Lessons from Business Plan

This week I created my first Business plan (for my $100 project) and it was a great experience as I was able to think about it in more depth, including the parts that I haven’t figured out yet. I realized that by doing this I am more creative and analytical as I try to come up with solutions for the problems and challenges.

Having this plan on paper helps me create goals more easily and feel more confident about my ability of going out and doing it.

 I am reading the following books: ‘’The E-Myth Revisited’’ by Michael E. Gerber and ‘’The Mormon Way of Doing Business ’’ by Jeff Benedict. I have learned about the importance of discipline. I realized that I have many ‘’personalities’’ inside of me fighting for control and setting opposite goals and plans; one day I will want to create a business, the next one I want to stay in bed and not worry about anything. I need to be disciplined and find a way to balance my personality and motivate myself.

Something else that I’m learning about is the importance of perseverance and consistency. I remembered a lot of the lessons I learned on my mission and now I see how they apply to other aspects of my life. I also realized that I need to pray more and read the scriptures more consistently.

Acton Hero: Paul Robshaw

The greatest lesson I learned from Paul Robshaw i show dreams are ‘’reality without boundaries’’. It is important to have dreams and work hard to achieve them.

Paul accepted early on that success requires hard work and that failure can come, that taught him to be true to his core values since they matter more than money or material success.

Paul learned from his father the importance of work as early as age 13. He performed every job available in the real estate business like cleaning, selling, developing and so forth.

I learn from him that there is no job that is unimportant, every effort matters and each experience teaches us something that will help us later and teach us an important lesson. One of the most important lessons is humility and perseverance. There will be tough challenges we will face in life and we must be ready for them and not give up.

Personal Journal Entry

This week I learned a lot from the book I finished: Think and Grow Rich, from Napoleon Hill. The main lesson that I get from it is the importance of being confident and having a positive attitude of faith that things will be good for me.

Another thing that I learned about was the importance of understanding of our business and focus on the key parts of it without being distracted by unimportant matters or projects where we can’t be the best. I combined this with what I learned about entrepreneurship and its importance on modern economies.

Many countries today are trying to foster an environment where entrepreneurship can flourish. In order for this to happen they have to switch from managed capitalism and state interventionism, eliminate burdensome regulations and encourage a culture of people who are not afraid of taking risks and are enthusiastic about creating.

I also continued planning my $100 project. I have decided to focus on my idea of selling USB drives inside of little stuffed animals. I have been thinking about selling them outside universities in my city. I could also ask people for help, my sister offered to sell some of them in her school for a commission and I could find other people who would be willing to make some commissions too.

Napoleon Hill: Think and Grow Rich

Napoleon Hill: Think and Grow Rich

How do people reach great success in life? Why do some people make extremely great amounts of money even when coming from humble origins? Napoleon Hill presents a series of steps towards riches in his book ‘’Think and grow rich’’. Like a time capsule, the book will teach the secret for money making from a previous point of time proving that the principles taught here can be effective at any time, place or circumstance.

Written right after the end of the Great Depression, Think and Grow Rich gives insight of a rapidly changing world in the beginning of the 20^th century mentioning ‘’contemporary’’ examples like Henry Ford and Thomas Alva Edison, both being part of a large number of people that were able to think and become rich and whose lives and experiences served as examples and research material for the principles of success. At the same time, Hill presents the modern reader with an interesting perspective of a world recovering from a great crisis and with big optimistic hopes for the future in a world he didn’t know was about to be devastated by a second world war. Nevertheless, many of his prediction for a future world were fulfilled and the principles taught in the book continue being valid.

Napoleon Hill states that the secret to riches originates in the human mind and its ability to affect the reality around it. Although I don’t believe in ‘’mystic forces and energy’’ as some people could call it I do believe in the power of positive thoughts and attitudes and how they affect the outcome. I also believe that there is a God (referred to as ‘’Infinite Intelligence’’ by Hill) who is happy and willing to bless us because he loves us and he is just waiting for us to decide we want his blessings and do the necessary actions towards them.

The power of the human mind is harnessed through the principle of ‘’auto suggestion’’ which cultivates a combination of positive thoughts, productive excitement and action plans towards the desired goal. I personally believe and agree that we become what we think about the most, not magically, but because of a combination of our own efforts motivated by constant positive thinking and excitement and divine aid from a loving Heavenly Father.

Part of the ‘’auto suggestion’’ process is centered on faith, not as a mere blind desire, but as a hope on things not seen that leads the person toward action and a ‘’burning the ships’’ mindset like the one that led Hernan Cortes to the conquest of the Aztec Empire and the creation of the New Spain as he wasn’t able to turn back and escape once he started his quest.

The book also touches other points like the importance of working along with others in a ‘’master mind’’ alliance of people with similar interests trying to reach a common goal. Several heads can use the principle of auto suggestion (or ‘’law of attraction’’ as it is called by other authors) better than only one individual.

One of the great jewels found in the book is the teaching on perseverance: ‘’winners never quit, and quitters never win’’. You never know how close you are to success, even if it feels farther than ever. Don’t stop digging; the gold vein could be a meter away.

No matter what your profession, nationality, age, or goal in life is; this book will teach you how to develop the mindset of success and perseverance. Through examples of real life people who reached great riches you will learn how these principles were applied and you will be able to Think and Grow Rich.

   

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Rekindle the fire

This week I had an opportunity to rekindle the entrepreneurial fire through a couple of experiences at school and with one of my friends.

An old friend of mine talked to me on Facebook during the week asking how things were. He asked me if I had already quit my job; I told him that I haven’t done it and then he asked me: ‘’then… what is your plan for financial freedom? How are you going to do it if you are still tied to your full-time job?’’ This really made me think about my life, my goals and my plans to achieve them. Am I keeping my job for now as a part of my goals or because of fear? That is something I need to think about.

