Scott Turrel - Entrepreneur

 This week I went to a family reunion and learned a lot about how far I've come this semester. Spending time with family I haven't seen in years was a great way to compare who I used to be and who I am now. Many members that I know quite well have some great ideas as to what they might want to do or businesses they might want to start. The difference between most are those that are all talk, sharing their ideas with words like "I would really love to..." and those that actually do with affirmations like "I've been working on...".  It really gave me some perspective on what I actually want to do. I want to be able to return to the next reunion in three years and say what I'm working on or what I've accomplished rather than being part of the crowd that just talks about what I would rather be doing. Some final advice I might give to someone or myself would be to keep going to the finish line. I had many chances to quit school before and stop working...

 I found it very interesting that in Paths to an Entrepreneurial Career, speaker Ted Zoller said the most successful path was to start in a large company then, over time, back into a smaller venture. I think about how much you can learn from a large well established company and the contacts you can make. Its almost like a free education allowing you to learn the ropes before going it on your own.  Another thing I made a connection with this week was about the importance of knowing how other companies (often large companies) operate. A small business that supplies a large business, needs to know how their client makes decisions. I love making connections with the different kinds of work I've done, often using one as an example to help solve a problem in the other. The last thing was reviewing my learning about gratitude. I always have to remind myself that having an attitude of gratitude is not the same as being complacent and just thinking there is nothing I can do about my si...

 I believe that virtue and integrity are important to the economy because trust is needed to grow business. Business drives economy. Without trust in a business it won't work and thus won't contribute to the economy the way it needs to. Whether the general population stops frequenting a certain business (i.e. restaurant, or market, etc.) or refuses to invest in a its future through the stock market, this will impact the economy that is most closely affected by that business. I am reminded of shows like "American Greed" or movies like "The Other Guys" and "Fun with Dick and Jane". The former is documentary style while the latter two are more comedic and satirical, but they all paint a vivid picture of corporate greed that destroys innocent lives and subsequently causes harm to the economy. I myself am hesitant to invest in any business without knowing what kind of values they live up to, not just what they say, but what they actually do. According t...

 In answering the question- What is your attitude toward money?- I have to say that it is pretty complicated. As I learn more with each class leading up to my degree, I think my attitude and views on money change more and more. Years ago I thought that simply having all the money would make all my dreams come true. Now, through education, I've taken a hard look at what it is I really want in life. And yes, having lots more money would make some things easier. The truth is that what I want doesn't actually require all the money. At least not right away. Having more money now could make things go faster, but the reality is I can still accomplish what I want through hard work, research, and especially patience.  A person's view on money can drastically change their life to the point where it becomes an all consuming concept. Something I have tried very hard to do is teach my kids about patience and responsibility. When my oldest wanted to take a vacation to Washington D.C. wit...

This week I learned that not only is it okay to dream big, but working toward our big dreams should be a priority in our lives. It can be easy to get bogged down with life and forget that it is okay to make time for ourselves to work on our dreams. Realistically as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have the biggest dream in the universe. I believe that by following the Gospel of Christ I can achieve eternal salvation, which leads to celestial glory. In that I will become a God as my Savior and my Heavenly Father. What a massive dream! With that in mind, knowing that I am a divine child of God, why should I think I am either unworthy or underserving of big dreams in life? I'm not. If my goals are worthy ones, and I ask for spiritual guidance from the Lord, then I should be able to accomplishing anything no matter how impossible it seems. That "impossibility" comes from either an inability to see how to achieve my dreams, or from personal doubt ...

 This week was interesting for me because I got to do my entrepreneur interview. Even though I decided to talk with someone that I have known for a long time, I was still able to learn so much. I had never really talked to him about his career, business experience, or life goals before. He had so many good insights, and yet he was able to answer in a way that made sense to me because he knows me. He didn't talk over my head or feel like he needed to dumb things down for me. He knows exactly where I am on my own path and was able to talk on my level. I'm glad I chose the person I did as I felt confident and comfortable talking with him about his experiences, where I think if I had interviewed someone new to me the conversation may have been more stale and less enlightening. Another thing about this week was the opportunity to review the talk Leadership with a Small "L" by President Kim B. Clark. I had studied this talk previously in my educational journey at BYU-I and...

  This week we studied the idea of overcoming challenges, something I know all too well. But that doesn't mean I'm an expert nor unafraid of future challenges. There have been many times in my life when I looked at the road ahead and knew it would be difficult yet forged on anyway. With roadblock after roadblock preventing me from making progress as a pilot I struggled onward anyway. In listening to and re-reading the words of Elder Holland when as the President of BYU he gave a talk to the student body about challenges, I found so many parallels to my own life. At one point he says " And when some of those challenges come, you will have the temptation common to us all to say, “This task is too hard. The burden is too heavy. The path is too long.” And so you decide to quit, simply to give up. Now to terminate certain kinds of tasks is not only acceptable but often very wise." (Holland, 1983). What about the times where I thought what I was doing was so very important ...

This week we studied the a summary of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: An Approach To Solving Personal and Professional Problems" by Stephen R. Covey, as well as a descriptive video on the 7 Habits through the Launching Leaders program. I find myself somewhat at a loss this week in being able to live up to my own expectations. Completing my assignments was more difficult this week than ever before and I realized I should have had ample opportunity to get ahead in my studies, rather than trying to complete my assignments on the last day. Life circumstances got in the way in a manner I never expected, or at least didn't expect yet. As I'm writing this, my fourteen year old is in the other room completing a research paper on the subject of integrity. This isn't a school assignment as she is now on summer break, but an assignment I gave her as a form of punishment and a learning opportunity.  I choose to write about this because in studying the 7 Habits, I fo...

 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...

 This week I've learned that throughout this course I will learn what it means to find myself. I will work towards my future and learn exactly what that is. I also learned how important it will be to keep this record of what I learn, not just for the purpose of this course, but throughout the rest of my life and my adventures in life and career. I'm not yet sure what I'm looking forward to learning. I guess I want to find out if becoming my own boss is something I'm ready to try.