Scott Turrel - Entrepreneur

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...