Shad Watson- My Entrepreneur Journey

Success is gauged by self mastery is probably one of the most important concepts that I learned about this week. Self mastery is key in order to mastering others things in life. If you cannot master your own mind and desires, then it will be hard to master other things and really take your business to a whole other level. That is one of the many good things that I learned about this week. I read this book called good to great by Jim Collins, it is a fantastic book, you should really read it if you haven’t. In the book he basically summarizes the research that he and his team conducted on select companies that they identified that have gone from good companies to lasting great companies and how and why they did that. One of his famous quotes in the book is about discipline. He said “In order to go from good to great, you need disciplined people, disciplined thoughts, and disciplined action”. That quote really stuck with me because it made me really take a good hard look into my person...

This week I ended up learning a lot. One of the most interesting things that I learned about what a study, or conversation, that took place amongst several very successful businessmen and businesswomen at meeting where they were all together to have a discussion on some very interesting questions. One of the main questions that were asked during the event was “Was it skill, character or luck?” that made you and your company successful. It was very interesting to read the conversations that took place and the reasoning behind each of the answers that were given. Many said skill was the most important factor for making them successful, because first of all, you have to be skilled in something right? Many also said character was, because persistence is the key to success. You will be successful one day at that thing as long as you do not give up in the process. Many also said that luck had much to do with their success. Which one of them was right? Well the one conducting the conversati...

This week I have been able to learn a lot about several different topics. One re-occuring topic that kept coming up this week is that money and materialistic things are of little value and that your core values, morels, the relationship with your loved ones are of most value. One example of this is when a business owner lost everything. He felt that he truly had lost his identity, which is something that I can relate to on several different occasions. One of those occasions is when I got out of high school and I went and served a two year mission in Hungary, Budapest. Throughout high school I was known for being the star athlete in basketball and football. Well, in Hungary, none of that mattered. I felt like I went through an identity crises and I needed to re-find myself. It is not a simple thing to do. The second time was when I re-found myself in Hungary, but then had to drop everything and come back home to a whole different world. After not playing sports anymore, and not being ...

This week I have studied several different business topics, but one of the most important ones that I have studied is about ethics and honesty. I work in the auto industry and history has told us that not a lot of people trust car salesmen or managers. If you dont know this, all you need to do is come and work as a salesman or a sales manager for one day and see how the customers treat you. Yes, you will get treated very kindly and well by some people, but a majority of the people come into the dealership with huge, thick walls up. They do this because they do not trust you. Why do they not trust you? Because they have heard of all the horror stories from their friends and relatives of them getting ripped off or cheated from used car salesman. This is what makes my work difficult day in and day out. Learning about ethics and honesty this week was a great reminder to make ethics and honesty a first priority in any field that you go into, any business that you create and with any interac...