At school I brainstormed ideas for businesses. It was interesting to see how a few of them have changed since the last time I did something like that. I had to think about problems that I see in daily life in Mexico, things that are missing or are uncomfortable to obtain. It was much easier to come up with ideas keeping those questions in mind.

Here are some criteria that helped me come up with ideas. This was provided by my BYU-Idaho class on entrepreneurship:

1. Complaints people have or gripes they hear from friends or people in the community.
2. Inconvenience experienced when purchasing a product or in acquiring a service.
3. A product or service “flaw” that is difficult to deal with, such as packaging that takes way too much time to unravel.
4. The pain that comes from paying way too much (i.e., getting “ripped off”) for a product or service.
5. Money that seems to be “lost” with little value returned.
6. Something that can make life easier.
7. A product or service that can contribute to health or well-being (literally removing pain of one kind or another).
8. A simpler way to access a product or service (less hassle).
9. Dreams that you’ve had as a child.
10. Successful businesses around you, maybe one that you feel you could do a better job with.
11. Hobbies and activities that people invest a lot of time and resources into.
12. Businesses or services that need simplification.
13. Read this article for more ideas.

50 things to do before I die

I had already created a ''50 things to do before I die'' before. As I was reviewing it I realized that I have accomplished a few of them since last year. However, I decided to make a few changes to my list:

Old list:

1. Buy a car
2. Buy a house
3. Invest in the Stock Market - Already doing it
4. Speak German fluently
5. Take a tour around Europe
6. Own my own company
7. Get my Bachelor’s Degree
8. Obtain a Masters Degree
9. Write a book
10. Have children
11. Baptize my children
12. Send my children on missions
13. Visit Ushuaia, Argentina
14. Visit Chile - I sent my wife to Chile for a debate contest for a week and she brought lots of pictures and stories, now I just have to visit Chile myself
15. Take a cruise to Norway
16. Give scholarships to young people
17. Visit China
18. Take scuba diving lessons
19. Go scuba diving in a coral reef
20. Have a salt water aquarium
21. Have a planted aquarium
22. Have a BMW
23. Visit Dubai
24. Finish reading the Book of Mormon in German - I am a few chapters away from accomplishing it
25. Help my wife finish her degree - She's probably going to finish hers before I do
26. Make my wife smile every day - Doing it as much as I can
27. Make someone happy every day
28. Help change someone’s life in my country - I realized that I might have already done it during my mission without realizing but I want to do it again
29. Have an Alaskan dog
30. Earn money in a network marketing company
31. Be an expert trader in Forex and the Stock Market - I'm really really far from being an expert but I know more than anybody I know in person
32. Have a hydroponic garden
33. Go camping in the snow
34. Have time for my family and my dreams
35. Play the electric guitar with my friends and a symphonic orchestra
36. Attend the Wacken open air festival
37. Learn how to ride a horse
38. Take a very long bike ride
39. Start a travel agency
40. Write a blog about places and culture In Mexico - Already doing it: www.saliradentro.com
41. Attend General Conference in person
42. Take my parents to visit Salt Lake city
43. Help people in Mexico invest their money
44. Visit Chihuahua, Mexico
45. Buy an Xbox one
46. Buy a new TV
47. Give a conference on financial education
48. Become a leader so others want to follow me and trust me
49. Learn how to create a website - Already doing it with Drupal
50. Go ice skating with my wife
51. Join the Rotary club
52. Learn how to cook bisquets and gravy

New List:

1. Buy a car without getting a loan
2. Buy a house
3. Invest in the Stock Market - Already doing it
4. Speak German fluently
5. Take a tour around Europe
6. Own my own company
7. Get my Bachelor’s Degree
8. Obtain a Masters Degree
9. Write a book
10. Have children
11. Baptize my children
12. Send my children on missions
13. Visit Las Vegas (Where I served my mission) with my wife
14. Visit Chile - I sent my wife to Chile for a debate contest for a week and she brought lots of pictures and stories, now I just have to visit Chile myself
15. Visit Norway and Iceland and take a cruise to the norwegian Fjords
16. Give scholarships to young talented people
17. Visit China, walk on the great wall
18. Take scuba diving lessons with my wife
19. Go scuba diving in a coral reef
20. Have a salt water aquarium
21. Have a planted fresh aquarium
22. Learn basic Mandarin
23. Visit New Zealand
24. Finish reading the Book of Mormon in German - I am a few chapters away from accomplishing it
25. Help my wife finish her bachelor's degree -  - She's probably going to finish hers before I do
26. Make my wife smile every day - Doing it as much as I can
27. Make a person happy every day
28. Help change someone’s life by offering a great opportunity - I realized that I might have already done it during my mission without realizing but I want to do it again
29. Have an Alaskan dog
30. Visit Switzerland
31. Be an expert trader in Forex and the Stock Market - I'm really really far from being an expert but I know more than anybody I know in person
32. Have a hydroponic garden
33. Go camping in the mountains when it snows
34. Always have time for my family and my dreams
35. Play the electric guitar with my friends and a symphonic orchestra
36. Attend the Wacken open air festival
37. Learn how to ride a horse
38. Take a very long bike ride
39. Start a travel agency
40. Write a blog about places and culture In Mexico - Already doing it: www.saliradentro.com
41. Attend General Conference in person
42. Take my parents to visit Salt Lake city
43. Help people in Mexico invest and save their money
44. Visit Chihuahua, and Guanajuato
45. Buy an Xbox one
46. Buy an HDTV
47. Give a conference on financial education
48. Become a leader so others want to follow me and trust me
49. Learn how to create a website - Already doing it with Drupal
50. Go ice skating with my wife
51. Learn how to sell
52. Learn how to cook bisquets and gravy