11/25/2014

And if we want to prosper we should remember these rules that are in the article:

1.      Seek the Lord and have hope in him

2.      Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings

3.      Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.

4.      Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity.

5.      Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.

6.      Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.

Formula for success by Thomas So Monson

Parable Wise & Foolish Virgins - being prepared
Parable talents - be productive
Parable fig tree - be fruitful
First fill your mind with truth, second fill your life with service, and third fill your heart with love.

Started an Article "Worth the Risk" about 5 people who were over 50 and started their own business.  I started the first one last week - here are the other 4.

#2. From Underdog to top dog ------ Carol Gardner - 52 - Had a business with her husband, they lost it, then divorced and now a million in debt.  Living on four credit cards her attorney said "Sweetheart, you either need a therapist or a dog." so she adopted a 4 month old English bulldog name Zelda.  She dressed Zelda in a Santa suit and bubble beard and took a picture to enter in a local pet store's Christmas card contest.  Prize one years worth of free dog food.  A light bulb went on.  Garner got busy sewing costumes for Zelda, shooting photos and writing captions, a starter line of 24 funny inspirational greeting cards and posters.  Printed 25,000 cards on credit and began pitching them in stores in Oregon and Washington.  After a National Stationery Trade show in New York she signed with a licensing co and was book on Good Morning America.  6 months after winning free dog food she topped 1 million.  25 years later a global multimillion dollar brand that includes calendars, books, jewelry etc etc.  "If I can accomplish all this just be dressing up my dog imagine what you can do."  Gardner.

Staying in Touch with Tech - Mark Britton's 79 year old mother fell, cracking a rib and hitting her head at her vacation house. Her 80 year old husband drove 3 hours to get her to a hospital.  Worried, he created "smart home" for the elderly. At age 50 Britton launched TellaBoomer TeleCare services, a company that assesses the needs of residents and sends it remotely to their caregivers, then designs and installs a home security system for seniors.  He wants more seniors to age in their own home.

An Inventors First Steps - Jeffrey Nash Las Vegas NV. While watching a grandchild play soccer he was also watching a mother helping her baby learn to walk.  He noticed how awkward it was; the mom bending over and the child stumbling along.  He got the inspiration for Juppy Babby Walker, an infant harness with straps that can be held by mom and dad.  He made a sketch, had a tailor make a prototype, then he worked as a salesman.  After a test trial, he had 100 made up and begin selling them out of his trunk.  After selling the 100 he ordered another 1,000, quit his job, cashed in his 401K  and it was during the height of the recession.  He has now sold 35,000 worldwide through his website.  He is approaching one million in total revenue.

Cooking up a better life - Coming from Mexico, worked for several years as janitor for $5 an hour then at a restaurant for $9 an hour.  One day a regular customer as her: "Why are you working for someone else's dream? why not work for your own?"  She went to LaCocina, a Bay area nonprofit "Kitchen incubator" that helps immigrant woman start their own food related business.  She drafted a mission statement, perfected traditional recipes, designed a website, obtained a license for her company, El Pipila.  After a year of preparation she launched El Pipila in San Francisco.  Her vision "to be the best authentic, regional Mexican food provider in the Bay Area."

