Launching Cait

Self-mastery has been a concept I've been working on all year. Discipline of self is not something that comes naturally to me. When I realized that I wanted to start my own business, I decided that this would be one of the most important skills I need to develop in order to be successful. I've been working on developing self-master in personal habits, like diet, exercise and regular prayer and scripture reading. I realize that self-mastery is a life long pursuit, but I'm very impressed with my progress so far this year. Spending all year working on this skill has helped me realize all that I can do, and that if I do things right (or as right as I can), then the Lord will bless my efforts.  Another lesson from this week that impacted me was the video on setting rules about my career and my job. I think this would be valuable information for anyone, not just entrepreneurs. It's caused me to think about what having both a family and a career will look like for me. This ...

I dearly love to read, so the idea of applying The Hero's Journey to my own entrepreneurial journey resonated with me. In a book, a character is the never the same at the end as she was at the beginning. A character must evolve, change, grow, learn in order to for the story to make sense. We're all affected by the things that happen to us, and life events change us in one way or another. In the video he says "what matters most is not the prize in the end, but how the hero is changed in the process." My experiences with becoming a business owner will change me, one way or another. How am I goin to let it change me? Will I thrive, or will I bomb? And if I do bomb, how will I pick myself back up again and keep going? One suggestion to help with this, according to the speaker, is to "find great mentors and ask them great questions." In every story the hero has a guide, someone that says the right thing at the right moment to steer the hero in the right direction...

What a week. There was a lot of material to study and sift through, but I've happened upon some hidden gems that I want to add to my journal. From: 'How Will You Measure Your Life' -"The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place." -"I asked all the students to describe the most humble person they knew. One characteristic of these humble people stood out: They had a high level of self-esteem. They knew who they were, and they felt good about who they were. We also decided that humility was defined not by self-deprecating behavior or attitudes but by the esteem with which you regard others." -"I’ve concluded that the metric...

This week was a great week for studying! I had a chance to really think about ethics and honesty in business, and what I will and won't do. It's probably best to think about this and decide what kind of businesswoman I'm going to be before I get there. Kind of like the lessons I had in YW's where they taught me to decide whether or not to smoke or drink before I get to the situation, so I already know the right answer. I also had a chance to read a case study about a really interesting woman, Magdalena Yesil. This one particularly struck me because she was a woman. She was highly intelligent and motivated, and not afraid to make changes or try something new. She was a successful entrepreneur in a time period where there probably weren't a lot of women entrepreneurs, not to mention ones in the tech industry. I've saved the case study on my computer to re-read, so that when I need an example or reminder of how there will always be an opportunity, so there's n...