My Adventure to Entrepreneurship

  From January to April 2023, I took the course on the introduction to entrepreneurship. This course is a big blessing for me. This course changed me right away from the start. I have learned about the creating of life of meaning , the three questions to ask to measure my life; the stars and steppingstone and ethics; the gratitude and the celebration of my life. Along with the above topics, I have read many materials that help me grow academically. Those books include “The 7 habits of highly effective people”, “the Launching Leaders”, “The Mastery”, “A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey” and other papers.   This course aims at helping students to plan for their life as a big picture first before student can learn to plan their business. While studying this course, I feel more thankful to have I have and how I should lead my life before I enter any business or dealing with people or future clients or customers. This course helped me set the framework of my life. I have new pe...

  This is week 13 of the course of Introduction to the Entrepenurship. This week my Church leader taught about the gratitude. We should reflect and thanks those who have been helpful to us such as father, mother, teacher, friends, and especially God. After that I had to answer questions for my assignment. Question: How did being a lifelong learner benefit Haykin's career? How could it benefit yours? My Answer:  Kaykin is a lifelong learner and his lifelong learning benefits so much to his career. He went to study at Harvard Business School. He focused on entrepreneurship and technology. His professors persuaded him to get experience in sales and dealing with customers so that he would become a leader someday, and he took the advice. He learned from his responsibilities as a Multimedia Developer Program manager. He had to do many tasks starting from development until product delivery and to work with many people. He learned to notice extra opportunities.  He learned a...

  In week twelve of my course on the introduction to entrepreneurship, I was required to read chapter nine of the book titled “The Field Guide for the Hero's Journey”. This chapter is about r esting. Taking rest is important, yet many people, including myself, ignore it because it is not urgent. If we don’t take a preventive measure of taking rest while it is not yet urgently necessary, it will be medically and urgently necessary one day. I personally want to improve on this. Taking rest is also important to business. If the people or equipment are not allowed to rest, they will be discouraged or broken. How do I apply the principle of rest into my own business? Resting allows our bodies to recharge, refresh, reflect and re-motivated. Going back to the old testament, Genesis 2:2 reads “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.” Then, verse 31 reads “And God saw everything that he had made, a...

This is an interesting week fo rme. I received an assignment to balance beween work and family.   The first task is to balance between my daughter first performance and a client who surprizes and threantens my business. The client wants me to meet him and cancel my daughter's performance. I can do that.  It can be very hurtful and the memory will last for a long time if I suddenly change my mind to go away from her event. The  girl will feel that her parent does not center around what she is being proud of. Her heart will silently break deeply and it will take a long time to heal the wound. If I choose to leave her behind, she will leave her family behind and center herself around money which is misguided pursuit of happiness. I think it is enjoyable to deal with client who does run into my only when there is a crisis. It is more satisfying that I deal with client who is open to my team, instead of only want to secretly deal with me. I want to succeed as a team. ...

Recently I talked with a businessman Mr. Chhiv Earn who has multiple businesses ranging from mini mart, gas station, fresh fruit shop, café, call center, lab equipment trading ….. Among these businesses, lab equipment strikes me the most. The reason that I chose to speak with Mr. Chhiv Earn is that he understands well about market opportunities, and he has an interesting but applicable perspective about Cambodian farmers or producers. According to him,  Cambodian producers should focus on meeting local demands, instead of trying to export. Mr. Chhiv Earn said that Cambodian agriculture is finding its hard time to compete against its neighbors in terms of export. Therefore, Cambodian farmers and producers should instead focus on producing for domestic sales and improving quality to fight against imports from neighboring countries. Standard and quality improvement is a key to promote domestic products for domestic needs. With his large networks and acknowledging the needs for qua...

  Recently I talked with a businessman Mr. Chhiv Earn who has multiple businesses ranging from mini mart, gas station, fresh fruit shop, café, call center, lab equipment trading ….. Among these businesses, lab equipment strikes me the most.   Cambodian producers should focus on meeting local demands. Mr. Chhiv Earn said that Cambodian agriculture is finding its hard time to compete against its neighbors in terms of export. Therefore, Cambodian farmers and producers should instead focus on producing for domestic sales and improving quality to fight against imports from neighboring countries.   Standard and quality improvement is a key to promote domestic products for domestic needs. With his large networks and acknowledging the needs for quality assurance and promotion, Mr. Chhiv Earn links between producers and testing equipment from oversea. The stronger links he has, the higher quantity of orders he enjoys.   Education helps producers understand the importanc...