Great articles to remember 

Attitude on Money
by Stephen W. Gibson
Let’s Talk About Money: How to Get it and what to do with it.
To do that, I need to show you my two pair of prescription glasses. This pair looks almost like clear glass, so it appears that if someone looks out of these they should see everything perfectly.
However even these clear glasses distort the way I see things. When I look at your faces without the glasses, you are all fuzzy, especially after about row three. With these regular glasses, my vision is distorted, however in a good way. I can now see your faces clearly. And what a bunch of good looking students you are up here in Idaho, not like those less good looking ones down in Ut...never mind, I better not go there.
If I put on these other glasses, I can not only still see you clearly, but it changes the way you look. Why? Because in these glasses there is a filter - it alters the way things appear. As I look through these glasses your faces appear dark. In the words of Paul, which we will read in a moment, I see you darkly.
We all have filters in our minds which change the way we "see" things.
Remember, the ways we see things are a combination of what filters others have placed in our minds. These filters, ideas, beliefs, opinions and teachings get into our minds when we are very young and color and form the way we perceive or see things and issues. That is why so many of us think just like our parents think on so many issues when we are young.
Part of the process of becoming adults is deciding if the lenses that we see things through are the correct lenses for us. As we shift through different concepts, principles and facts we decide which we accept. As we do, we become independent thinkers.
That is one of the many reasons we came to college, to learn to think for ourselves. The whole wonderful experience here helps us to arrive at our own conclusions. As we learn to think we basically adjust our own prescription or filters about the way we see life.
Our conclusions about how we view things may be different than the way our parents have taught us or what we have observed in our youth. That in and of itself, doesn't make it bad or good. However I believe we can all better understand life and the different ways each of us see things in life, if we all remember that we all see things through filters.
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In fact, Paul the Apostle, talked about these filters of seeing through glass. In Corinthians, he writes that in morality we see things from a different perspective because we look through glass darkly. However we will see clearly after we come face to face with God and gain an eternal perspective. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then (In the resurrection we shall see things) face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Today we are going to talk about money, as I see it, through my filters. The filters I see things through are based on what I have learned about the subject from my experiences, from conversations I have had, from the scriptures and other books I have read, from classes I have attended and taught and also what the leaders of the church have said and what the Holy Ghost has taught me.
The question I will pose to you today is: what is the right way to look at money? You will need to decide that for yourself.
Now, let's talk about the way I see money.
My sister and I see the issue of money very differently. She says, and I quote, "I don't want to talk about money, I don't want to think about money, I am not interested in money."
For me, I believe we need to think about and understand money; what it is and how to get it. We cannot go through life saying we don't want to "even think about money."
Maybe you are a little like my sister, or maybe you have just arrived home from a mission and you say, "I want to be like the leaders of the church, I just want to think of spiritual or heavenly things all the time."
Come on, get real.
No matter who we are or what we are doing in life, money is a necessary part of it.
For example, President Hinckley needs to think about money.
In the April 1998 conference, when he announced to the Church that by the end of the year 2000 there will be 100 operating temples built and dedicated to the Lord, he had to consider before he made that announcement, where is the money going to come from to build those temples.
When he announced the Perpetual Education Fund in April of this year, he has to discuss with his advisers where the money was coming from to provide education for those tens of thousands of returned missionaries who live in third world countries. Even he cannot just pray about it and millions come out of the sky. He needs to ask the members of the church to open their pocket books and support this and many other wonderful initiatives. Add his words.
So from the President of the church, to the husband or wife, who needs a budget to put food on the table, money is a big part of what we must all think about, plan for, and, yes, even earn the money for our needs.
Now as independent adults you will need to think about acquiring sufficient amounts of money to run your house hold and provide for your family. You can take the position like my sister, and not want to talk about it, but the earning and accumulation of money must, in my opinion, or looking through my filters, be at the forefront of your thinking.
In fact we have taught our children that the more they are looking in the future and planning for it; the more successful they will be when they get here.
If you are the family member who has the responsiblity for the temporal needs of your family, you better do more than just think about it or your marriage and therefore your family will not be a happy one.
Some of you may believe that once you get your first bank charge card, whether it be VISA, Bank Card or an American Express card, your money problems are over.
As the parent of four young married couples let me just tell you when you get those cards and use them, your problems are really just beginning.
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American express commercials tell us don't leave home without it or your American Express Card. I say, leave those cards at home.
The first thing we need understand about money is that is not evil. Money is neither good nor bad. The Love of money or the obsession with accumulating money from others unrighteously, no matter what the method, may be evil, but money in and of itself is neither good nor evil.
Money has great power. It is the power to feed ourselves and our families, power to purchase or rent shelter and to buy transportation. It is the power to purchase medicine for our sick children and power to go on missions when we are young and power to go on missions when we are old. The power to purchase clothes to keep us warm when the Rexburg winds blow and chill you to the bone.
Realize this million dollar bill can give the possessor of this bill the power to buy a million hamburgers for hungry children or buy a million bullets to kill the innocent. It can buy a million pills to treat the sick or a million cigarettes to make people sick. It isn't the million dollars that is bad or evil but how it is used.
The possession of excess Money often reveals or exposes what kind of a person the individual is.
I am reminded of a story about Jon Huntsman, who is ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the 50 richest men in the world. He is, undisputedly, the richest Latter-day Saint. He and his family own chemical plants the world over. It is one of his corporate jets which President Hinckley uses to fly all over the world with no charge to the Church.
Brother Huntsman hasn't always been rich. He is first generation rich. He was raised in humble circumstances.
I remember hearing his wife tell the story of when they were first married making $300 a month in salary. She noticed that for several months $50 was missing each month from the money he brought home from his paycheck. She wondered where it was going. She found out in a fast and testimony meeting one Sunday when a young widow thanked the anonymous giver in the ward for helping with $50 a month contribution to her. That was Jon Huntsman, who started young in giving just a little bit, perhaps a widows mite, yet he developed those habits in his youth that have now transformed into his giving of $100 million to fight cancer.
He is a great example of how money can and should be used.
Another example of how money can be used is a New Testament story that we usually use to illustrate who is our neighbor, but I would like to use it to illustrate the correct use of our possessions.
You all know the story, called the Good Samaritan, but have you ever read it through my glasses.
We have this guy, a Samaritan who is somewhat well to do. He is traveling down this road, minding his own business when he sees a wounded man who had been robbed and left to die. He took compassion upon him.
Luke 10:33-34, "But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him."
He stops, gets off his beast, gets his first aid kit out of his saddle bag and binds up the wounds of the injured traveler.
He then gets some of his provisions, of wine and oil and feeds the wounded man.
Luke 10:34-35 "And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him."
Then he lifts the wounded man up on the Samaritan's beast and leads the beast with the man on it to the nearest hotel, (probably not a Marriott), where he pays for a room for the wounded man as well as getting a room for himself. He may have even paid with an American Express credit card.
Then the next day, he tells the inn keeper, "Take care of him. Give him whatever he needs, and I will pay for it when I come through the town again."
Luck 10:35-36, "And on the morrow, when he departed, he took money, and gave to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."
Here in this simple illustration we have an example of healing the sick and administering to their needs, and feeding the hungry.
Luke 10:37-38, "And he said, He who showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do likewise."
Let's turn to the Book of Mormon and see what the Lord has promised those who perform such service.
30 "And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked or that were hungry, or that were a thirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons to those who stood in need."
31 "And thus they did prosper and become far more wealthy...."
So number three is that Money reveals the kind of person we are.
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Let me contrast what the gospel does for people and what money does to people.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ as explained by Brigham Young in 1860 and echoed by nearly every Prophet since, and I might add was also referred to by our own President Bednar on Oct. 23 at the Provo Campus; the gospel has the power to make bad men good, and good men better.
However, Money usually does not make bad men good and good men better.
Money can make good men better, but on the other hand it usually makes bad men worse.
In the wrong hands or in undirected hands, money can do terrible, terrible things in the hands of the wrong people. We see that in the World every day, we see it in the hands of terrorists. However in the right hands, it can do much good, as we saw in the case of Brother Hunstman and hundreds of others, who share of their time, money, and energy both in and outside the church.
