My Entreprenuer's Journal

  Week 11 Journal entry by Colleen Manley              Thinking about the lens I look through about money brings me to my home I was raised in.   My father was once a successful businessman but lost his money due to following many entrepreneurial ideas here and there.   I can’t even list all of them.   Since my father’s death, my mother says he should have been a schoolteacher or a postal worker so they could have had a steady income and retirement, but this was not in his nature.   He had so much ambition and after his first successful business, which he sold, he went on to other things, never to see success in his entrepreneurial journey again.   He died without a penny to his name. After seeing my father be unsuccessful in his business life, I searched for a man to marry who would give me stability and security.   When I met my husband, he had dreams to become a doctor.   He had su...

This week, I was very intrigued by Jim Ritchie who talked about this book called “Emotional fingerprint”.   He said “Your Emotional Fingerprint is a program that helps you develop a blueprint for your feelings and emotions. It helps explain why you respond the way you do to situations in your life. It teaches that becoming aware of your emotional fingerprint or emotional DNA helps a person to make effective decisions, overcome the challenges, and achieve personal and financial goals with more effectiveness.” He also said, “when a person learns what the key driving forces are in their life, they can begin to take control of their future”. So profound!   I wanted to include these in my journal because I don’t want to forget them. I also appreciated his story about the old Indian chief who tells his grandson about the human experience and that inside each of us is a battle going on between two wolves, one is bad and one good. “The evil one— represented anger, envy, jealousy, ...

  This week I enjoyed doing my interview with my brother.   I am 8 years younger so even though I knew some of his business success, I didn’t know all of it.   It was fun talking to him and gaining some real insights into his successes and failures. After the interview I realized how much I learned from him and was sad that I hadn’t asked these questions earlier.   I have 5 brothers and all of them are entrepreneurs.   Now I am interested in all their stories and want to interview all of them because I learned so much from my oldest brother this week.   My second oldest brother is also a very successful entrepreneur.   He and my oldest brother went into business together as young fathers but found the business didn’t support both families, so my oldest brother backed out and let the other brother do the business on his own, but after a divorce he gave the business back to the older brother.   After his divorce, this second brother got remarried ...

This week I mostly thought about who I would interview.   I decided to interview my brother Joe.   He is such a great guy who has a very wonderful success story.   He did not finish high school because he was a bit of a goof off and his kind of learning just wasn’t sitting in a classroom.   He was very good at sports and was a friend to everyone who knew him.   He went on a mission to Ireland in the late 70’s and when he came home, he worked construction.   He met his wife, they married, and they made a nice life together.    I don’t want to spoil the report I am going to write about how he began his entrepreneur’s journey, but I am excited to tell you more. I really enjoyed the reading.   The action school of business taught me that we need to think backwards.   Start with solutions then look for the problem.   He told the story about Dale Earnhardt and his tragic death.   He created a banner and after a few minutes got 300 ...

Habit 1 - Be proactive.   We can choose our own response to any signals or information we receive. We have the ability to influence our own actions. Therefore, being proactive means to actively choose what our response will be in any situation rather than to react blindly. Habit 2 - Begin with the end in mind.   Main Idea Beginning with the end in mind means using an image or paradigm of your character at the end of your life as a frame of reference or criterion by which everything is examined. Each part of your life should be examined in the context of the whole - the long-term view. Habit 3 - Put first things first. Main Idea The heart of effective personal time management is to spend the maximum time possible doing important jobs in a non-urgent atmosphere that increases your efficiency. Habit 4 - Think win/win. Main Idea The most effective way to work with other people is to structure a win/win relationship focused on results, not methods. Habit 5 - Seek first to u...

  I have been an entrepreneur for most of my life.   It was instilled in me as a kid.   We were poor and had very little money so at the young age of 10, my sister and I got a paper route.   We lived in Las Vegas and our route was close to our home.   We both had bikes and would get up at 4am fold papers and then stack them in our bags.   This was very hard work for two young girls and probably dangerous too.   But we were determined to make money.   After a few weeks of this, and on a particularly very cold morning, my sister dropped her papers on the sidewalk and said, “I quit.”   I begged her not to leave but to no avail.   I cried but picked up her papers and mine and finished the route.   I was determined to do what I had promised to do.   I continue to keep my word today.   If I make an agreement with you, I will fulfill whatever was agreed upon. I really loved N Eldon Tanners talk on success gauged on self-mastery...

  What does choose to live a hero’s journey mean to me? It means making every moment count.   It means putting others first.   It means loving and living life to its fullest.   It means contributing to society, being a good person, and helping others on life’s journey. My husband and I started a rental property management company with my father-in-law and brother-in-law.   My husband and I put up the start up money and my father-in-law and Brother-in-law ran the company.   After 5 years and no return on our investment, we decided to become more involved in the company.   We found that my father-in-law spent every last dime, no matter how much came in.   the company actually made tons of money, but my FIL just couldn’t control his spending.   He not only kept spending all the money, but he kept dipping into the owners trust account, which was illegal.   After talking to him again and again, and after a few more years and hiring an accou...