W03 Reflection: Entrepreneurial Blog

I would be lying to myself if I said that honesty and ethics was a topic that I actively think about. I probably should think about it more often than I do. With anything that is of importance, there has to be intention behind it and it should be thought about more often, especially something as important as being 100% honest in all of your dealings. For the most part, I feel that my daily decisions are usually honest and ethical, but there is always room for improvement.

Honesty and ethics is the foundation of how to live a life that you can be proud of. If someone were to live without honesty and ethics, there is a good chance that toward the end of their life they would have regrets. But choosing to live by a higher standard is something that would likely never be regretted.

This week, I read a talk from Elder Lynn G. Robbins called “Making a Living and a Life”, which left me with much to think about. He gives grades to companies. An A level company is one that has the love of God and fellow men as a primary business motivation, with money as a secondary motivation. B level companies have money as their first motivation and a love for others as a secondary motivation. When I started Rok, we were a B level company. I was definitely in it for the money. I still cared about our customer’s needs, but my primary purpose for even starting the business was to not only make a living, but ultimately sell the company for ten million dollars. Over the years, my mentality has changed. I no longer seek the money first. My primary motive has shifted toward building a company that can last forever. How we are going to do that is by taking care of people. Many companies are first customer-centric, but we have always strived to be employee-focused because if you have happy employees, it will show in their interactions and in turn make happy customers. Employees love the way they are treated, cared for, and looked out for. They know that the company has their best interest in mind. Since we are mostly warehousing, we are always looking for ways to improve work conditions so that it’s not as laborious and demanding. We strive to create an environment that is fulfilling and ensures everyone’s needs are being met.

This week’s reading reminded me of something I read in the book “Atomic Habits”. Your motivation should be something that is not necessarily measurable, but instead something that can continue forever. So instead of saying “my goal is to lose 50 pounds”, you would instead say, “I want to live a healthy life”. Then, losing 50 pounds would be a natural consequence of living a healthy life. The same goes with business goals. If you have a love of God and your fellow man, money can be a natural consequence of that. You will take care of your employees, who will then take care of your customers. Those customers will be happy and therefore give you return business. They will also tell their friends and family to shop with you, thus bringing in even more money. It has a rippling effect that all starts with loving God and your fellow man.