Truly money does, in the hands of good men, make them better. I can testify to that in my own life.
I believe this is number four. Money makes good men better.
Now I ask you, as Latter-day Saints, should we seek for riches?
Jacob, writing in Jacob 2: 18-19 seems to me to say yes, it is alright to seek after money, if we do it in the proper order, after we have received a hope in Christ. And if we seek after Money to do good.
"After ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good - to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted." Jacob 2:19.
I can testify to this because in my own life, seeking after money and the creation of wealth has enabled me to do many good things that I could not do without money, especially in the area of liberating the captive.
This is part of the work my wife and I have been doing for Filipino returned missionaries. We have established an Academy in the Philippines, called the Academy for Creating Enterprise. So far we have graduated 22 Filipino returned missionaries who are now becoming self-reliant by applying what they learned at the Academy.
Through the wonderful opportunity of education you are liberated and can liberate others that are held captive by their ignorance.
One of the big factors that distinguishes the rich from the poor is their chances for learning.
3 Nephi 6: 12 "And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.
What is exciting at these church schools and non-profit institutions such as the Academy for Creating Enterprise in the Philippines is that those who are ignorant because of their poverty can become rich through the creation of these chances or centers for learning.
With money we can build new buildings, we can offer scholarships to students who couldn't be here without them, we can hire the best faculty, and we can attract the best students.
Now you, because of your upbringing in America, understand money a lot better than others, but we all need an awakening of sorts about the role of money, before we marry and start raising a family.
Our religion teaches us that we, as Latter-day Saints, have some responsibility to teach the principles that bring about prosperity and temporal salvation as well as spiritual salvation.
Joseph F. Smith, the nephew of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the president of the Church himself from 1901 to 1918 said, "It has always been a cardinal teaching of the Latter-day Saints that a relation which has not the power to save people temporarily and make them prosperous and happy here on earth, cannot be depended upon to save them spiritually and exalt them in the life to come?" (Religion and Economics in Mormon History by Leonard J. Arrington, BYU Studies, Vol. 3 1960-1961, Num. 3 and 4 - Spring and Summer 1961 15.)
So one of the most exciting things Bette and I have ever done is create a center of learning for the returned missionaries of the Philippines. We hope in the years to come to expand that effort so instead of hundreds will be helped, it will thousands, as they learn how to create enterprises that in turn create jobs for themselves and their fellow ward members.
As much as money can do, there are some things that money can't do. I do not believe money can buy happiness. My wife, Bette, however I found out, while we were teaching at the Academy one day, does feel that money can buy happiness. I wish she was here with me today so we could have that discussion in front of you.
It would certainly help you to understand three things better. One, money, two, you would know more about filters, and three, you would see how in a healthy marriage, the two partners can have very differing views on subjects, and feel very strongly about it, and still be friends and be happy and in love. However that is a subject for another talk.
What money can't do. It cannot buy good health. My good friend, and a real friend of BYU, Steve Jenkins, who at 30 is worth about 3.5 million dollars and earned through his own entrepreneurial ventures, learned it cannot buy good health.
He and his wife had a son, Chandler, who was born with an undeveloped or defective heart. As a several day old infant the baby was operated on. Although hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on trying to preserve him, his tiny little body finally just gave up.
For Steve Jenkins, who has such a well-developed talent for creating wealth, he was humbled as he learned what millions upon millions cannot do.
Making money is a real talent - and perhaps some are born with that ability. Show picture of baby.
However I liken it to playing the piano. Some people seem to have natural born talent to touch those ivory keys and music comes out. However just because you weren't born with the talent of playing the piano, that doesn't mean you can't learn how to play the piano. It is the same with making money.
Some seem to be given or developed the talent that everything they touch turns to gold. We say they have the Midas touch. Others need to be taught how to make money or create wealth. That is why we have business classes here and at the Provo campus. It is especially true as to why we have new classes which teach entrepreneurial skills. Or how to make money through business startups.
How do the brethren feel about money? They warn us about materialism. That is concentrating on accumulating money just to accumulate things; however you might be interested, as I am in what Brigham Young said. "...if we are the people of God, we are to be the richest people on the earth....I am ashamed to see the poverty that exists among the Latter-day Saints. They ought to be worth millions and millions." JD 17:43-44
President Hinckley said in April conference, "I believe the Lord does not wish to see His people condemned to live in poverty. I believe He would have the faithful enjoy the good things of the earth."
I believe one of the reasons the Lord himself came to the earth was that we might have life more abundantly.
Some people look through their filters and believe it is righteous to be poor and suffer. That isn't the picture I see or I believe or the one I believe is taught in the church. It is just the opposite. The scriptures and the brethren teach us we need to be self-reliant. We need to take care of ourselves. You can't do that without money. And you need to earn it yourself. Scripture or idleness.
I believe one of the reasons the Lord himself came to the earth was that we might have life more abundantly.
17. "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves."
However those of us who develop our talent make money and create abundance from the full earth that the Lord has prepared for us, have a grave responsibility to help others.
18. "Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment." (Doctrine and Covenants 104: 17-18).
How do you make money? By following the laws it is predicated upon. (Doctrine and Covenants 130: 20-21).
20. "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated -"
21. "And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."
If we acknowledge that all blessings come from God, and if we believe that blessigns are based on obedience to laws, as I do, and as the Lord explains here, then we must believe from reading this scripture that the blessing of wealth creation or the abundant life comes from, again, keeping the laws upon which that blessing is predicated.
Then we, who wish to accumulate wealth, and believe that we can do good things with it, had better be about learning the laws and keep them so we can receive this promised blessing.
Let me quote one further lessons taught over and over in the Book of Mormon. (Mosiah 1:7)
7. And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them (the writing of the fathers, the scriptures) diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that you may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.
So if you want to prosper:
Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him
Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings.
Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.
Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity.
Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.
Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.
We have time for just a few more thoughts on how to make money.
As you leave today, you will receive a hand out that contains some rules. At the Academy, we call them rules of thumb for making money.
We call it our PAC 45.
We have listed the practices of successful entrepreneurs. We have also listed the attitudes and habits of successful entrepreneurs. And finally we have listed the characteristics of businesses that will lead to success.
So be sure and pick up a copy of that on your way out.
We would like to turn to one other scripture story. The parable of the talents and how these rules of thumb would and see what we can learn about how to make money.
Again as in the story of the Good Samaritan, we have a person of some wealth who travels around the country with his servants, selling goods. So he is a merchant. He is engaged, is what we call in the Phillippines, Buy and Sell.
He calls on three men, who appear to be in the same business, because the scripture talks about him delivering goods to them. Perhaps the first man is a wholesaler and the other three are retailers. Anyway, not only does he deliver goods to them, he also makes an investment in each of them.
With the first, he invests five talents, the second two and the third, one. He decides how much he will invest with them based on their individual abilities and his confidence in them.
As the parable, develops we see both the first and second individual do what good merchants do. They seem to have engaged in buying and selling of merchandise. The scripture says they "traded with the same" and they made a profit. That is what good merchants do, or as we write about in the PAC 45 list. They buy low/sell high. They also turn their inventory and they have good mark ups, which is the difference between what they pay for the merchandise and what they sell it for.
The third individual, however, did not turn his inventory. In fact he really did a bad think.
We teach in the Academy with our PAC 45 list, that we should not "let our money sleep." He buried it.
We all know the end of the story. The merchant returned and those who had gained a profit, through following the proper laws, received a blessing, they prospered in the land. They became filled with joy, and they lived happily ever after. While the individual who let his money sleep did not practice good business principles, did not get the blessing. And not only did he not get a blessing, he got a punishment.
14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the lord.
22. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the lord.
24. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Brothers and Sisters, I have enjoyed visiting with you today. I hope you do not feel my view of money is not too distorted. I hope you have enjoyed learning more about the important subject of money.
It is my hope and prayer that you will all become more self-reliant. That you will take this great chance for learning that you have here and do all that you can with it; that you may in turn help others to help themselves, is my hope and prayer and I offer these thoughts to you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

