Final Lecture

In Bitter Failure or Sweet Success, glorify the Lord!

I will begin by giving a report on how my $100.00 challenge business went overall.  In short, it was horrible, yet wonderful.  I certainly experienced the bitter taste of failure, but also the joy and excitement of success.  My original business flopped because it would take too much of time to manufacture and distribute product because of time constraints in my life.  However, from the ashes of that business I realized I should focus on my strengths, which are sales and marketing.  Therefore I threw together another sales and marketing consulting business for a local knife manufacturer, which ended up being a success.

Now, on to my final lecture.

I will begin by giving a report on how my $100.00 challenge business went overall.  In short, it was horrible, yet wonderful.  I certainly experienced the bitter taste of failure, but also the joy and excitement of success.  My original business flopped because it would take too much of time to manufacture and distribute product because of time constraints in my life.  However, from the ashes of that business I realized I should focus on my strengths, which are sales and marketing.  Therefore I threw together another sales and marketing consulting business for a local knife manufacturer, which ended up being a success.

Now, on to my final lecture.

I will tell you, it certainly is tough to write a final lecture.  The question I asked myself is:  What would I say that I would want people to remember above all things?  I also asked myself how do I summarize my experience and learning in such a way that makes an impact on the listeners?  For inspiration, I watched Randy Pausch’s last lecture.  The reason I chose this particular example because this literally was Randy Pausch’s last lecture.  Shortly before he gave his lecture, he was diagnosed with a form of fast-moving pancreatic cancer with a very short prognosis.  I think that the last lecture that he gave was especially insightful because he was at the face of death, which gave him an especially great perspective about life and what is important.

I wish I could even come close to the perspective that Randy Pausch had from his final lecture, but I am sure that my final lecture could never do it justice.  However, he definitely inspired me to realize what matters in life.  He mentions early on in his lecture that he will not talk about religion; however, that is what I will primarily be talking about.

After listening to his lecture, I was impressed to talk about one, all-encompassing, ideal that will change the way you live your life and will contribute to the joy you have in your life.  This ideal is to do all things with a goal to glorify the Lord our God and all things will fall into place.

My life has had its ups and downs when it comes to religion.  I was raised United Methodist, and like all good United Methodist Youth, I had times when I doubted what was being taught.  Because of my doubt, I fell into a life of negative behavior.  But from this, I was found by my wife and introduced to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I joined the church in 2005 and was married in the Denver Temple in 2007.  I consider the day I met my wife to be the turning point in my life that the Lord so graciously gave me to come unto Christ and be part of His kingdom.

The Lord gives us everything we have, including all of our opportunities in life as well as our trials.  He does this because He loves us and wants us to grow and return to Him.  In return, He asks us to obey Him and keep His commandments.  Further, if we choose to glorify the Lord in all that we do, we will be amazed by what we are capable of doing.

When we glorify the Lord in all things, we will be great leaders in our home, our work and our community.  Focus on your family; you have the fabulous blessing to live with them for eternity.  You are not doing what you do, whether it is an entrepreneur or an employee, for yourself.  You are doing it to better the lives of yourself and your family. 

Remember that your integrity will be ever present when you are at work.  So, be the one that people often say that you are the most ethical and trustworthy person on the team. 

Be the difference that you want to see in the world.  Aspire to be something truly remarkable,   whether it is in the entrepreneurial world, when trying to position your product or service in the market, or as an employee, when trying to stand out amongst your peers.

By do doing these things, and aspiring to have a life of meaning, you will make a difference in your family, your job, your community and your country.

May the Lord bless you all in your endeavors. And remember, make a goal to glorify the Lord your God in all things and the rest will fall into place.

Lesson 12

With Failure, comes opportunity...

With this semester coming to a close, I have time to reflect on my $100.00 challenge.  I have certainly experienced failure in these last few months.  However, even though I mostly remember the failures,  I need to remember the successes I had this semester.  First of which, I successfully moved my family to Colorado, where we want to live.

I also successfully attended school full-time and worked full-time, which taught me time management and determination.  Also, because of the classes I am taking this semester, I was able to be very successful in my internship which has presented many great opportunities for my future.

As far as my business is concerned, I have been presented with some great opportunities to sell some product at both outdoor shows and non-outdoor shows.  Now is the time that I get to test my sales and marketing advice that I had for my client.  I look forward to selling some knives and making some great commissions from the sales.  I was originally going to only do the business until the end of the semester, however, with the new opportunity that has presented itself, I might continue the business because it presents a constant challenge.

