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A Woman of Integrity


“Mankind is your true business.” 
– Jacob Marley , A Christmas Story, Charles Dickens

This week we covered some really great concepts. The guiding theme though came down to how to have a career in the business world that is one of INTEGRITY. It talked a lot about the temptations that come with money and working with others. Things to avoid, and ways to stay stalwart in the face of those things. I feel really blessed to be partaking in training for business here at BYUI this week. Where else would there be such an emphasis on the ethical nature of running a successful business.

In the talk “Making a Living and a Life” by Lynn G. Robbins he came up with a grading system from A to F of motives in the workplace. He inspired me to seek out a love of God and my fellowman as the primary motivation in my business and the income as the secondary motivation. A few questions he said to ask as principles to help make A level choices were the following:
11.)    Can you ask for the Lord’s blessing with a clear conscience?
22.)    Are their questionable products/services being offered directly or indirectly?
33.)    Does the product/service hurt society?
44.)    Are you taking your responsibility to the community seriously?

This was followed by a great talk by Sheri Dew the President of Deseret Books. She listed 7 ways to become a person of integrity.

11.)    Decide today, once and for all, that you will be worthy of trust.
22.)    Have faith that the Lord can and will help you, and then diligently seek his help.
33.)    Make covenants & keep them.
44.)    Stand up for what you believe.
55.)    Expect your integrity to be challenged.
66.)    Don’t give up.
77.)    Renew your covenants, and do what you were sent to Earth to do.

I especially enjoyed her story about hauling grain in Kansas as a young girl. It reminded me how slippery the slope to total disobedience is when we don’t adhere to laws in order to make our lives easier. We always have to be on guard from the onset, avoiding shortcuts to avoid sliding into something more pernicious.

Levinson, gave great advice about the top 10 things that you really need for a start up company. He took a very conservative stance on most things which I appreciated. He said that the focus needs to be on the product and the customer and the other parts are fluff. His emphasized innovating instead of spending, so finding better ways to do things for less cost.

The last thing that I really appreciated was Jim Ritchie in “The Formula for Happiness.” He melded advice from the famous oil tycoon J. Paul Getty and apostle David B. Haight into 6 steps to success. They are as follows:
11.)    Get Up Early
22.)    Work Hard
33.)    Get Your Education
44.)    Find (your) Oil
55.)    Make Your Mark
66.)    Prepare to Serve/Give Back

    This definitely encouraged me to re-evaluate my schedule and whether late nights should be priority over early mornings. It is something this night owl still needs to warm up to.  Lastly, we read about Magdalena Yesil, a Turkish woman that helped found the Silicon Valley. She spent her career evolving. She would accept new challenges as they arose, and worked hard to bring her ideas to life, and never tired of learning new things. Yesil found partners along that way to help that were different, but that complimented her strengths. There was an inspirtational snowball affect in her career where she gleaned everything she could from each new challenge and then applied it to the next. As a result she was looked at as one of the best in her field, and people came to her for new ideas. I really was inspired by her fearlessness, steadiness, and drive.

This week made me really delve into who I am,  what my "oil" is, and the kind of business person that I want to be.  


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