A Colombian Entrepreneurial Thought

This has been a year full of challenges and opportunities. I would say that developing a business project such as the one I am dealing with is not easy, in fact creating a call center is complicated and requires a considerable investment of time and money. Something intriguing for me was I had evaluated several items mentioned in the reading "Identifying and Exploiting the Right Entrepreneurial Opportunity...for You" when I was looking for venture capital. Unfortunately for me, I did not pass the last filter in a local presentation of business projects that our city hall was looking to finance. After reading the text mentioned above, I had realized what other aspects are taken into consideration for these investments. I feel encouraged to make some adjustments to my business project. I feel like I now have more valuable information to create a better opportunity for my society. I have also felt identified with the description given of how an entrepreneur is like, citing...

This week has been full of challenges and especially with my business projects. I have had to face several inconveniences with some of my partners and this is causing delays in our plans. I am going through a financial challenge in my life and precisely this situation has encouraged me to seek revelation and ponder in how will I manage everything. I have a conviction that money is just the resource, that if it is well used, blesses the life of others including us, of course. Having this point of view towards money has set my heart and mind into the important things in my life, my family and my religion. Thus, this perspective encourages me to work for the right reasons and look for the best way to help others. Reading about the rules for prospering has also helped me to keep the right focus towards money, the following are the rules: Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing, and fast offerings. Rule 3. Th...

Execute, what an interesting word! It means to put a plan, order, or course of action into effect. It is absolutely an easy word to look for using the Google search box, but according to the reading "A message to Garcia", the ability to execute the rarest Skill of All. This was the first time that I read that description. When I read this text I felt inspired to try this with the team I manage at my work. Results were immediately evident, "how do you want me exactly to do it?", "What is the best time to do this?", "Once I am done with that, what do you want me to do?". Believe it or not, those were some of the "questions" I got after delegating a specific task. I just laughed internally. That is a natural behavior in most of us. Talking about leadership let me share what the article says about making a difference, a characteristic of a natural leader, it says, "Woody Allen said that 90% of life is “just showing up.” If so, the ...

This week has been very challenging at my work. We have been receiving constant visits from our clients and in the efforts to make sure everything goes perfect for them, we have missed certain details that we did not perceive at the right moment. These issues have been the reason for having different meetings in order to identify the root cause of the problem. I am an internal and certified quality auditor and one of the things you learn in this path is precisely how to find the root cause of a problem. There are different strategies to analyze a problem and get to its root cause. I have personally used one that is called the Ishikawa or Fishbone Diagram, this method, based on Wikipedia's definition, "helps to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify and classify these sources of variation." I have seen results by using it but a much ...

This week I was able to learn different things for my path to success. While reading some of the chapters from George Leonard's book, "Mastery", I was able to realize about the several stages where you can be during you mastery path. The book describes in a very interesting way what Mastery is and why we sometimes choose the easiest way instead of the long path that brings happiness and better results in our lives. It also describes the opposition to the concept itself and how to overcome those philosophies. One of the concepts that I realized was part of my life and that I never heard before was "Homeostasis". The way George Leonard defines the word homeostasis opens our understanding and especially because, if we want to master something, we need to move from our comfort zone to a more challenging and higher level of life. Leonard says "This condition of equilibrium, this resistance to change, is called homeostasis...[it] works to keep things as the...

This week I want to focus my writing on spiritual things I had to analyze. When I heard Jan Newman's talk "Loyalty to God and Family" it really made me ponder on how centered is my heart in God and my family. I am right now in the long process of developing a huge business (with 2 partners in different countries) which not only requires money and business knowledge but it also demands time of quality to concentrate and focus on certain aspects of the project. I also have a calling as the ward's secretary and I need to go throughout the week to the chapel and meet with the bishopric, however, I have personally experienced how easily a voice comes to me saying "Don't go this week, concentrate on your business. You can still go next week and it will be fine!" That is a constant voice I hear whenever it comes to attend to Church assignments. The reason why I am bringing these experiences is that it makes me remember a promise received from my Mission Presid...