   This week I learned about the challenges of entrepreneurs in the journey. I have read and listened to the talk of President Jeffrey R. Holland that titled “However Long and Hard the Road”. I also have read the “Naïve Networking”. These materials strengthened me and made me humble, but the concept that resonated me the most is the talk of President Jeffrey R. Holland. The advice that reads “Just hand in there” is powerful and uplifting to me. There are many times that I want to quit things, but this word helps me stay and continue on course. It helps me to stay on the same place, instead of sliding back, with hope that situation will improve or opportunities will open. His message about victory at all cost and that we shall never surrender makes me think deeply about challenges faced by people who lived on the earth from past. They fought so hard that we don’t have to fight. The fought for national peace and security, but people who did not have to fight in that war mu...

  Out of the seven habits of highly effective people, my most meaningful habit it “Begin with the End in Mind”. The book reads “ There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation. The first creation can be either by conscious design, or as a result of outside pressures. In real life, w hen the artist draws something, he already has a clear picture of what he is drawing. It is not possible that he draws when he is thinking about what to draw. If I have a clear vision of my destination, my efforts would be more effective and productive in my daily activities. When we begin with the end in mind, our lives cam be more meaningful and stay on the righteous personal constitution. The book explains that a personal constitution is a written standard, the key criterion by which everything is evaluated and direct. Personal constitution shows the end state in mind. It shows who we are, what we do and what valued we are based on. Without it, we will wander around back and ...

  This week is exciting to me. I had to answer 3 questions. Question 1: What are the three most important concepts you learned from this week's study materials? I learned about the three areas of knowledge the entrepreneur must have:  1. In-depth knowledge of industry: present and past history of the industry such as customers, suppliers, competitors, barriers, cost, market trends... 2. Skills to manage daily operation: operation, processes, HR, admin, accounting 3. Ability to raise the capital: Be exposed to people and build reputation.   To have the in-depth knowledge of industry, I have to learn from people or institutions who have such knowledge such as investors, banks, insurance, consulting companies, ... It is also important for entrepreneur to have skills for daily operation by working from real jobs.   Question 2: Why are the three concepts you just described important to you? These concepts are important to me, because they are the mea...

  This is another eye opening week for me. I have learned from a case study where willingness to listen is crucial for business. Listening can open many opportunities to meet the needs of people.  This week I also learned more about my own values and passion. I have drawn this illustration for anyone's reflection.  At the end, we are not measured by money.  We are measured by our contribution, characters as a good person, and relationship with others.

  This week I had a lot of works to do and many trips. Besides busy schedules, I also have a lot to read during the week. I almost give up my study but at least I want to continue another week. It is a difficult week. It is the week that my lesson is about honesty and business ethics. So, I must be honest and have ethics in my learning. My first impressive material was about Making a Living and a Life by Elder Lynn G. Robbins. His talk is so good that I must listen and then read the script so that it is easy for me to take note for future reference. During my travel this week, I shared the content of this talk with my colleague along the way. What still rings my ear is that Satan has more and more grounds to do this works. People are more competitive, dishonest, and comparative in life and more greedy in many dealing. People are not so much concerned about having enough but more about having more than the neighbors. My next impression is the article “True Blue, Through and Thro...

Randy Pausch  was able to achieve his childhood dream because h is parents let him dream.  He has a mindset of believing that people will be positive to him when he give them enough time. He also believe that obstacles are not to stop people completely but obstacles are to test how badly people want certain things.  Having a dream is important because it stir the blood to flow and make people work harder. Life is a journey, not a destination. It is more important to lead daily life than focusing only on the destination.  I cannot not remember if I had a dream when I was young. I was hopeless and just wanted to survive. I remembered my best feeling when I listened to radio when scholars discussed about Cambodian culture and civilization. I felt peace and pride of my country.  The only thing I can remember is about being calm, and having a decent life. I have never dreamed about being a rich person, famous politicians or religious leader.  Recently, I started...

My Learning Experiences From this Week I am currently taking "The Introduction to Entrepreneur" course. This course is not to help me prepare a business plan. However, it will help me explore about me and prepare my personal plan before any business plan.  This is a startup of me where I will know how to explore my calling, how to create meaning and how to measure my success.  Life will have a lot of twists and turns and sometimes failures. I am committed to have the courage and commitment to get up and move on when I fail. I can get up because I will have the strength from my instructions, videos, case studies, and other books (my friends).  This course will help me know what I need to know, skills I need to attain and changes I need to make. Most importantly, there will be guides where I know how to navigate my journey independently and collectively.  Here are the things that I learn from my reading this week:  Elder David A. Bednar:  We must be faithful ...