked how the videos and readings this week talked about how we can make a change in the world. I loved the talk "Are We Not All Beggars?" By Elder Holland that talks about how are all beggars which means we are all equal in God's eyes and we need to treat others better. We need to treat others the same way we would want to be treated. I thought that it was cool that Sarah Endline started her own candy company. It was inspiring to watch her story and to see how she got to where she is today. I also loved to see a woman entrepreneur to help inspire me. 

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• Based on what you read in the first two pages (pages 3 and 4), why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy?

Virtue and integrity are important because otherwise, you could run the risk of major business problems. People need to care what they do and say when they feel like no one is watching them. We need to be able to trust others in this economy who know what they are doing and can be trustworthy to do the right thing.

• According to Charles Handy, what is the “real justification” for the existence of businesses?

The purpose of a business, in other words, is not to make a profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better. That “something”becomes the real justification for the business. Owners know this. Investors needn’t care. 

• What are two solutions proposed by Handy that you agree with? Why?

I agree with his thoughts on virtue and integrity. Those are two important characteristics to have in anyone but especially in a business sense. 

Happiness

I titled this week's blog post, "Happiness" this week because that's what I feel like the theme was for this week. Happiness is something that we as a people strive for, year for. We all want it. It's that person that we all want to be best friends with. Sometimes we find it the wrong way. We look for it in the wrong places. With the wrong people and sometimes we never really find what we were looking for. We all want to be happy but is happiness? What is TRUE happiness and why does it sometimes feel like it's so far out of reach? 

The mini cases that we worked on this week got me to thinking about this topic more. I wrote that family always comes first. No matter what. The mini cases were really good for me to read yesterday. For the past little bit, I have witnessed this very same thing happening to someone who I know. It is heart breaking to see them time and time again choose something or someone over their own family. It makes me sad to watch this happen and make me wonder what I could do to help? I think that the best thing that we can do is decided how we want to react and how we want to live our lives. 

• What is your attitude toward money?

It is really a love/hate relationship with money. Obviously, we need it to survive and for the fundamentals but it can become such a greedy, selfish, evil thing if we allow it to grow into that way. 

• How can your view of money affect the way you live?

I think that it could affect a lot about the way that you live. We do need money to survive but we need to filter what we need and what we just want. Depending on how much money we have/make, it could determine our attitude towards life and others. Money can cause a lot of stress, anxiety and worry. It can ruin relationships and cause problems. 

• What rules are recommended for prospering?

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. 

Entrepreneur Interview

I really loved interviewing an entrepreneur this week! I interviewed entrepreneur, Lauren Bird, who runs her own cross stitch business called “A Bird and Her Thread”. She has an Etsy shop where she sells her own handmade cross stitch pieces for people. She made my husband and I one for our wedding and it so cute. We have it on our TV stand in our room and I love to look at it because she is so talented at what she does.

It was fun to talk to Lauren about her business and what she likes to do. It was cool to see that she is passionate about what she does and that she is happy doing this. This interview reaffirmed how much I want to start my own business and be happy doing something that I would LOVE to do. Lauren talked a lot about how happiness is really the end goal in running your business and that it is about you but it’s more about the customer and giving them what they want.

I learned more about what goes on behind the scenes of running your own business and what it takes. You always think that you will just magically have your own business but often times we don't think about the work and hours that go into it. 

Two Types of People

In one of the videos "Aspects of Building Trust" where Guy Kawasaki talks about the two different types of people in the world. There are the bakers and eaters. He means that there are people (the eaters) that just think that they need to eat as much of the pie as possible. There are the bakers that see everything as an opportunity to bake bigger and better pies. There are people that don't adapt to help others and don't gain their customer's trust. In contrast, there are the other business owners that know the importance of gaining their customer's trust.

Success in business comes from trust. You want your customer to trust you enough to buy your products that you are selling. They want to see that you love your product too. I think about my LipSense business and how I can be better with having my customers or ladies just following my business trust me. I need to sell my product better and show that I love it and hope that they will love it too. I also need to be available to answer their questions when problems or questions arise. There is an importance in having people trust you because you will be more successful that way.

Good Things to Come

This week was a very uplifting, inspiring week. We watched the Mormon Message "Good Things to Come". It is my absolute favorite. You can feel so much peace and hope while watching it. We need to remember that things will always get better no matter what happens. That's a valuable lesson to learn in life. It's a good lesson to learn while you're young, that things won't always work out the way you want them to but that they will work out. We need to do our part and keep trying and not give up. 

I love what Elder Holland says in the video, "Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve. Christ comes to you in His “more excellent ministry” with a future of “better promises.” He is your “high priest of good things to come.”

I think that this definitely applies to being an entrepreneur. I think that, as with everything else, starting out is the hardest part. It will be hard and the journey may seem endless but there is always help available to us as long as we are trying and if we keep on walking. If we really want something, we should stop at nothing to achieve what we want to. I think of myself starting my own business and all of the obstacles that will come in my way but I need to just address them when they come and push them aside. I shouldn't let them get me down and keep me from living my dreams today. 

