... moving on to .... ?

Ever since I started this blog, I looked forward to one day typing on here, "I'm moving my family to [some non-Utahn city here], and I'm going to work for [some very professional company here].

Well, I received 1 offer from an advertising agency that was going to let me go to Hawaii after about a year. But as I researched and even did a week of on the job training, I realized they were trying to go national with a business model that was never going to be sustainable for more than about 2 salesmen in the state of Utah....... I turned it down.

I've been consulting for another organization, but they are looking to hire hardware expertise and I have software..... maybe I just haven't sold myself by not stressing that I understand the market just fine.

And as I've thought about this "expertise," both what I have and what I want to do points me in 1 direction ---->> Terence, start your own company

This is the whole reason I came back to business school. Knowing how to start, manage, and grow my own company is the whole reason I got an MBA from BYU. I took every single class I could about starting a company.

The problem is, my plans all require some experimentation. I'm planning on relying on Page Rank for a lot of my advertising ..... a great strategy to build something on the side for a year or two until it reaches critical mass. Starting and depending on something immediately has not been in my plans (and I question if it is in the economy's).

And yet... I'm setup great to do it. Expenses are very low right now. I still have some consulting on the side so can cover those expenses. I don't have a work commute. To summarize: I have a lot of time to build a company.

I have to re-strategize, and figure out a different business model (still need cheap though). I have put together a lot a web-advertising software to use that should be useful. And I have to have a product delivered very quickly.

I am starting one
I will be starting my own company. I do still have a few interviews, and I'm going to dedicate an hour or two each day to the job search, but I'm going to start a company! :)

Right now, I'm focusing on web-news critical to certain industries like Tom's Hardware or Engadget. I am passionate about Scuba Diving and would love to be the Scuba leader on the web, but I haven't researched to see if that is a good starting point right now. I do have a few other industries that I have had some automated researches on though and will venture into there.

And I am reading over my Entrepreneurial Marketing & Strategy notes (my 2 favorite classes at BYU). Maybe there are some other ideas I haven't hit yet.

I wanted to start a blog dedicated to Social Entrepreneurship happenings around the world, but that will have to be delayed as well.

As my sites gain in popularity, I have some other ideas about selling communities to those who want to start one but not manage it...... and then of course my thousands of ideas. As time goes on, I'll come up with more and more.

These first steps will not build my big, international organization like I want, but they are stepping stones to get there.


Well, here it goes. Just got to give myself one more reminder:
Use your gut, but not too much emotion! Pay attention to why ideas make you nervous, and solve problems... do not just ignore them.

Notes from Leadership Seminar

Well, I am packing up and I've got quite a few papers I want to throw away -- but a few things that I would like to remember.... so I'll be transcribing a few things into here.

Below are some notes I took at a leadership seminer put on by Zig Ziglar and others in the Fall of 2007.

Spearker: Peter Lowe

• Using words alone, he improved our performance. To change your future, change the words you use
• Believe what you say has happened
• To practice, envision where you want to be -- Simulate it! (pratice before you go out and do)
• Had a lady break a board with her hand -- lesson was that it is easiest to break a board in the center (don't pussy foot around the edges)
• If you think you can't breakt the board, simulate it
• "All things are possible to those who believe" (.... Walt Disney? :) )
• Waht you believe is more important tahn how much. A winning belief system is knowing you've won even when down @ half time (some sort of football analogy (Canadian Football no-less))
• See the whole background, not just what you're focused on.
• "Quickest way to change your life is to change your relationship w/ God" (... he was preachy, but I think there is logic in this)

Speaker: Rudy Giuliani

Leaders are Made

1. you have to know what you believe in
   Leadership about ideas. You have to have them! Knowing public opinions and following it is not leadership!
2. To be a leader, you have to be an optomist
   Got to be thinking success in order to obtain it (on a side note, congrats to the Pittsburgh Penguins! wininning two nights ago)
3. Courageous People can manage Fear.
   They also reduce risk
   Eon't let intimidators break your spirit
4. Relentless Preperation -- Practice & Rehearse
   If you prepare for everything you can think of, in that prepration you'll take care of what you can't (said in reference to 9/11 and how nobody saw that coming, but handled it pretty well)
5. Teamwork -- you can't accomplish on just your own. E.o. accountable... even you.
6. You have to love people. More important to be there for people when they are more wrong thatn right.

Speaker: Tom Hopkins

• Need ot change your attitude toware the word "no" (it's now so bad to hear it)
• Think of failure as a learning experience or change to change
  * develop humor
  * practice
  * gam to play to win
• when someone quits, they eventually become a negative person -- want to be a positive comittied achiever!
• -- In sales, ask questions requiring a "yes" (isn't it?, don't you agree?, doesn't it?)
• Alternate force -- 2 options for agreement
• Procupine response tactic
• You're not judged by how often you fail, but how often you succeed (& they are directly proportional)

Speaker: Dr. Robert Schuller (some minister)

• When you have an unsolvable problem, you just need to talk to more people
• 5 ways to turn good inda into a Dynamie Achievement
  1 - Nesting
  2 - Testing
  3 - Investing
  4 - Arresting
  5 - Resting
  ..................... yeah, I have no idea what this is talking about
• ......... I'm done with this guy... my notes aren't making sense.

Speaker: John Stockton

He and Rudy were my 2 favorite speakers at this. He was pretty funny

• Competition is a school
  you learn from everybody
  you learn what not to do
• Let kids take their bumps... don't protect the whole way
• Outcome is secondary to the effort to change that outcome
• Put whole heart & sould into everything you do and you will be a success
• Talks about how success takes a whole lot of repetition
• To be a good teammate:
  Enjoy your teammates' success
  Be on the same page as teammates
  Know the rules
• It's amazing whatt you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit
• Be energetic, don't be a drag

latest activity

遣りたい仕事の貯めに感じを学んでいます。

the work is done

So graduation isn't until the end of the week, but I have completed every last effort I will perform to earn my MBA....
shouldn't be my last post, I want to give myself some summaries from the courses I completed. However, I am done. Everything I learn from here will be for me and not for this piece of paper I'm going to get soon (and a very valuable piece of paper I hope it is!)

CAGR

I am doing some research consulting for a company and came across a new term I hadn't heard before: CAGR

Turns out it mean Compound Annual Growth Rate. I figured it would be good for a MBA Blog to know about this term.

Toothpaste Trophy!

In the International Marketing Class (MBA 658), team "Great Asia" won simulation for selling Toothpaste in Latin America. -- We're showing off our awards. Who can't use some Spanish Colgate with a bow on top? I'll be putting it on the mantle above the fireplace soon.


Nice Job Kenji, Kyle, & Flavio! -- BYU will be at a loss when you leave this month (... I'm getting all teary eyed)

Negotiations Journal Done!

I may write in here some other time to keep my learning going. But for BYU's MBA 661 Class, My Negotiations Journal is complete!!!!! (7 entries I believe).

Woo -- just a little more homework to go before I graduate!