11/20/2014

One of my concerns is my age then My husband brought home an insert from the Oregonian call "Parade." this particular week in was about entrepreneurs and about how five late bloomers turned big ideas into sweet success.

One article was "An entrepreneur should never be a daredevil."  The secret of following your dream is the opposite of what you might think. Rodrigo Jordan - one of the biggest adventure junkies. Chilean born, loves extreme sports and in 1992 was the first S American to climb Everest.   But when he wanted to start his own business he would not take unnecessary risks. He found allies, ran test programs and kept his teaching job until money came in. Rodrigo said "Entrepreneurs don't like to take risks. I'm always trying to avoid and minimize them. An entrepreneur should never be a daredevil."

How do you take risks without risking it all?  two ways
1. give yourself permission to be a contrarian.
2. Once you accept a certain measure of risk, your primary task is to minimize it.

The founder of Liquid Paper. Bette Graham, hatched her crazy idea while watching painters decorate Christmas windows at the bank where she was a secretary.  She worked 5 more years while selling her potion from her home.

80% of entrepreneurs said they had saved enough money to support their families for a year.

Next article "Worth the Risk" more and more Americans over 50 are tapping their wisdom, experience, and savings accounts, to start successful ventures. The 5 are:

 Anthony Full, Louisville, Colo  --  Started Rock Barbers. More than a haircut. A green for putting, a guitar for picking, a flat screen TV for watching the game and free beer. He was 55 when he opened it in 2010.  Worked as a barber for 30 years then read a quote from Oliver Wendell Homes "Many peope die with their music still in them..As I got older I started thinking about what I wanted my legacy to be."  After 3 years paid off launching loans, started a second location and a line of hair care products.  considering opening a barber school.

continued next week ------

11/14/2014

A lot of food for thought this week.  Do I really want to be an entrepreneur?  Am I too old?  Do I know what I want to do?  Am I really up to it?

Been reading "The Dip" book.  Not sure I agree totally with it.  Why not try lots of different things.  How do I know I am going to like it unless I try it.  It is almost like they say - you only try it if you know you are going to become your best at it.

The brave thing to do is to tough it out and end up on the other side -- getting all the benefits that come from scarcity. The mature thing is not even to bother starting because you probably not going to make it through the dip. And the stupid thing to do is to start, give it your best shot, waste a lot of time and money, and quit right in the middle of the dip.

so don't bother at all hmmmmmmmmm not so sure.  For fun just try it, who cares if you are going to dip and decide it's not worth it.  You don't know if it is worth it or not until you try it.

Paper I wrote

Christine Hansen

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11/14/2014

How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution

      In the article “How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution” number nine, “reform legal, bureaucratic, and regulatory frameworks,” from the list of “nine prescriptions for creating an entrepreneurship ecosystem,” stands out as be the most efficient to me.  Maybe it is because I live in Oregon where I feel like the government does anything and everything to make a business fail.  Oh, they think they are doing you good, they are looking out for you, but in the end they are anti-business.  We have two problems, high taxes and too many regulations. New businesses get discouraged before they even get off of the drawing board because of the massive amount of regulations and hoops they have to jump through.  You have to balance the type of employees you have, we have a high minimum wage, you are told you have to provide insurance, and when you try to rent a building then you have massive cost in renovating the building to put up to their codes. Startup fees are high and business licenses are difficult to get.  High taxes are another problem.  Oregon has the idea that if you are doing well then you your good fortune to everyone else so they can live a comfortable life, so you are penalized for doing well and taxed heavily. For a new business it is difficult to get your feet off of the ground when the taxes take up what little earnings you make.  Countries and states that have loosened up on their regulations and given tax breaks have seen an upsurge in new companies starting.  After all, the large successful companies we have today, at one point they started small.

            Why would number seven, “Stress the Roots,” do so much good?  For one, if you can attain money easily to start up then you don’t have a stake in the market and it is easy to let the company go.  An entrepreneur who has his own skin in the market does not want to lose that skin so he works hard to make it work. Can we say “easy come easy go?”  We can look at kids who go to school.  The kids who do the best are not the kids where the parents pay for everything, but instead it is the kids that have to work part time while getting their education. My son Mikkel, who graduated as a mechanical engineer, worked 30 hours a week while in school. He felt like his grades suffered a little as he tried to balance work, social, school, social, church, and social.  When he interviewed for a prestigious company in Texas they asked him about his work and his grades. He told them that his mother said that if she paid for all of his education he would not appreciate it and learn how to work hard.  He was hired over other kids who had a lot better grades.  The reason – they told him that they wanted someone who knew how to work.  They felt he had a goal in mind and he worked hard to achieve that goal, even when there were obstacles in his way.  They want an employee who knows how to make goals, stick to them, and work hard overcoming obstacles to get there. Working hard for something allows you to appreciate it.  When you have a lot of time and sweat in something, it now becomes your baby and you want to make sure it is successful.

            In the end, we can throw all the money we want to help get people off of their feet and start a business, we can lower taxes, we can ease up on regulations but in the end it isn’t the money or ease that makes a business successful. What makes a company successful is those that have had to work hard to get where they are at, a company that has had to fight through the thick and thin, a company that has learned how to succeed no matter what challenges they face, a company that, against all odds, succeeded and made it.

11-7-2014

I was not sure I liked the assignment "So you want to be an entrepreneur?" this week.  It was long and tedious, but after finally getting through it I realized the benefit of it.  It makes you look inward, something we don't always do.  It has also put in my mind to start looking around at family members, friends, past friends, that possibly could be a benefit if I was to ever start my own business.  Still not sure what I want to do.  My main goal right now is to get my house is order, and get my bachelors degree.  If I can finish my bachelors degree I will be the first woman in my family.  I already am the first to graduate from high school. 

A high school friend of mine posted this on face book and I thought it was very timely to what I have been learning: (Kevin Allen) It has been proven that what we will accomplish in any day is determined in the first 60 minutes after we wake up. The right start to a day means success and positive motion. The wrong start and, well...literally you might as well just go back to bed. I do not always do it, but when I travel especially, I put a book by the alarm clock and then the minute I'm awake I read a chapter, or two or three. THE TV WILL KILL YOUR DAY. Choose a good book with positive principles for an enhanced life. (None better than scriptures.) But have a powerful book nearby. See if your days do not become more productive starting tomorrow. BTW...leave the book by the alarm and try it again to end your day. Your life will change!

