Self Mastery

Self Mastery

The most important principle I learned this week is self mastery. I have a few thoughts on it:

What is the hardest, and maybe, most important challenge that we will face in business and life? Probably that of conquering oneself.

Even Plato said: “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”

Human nature leads to excess and vice that destroy the individual and deteriorate society. The great battle of life is inside of us. It could be waking up early in the morning in order to work, it can be persevering in learning when we find ourselves ‘’on the plateau’’, it can be setting and respecting our own moral boundaries. The truth is that controlling the self is the first step for success, and one that will continue being developed through the entire life.

How can we do it?

Let me suggest a few tips for this:

Know your reasons. Ask yourself why you want to do something and set goals that motivate you. It is easier to wake up in the morning when you know why you want to do it.

Set moral security lines around you. Make a list of those boundaries that you will never cross.

Be accountable. Don’t set excuses, look for somebody to help you be accountable with yourself.

‘’Each day I examine myself on three counts: whether or not I am loyal to those in whose behalf I act; whether or not I am trustworthy in my dealings with friends; whether or not I practice what is imparted’’ Confucius

Becoming like a Child

I want to share a few principles from the scriptures today:

‘’And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’’ Matthew 18:3-4

‘’ Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.’’ D&C 78:17-18

The Lord commands us to be innocent, kind, and good; just like little children are. They have no malice and seek not to harm others. We should strive to develop the same qualities.

At the same time, he says that in our mortal condition we are ‘’little children’’ in the way that we don’t understand the things of God nor his eternal perspective and purposes. He then explains that, if we are humble, he will lead us along and bless us. For that to happen we need to have faith in him and be teachable, just like children are.

Mosiah 3:19 (In the Book of Mormon)  teaches us how the natural man is an enemy of God. In order to get rid of that ‘’natural man’’ inside of us we need to:

Yield to the enticing of the Spirit and be cleaned through the atonement.

Be: Submissive, meek, humble, full of love, patient, and willing to submit to God’s will.

The world we live in teaches us the opposite thing: people are trying to take advantage of others all the time. They see moral corruption and a virtue, rebellion against God as liberty and the ability to harm others as intelligence. 

I invite myself and whoever reads this to the challenge of getting rid of the natural man and changing for good.

I invite you to visit this website and see how happy you can be if you decide it:

Mormon.org

Perseverance

This week was a great reminder that it is not how good you are in school or how much you know, but how you use that knowledge and your perseverance. Those who succeed are those who don’t give up and are willing to face challenges.

There is a great talk given by Elder Faust in which he tells us how he knew kids in High School who were very smart and talented but who failed to persevere or to put forth the extra effort and thus failed to accomplish their full potential while others that at first were not as talented where able to accomplish great things by not giving up.

Yesterday I watched the movie ‘’Revenge of the Electric Car’’. It is a documentary about this new trend in the automotive industry. In it, Tesla Motors was struggling to launch its first cars. They ran out of money and almost had to close, but the founder Elon Musk kept giving of his own money for the business and taking risks in order to keep it alive. I honestly started wondering if entrepreneurship is really for me.

Being an entrepreneur is not having a lot of money and enjoying a life of pleasure; it is rather a constant fight and struggle to keep the company going. I truly wonder if I will be ever able to do something like that. I know I can if I really try and don’t give up.

Perseverance talk: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2005/04/perseverance?lang=eng

Revenge of the Electric Car: http://www.revengeoftheelectriccar.com/

John The Baptist

John the Baptist

This week I want to share also some thoughts from my scripture study about John the Baptist.

In Matthew 11:2-3 John sends his disciples to ask Christ if the is the Messiah. They go and see by themselves that he performed miracles, served all people around him and preached the gospel to them.

Did John doubt that Jesus was the Messiah? No. He knew who he was and was inviting his disciples to follow him; however, some of them were still reluctant to forsake him so he decided to send them and see by themselves by commanding them to go and ask him questions.

When Christ talks about John, he describes him as one of the greatest prophets. His calling was a special one: to prepare the way of the Lord and baptize him. There was no other before him or after with such a calling. He held the keys of the kingdom of God and was thoroughly humble and obedient in all he did.