Lesson 11

Truly Remarkable

This weekend was tough; I moved my family into our new apartment this weekend while fighting the rain and sickness.  However, this weekend gave me insight about the life of an entrepreneur.  In the life of an entrepreneur, there will be rain, there will be sickness and there will be change.  However, our success depends on how well we deal with these issues in our lives and businesses.  The key in my mind is determination, and enduring to the end.

I think this could draw a particular parallel with my 100.00 challenge business, because I have already dealt with a huge failure.  I think the biggest failure that an entrepreneur can deal with is the loss of their business for whatever reason.  I lost it because I found out that the distribution of the product would be impossible from my original model, and it was way too late in the process to go to the canning and selling method.  Therefore, I chose to change my business model, because I had it as a backup the whole time.

The lesson I really learned from this is that the rain, sickness, and body aches were simply setbacks and small failures that I dealt with in moving, and the loss of the business was something that I must deal with.  So, therefore, I made money by selling marketing and sales consulting services for a local, small, knife business.  In a high-level sense, my first piece of advice is to sell knifes at toy shows and toys at knife shows.  Just like Seth Godin says, in order to be recognized, you must do something truly remarkable (Purple Cow).

Lesson 10

Money vs. Filthy Lucre

I have noticed that this talk has been included in almost of my recent classes.  However, every time I watch or read this talk I learn something new.  This is probably the most matter-of-factly delivered speech on money and self-reliance that I have ever heard.  I think the reason that I learn so much from this speech is the fact that it is delivered with such great examples.

What I learned this go around is the fact that money can be used for great things, and great evil.  I think that truly is the difference between money and filthy lucre.  Filthy lucre is such a fantastically fitting term for what he describes as the love of money at the expense of others.

Even though I have made a commitment to never deal in anything close that could be considered filthy lucre, I must always be wary of its dangers and stay vigilant so that I may protect myself and others from Satan's influences.

Now, about my 100.00 challenge business.  I am going to label where I am as my first taste of failure.  My original plan to sell my product in a local business did not work out very well.  So, therefore, I am going to fallback on a back-up business I had an idea for in the beginning.  I ma going to be a marketing and sales consultant for Acuta Knives, a local knife manufacturer.  The owner wants an innovative marketing plan that he can use at the many outdoor shows he attends so that he can differentiate himself from his competitors.

Lesson 8

Find your focus

After reading the JetBlue Case Study, I learned that in order to be successful in our own businesses, we must find our focus and never deviate.  In my other class, we read a Harvard Business Review article that discussed the prescriptions to creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem.  One of the prescriptions discussed was to stress the roots.  I think, for the purposes of the JetBlue Case, the roots would be their focus on customer service.  We must find the roots of our business, whether it is a focus on customer service like that of JetBlue or a focus on product quality, or a focus on efficiency of service.  All of these foci have been proven by numerous business and some work in certain industries while others do not.  It all depends on how you choose to define your business and your focus.

For my 100.00 challenge business, I think I have identified and define my focus as the roots.  By roots, I mean the simplicity of the products we make.  Because my business is based upon home recipes, which generally are quite simple, you achieve the simple pleasures that come along with eating such recipes.  Now that I have identified my focus, I can continue on with a renewed vigor and direction.

Lesson 7

Capability, Collaboration, and Character...

Carly Fiorina, the Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, mentions that the three defining characteristics of leadership are capability, collaboration, and character.  The world, as I see it, understands and has major focus on two of them.  The two that the business world focuses on are: Capability and Collaboration.  They do not have enough of a focus on character.  Character seems to be a big word in the business world.  Almost to the point of being a joke in some instances.

Many people think that character and ethics is the only something that corporate and HR are required to tell us.  However, there are also others that believe that, in order of importance, character would be the top of the list of defining characteristics of leadership.  I happen to be one of them.  Someone could be the smartest, most apt, or most qualified.  But, if they are not honest in their dealings, and have a high standard of personal integrity, I DO NOT want to work with them.

Speaking of working, I LOVE my new job at Sprint.  The reason I like it so much is because I truly feel like I am making a difference.  Just a side note, though.

The $100.00 challenge is coming along, I have begun to make my test batches of my product and I am going to schedule a meeting with my friend to hash out all the details on selling my product at his shop.  Even though my personal life is stressful because of moving issues, my professional and academic life are coming along.

Till next time...

