Journal Entry Lesson 6

This week I got to learn a Little bit about marketing. One of the key things that I will take with me is Seth Godin’s metaphor of the purple cow. He explains how during a trip in Europe he was really amazed at the beautiful cows he saw near the highway, but after a while they became boring; so much that the only way to get his attention would be to see something completely out of the ordinary (a purple cow for instance). In the world of social media and smartphones even a purple cow can become dull and boring after a while. I was thinking a lot about how companies advertise their products and about the very few examples that have been remarkable enough to be remembered. I need to find a way to be like them and give personality to my product in a unique an attractive way.

I made some progress with the $100 challenge: I created an elevator pitch and identified my target market, competition, and competitive advantage. I also started creating a plan for more specific things like the marketing strategies I will use, the materials I will use to create food stand, the table I will use, the materials for the signs, the table cloth, etc.

Journal Entry Lesson 5

I am becoming a little bit negative about the future. I see how difficult it is to start a business. Even getting out of debt and making ends meet with a stable job is difficult for me right now. I have a good job and make more money than most college students in my country, but I can’t pay my credit cards off since more unexpected expenses (like fines, emergencies, and taxes) keep coming. I start to feel terrified about losing or quitting my job.

The only thing that makes me feel a little bit optimistic about my situation is reading about successful entrepreneurs who started from zero, like Desh Deshpande who arrived in the U.S with $8 USD in his pocket and became a billionaire. I also get courage from the stories of entrepreneurs who arrived to Mexico without an education and without speaking Spanish and became very successful (like Julian Slim, father of Carlos Slim).

I’m trying to obtain more experience and knowledge outside from school and work by taking courses, investing, and become more involved with entrepreneurs in the community in order to learn from them.

I haven’t had a lot of progress with the $100 project, other than deciding the source of funding.

Journal Entry Lesson 4

This week I really enjoyed Reading about the different stages of a small business and the common mistakes that business owners make in the book ‘’The E-Myth Revisited’’ by Michael E. Gerber. In chapter 4 he talks about the ‘’Adolescence’’ stage of a business in which a business owner asks for help and hires someone to help; eventually, lack of clear communication and ambiguous situations take their toll and the relationship between the owner and the employee ends abruptly.

 This happened to me recently when I had to fire my employee as he was breaking my rules, not being profitable, and taking advantage of my trust. I realize now that I made a mistake in not being clear with my rules and expectations, and giving in whenever he needed something ‘’for his family’’ to the point of not benefiting at all from the business myself. That situation couldn’t last forever.

I continued working on my $100 project. I started thinking about more specific details for it. The most important part of it is that I remembered the first time I tried to complete the challenge, how it ate up too much time and how I can use the time more effectively this time. 

I realized that my mistake was that I focused too much on obtaining low prices by buying from wholesalers in downtown Mexico City; that meant that I had to spend around 4 hours every weekend trying to get all the materials, end I got very frustrated when some of them became harder to find than I thought at first. This time I will focus more on working and selling than in buying.

Journal Entry Lesson 3

This week I realized that I can still be creative. It feels like if my mind had been numb for a while and now it is stretching and working hard again.

My wife has an idea for a company she would like to create in the future. As we were talking about it, I gave her some advise based on what I have learned by reading ‘’The Lean Startup’’ (by Eric Ries) and how I think she could test her idea, turn it into a business and make it scalable. I was very surprised that I was able to come up with those ideas after struggling so much last week trying to come up with business ideas for my $100 project.

As I went over this week’s material, I was especially moved by President’s Hinckley testimony in the dedication of the building that bears his name.  It was an invitation to me to be more faithful and trust that the Lord can help me with the challenges I face.

I have a few ideas chosen for the $100 project but, most importantly, I feel a new determination to make a real effort to make it work and learn from it.

I am also paying more attention the problems I find every day and I’m writing them down. I think that if I do this consistently for the rest of my life, I will become more creative and maybe I will find a business opportunity that I can take advantage of.

Acton Hero: Tom Monaghan

Tom Monaghan was raised in an orphanage. From humble beginnings, he turned DomiNick’s Pizza into the world famous Domino’s Pizza building a revolutionary business around pizza delivery. As he became richer and successful, he became obsessed with ‘’toys’’ and impressing others with his success and the things his money could buy.

One day, when he was reading a book written by C.S Lewis, he realized that he wasn’t living his principles and that something had to change in his life. His priorities changed and he sold the company. From then on he has dedicated his life to help others through education. He uses his money to as much good as he can.

I can see how sometimes I focus too much on my desire to be successful, even to the point of wanting to compare myself to others. That is not correct, and doesn’t lead to true happiness. Tom Monaghan is an example of a person who was brave enough to realize that he was doing wrong and change his course in order to be truly happy.

Starting to learn again

This week has been crazy; I have learned so much that I almost forgot about school!