I've been thinking about my dreams lately and why I have them. What are your dreams? What do you want to accomplish? What's on your bucket list?

And why can't we have that? What's stopping you?

7 Habits

This week one of the things that we learned about The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. I thought this was a very interesting read. I want to be more of an effective person and it was neat to read these to figure out what I need to do in order to get there. We need to develop these habits in order to me effective.
The habit that I decided to focus on was "Synergize". It actually first caught my attention because the quote "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" because I had first heard this in the movie, "Flipped". In the movie it was referring to people and how they can appear differently than how they really are. One of the main characters would look at people and measure them by this method. She would wonder if people's sums were greater than their parts. I thought that was an interesting way to look at it and when I saw it in this article we had to read I was curious to learn more about it.
I like what the article said about when you are communicating through this method of synergy, that you are opening your mind and heart to new possibilities, new alternatives and new options. I like that because I think that a way to be successful is to open your mind to new things. I think that we need to try new things in order to experience things more fully.

You don't Choose It...

I didn't Choose the Entrepreneur Life, it chose me.

I enjoyed Wences Casares' video. He said that being an entrepreneur could be good and bad (like with anything else). He said that even if we all had to be biologists that he would still want to be an entrepreneur. This life chose him and he knows that this is what he was meant to do. I thought about that for awhile about how the entrepreneur life choose you and I wonder if it chose me? I know that ever since I was young, I would make comments like "I want to be a CEO." "I want to run my own business." Those thoughts would float in the back of mind and every now and then they would resurface to make me remember something that I want. I follow a ton of people on Instagram that started their own business and read up on their stories. I wonder how I can do that and if I would be successful at it. I try to think about what my business would be like and what I would do. I have a a few ideas but I need to refine it more.
I thought about how we are born to create. We are born to be different and stand out. I wonder what I will create? I want to create a safe environment to empower women. I want to create photography. I want to create fashion. I want to collab all of these ideas to make something that I would wake up every day loving. I guess I'm just still figuring out what that something is.

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Motivation & God-given Talents

I am really enjoying this class so far. I love the motivational aspect of this class. It couldn’t have come at a better time in my life because of the current things that I am going through. I feel like we could always use a good pick me up. I liked reading about Erica Mills’ story and her success. She had success because she listened to what people wanted which is a very smart business strategy. She wanted to have the every-day card, for the little day to day things. She understood that no matter where you are in your life that you need a good pick me up. I can relate to that as well. We all need a pick me up. We all need to hear that we are worth it. We may know it and believe it and even trust in it but hearing it is different. It is special and it means so much more when it is coming from someone that you look up to and cherish.

I enjoyed this week’s activity of asking five people what you do better than anyone in the world. (God given gifts that give you great joy). This week, I was very ill and couldn’t leave the house so I wasn’t really feeling good about my life and myself. Everything seemed dark and miserable. I couldn’t picture when I would be healthy again and feel like myself. When I asked others, what makes me unique, I was overwhelmed with the responses.

My husband, Jarrett said that I am caring, the best supporter of him and others and the best back scratcher out there (haha).

Meg- born natural leader, all things fashion, loyal friend.

Mom- Outgoing. People like to be around you because you are fun and loving

Ami- Outgoing

Crystal- Bosses people around (my older sister, ladies and gents.) I took this as constructive criticism like that I am a good leader, haha.

TRY THIS:

Find something that you lost track of time doing. A calling must serve others. It must matter to me. What need today calls out to you? What problem do you feel you were put on this earth to solve?

Who did I love?

Who loved me?

Was I a good person?

This helped me to focus on what I want to become. It helped me to see myself through others eyes and sometimes that’s what we need to do. We need to remember what we are GOOD at and not what we aren’t good at. We need to be our own #1 fans and to keep trying even when things seem to be too hard to bare. We need to keep going and remember our special talents. We need to remember why we are here and to discover our God-given talents and develop them. People need our talents and they need who we are.

My Mind pt. 4

This week the lesson was entitled “A Life Well Lived- How Will You Measure Your Life?”

I tried to answer that questions “How Will I Measure My Life?” I thought about the way you would measure anything-what makes it “good” or what makes it “bad”. Take for instance- a day that I have. Was it a good day or a bad day? I measure it by what I did that day, what things happened, interactions I have etc…

But with my life-the big picture stuff, I don’t want to measure it like I do with my days. I want to measure my life with how successful I feel. Now my successful could mean different things for different people. Success to me has constantly been a changing word over my lifetime. It changes as I mature and grow up and start to see the bigger picture. Success to me means asking myself “are you happy?” and “are you filling the measure of your creation”? I need to ask myself these questions daily to help remind myself that my best is good enough.

