Social Innovation

This week’s summary is all about solving social problems using more effective, efficient, sustainable way of bringing change to people. Social innovations are all around us; it talks about new ideas that work to meet our needs and creates opportunities for the public sector and the markets. 

 

What interests me this week is “What Is Your Calling in Life?”  By Jeffrey A. Thompson which talks about callings. “God endows each of us with particular talents and gifts, and that it is our calling to discover those gifts and seek ways to use them in the service of our fellowmen”. “For as God bestows any ability or gift upon any of us, he binds us to such as have need of us and as we are able to help.” We need to discover our callings, gifts to bring change to society and to our own selves. This great man Mohammed Yunus brought change by providing loans, savings, insurance, and other financial services to poor people who lack access to money for their businesses.

Social innovation is becoming more prevalent today so far as some countries remain undeveloped as well as the existence of inequalities in income levels, inefficiency in resource allocation and lack of access to basic amenities.  

Teachings of Brigham Young

“While the inhabitants of the earth are bestowing all their ability, both mental and physical, upon perishable objects, those who profess to be Latter-day Saints, who have the privilege of receiving and understanding the principles of the holy gospel, are in duty bound to study and find out, and put in practice in their lives, those principles that are calculated to endure, and that tend to a continual increase in this, and in the world to come” (DNW, 20 July 1854, 1).

As Latter-Day Saints we are privileged to have all the prophetic words of our prophets written to us, Teachings of our Presidents. Through videos and the Gospel Library software, and therefore it is incumbent on us to get hold of these materials and feast upon them. I am duty bound as a Latter-day Saint to do just that, to study,  learn, and live by eternal principles. President Brigham Young has admonish us to study and find out, and put in practice in our lives, those principles that are calculated to endure, and that tend to a continual increase, and in the world to come. That is what I am doing as a child of God, reading my scriptures, accept church callings and magnifying them and made sure my children are also thought the principles and are baptized into the fold.

As we feast upon the prophetic words of our leaders, Brigham Young said we will increase in knowledge and intelligence, in every branch of mechanism, or in the arts and sciences, for all wisdom.

The Last Lecture

In giving my last lecture about my experience in entrepreneurship journey to whoever will read my journal, I would like to borrow some of the words of Randy Pausch, Have specific dreams, when you don’t get what you want, you get experience, most of what we learn, we learn indirectly, have fun, hand the torch to somebody who can carry it forward and get somebody to be reflective.

When I began looking into my options for my academic studies and career, entrepreneurship was one of the professions that attracted my attention even though I went into IT. I have always loved entrepreneurship and had developed passion for such a noble profession. I have the talent in idea creation, innovations and opportunity recognition.

I have also seen my extended family’s involvement in their family businesses and that has also fuelled my desire and ability to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is about Innovation, idea generation, opportunity recognition, product and market research.

In reflecting on the growth and learning I have acquired throughout the semester, I realized that the instructors organize instructions so that we the students becomes the producers, not just the consumers, of knowledge. Learning becomes a continual process of engaging the mind that transforms the mind. The program has been structured in such a way that made learning a little more fun than what I did in polytechnic and the interactions with our class mates, the instructor, made the course lively and relaxed.

When I reflected upon my grades, I think, I did a very good job considering the circumstances I found myself, the lights outs, internet connectivity problems etc. To be a successful entrepreneur, one certainly should have a strong technology skills or expertise in a key area, but these are not the defining characteristics of entrepreneurship. The key quality a person who is interested in entrepreneurship must have is traits such as creativity, the ability to keep going in the face of hardship, and the social skills needed to build great teams.
Anybody who wants to start a business must learn the specific skills that underpin these qualities. Also important is to develop entrepreneurial skills if you're in a job role where you're expected to develop a business.

Success and Failures

Every entrepreneur should be a person who doesn’t allow negativity get the best of him, the entrepreneur should tune out negativity to make room for positivity. He should take responsibility for his or her own actions and work on changing what can be changed, and keep in mind that life isn’t always easy or fair and should not resist change.

If you are fired from your company you helped build like Steve Jobs never lose hope move on to establish your own. Mistakes and failures will come our way, but we should keep on trying till we succeed. We are to resolve the pain points we go through and the things that have been holding us back from becoming a successful entrepreneur and it will surprised us by the way we were able to overcome such challenges.

This week has been the best week for our $100 project in terms of much work and enrollment in our after school program.

Family Business

My journal is centered today on family business. Family businesses are increasingly being viewed as distinctive and economically significant business entities and for that matter It is important to construct an equitable business ownership plan for a family business because the business ownership plan specifies how the entrepreneur will transfer the business to the next generation. family businesses play a significant role in every countries economy and approximately 90% of the businesses in the United States are family owned and controlled. It also contribute significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP) and half of total wages paid of almost every country. The ownership plan may include financial arrangements and the determination of where all other assets will go and family membership in the business.

Commitment is one advantage of family business; Family members involved in running the business often are more committed to its success, because they all have a stake in seeing the business prosper. They invest most of the time to get the business off the ground, so they’re usually motivated to do what it takes to help the business survive and grow. Families normally places importance on each member's personal needs despite their business commitments.