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The Finale

This has been a wonderful class and I felt like the materials we were left to ponder were a perfect note to end on. I absolutely loved the story shared by Tom Monaghan, the founder of Dominoes. It really did cause me to reflect. When he shared about the fact that he had lived the high life and that toys were wonderful and he enjoyed all that he was able to do, but realized that it was not serving his true purpose. I love that he began to change which led him to giving away most of which he had to other people. What an amazing example! Especially when he talked about the fact that his purpose was to build the kingdom. It can be easy to say that building the kingdom is our purpose, but then live in a way that does not reflect that. You can tell that Tom's heart was completely changed. I think that as an entrepreneur we can find great successes but if we are not able to make sure to stay true to who the Lord wants us to be, we can end up in a lot of trouble. Money is certainly not something that will make one happy and if you allow yourself to become prideful, you will be in danger. I love that Tom was able to recognize that in himself and realize that he enjoyed having more than others. This led to some remarkable changes that most people would not be willing to make, even if they knew it was the right thing to do.

I think that moving forward with entrepreneurial goals is exciting. We have been given many tools within this class to be able to do things in the right way. I think that this class has required me to think about what I want to do and make sure that it is a cause worthy of my time and energy. I also think that we have been blessed with many strategies that will help motivate us to go after the kind of future we want to have. We have been forced to look at all the sides of entrepreneurship and realize that there are positives and negatives. Some people portray being an entrepreneur as easy with being able to choose your schedule and have more freedom. After the interview assignment I realized that it was not as simple as that. The entrepreneur I interviewed shared many experiences where he had to work on Sunday to satisfy a client or be out of town on a job while his children were young. It made me realize that no matter the choice, to be self-employed or to work for someone else, you cannot be two places at once. You have to decide what is important and try to make sure you keep your priorities in your sights at all times. It can be so difficult and one of the things that many mentors stated was that balance was always a struggle. It think that it is good to realize this so that you can be aware and try to make the best use of the time we are given.

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