Week 2

I was sitting down with my wife and telling her that this has been the best class that I have taken at the BYU-Idaho. I have loved the material I have been reading and I feel like I have been learning alot.

 I was impressed by the videos from this week. I loved them all.  I was happy to see someone talking about integrity in the work place because it encourages us to continue to hold integrity not only as a value in our lives and to instill it in our children, but to emphasize its importance in the work place. It said to me excellent credentials does not make up for poor integrity. Integrity means alot and as someone that hopes to be an employer someday it showed me how crucial it can be.

I also enjoyed learning about getting invested in what you do. I put myself in the perspective of the person talking and its scary investing your own money into things. Its easy to get others to invest their money into the company because if it fails, you dont lose your money, they lose their money. He pointed out that you have to "get your skin" in the game. When you do that you will be more committed to the outcome and the success of the company you are investing in.

The story about Yesil I hope is one that will stick with my for a long time and point out to me the importance of knowledge and continuing to seek after it. There is no substitute for it and it takes alot of hard work. She showed me what we are capable of if we put our minds to something.

Week 1

The last lecture from Randy Pausch was such an inspiration to millions. What I love most about his story isnt that he was optimistic and happy even though he knew he was going to die, but that he set goals and he achieved them. Even when it seemed as if he would never be able to achieve them. Rejection after rejection, yet he persisted to his goals. This is something that I imagine that I will remember when there is something that I want and things keep going wrong or when I face failure repeatedly. I can remember Randy Pausch and the example he set of not taking no for an answer.

I also loved reading this weeks stars and stepping stones. Its great because the title leaves you to wonder what do stars and stepping stones have to do with business? Then as you continue to read it makes perfect sense and helps you get down to earth with your goal setting and expectations. Its ok to shoot for the stars, you just have to put a plan in place to move towards it little by little. Also, with stepping stones he had a great perspective by taking set backs and failures and remember that they are just stepping stones to getting to where you need to be.

I feel like the work we did this week helped for each of us set our sights and realize that goals and dreams are attainable if they are done correctly. If that doesn't motivate and inspire you, im not sure what would.

Intro Week

The story about the gentlemen that taught the class and met a student years down the road impressed me. It shows the importance of keeping notes and journals. Its frustrating to realize how many things I have likely learned and forgotten simply because I was unwilling to write them down. I think about how many wonderful life changing experiences that I have had and I wonder how many of them I bothered to write down so that I can remember the things I felt and learned from those experiences. It emphisizes to me the importance of keeping a journal so that I can always retain those things we learn.

I was also deeply touched by the video we watched from Gordon B. Hinckley. It was wonderful to listen to a prophets voice about our generation and what he expects of us and what our potential is. This was one of those things that I knew I needed to write down and remember. Especially as I will be teaching seminary I felt like this talk could not have come at a better time.