Skip to main content

Do What You Love

When Tom Kelly spoke with the Stanford Technology Venture Program years ago, he emphasized, "Do what you love because you will be good at it and you will be willing to put in the extra work." He also referred to a talk given by Jim Collins who talked about three circles. The three circles were: What are you good at? What are you born to do? And what will people pay you to do. When they all interconnect, it will not only give you the answer of what to do with your life, but also how to find happiness doing it. He talked about how he was good at math, but was unhappy with the program in college. This reminded me of a story from Henry B. Eyering. His father was a brilliant and world renowned scientist. When Henry was in college doing a physics degree, he asked his father to help him with a complex mathematical problem. His father asked him, "When you walk down the street, when you're in the shower, when you don't have to be thinking about anything else, isn't this what you think about?" When Hal answered no, he was advised to get out of physics. His father said, "You ought to find something that you love so much that when you don't have to think about anything, that's what you think about." This story fits perfectly into Collins' theory. Not only should you be good at something, but you should also be passionate about it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Integrity and Virtue

Virtue and integrity are vital to an economy because the laws that the markets are governed by depend on these virtues. If they do not stay intact, then the entire structure of the market will become so unreliable that no one will trust the system. If this happens the markets will empty. We are getting dangerously close to this scenario. The main reason for our increasing distrust is because business leaders are putting enormous amounts of priority into the shareholder value. Playing the game with these new rules motivates companies to make decisions that center around a company's share price. These decisions could increase profits like cutting expenditures, but at what price!? We are seeing that businesses are putting more value in taking care of itself before caring for others. Now is where virtue and integrity need to insert themselves onto the scene if we want to prevent a deteriorating market. We are seeing a surge in this somewhat within the last ...

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

What is your attitude toward money? It is interesting that this question comes up this week because after visiting Utah for Thanksgiving, I realized how much my attitude toward money was influenced by my family. My family consisted of seven children and a stay at home mom and my dad whose income fluctuated quite a bit. We had enough, but not a lot. Money was seen with spite and prejudice in my home. I guess not having money is an easier pill to swallow if it is seen as evil. Even now, my siblings and parents all have good incomes but conversations I heard this week made it obvious that their attitude toward money has not changed much. I truly have a fear of money, but have been able to change a little thanks to a husband who has a healthier relationship with money. How can your view of money affect the way you live? With a healthy attitude toward money, you are more knowledgable about how it can not only benefit you but also those around you. If you are scared of it ...

Our Home: A Disciple Preparation Center

One of the readings that really stuck out to me this week was Elder Bednar's address to BYU-I titled: A Disciple Preparation Center. He compared the similarities between the campus of BYU-I and the MTC. Some of the similarities includes that it is isolated from the world, it is a focused and intense time of study, there are specific requirements to attending there with a standard of worthiness, and temple learning is present. I could not help but think that this comparison could also be applied to creating this Disciple Preparation Center in our homes. I think these were such valuable steps that should be applied to help create an atmosphere of learning for me and my family. The very next reading we had was titled, "A Message to Garcia". The powerful truths found in this text was a great bridge into how to implement these previous ideas into our homes. Some of the main take aways I learned from is that the ability to execute is more valuable than education nor talent. T...