The greatest lesson from John comes from John 3:30: ‘’ He must increase, but I must decrease’’. As great as he was, he recognized that he was just a messenger of the light, and that light is Christ. He recognized always that he was an instrument in God’s hands and did not seek his own accomplishment of praise but to fulfill his calling.

All of us have a calling and the commandment to preach the gospel to our brothers and sisters. We carry that light but we are not the light. As we selflessly give our lives to serve God and our fellow men and ‘’decrease’’ so the gospel of Christ can ‘’increase’’ we will be following John’s example of humility and obedience.

No matter where we are or what we do in life, we must always be humble and forget ourselves.

‘’For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it’’ Matthew 16:25

Consistency

Consistency

My dad told me once that College was not for the smart, but for the stubborn. I made a fortunate mistake this week by reading articles from next week’s lesson and my dad’s principle really hit me. Those who have success in business (and most other things in life) are not the smartest or more skilled people but those who persevere and are consistent.

Jeff Hawkins states that any business that consistently makes better choices than its competition will, over time, grow much more than them. Working hard it’s not enough but making effective choices gives and edge. The real difference comes when those effective choices are made consistently.

A lot of entrepreneurs agree that the most important things in business are your attitude, your ability to sell your product, your project and yourself. All of them also agree that consistency is the factor that really makes the difference.

My new objective now is to learn how to sell; it is the hardest part about business for me but I now realize that I must learn this valuable skill.

Networking

There are a lot of YouTube videos and online courses on networking that I have seen. Many of them teach how to approach people in different settings and even ‘’how to be authentic and friendly’’. I have sought them since I am quiet by nature; however, I now realize the obvious: I just need to be myself and although I must seek to get out from the comfort zone, I don’t have to be a different person or do things that make me uncomfortable in a bad way. Another part of networking is seeking to help others. That must be the number one rule, after that everything will follow.

Jeff Hawkins video: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2250

How big is your dog?

How big is your dog?

I was at a conference for young adults which was held in a ranch in the middle of the forest up in the mountains an hour away from Mexico City. It was freezing cold, I remember. But what I will never forget is the lesson I learned there about business and life.  The presenter, a man in his forties, told a story of his childhood. He was playing with a ball until he kicked it so hard that it flew to the neighbor’s yard. He spent a long time trying to jump the wall that separated both yards. When he got to the other side he got the ball, he kicked it back to his house and prepared to the difficult task of climbing the wall one more time. It was then when he realized there was a huge dog staring at him. The dog started running towards him and, without thinking, he ran towards the wall and climbed it ‘’Spiderman style’’. He had no idea how he did it, he only knew that an enormous dog was chasing him so he was able to do something amazing in order to survive. The presenter then asked us: what makes you wake up in the morning? What makes you work every day? What makes you do amazing things in your life? How big is your dog?

That dog is the motivation that makes you excel in what you do. Jan Newman talks about it in the video ‘’Risk in Business’’ (http://vimeo.com/27917536) when he talks about having ‘’skin in the game’’ and how his partner asked him to ask for a loan and invest in his business so he could have ‘’skin in the game’’. That risk motivated him to work harder and to reach success later on.

Integrity is the best policy. I learned this week that you cannot be a leader without integrity. Nobody wants to follow somebody who does not have integrity. I remember a picture I saw at the offices of Schneider Electric in Mexico City with a picture of the company's president and the question ''would you trust me if I were dishonest in my words and actions'' or something like that. When you have integrity you avoid problems, you feel good with yourself and you can look at others in their eyes. 

Dreams

Dreaming

What is a dream? Many people dismiss their own dreams as they consider them not useful or even a waste of time. They could be no more wrong.

Dreams are part of us; they are stars that guide us to achieve great things. Without dreams there is no direction in our lives and it’s hard for us to accomplish anything.

Today I completed a list of 50 things I want to do before I die. I thought it was going to be really easy and that I would complete it in 5 minutes. It was very hard actually. I got very worried that maybe I don’t have enough dreams or I’m not passionate enough about things. I realized that I need to dream more.

I invite anybody who reads this journal to do a list like that: 50 things you want to do before you die. You will learn a great deal about yourself as you do that.

I read the last lecture given by a man named Randy Pauch. He said something that hit me really hard: ‘’ The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people’’. I want to be the kind of people who keep trying despite those brick walls I will face in life.