Kristy's Entrepreneurial Journal

      I was thrilled that we got to study a little bit out of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey this week.  As I think I mentioned last week, it's been a favorite of mine for years.  I think I've read it three times now, so I made quick work of the summary and thought about some of the key ideas that I hadn't thought about in quite some time.       One of the ideas that stood out to me that I really need to revisit is the daily planning and solitude session.  As I've mentioned in previous assignments, I have had times in my life when I'm putting this principle into practice on a regular basis in my life and it feels so dynamic.  I really miss that time in the morning of getting grounded, touching base with my core principles, and looking at the goals for the day.        Another idea that stood out to me this week was Habit 6 Synergize.  I need more of this in my life....

       I learned a lot this week about ideas that generally meet with success, and the practices that generally meet with success when starting up a business.  I also had an unexpected reminder about the importance of women in business, and the value of humility when someone points something out to you.   To summarize one of the articles I read, I learned that good entrepreneurs screen their opportunities quickly.  They don't waste undue amounts of time going over every opportunity with a fine tooth comb.  They have developed the skill of being able to decide quickly whether something is a truly unique opportunity, or whether it's a more ordinary one.  Second, they analyze ideas parsimoniously.  Meaning they are economical with their time.  They focus on just a few important issues, and leave the rest to work itself out.  This goes hand in hand with the first skill of deciding quickly and not wasting time on irrelevant or ...

 The thing I learned the most from this week's readings is that while skill and character are important, luck is the least influential of the three when it comes to success, and the character trait of perseverance is the the most important when it comes to success in any given field.   Perseverance is a character trait, and so reinforces my initial belief that character is the most important of the three things that go into success stories.  While skill is very important, almost every skill is dependent on the person's ability to persevere while learning (and failing many times) while learning that given skill.   It seems that most of the people we listened to in the videos are great fans of perseverance.  I know that perseverance has been a great help during different times in my life.   As I began to overhaul my health over a year ago, I began with small steps of eliminating harmful things from my diet (mainly sugar and refined carbohydrate...

 Will I be happy in my career?  Will I be fulfilled and have rewarding and meaningful relationships? How Do I Stay Out of Jail?  These are great questions and I really enjoyed Clay Christensen's article.  Will I be happy in my career?  Honestly, nobody can know that until they actually graduate and start digging in the dirt of their chosen field.  There may be things about being a professional genealogist that I absolutely hate (time keeping, billing, and accounting come to mind), but I'm hoping on the whole, that I enjoy the work and that affords me the chance to do meaningful and helpful work for other people.  I hope that it gives me a chance to uplift and to teach people, and that it provides me with a source of wonderful connections with colleagues and associates that who share similar passions.  However, if I happen to absolutely hate it, I keep telling myself, there's nothing that can't be undone.  I can change direction, I can choose ...

I really enjoyed this week's focus.  The Lynn G. Robbins devotional was so excellent.  I made my husband and daughter listen to it on Wednesday night, and I sent it to my son.  I was particularly struck by the A-D levels regarding all types of professions, with lots of examples of each kind.  When he asked what kind of carpenter we thought Jesus would have been, for some reason that really struck me.  I honestly had never stopped to consider what kind of carpenter Jesus was.  I started to think about the people who came into His shop, and how they would have been treated, the things he would have made, and their quality.   I also loved the emphasis in the beginning of the devotional on pride.  I am definitely guilty of the sin of pride.  I think most of us are.  I have a lot of pride about my ability to quickly find the main idea of a report, presentation, or research paper.  I get impatient with people who I perceive to be 'du...