Lesson 6

Honesty and Integrity

In one of my other classes this semester, we are talking about honesty and integrity in business and why it is so important.  I concluded that it is necessary because it helps stabilize the volatility of the economy.  When someone chooses to act dishonestly in business, someone else is affected negatively.

My conclusion was definitely validated today.  My wife and I are in the process of finding a new apartment.  We had a deposit down on a unit and we went to sign the lease today.  We asked to inspect the unit first, and I am sure glad we did.  We walked and we were floored by the poor condition of the unit and the differences between this unit and the model that we fell in love with. We were told the previous tenants were not smokers, but it smelled like smoke and there were cigarettes on the patio outside.  I felt scammed and extremely disappointed.

I just wanted to share that experience because I thought it had a great parallel.  As far as this class' material is concerned, Stew Leonard's experience with customer service stood out to me more than anything.  He realized how important customers are to a business from his experience with the eggnog (and with a little wisdom from his wife).  Customers are the most important of a business, because they alone determine the future of your company.

However, customers are not just external consumers of your product or service, but also your employees, which are your most valuable asset.  I would submit that you can apply the principles of customer service to your employee relationships as well.  These qualities include: respect, a sense of belonging, and a genuine attitude that they are valued.

My $100.00 challenge is still coming along, not as fast as I hoped it would though.  I have been incredibly busy with work, and moving and other things that I have not spent much time developing my product and eventually selling it.  However, my plan is to spend a significant amount of time on it this week.

Till next time...

Lesson 5

And a challenge it certainly is...

I admit, I have been shirking in my responsibilities in school.  That is why I have not visited the blogosphere in a while.  Plus, my life has been overwhelming these past couple of weeks.  My mom has been in and out of the hospital with complications from a surgery, and I attended a training session in Atlanta for my new internship with Sprint.  This week was a great learning experience as well as a perspective changer.  I noticed many instances where I applied the concepts I learned in this business program.  I also had a direct parallel to our training and this week's material.

During training, we discussed our personal brand as it pertains to our conduct and professionalism at work.  I think there is a great lesson to be learned that we are our own personal brand and we are constantly marketing ourselves during our careers as entrepreneurs or as employees.  Guy Kawasaki talked about constantly improving our brand by being likable and improving our "Pan-Am" smile.

As far as the $100.00 challenge goes, not much progress has been made because I have been so busy.  However, I have drafted a plan on how to tackle the initial product manufacturing.  I am going to make a test batch at home, and then work into larger batches using a local meat market's equipment.  Although I am going to be really busy, I welcome the challenge.

Till next time...

Lesson 3

The Hard Part

This was the week in the $100.00 challenge that I was somewhat dreading.  One thing that I have always struggled with in my life is planning effectively.  I have never been the best at correctly judging time, cost, or milestones to judge where a particular project might be.  So, for the business plan assignments,  I was in an uncomfortable place because I knew I would need to draw upon these skills to effectively complete this assignment.

One thing I realized about the business plan, when it comes down to the specifics, for example, the sales targets, I am nearly guaranteed to be wrong.  Because of my mathematically-focused brain, it makes me uncomfortable to think that I cannot be certain, I guess I found a skill to work on when it comes to entrepreneurship: managing uncertainty.

There are a few ways that I think I can work on this. The first is realizing that there is a plethora of uncertainty in any start-up, and that it is my job to manage it.  The second way to deal with this uncertainty, is to surround myself with the right people who can understand uncertainty and offer ideas on how to manage it.  Third, I need to understand the market and my customers, since customers are the driving force of any business, understand the customer's needs is crucial.

Lesson 2

What a Pain!

So, it is now lesson 2, and this is my first blogpost, however, it will certainly not be my last.

This week has been overwhelming.  The content presented was time-consuming, enlightening and difficult.  The most difficult part of this week's material for me was the 40 business ideas.  The reason this was so hard for me was getting the creative juices flowing.  I have business ideas often, but they generally are the product of observations in my life and I can't write them down on command.  Also, I had more ideas that would be on the scale of the "Big Idea" type of business rather than the 100.00 challenge business.  However, once I struggled to get around 1 ideas, more came to my head as I began to 1) think outside of the box and 2) breaking down the walls of hesitance and reluctance.

As far as the $100.00 challenge is concerned, I have made some progress, although I am still in the idea-generation stage.  I have settled on an idea but I am exploring its efficacy or possibility because of food safety laws and regulations.  The advantage I have is that it will a product I truly believe in because I ask my mom to make it every time I see her.