Well, Here Goes

I'll start with the major question or mental block that I have with entrepreneurship.  The idea of 'dream big' just does not resonate with me.  When I encounter this idea, I mentally clench up.  The reasons for this are many.  First, what is wrong with living a small life?  In April 1982, Howard W. Hunter said 

"There are some anomg us who are unhappy with their lives because they have wanted to achieve a measure of greatness in this life but now feel they have failed in some fundamental way.  We have concern for those who have worked hard and who have lived righteously but think-because they haven't achieved in the world or in the Church what others have achieved-that they have failed."  

He goes on to quote from Joseph F. Smith in 1905: "Those things which we call extraordinary, remarkable, or unusual may make history, but they do not make real life.  After all, to do well those things which God ordained to be the common lot of all mankind, is the truest greatness.  To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be successful genreal or a successful statesman." 

 I first heard this quote many years ago, and have taken it as one of my guidepost quotes.  In my life as a stay-at-home mom, I have 100% tried to become great at my job, and believe that I've achieved a measure of greatness at it.  I've been a collector of quotes and examples that reinforce my focus on the small things, and I think they contain much truth.  In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis describes a woman in the afterlife of unimaginable glory.  Lewis spends almost a paragraph on her beauty and brilliance.  She is pulled into heaven on the most beautiful chariot by the longest, loudest group of fans and attendants.  She is gloriously beautiful, almost too powerful to look at.  Lewis's visitors to the afterlife wonder who she is.  

"'It's someone ye'll never have heard of.  Her name on Earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.' 'She seems to be...well, a person of particular importance?' 'Aye.  She is one of the great ones.  Ye have hard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.'"

I think that becoming this woman is my Big Dream.  Honestly.  

My second reason for disliking the idea of 'Dream Big' is that it doesn't seem possible for everyone to live out their dreams as a paid profession.  What if my big dream was to be a broadway star, but I was a crummy singer?  Maybe people can live out their dreams or passions as a hobby in their spare time, but how can every person on planet Earth possibly earn a living doing what they're passionate about?  If everyone was running around trying to achieve big dreams, and running their own multi-million dollar companies, who would take out the trash?  Wash the dishes? Do the small things that nobody else wants to do, that contribute to the world humming steadily forward?  Who would make up the employers who enabled the big dreams of the CEO?

So why did I even take this class?  I came close to finishing my Bachelor's degree in Education many years ago, but quit to raise my four babies.  They are getting older now, and it's time I finished.  Money is tight, and Pathways Worldwide only offers a few Bachelor's degrees.  So I took the one I was most interested in, Professional Studies, with an emphasis on Family History Research and Advanced Family History Research.  I needed another cluster, and Entrepreneurship seemed like a reasonable thing to pick, if I'm going to try to be a professional genealogist, working for myself.  

And the whole reason I started school in the first place?  My mom has Alzheimer's.  In the course of figuring out what was going on with her brain, I learned that I have the gene for it too.  After spending a year completely overhauling my eating and exercising patterns, my only missing link for Alzheimer's prevention is engaging my brain in meaningful, problem solving activities.  The more education you have, the less likely you are of developing this horrible disease.  There is a direct correlation between higher levels of education, and lower levels of Alzheimer's.    

I have a lot to learn.