I just had the unfortunate experience of firing the driver I had for my Uber account. I learned what not to do next time I hire somebody and lost quite a bit of money. I need to have everything on writing, be inflexible with the agreements and conditions I set at the beginning, and separate some personal feelings from business before they create unfortunate situations.

Also, a few minutes ago, I just finished filling my first annual tax return by myself (most employers in Mexico do it automatically for the workers, but since now I have additional sources of income besides employment then I need to do it myself). In the last few months I have also been filling bimonthly tax declarations for my Uber business after realizing that accountants were overcharging me for something I could easily learn how to do.

Right now I’m reading the book ‘’The Lean Startup’’ by Eric Ries. I have learned about how a business project executed perfectly can be a total failure if it’s going in the wrong direction. The Lean startup methodology focuses on rapid learning, experimentation and adaptation in order to create value in a context of extreme uncertainty. I remember seeing a class on Lean Startup offered in Coursera; I will probably take that class one of these days.

I have also realized how difficult creativity can be for me. I really need to make an effort to come up with ideas and dreams the way I was able to do a couple of years ago.

50 Things to Do Before I Die - Revisited

I made the original list in May, 2014. The notes in red were added in January 2015. The notes in green were added today (April 2016).

Old List

1. Buy a car without getting a loan – I have a car now. I just need to do the second part for the next one.

2. Buy a house

3. Invest in the Stock Market - Already doing it. Still 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 – I just started doing it

23. Visit New Zealand

24. Finish reading the Book of Mormon in German - I am a few chapters away from accomplishing it – I already did it.

25. Help my wife finish her bachelor's degree - She's probably going to finish hers before I do. She is about to finish.

26. Make my wife smile every day - Doing it as much as I can. Still doing it.

27. Make a person happy every day – Struggling with it

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 – I have hiked in a couple of mountains in Central Mexico when it snows but I haven’t stayed overnight yet.

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 – I have completed it!

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 – I had to take my website offline for now, but I will start it again in the future.

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 – I did it!

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 – I did it!

51. Learn how to sell

52. Learn how to cook bisquets and gravy

New List

1. Buy a car without getting a loan – I have a car now. I just need to do the second part for the next one.

2. Buy a house

3. Speak German fluently

4. Take a tour around Europe

5. Own my own company

6. Get my Bachelor’s Degree

7. Obtain a Masters Degree

8. Write a book

9. Have children

10. Baptize my children

11. Send my children on missions

12. Visit Las Vegas (Where I served my mission) with my wife

13. 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

14. Visit Norway and Iceland and take a cruise to the Norwegian Fjords

15. Give scholarships to young talented people

16. Visit China, walk on the great wall

17. Take scuba diving lessons with my wife

18. Go scuba diving in a coral reef

19. Have a salt water aquarium

20. Have a planted fresh aquarium

21. Complete the Basic Chinese course in Coursera

23. Visit New Zealand

24. Help my wife finish her bachelor's degree - She's probably going to finish hers before I do. She is about to finish.

25. Make my wife smile every day - Doing it as much as I can. Still doing it.

26. Make a person happy every day – Struggling with it

27. 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

28. Have an Alaskan dog

29. Visit Switzerland

30. Have a hydroponic garden

31. Go camping in the mountains when it snows – I have hiked in a couple of mountains in Central Mexico when it snows but I haven’t stayed overnight yet.

32. Always have time for my family and my dreams

33. Take a very long bike ride

34. Start a travel agency

35. Write a blog about places and culture In Mexico - Already doing it: www.saliradentro.com – I had to take my website offline for now, but I will start it again in the future.

36. Attend General Conference in person

37. Take my parents to visit Salt Lake city

38. Help people in Mexico invest and save their money

39. Visit Chihuahua, and Guanajuato

40. Buy an HDTV

41. Give a conference on financial education

42. Become a leader so others want to follow me and trust me

42. Learn how to sell

43. Learn how to cook bisquets and gravy

44. Finish the Pearl of Great Price and D&C in German

45. Climb Iztaccihuatl

46. Start the financial freedom project that I call ‘’My Personal Bank’’

47. Pay my car loan off

48. Find my ancestors all the way to the 1600’s and take their names to the temple

49. Go on vacations with my wife to Cancun

50. Invest in person-to-person loans

Acton Hero: Bruce Thompson

After watching the video, the first thing I did was looking up ALS disease and what the symptoms are. I feel a great admiration for Mr Thompson as I imagine what he is going through with his disease and the fact that he stays positive. He mentioned an experience where they found fraud in an investment project they were about to take part in. He was nervous about informing the investors about what they had found, but he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. As a result of that, the relationship with the investors was strengthened; he and his company were seen as somebody who is responsible and will take care of investors’ money as his own. Honesty and transparency is the best policy. Mr Thompson also talks about how business is fun, but not the most important part of life; He says that we need to put limits to ourselves in the time we spend at work, and dedicate more time to our families and to God.

http://www.actonhero.org/celebrating-heroes/stories-of-heroes/index.php?hero=bruce-thompson