Scott Turrel - Entrepreneur

 Tis week's study re-affirmed something about myself I've known for a long time. I enjoy knowing as much as I can. I often think about characters in some of my favorite shows or movies and realize that so much of most plots rely on someone knowing a lot. I hope I never come across as an arrogant jerk when sharing my knowledge as some characters might like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Instead I hope to be helpful, and trusted for what I know. Along with this is my natural teaching ability. An example is when we were trying to help a student understand the time it would take an aircraft to taxi into position. After telling them the taxi speed (in knots) they were confused. I wanted to relate to them what that meant in a familiar way by stating the miles per hour speed. But I didn't know the conversion. Nobody in the lab did. More than fifty years of aviation experience in a training lab at the FAA Academy and no one knew the conversion of knots to miles per hour. I had t...

 This week we studied perseverance, a subject I think should be covered in any class since it is a discipline required to finish. I think this is a very powerful concept, the value of which is misunderstood by most. Nowadays we see many people with the mindset that if it is worth my time immediately than I can just quit and try something else. The concept of working a single job for several years is lost on many of today's youth. I should know I talk with the younger generation of workers at my current job all the time and they are blown away at the idea that anyone has worked there for ten years or more. I get that for most my job isn't the one you want to have your whole life, but it is a worthwhile position that pays well, with a flexible schedule, and is ridiculously easy to do. Since I have other ambitions to pursue, this job is perfect of allowing me to do that while still making a living. I've been asked many times why I stay for so long, and the answer really is tha...

 This week I really took a hard look at who I am and who I want to be. I not only made a realization of what I want out of my life, but a strong argument for my return to school at this point in my life. After doing an assignment that allowed me to confront my fears and come up with ways to mitigate this, I really convinced myself to continue with school. I had a hard time making this decision initially. Going to school had not been a great time for me historically. I completed my Associates Degree immediately after high school and for awhile had not intention of continuing my education, mostly because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. After suffering some heartache I made the decision to try becoming a pilot. Going to school for that was a unique experience that started out really great. Through years of slow progress, financial setbacks, and trouble with the school and the particular program I was trying to finish, I completed my training feeling less than stellar about the whol...

 This week we studied ethics. Integrity was a major focus of the study material this week. Go figure that while studying integrity I find myself faced with an opportunity to see if I can pass an ethics test in a real life situation. We found out that our roof is leaking so I called for an inspection. We found that there was indeed a leak, but we also found out that another area was significantly damaged by a tree due to ice storms. The quote to complete the work is substantial but fell close to what I understood our deductible would be on an insurance claim so might not be worth doing a claim for. Knowing that by splitting the cost we could cover the repair without a claim, and I told the roofing company that I accepted the service contract. Only to find out later that if the damage is actually due to ice storms then the insurance deductible is significantly less and the insurance agent wants us to use his preferred roofer. Here is where I try to keep my integrity intact. If I can ...

 For this week's journal entry I'll be posting what I learned, mostly regarding achieving childhood dreams and the last lecture of Randy Pausch. In studying his last lecture it is evident that he worked on achieving some very specific childhood dreams, including going to space (or a suitable facsimile thereof). What isn't evident in skimming the lecture is whether he chose one dream to pursue at a time and focused solely on that until it was accomplished. I feel that this is my personal drawback in falling short with some of my own dreams or goals. I don't put enough focus on one thing and instead spend too much energy in pursuing too many different things and not getting very far on any one of them. Randy seemed to choose a childhood dream he had and work toward that until he either reached a point where he had satisfied his own criteria for completion or realized that going further was no longer an option. He describes how "brick walls" are often put up to s...