WORK!

I was inspired by Elliot Jacobsen’s example of chasing his dreams to become a successful entrepreneur.  I, like Elliot, have dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.  Over the past months I have sought every opportunity possible to talk to successful businessmen and women in my circles of friends to ask them about their keys to success.   Their recommendations stressed various aspects of business, but there was once piece of advice that I heard almost everyone I asked give: “Work!” If you want to make things happen in your business you must be willing to “Work work work!”  You need to take your fate into your own hands without blaming anyone else for the circumstances and do everything in your power to make your dreams come true.  As I have pondered this, I have become increasingly aware of things in my life that I have simply “left to fate” rather than perusing and achieving.  It’s true that fate is sometimes unalterable, but by leaving everything to fate we essentially forfeit our agency and our ability to impact the world and our circumstances. If I want to become an entrepreneur I must take fate into my own hands by following this business adage: “WORK!”

It’s Okay to Ask For Help

Elliot Jacobsen set a goal to get into HBS.  He strived so hard to get connected with the HBS network that all three of his letters of recommendation from came from HBS alumni.  As you might think, he got in.  Elliot’s MBA application strategy demonstrates how to effectively get noticed by your dream school or how to get your foot in the door with your company of choice.  From Elliot’s language it was clear that he was very audacious about contacting alumni from his dream school.  In the past I have felt reluctant to be as forward as Elliot in reaching out to people that could help me achieve my goals because I don’t want to get “too political.”  I don’t want these individuals to think that I’m contacting them just because I want to get something out of them.  However, Elliot responded to such concerns in his presentation by saying “Just be humble and have the courage to ask people for help.  It’s okay to ask for help” 

More Thoughtful About My Thoughts

Elliot Jacobsen, an HBS alumni and successful tech entrepreneur described how in his free time his mind goes on to envision new business plans.  This thoughtfulness is characteristic of true innovators. Elliot went on to say how In every spare moment he could find, he wrote down his creative ideas which now fill numerous binders.  Innovators like Elliot may see the time we spent idly waiting in line to checkout at the grocery store, or time spent walking to and from class, as an opportunity to ponder how an idea can be improved upon. Yesterday I was driving home and I found myself daydreaming about what it would be like to work for a certain company. I caught myself and realized that my thinking was completely unproductive. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with such thoughts, it was a waste, because such daydreaming is unlikely to help me achieve my personal goals of becoming a individual, family and global innovator. As I observed Elliot Jacobsen’s example, I have become much more thoughtful about my thoughts.

As Always - Be Suspicious

Here Comes Everybody details disruptions that the internet era caused in the news industry. Before the rise of amateur bloggers and social media gurus, the news was first filtered by big agencies and then published.  Now it’s the reverse. The news goes out via the diverse channels of the World Wide Web and then the filtering happens second. Should this fundamental shift in the publishing process change the way we approach the news? As we discussed this question in class, the following thoughts came to mind. Over the past several hundred years the world has had good reason to be suspicious of what it reads and hears from the press because it was likely heavily filtered. With the filtering plug lifted in our internet era, we still have need for suspicion, but for a very different reason. We must be suspicious of what we hear, precisely because it may be unfiltered.  

Don’t Gawk – Look Inside Yourself

We often see big leaders in business make morally wrong decisions and make front page news.  Sometimes we think to ourselves: “What a bad person! I would never do that!”  But the truth is that good people with good intentions have the potential to make bad decisions.  I am one of those people...
“You just have to snap out of it!” Carla Heesch said, “You men, have your buddies, and you just want to be tight with them and not let them down.  But when ethical decisions are at hand, you just have to snap out of it, and do what’s right.” I see myself as a good person, with good intentions, but as I reflected on Carla’s words, I could see within myself the potential to make a very poor ethical decisions if I didn’t manage to “snap out of it” as she directed.  Rather than gawking with disgust when we hear stories of unethical decisions made in business, we should practice humility; we should look inside ourselves and honestly evaluate how we can avoid making similar bad choices. 

Making Edifying Career Choices

Chatting with David Claire, the director of CIS for the LDS Church, after class, I asked him why he said,  “after working for the Church for a year or so, I’ll kick you out.” He responded, “I want you to develop and learn everything you can.  I want you to go out and work for the Googles and develop as an individual. Then come back and share your knowledge with the Church.” As I thought about his words, I was reminded that job security and salary should not be our only consideration for choosing a career. I have a wife, a daughter and a responsibility to provide our family, but this demand should be balanced with a faithful desire to seek career opportunities that edify me intellectually and even spiritually. Circumstances may at times force us to take jobs just so that we have food on the table the next day,  but if you’ve got a choice, don’t you want to say that you’ve done something that made you a better person, even if that choice didn’t always pay the most?