Now I need to make a goal to go to bed earlier and get up earlier and make those morning hours worth something.
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I do not want to lose this talk by Holland. I loved it and would like to refer back to it.

However Long and
Hard the Road

Jeffrey R. Holland & Patricia T. Holland

Jeffrey R. Holland was president of Brigham Young University when this devotional address was given on 18 January 1983. Patricia T. Holland
Just before commencement exercises last spring, my husband received a letter from a student which read something like this:
Dear President Holland:
I am completing my undergraduate experience at BYU this month and will be graduating in our upcoming commencement service. My parents are relieved, my professors are surprised, and I am holding my breath. Things could go wrong, you know, even at this late date.
And that brings my one grievance with you. It is this late date business. My dates have been so late that most of them never showed up. I thought it was an assumed part of the BYU contract that I would be married before graduation. Well, you’ve got just under three weeks to come up with somebody or I want my tuition back.
Urgently yours,
Obviously this letter was written in fun, but I do worry that some of you—especially the women on campus—are struggling with your social life more than you would like. I expect there are many who would like to be dating and who would like to have a guaranteed offer of marriage before graduation. As the chill of winter sets in, you may be feeling about as special as frozen custard.
If you are disappointed in the romance—or lack of it—in your life, I ask you to do exactly what this student did—keep a sense of humor, retain your marriage goal for the important commandment it is, and put your energies into becoming! Don’t spend your time walking on your lower lip about what is not. That just stretches the heck out of your lower jaw. Be excited about your chance to grow and develop and become.
You have so much personal potential, and this is the greatest place in the entire world to develop it. This is the time and this is the place!
It’s interesting to me that the rest of the world does eventually discover what was given long ago in the scriptures. I recently read this: “Only a small portion of what we are [is developed] and there is enormous potential in the human being” (Leo Buscaglia, Love [New York: Fawcett, 1982], p. 19).
In his book, The Politics of Experience, R. D. Laing said, “What we think is less than what we know: What we know is less than what we love: What we love is so much less than what there is, and to this . . . extent, we are much less than what we are” (R.D. Laing in Love, p. 19). Without being smug, we’ve known that since the dawn of the Restoration. Surely that ought to be our own exciting challenge toward becoming—of growing, seeing, feeling, touching, smelling, hearing, believing. No time for a Harlequin Romance or a long lower lip with that kind of view.
Marilyn Funt, who wrote the book Are You Anybody? did so in response to people’s asking in the Hollywood swirl if she “was anybody.” In answer she said:
I used to think being somebody meant public recognition of one’s efforts. Wrong. I now know that the feeling of being somebody comes from hard work and self-growth. Being in control of my life makes me answer that question with a strong “Yes!” [New York: Pinacle Books, 1981]
If it didn’t seem unbecoming of the president’s wife in full view of the television audience, I would like to just shout at you to see in yourself what I see in you. The only limitations you have are those you set on yourselves. All of the tools and texts are here, right at your hand. But sometimes we cannot recognize the real purpose and significance of the moment which is ours to experience. That’s because too many of us learn only through our heads and not through our hearts!
A common man or woman will hear only the commonplace, but a man or a women connected to the powers of heaven will learn to be an inheritor of those powers.
As Christ was moving toward his crucifixion, he said, “Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again” (John 12:28). Some of the people there didn’t hear anything but a noise (they thought it thundered); others only heard words, and they thought an angel had spoken to him. Only a few heard the words as they were, and they knew God had spoken them!
“Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes” (John 12:30). He may have been saying, “I already know these things, but did you hear that you too (if you keep company with him) have the potential to glorify his name?”
Be all that you can be! If you have oil in your lamps, you will find how often you get a chance to light them. If you have cared enough to prepare, your light will attract many, both men and women who will seek and cherish your companionship.
In closing, may I share with you a direct quote from my baby sister who graduated from BYU in 1980, returned from a mission in May of 1982, and is still single:
It used to discourage me that girls younger than I were married, but now, having learned what I’ve learned from my education and especially from my mission, I am thrilled with the direction, opportunities, and privileges the Lord has given me to grow. I will have so much more to contribute to my marriage when that time comes. And now I know after getting to know the Lord better that it will come in his own due time!
I, too, believe that—and share with you my testimony that the Lord lives and loves you and will direct the growth of each one of you, forever. Amen.
President Holland
Well, this certainly isn’t curling up in front of the fire with a bowl of popcorn. It isn’t even as cozy as the Cougareat with a plate of nachos. But it is a great privilege to visit with you in any setting, and we are honored to have the opportunity this morning. The very nature of our opening assembly in September requires that I stress university policies and the general expectations for a new school year. I have been quite forthright there, even a little stern, in hopes everyone would understand the firm academic and moral expectations we have for every BYU student. This past September I was pretty direct about some problems we had last spring, and in doing so I probably sent buckshot out into a very large audience who didn’t really deserve it. I guess that is okay if by word of mouth you helped take it to that very small audience who did deserve it.
For those reasons I have wanted to make this visit—convened as you are this very morning as the fog and the rain and the midwinter doldrums bear down on you—I have wanted to make this message more personal and more hopeful. Often enough I will have to talk about the university and your obligations to it. This morning, however, I just want to talk about you. In praying and preparing for this hour, I have wanted to help you, to have you believe we understand you. I pray even now that you will feel our love and admiration and appreciation for you.
Hang In and Hang On
We speak about excellence a great deal at BYU these days, and, by definition, excellence does not come easily or quickly—an excellent education does not, a successful mission does not, a strong, loving marriage does not, rewarding personal relationships do not. It is simply a truism that nothing very valuable can come without significant sacrifice and effort and patience on our part. Perhaps you discovered that when you got your grades last month. Maybe in other ways you are finding that many of the most hoped-for rewards in life can seem an awfully long time coming.
My concern this morning is that you will face some delays and disappointments at this formative time in your life and feel that no one else in the history of mankind has ever had your problems or faced those difficulties. And when some of those challenges come, you will have the temptation common to us all to say, “This task is too hard. The burden is too heavy. The path is too long.” And so you decide to quit, simply to give up. Now to terminate certain kinds of tasks is not only acceptable but often very wise. If you are, for example, a flagpole sitter then I say, “Come on down.” But in life’s most crucial and telling tasks, my plea is to stick with it, to persevere, to hang in and hang on, and to reap your reward. Or to be slightly more scriptural:
Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.
Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days. [D&C 64:33–34]
I am asking you this morning not to give up “for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.” That “great work” is you—your life, your future, the very fulfillment of your dreams. That “great work” is what, with effort and patience and God’s help, you can become. When days are difficult or problems seem unending, I plead with you to stay in the harness and keep pulling. You are entitled to “eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days,” but it will require your heart and a willing mind. It will require that you stay at your post and keep trying.
“Victory—Victory at All Costs”
On 10 May 1940, as the specter of Nazi infamy moved relentlessly toward the English Channel, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was summoned to the post of prime minister of England. He hastily formed a government and on May 13 went before the House of Commons with his maiden speech.
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all our strength that God can give us. . . .That is our policy. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be. [Churchill: the Life Triumphant, American Heritage, 1965, p. 90]
Six days later he went on radio to speak to the world at large. He said:
This is one of the most awe-striking periods in the long history of France and Britain. . . . Behind us . . . gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races: the Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians—upon all of whom the long night of barbarism will descend, unbroken even by a star of hope, unless we conquer, as conquer we must; as conquer we shall. [Churchill, p. 91]
Then two weeks later he was back before Parliament. “We shall not flag or fail,” he vowed.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. [Churchill, p. 91]
I share these lines with you not only because they are among the most stirring calls to patriotism and courage ever uttered in the English language, but also because I relied on them personally once, when I was just your very age.
Exactly twenty years ago last fall I stood on the famous white cliffs of Dover overlooking the English Channel, the very channel which twenty years before that ran as the only barrier between Hitler and England’s fall. In 1962 my mission was concluding, and I was concerned. My future seemed very dim and difficult. My parents were then serving a mission also, which meant I was going home to live I-did-not-quite-know-where and to pay my way I-did-not-quite-know-how. I had completed only one year of college, and I had no idea what to major in or where to seek my career. I knew I needed three more years for a baccalaureate degree and had the vague awareness that graduate school of some kind inevitably loomed up behind that.
I knew tuitions were high and jobs were scarce. And I knew there was an alarmingly wider war spreading in Southeast Asia, which could require my military service. I hoped to marry but wondered when—or if—that could be, at least under all these circumstances. My educational hopes seemed like a never-ending path into the unknown, and I had hardly begun.
So before heading home I stood one last time on the cliffs of the country I had come to love so much,
This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle . . .
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war. [Richard II, act 2, scene 1, lines 40, 43–44]
And there I read again,
We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. What is our aim? . . . Victory—victory at all costs; victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be. . . .
Conquer we must; as conquer we shall. . . . We shall never surrender.
Blood? Toil? Tears? Sweat? Well, I figured I had as much of those as anyone, so I headed home to try. I was, in the parlance of the day, going to give it “my best shot,” however feeble that might prove to be. Now at the same time in your life, I ask you to do the same.
Dreams and Visions
As you wage such personal wars, obviously part of the strength to “hang in there” comes from some glimpse, however faint and fleeting, of what the victory can be. It is as true now as when Solomon said it that “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). If your eyes are always on your shoelaces, if all you can see is this class or that test, this date or that roommate, this disappointment or that dilemma, then it really is quite easy to throw in the towel and stop the fight. But what if it is the fight of your life? Or more precisely if it is the fight for your life, your eternal life at that? What if beyond this class or that test, this date or that roommate, this disappointment or that dilemma, you really can see and can hope for all the best and right things that God has to offer? Oh, it may be blurred a bit by the perspiration running into your eyes, and in a really difficult fight one of the eyes might even be closing a bit, but faintly, dimly, and ever so far away you can see the object of it all. And you say it is worth it, you do want it, you will fight on. Like Coriantumr, you will lean upon your sword to rest a while, then rise to fight again (see Ether 15:24–30).
Joseph Smith’s Perseverance
But how, you ask, do you get this glimpse of the future that helps you to hang on? Well, for me that is one of the great gifts of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not insignificant that early in this life Joseph Smith was taught this lesson three times in the same night and once again the next morning. Moroni said, quoting the Lord verbatim as recorded by the prophet Joel:
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids of those days will I pour out my spirit. [Joel 2:28–29]
Dreaming dreams and seeing visions. The Lord’s spirit upon all flesh—sons and daughters, old and young, servants and handmaidens. I may be wrong, but I can’t imagine an Old Testament verse of any kind that could have helped this boy prophet more. He is being called into the battle of his life, for life itself, or at least for its real meaning and purpose. He will be driven and hunted and hounded. His enemies will rail and ridicule. He will see his children die and his land lost and his marriage tremble. He will languish in prison through a Missouri winter, and he will cry out toward the vault of heaven, “O God, where art thou? . . . How long. . . .O Lord, how long?” (D&C 121:1–3). Finally he would walk the streets of his own city uncertain who, except for a precious few, were really friend or actually foe. And all that toil and trouble, pain and perspiration would end maliciously at Carthage—when there simply were finally more foes than friends. Felled by balls fired from the door of the jail inside and one coming through the window from outside, he fell dead into the hands of his murderers—thirty-eight years of age.
If all this and so much more was to face the Prophet in such a troubled lifetime, and if he finally knew what fate awaited him in Carthage, as he surely did, why didn’t he just quit somewhere along the way? Who needs it? Who needs the abuse and the persecution and the despair and death? It doesn’t sound fun to me, so why not just zip shut the cover of your Triple Combination, hand in your Articles of Faith cards, and go home?
Why not? For the simple reason that he had dreamed dreams and seen visions. Through the blood and the toil and the tears and the sweat, he had seen the redemption of Israel. It was out there somewhere—dimly, distantly—but it was there. So he kept his shoulder to the wheel until God said his work was finished.
The Early Saints; Fulfillment Ahead
And what of the other Saints? What were they to do with a martyred Prophet, a persecuted past, and now hopeless future? With Joseph and Hyrum gone, shouldn’t they just quietly slip away also—somewhere, anywhere? What is the use? They have run and run and run. They have wept and buried their dead. They have started over so many times their hands are bloodied and their hearts are bruised. In the name of sanity and safety and peace, why don’t they just quit?
Well, it was those recurring dreams, and compelling visions. It was spiritual strength. It was the fulfillment they knew to be ahead, no matter how faint or far away.
In their very first general conference, convened three months after the Church was organized, the Saints had recorded this:
