ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNAL

Lessons learned:   Last Lecture Exercise       Placing God first can transform difficult challenges into rewarding and spiritual experiences.   This term while completing case studies and trying to understand lessons from others’ lives, it brought to memory the time my wife and I had to learn a very tough lesson.   As a field service technician for Cummins, one of my first assignments was to shadow a journeyman mechanic in the Phoenix valley.   I would travel with him and work either on the same projects or on the same work-site as he would.   This was a rewarding experience for me; it was successful in building a solid foundation with Cummins.   After six months, I was assigned to be a resident diagnostician for one of our larger clients.   Each day I would report to their service facilities and diagnose and direct repairs on their fleet.   I had three new co-workers that seemed dependable and easy to work with. ...

This week my wife and I sat down to discuss our own personal finances.   We decided to create a budget, not unlike a small business budget that I’ve created in the past.   We slowly applied each debit and credit to our budget sheet and when concluded, I created a simple balance sheet with a projected profit and loss statement.   If I was to ask Sadie to do this with me years ago, it wouldn’t have been near as meaningful as we are now very close to paying our mortgage off and starting a new and exciting chapter in our lives.   I included both my pension and 401K as, with projections for retirement in 15 years.   We both feel if we remain strict to our budget we can have both mission funds and college education set aside for our two sons.   At times, discussing the budget was tense and nerve-racking.   However, we have had the same goals for over 18 years now and will continue to do so.   We are looking forward to the future. After the last t...