Be True to Yourself and Your Resources

As an entrepreneur, you tend to feel like you need to create your opportunities, you need to come up with something no one has thought of, and that you need to construct your ideas and businesses completely from scratch. However, we don’t need to create all of our own resources, instead, we need to take advantage of the resources already at our disposal. We all want to recreate Silicon Valley, but using them as the perfect guide for an entrepreneurial ecosystem isn’t going to work. Which is what leads to prescription number two: shape the ecosystem around local conditions. Every country and every culture has their niche. They all specialize in their own specific industries. In order to create a healthy, entrepreneurial ecosystem, you need to invest in and take advantage of those specialty industries and natural resources that are already readily available in your geographic location or culture. We don’t need to think of something nobody has done before, but instead, use what we have and know, to create a better way of doing something that relates to the resources available to us. We have so many opportunities already waiting in front of us. Instead of feeling like we have to go out and find our path, we should look in front of us and see what is already available and waiting. There’s plenty of opportunities and resources conveniently before you, use that position of power and influence to create your ideas and businesses. And we can't be afraid of hard work. One cannot be self-reliant if you are being given everything you need in order to succeed. Each of us needs to learn to work for what we want. We will never be able to sustain success if we never have to work for it. In the words of Fred Gosman, “Children who always get what they want will want as long as they live.”  And somewhere along the line it is important for the character development of our children, and every individual, to learn that “the earth still revolves around the sun” and not around them. There have been many times in my life where the lesson of hard work has been reiterated, teaching me that I have to work for what I want. The road may be hard, but it will always be worth it if we persevere and put forth our best effort and work and don’t shirk in our responsibilities.

Have you ever allowed the little voice inside your head to tell you, "You aren't good enough"?

Those little voices inside our head can be some of the most difficult obstacles that we face in our life. We know just what to say and what buttons to push that will bring us down. Don't allow yourself to get in the way of your dreams. You can do it. Develop the attitude needed to keep going and  persevere through the difficult times. "Perseverance is demonstrated by those who keep going when the going gets tough, who don’t give up even when others say, “It can’t be done.”" -James E. Faust

I love what Gordon B. Hinckley said about being true to ourselves,
"I think of loyalty in terms of being true to ourselves. I think of it in terms of being absolutely faithful to our chosen companions. I think of it in terms of being absolutely loyal to the Church and its many facets of activity. I think of it in terms of being unequivocally true to the God of heaven, our Eternal Father, and His Beloved Son, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must be true to the very best that is in us.

Run from the tide of sleaze that would overcome you. Flee the evils of the world. Be loyal to your better self. Be loyal to the best that is in you. Be faithful and true to the covenants that are associated with God. You cannot wallow about in lasciviousness, you cannot lie, you cannot cheat, you cannot take advantage of others in unrighteousness without denying that touch of divinity with which each of us came into this life. I would pray with all of my strength that we would rise above it and be loyal to our best selves."

-Gordon B. Hinckley, "Loyalty", April 2003