W03: Entrepreneurial Journal

“It's often more difficult than it sounds, but it's important to be fanatically ethical when building a company, said Frank Levinson. He believes people understand if it's an ethical environment right away. It is something that people gravitate to, he says, so you just have to build it early and never step off of it.”

Frank Levinson's Top 10 Things You Must Have to Start a Business. These include:
1) Spending everything on a good team and equipment
2) Letting people know the company is in business
3) Raising limited capital
4) Taking stock of a company and determining its needs
5) Being open to opportunities
6) Having a supportive family
7) Targeting mass markets, not just niche markets
8) Having confidence in new ideas
9) Acquiring and selling to real customers
10) Choosing a great partner

"I will never" and "I will always" ethical guardrails.

Many business people lose the foundation that they were based on because they lose their ethical guardrails in their professional path.  I choose these ethical guardrails as my guide lines for the future; if I put them in place now then I can be confident that I will have a peace of mind in the future.

My ethical guardrails are:

I will never

1   I will never put business above important family events.

2. I will never do anything illegal jeopardizing my freedom for any reason.

3. I will never compromise my integrity.

I will always

1. I will always pray for guidance and put love of God first in all daily decisions

2  I will always be honest in all my dealings with all my fellowmen

3. I will always choose what I feel is right.

In "Making a Living and a Life" by Elder Lynn G. Robbins we can read “At the A-level, The Lord established the correct order with priorities as we read in Jacob 2:18-19,, “Before you seek for riches, seek the kingdom of God.  And 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 . . .”  At this level the primary motivation is a love of God and our fellowmen.  Of necessity, there is a secondary motivation to earn a living. 

If a love of God and fellowmen is the primary motivation, then the working man or woman will be a kingdom builder and a full-tithe payer. They will have a “zeal towards their fellow men . . . and will be perfectly honest and upright in all things” (Alma27:27).  As a laborer they will be “worthy of their hire” (Luke 10:7).  As an employer they will give a “just recompense of wages,” (D&C 124:121).  They will be a beloved employer and endeavor to help, not only their customers, but also their employees and community. They will have a baker’s dozen mentality with superior customer service. Sometimes this person will even render service at no charge to help someone in need, such as those doctors who travel to Third-world countries to help the disadvantaged.  Their products and services are of the highest quality. 

Those at the A-level aren’t working for mankind, but living for mankind, trying to lift and help others.  In addition to making a living, they are making a life.  “