Much exhortation and instruction was given, and the Holy Ghost was poured out upon us in a miraculous manner—many of our number prophesied, whilst others had the heavens opened to their view. The goodness and the condescension of a merciful God . . . create[d] within us a sensation of rapturous gratitude, and inspire[d] us with fresh zeal and energy, in the cause of truth. [Times and Seasons 4:23]
There they were, approximately thirty members of the Church meeting in that tiny Peter Whitmer home in Fayette, planning to overthrow the prince of darkness and establish the kingdom of God in all the world. All the world? What presumption! Were they demented? Had they lost all power to reason? Thirty very average, garden-variety Latter-day Saints willing to work the rest of their lives? To what end? Persecution and pain and maybe thirty more members—for a grand total of sixty? Perhaps they did see how limited their immediate personal success would be, and maybe they even saw the trouble ahead, but they saw something more. It was all in that business of the influence of the Holy Ghost and heavens being opened to their view. President John Taylor said later of that experience:
A few men assembled in a log cabin; they saw visions of heaven, and gazed upon the eternal world; they looked through the rent vista of futurity, and beheld the glories of eternity; . . . they were laying the foundation of the salvation of this world. [HC 6:295]
Now there was to be a lot of bad road between that first conference of thirty people and a Church which would one day have nations flocking to it. And, unless I miss my guess, there are several miles of bad road ahead of that Church yet. But to have seen it and felt it and believed it kept them from growing “weary in well-doing,” helped them believe even in the most difficult of times that “out of small things proceedeth that which is great.” In battle far more important than World War II would be, these Saints also vowed victory, however long and hard the road.
Determination
Though nothing in our lives seems to require the courage and patient long-suffering of those early Latter-day Saints, still almost every worthwhile endeavor I can imagine takes something of that same determination. Certainly an education does, including paying off your student loans. But it can be done. I’ve done it. It just takes time. Even love at first sight—if there is such a thing—is nothing like love after nineteen years, seven months, and eleven days, if my marriage to Sister Holland is any indication. Indeed “the best is [always] yet to be” (Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”).
In that sense Troilus, whose impatient love for Cressida makes him something of a basket case, teaches us a valuable lesson. “He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding,” Pandarus says to Troilus. “Have I not tarried?” Troilus pouts.
Pandarus: Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.
Troilus: Have I not tarried?
Pandarus: Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening.
Troilus: Still have I tarried?
Pandarus: Ay, to the leavening; but here’s yet . . . the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.
[Troilus and Cressida, act 1, scene 1, lines 14ff]
The baking of life’s best cakes takes time. Don’t despair of tarrying and trying. And don’t “burn your lips” with impatience. Let me say just one bit more about the modern tragedy of sweethearts who will not tarry. It is of increasing alarm to me.
Symbolic Problem in Our World: Divorce
In even mentioning this I earnestly wish not to offend. I have seen divorce in my own family so I know something of the complexity, the pain, the accusations, and innocence that inevitably attend it. I do not speak here of specific lives or personal problems about which I know nothing and on which I would not pass judgment if I did. But the general matter of divorce, the abstract matter of divorce, is not only a major social but also a major symbolic problem in our world.
With the divorce rate hitting 50 percent and climbing, more than one million American children live through the trauma of a marital break-up every year. Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University says that “America[ns] . . . of the 70’s and 80’s are the first generation in the country’s history who think divorce and separation are a normal part of family life” (“Who’s Minding the Children,” Allan C. Brownfeld, from Divorce and Single-Parent Family Statistics, p. 24). That perception is being helped along by catchy new book titles like Divorce, the New Freedom and Creative Divorce: A new Opportunity for Personal Growth.
No one would wish a bad marriage on anyone. But where do we think “good marriages” come from? They don’t spring full-blown from the head of Zeus any more than does a good education, or good home teaching, or a good symphony. Why should a marriage require fewer tears and less toil and shabbier commitment than your job or your clothes or your car?
Yet some of you will spend less time on the quality and substance and purpose of your marriage—the highest, holiest, culminating covenant you make in this world—than you will in maintaining your ’72 Datsun. And you will break the hearts of many innocent people, including perhaps your own, if that marriage is then dissolved.
“You must [not give] half-hearted compliance [to a marriage],” said President Kimball. “[It requires] all [our] consecration” (Spencer W. Kimball, “An Apostle Speaks about Marriage to John and Mary,” Improvement Era, February 1949, p. 74). So every worthy task will require all that we can give to it. The Lord requires the heart and a willing mind if we are to eat the good of the land of Zion in the last days.
Lesson on Perseverance
Let me close with one last, lengthy lesson on perseverance.
On 28 July 1847, four days after his arrival in that valley, Brigham Young stood upon the spot where now rises the magnificent Salt Lake Temple and exclaimed to his companions: “Here [we will build] the Temple of our God!” (James H. Anderson, “The Salt Lake Temple,” Contributor [The Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of Zion], no. 6, April 1893, p. 243).
Its grounds would cover an eighth of a square mile, and it would be built to stand through eternity. Who cares about the money or stone or timber or glass or gold they don’t have? So what that seeds are not even planted and the Saints are yet without homes? Why worry that crickets will soon be coming—and so will the United States Army?
They just marched forth and broke ground for the most massive, permanent, inspiring edifice they could conceive. And they would spend forty years of their lives trying to complete it.
The work seemed ill-fated from the start. The excavation for the basement required trenches twenty feet wide and sixteen feet deep, much of it through solid gravel. Just digging for the foundation alone required nine thousand man days of labor. Surely someone must have said, “A temple would be fine, but do we really need one this big?” But they kept on digging. Maybe they believed they were “laying the foundation of a great work.” In any case they worked on, “not weary in well-doing.”
And through it all Brigham Young had dreamed the dream and seen the vision. With the excavation complete and the cornerstone ceremony concluded, he said to the Saints assembled:
I do not like to prophesy much, . . . But I will venture to guess that this day, and the work we have performed on it, will long be remembered by this people, and be sounded as with a trumpet’s voice throughout the world. . . . Five years ago last July I was here, and saw in the spirit the Temple. [I stood] not ten feet from where we have laid the chief corner stone. I have not inquired what kind of a temple we should build. Why? Because it was [fully] represented before me. [Anderson, Contributor, p. 257–58]
But as Brigham Young also said, “We never began to build [any] temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring” (J.A. Widtsoe [ed.], Discourses of Brigham Young [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973], p. 410). No sooner was the foundation work finished than Albert Sidney Johnston and his United States troops set out for the Salt Lake Valley intent on war with “the Mormons.” In response President Young made elaborate plans to evacuate and, if necessary, destroy the entire city behind them. But what to do about the temple whose massive excavation was already completed and its 8’ x 16’ foundational walls firmly in place? They did the only thing they could do—they filled it all back in again. Every shovelful. All that soil and gravel that had been so painstakingly removed with those nine thousand man days of labor was filled back in. When they finished, those acres looked like nothing more interesting than a field that had been plowed up and left unplanted.