In the Jeff Hawkins video I learned that being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean working overtime and putting in long hours. It means that everyone is at a different point in their lives to do what they can. We each have a choice about how we want to live our lives and run our business. It’s about making effective choices not just working hard. 

How can I make more effective choices to better my life and my future career?

My mind pt 3

Hello to another week in my journey of entrepreneurship! I have learned a lot more about starting your own business this week.

I learned a lot from the Magadalena Yesil assignment. I enjoyed reading her story about being a strong female who achieved her dreams. It motivated me to go out for what I believe in and don’t stop until I get there. I think it’s important to read other’s stories that can help boost us and help us want to be better.

I also love the lesson never, ever, ever, give up. If we fail once and don’t try again, is that true failure? If we try and fail and get back up and try again, is that true success? What I have seen in my own experience is that the true failure comes from not trying again and again and again and again. We fail when we give up, throw in the towel and exclaim “I’M DONE!”

I am guilty of being on both sides of this fence. But I know that I feel truly accomplished when I don’t give up no matter how hard it is and how much it pushes me.

I’m looking forward to learning and expensing new tactics to not give up. I want to read more of people’s success stories and how they overcame.

My Mind pt. 2

Hello to another week!

This week was very interesting as we dove into our studies more. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing in my journey through this entrepreneurship class. I’ve always been a passionate person and I want to channel those passions into something that I LOVE to do. Throughout my life, I have noticed that I can channel my passions for good or for evil. What I mean by that is I could use my passions to defend someone I love if someone if talking badly about them OR I could turn around and be the one talking badly about someone because I was passionate about the subject or just heated. I’m hoping to learn more fully who those are and how I can contribute my talents into a career.

I learned quite a bit this week about failure. Now you might think that’s odd…why would I be learning how to fail? I think that with anything in life, it’s important to learn that you can’t do everything perfectly or 100% all the time. We will fail and once I more fully grasp that concept is when I will ultimately learn. That is interesting to think about because no one wants to fail or likes it when they do but it’s in that failure that we truly succeed. Let me explain. If I never failed at something I wouldn’t be where I am today-that is, a place where I love, doing things that I love with my husband, the person that I love. Failure led me down this path that at the time I was afraid, but I am learning to take life one day at a time. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the setbacks, trials and failure that I have seen in my life. Some things could have been prevented or even avoided but would my outlook on life really be the same?

RANDY PAUSCH:

I think that Randy Pausch achieved so many of his childhood dreams because he tried new things. He had a set list of dreams and he knew what he wanted to accomplish. Although he might’ve not accomplished all his childhood dreams, he was determined. I think that’s an important lesson to learn from. It’s the determination that will get us to where we want to be. When he had setbacks, he changed the course and achieved them another way.

Yes, I feel that dreaming is important. I believe that we can have a balance. I don’t think that we should sit around day dreaming about what we want to accomplish but that we should go out and achieve those dreams. If we didn’t have dreams, ambitions and goals how could we ever be happy in this life? I know that I’m the happiest when I am doing things that I loved all because they started out as a dream of mine. Making your dreams a reality gives you a sense of purpose and drive.

One of my childhood dreams was always to run a business. I would tell my parents “I’m going to be a CEO one day.” “I want to be my own boss.” I remember how this drive to achieve that dream and I think now more than ever that that dream will become a reality. I know that I need to have a plan. I need to have goals to get me there. I believe that this dream is attainable. I see so many people starting their businesses because of technology and social media. We live in a time where getting the word out there is as easy as a click of a button. My husband wants his own business as well so we want to collab to start a business together that will fulfill us.

My Mind Pt. 1

Hello and welcome! I'm Kyra and the picture to the right is my cute husband and I on our wedding day >>>

I called this blog “Kyra In the Real World” because I thought it was clever and it will be about me and my journeys through the world. I had to start this blog for my Intro to Entrepreneurship class at BYU-Idaho but I hope to have it be more than just a class assignment.

So far, I have been learning and experiencing that whatever you do make sure you are happy. I enjoyed watching the video clip “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow.” I thought that the guy speaking made an excellent point. He talked about how you need to figure out what you LOVE and do that. I think so many people these days just are in it for the money. They think “Okay, whatever major or job will make me the most money, that’s what I’ll do.” They don’t listen to their hearts. They listen with their wallets. It’s sad to see people who twenty years down the road are unhappy because of the choices they had made when they were younger.

I’m looking forward to learning how to start your own business-how to chase your dreams! Since I was little, I loved the idea of being your own boss. I did not like working under people and wanted to break free from the rules and create my own. I have always been a very passionate person and I want to see what creative ideas will pop up during this semester. I want to do what I love and not worry so much about “how much will this make me?” I understand that I need to support my family but I believe that we can have both-happiness and financial support. The happiness does not come from money but it does come from doing what we LOVE. This life is meant to be enjoyed. We need to figure out what we love and what we’re good at and go from there.

I hope you enjoy reading the musings of my mind and that I can gain some clarity on what I want to do with my life.