When the Utah War threat had been removed, the Saints returned to their homes and painfully worked again at uncovering the foundation and removing the material from the excavated basement structure.
But then the apparent masochism of all this seemed most evident when not adobes or sandstone but massive granite boulders were selected for the basic construction material. And they were twenty miles away in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Furthermore the precise design and dimensions of every one of the thousands of stones to be used in that massive structure had to be marked out individually in the architect’s office and shaped accordingly. This was a suffocatingly slow process. Just to put one layer of the six hundred hand-sketched, individually squared, and precisely cut stones around the building took nearly three years. That progress was so slow that virtually no one walking by the temple block could ever see any progress at all.
And, of course, getting the stone from mountain to city center was a nightmare. A canal on which to convey the stone was begun and a great deal of labor and money expended on it, but it was finally aborted. Other means were tried, but oxen proved to be the only viable means of transportation. In the 1860s and ’70s always four and often six oxen in a team could be seen almost any working day of the year, toiling and tugging and struggling to pull from the quarry one monstrous block of granite, or at most two of medium size.
During that time, as if the United States Army hadn’t been enough, the Saints had plenty of other interruptions. The arrival of the railroad pulled almost all of the working force off the temple for nearly three years, and twice grasshopper invasions sent the workers into full-time summer combat with the pests. By mid-1871, fully two decades and untold misery after it had begun, the walls of the temple were barely visible above ground. Far more visible was the teamster’s route from Cottonwood, strewn with the wreckage of wagons—and dreams—unable to bear the load placed on them. The journals and histories of these teamsters are filled with accounts of broken axles, mud-mired animals, shattered sprockets, and shattered hopes. I do not have any evidence that these men swore, but surely they might have been seen turning a rather steely eye toward heaven. But they believed and kept pulling. And through all of this President Young seemed in no hurry. “The Temple will be built as soon as we are prepared to use it,” he said (Anderson, Contributor, p. 266). Indeed his vision was so lofty and his hope so broad that right in the middle of this staggering effort requiring virtually all that the Saints could seem to bear, he announced the construction of the St. George, Manti, and Logan Temples.
“Can you accomplish the work, you Latter-day Saints of these several counties?” he asked. And then in his own inimitable way he answered:
Yes; that is a question I can answer readily. You are perfectly able to do it. The question is, have you the necessary faith? Have you sufficient of the Spirit of God in your hearts to say, yes, by the help of God our Father we will erect these buildings to his name? . . . Go to now, with your might and with your means and finish this Temple. [Anderson, Contributor, p. 267]
So they squared their shoulders and stiffened their backs and went forward with their might. But when President Brigham Young died in 1877, the temple was still scarcely twenty feet above the ground. Ten years later, his successor, President John Taylor, and the temple’s original architect, Truman O. Angell, were dead as well. The side walls were just up to the square. And now the infamous Edmunds-Tucker Act had already been passed by Congress disincorporating The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the effects of this law was to put the Church into receivership, whereby the U.S. marshall under a November court order seized this temple the Saints had now spent just under forty years of their lives dreaming of, working for, and praying fervently to enjoy. To all appearances, the still unfinished but increasingly magnificent structure was to be wrested at this last hour from its rightful owners and put into the hands of aliens and enemies, the very group who had often boasted that the Latter-day Saints would never be permitted to finish the building. It seemed those boasts were certain to be fulfilled. Schemes were immediately put forward to divert the intended use of the temple in ways that would desecrate its holy purpose and mock the staggering sacrifice of the Saints who had so faithfully tried to build it.
But God was with these modern children of Israel, as he always has been and always will be. They did all they could do and left the rest in his hands. And the Red Sea parted before them, and they walked through on firm, dry ground. On 6 April 1892, the Saints as a body were nearly delirious. Now, finally, here in their own valley with their own hands they had cut out of the mountains a granite monument that was to mark, after all they had gone through, the safety of the Saints and the permanence of Christ’s true church on earth for this one last dispensation. The central symbol of all that was the completed House of their God. The streets were literally jammed with people. Forty thousand of them fought their way on to the temple grounds. Ten thousand more, unable to gain entrance, scrambled to the tops of nearby buildings in hopes that some glimpse of the activities might be had. Inside the Tabernacle President Wilford Woodruff, visibly moved by the significance of the moment, said:
If there is any scene on the face of this earth that will attract the attention of the God of heaven and the heavenly host, it is the one before us today—the assembling of this people, the shout of ‘Hosanna!’ the laying of the topstone of this Temple in honor to our God. [Anderson, Contributor, p. 270]
Then, moving outside, he laid the capstone in place exactly at high noon.
In the writing of one who was there, “The scene that followed is beyond the power of language to describe.” Lorenzo Snow, beloved President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, came forward leading 40,000 Latter-day Saints in the Hosanna shout. Every hand held a handkerchief every eye was filled with tears. One said the very “ground seemed to tremble with the volume of the sound” which echoed off the tops of the mountains. “A grander or more imposing spectacle than this ceremony of laying the Temple capstone is not recorded in history” (Anderson, Contributor, p. 273). It was finally and forever finished.
Later that year the prestigious Scientific American (1892), referred to this majestic new edifice as a “monument to Mormon perseverance.” And so it was. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat. The best things are always worth finishing. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Most assuredly you are. As long and laborious as the effort may seem, please keep shaping and setting the stones that will make your accomplishment “a grand and imposing spectacle.” Take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow. Dream dreams and see visions. Work toward their realization. Wait patiently when you have no other choice. Lean on your sword and rest a while, but get up and fight again. Perhaps you will not see the full meaning of your effort in your own lifetime. But your children will, or your children’s children will, until finally you, with all of them, can give the Hosanna shout.
I testify that God loves each of us and that Jesus of Nazareth, his Only Begotten Son, came to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5)—bringing a divine form of worker’s compensation, if you will, to you who keep tugging those granite boulders so faithfully into place. I love you and believe in you. This morning I have wanted to encourage you. You are laying the foundation of a great work—your own inestimable future. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” I pray that your life may be “a monument to Mormon perseverance” “however long and hard the road,” in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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