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Entrepreneurship may be more than just having a business for yourself, but next to religion, it could be the best way to develop yourself. Business is all about trial and error and experimental learning and it’s those skills you need in real life. Let’s tune in to Nate Woodbury as he discusses how entrepreneurship can be a big help to personal development.
Are you interested in personal development? Well, entrepreneurship is Bar None the best personal development program there is. -Wow, I’m going to need to hear more. Alright .I’m going to start this up with one exception because I think religion could fall as as the exception. But next to religion, I’m going to definitely say that entrepreneurship, oh man. It is. -Calm down, Nate. -You’re growing every single day. -Your energy is overflowing. Oh man. -This is me with my energy overflowing. I’ve never been more excited in my entire life. Okay, so… How many people… I’m… This is a question, we didn’t prepare this. I’m just curious. How many people do you know that went to business school that now run a business like they’re entrepreneurs? Versus that our employees for businesses. -Mmmm. I’m going to say one. I have one that I can think of right off the bat. The others I think I’ll work for, work for the man. -Okay. So, one out of several? -Yeah. -Okay. -Right now just that quick of a question. -I admit. I only know one person that went to business school but he is an employee. He’s not a business owner. -And I know a lot of business owners that didn’t go to business schools. A million of them. -Yeah. I know hundreds, you know millions. Yeah. So, I got a bachelor’s degree but it was in human biology. I certainly, I looking back I thought, “Maybe it would have been cool to take some business classes.” But it’s all about trial and error. And learning from your mistakes. And when you’re trying to figure something out you’re just… It’s engaged learning. -It’s experiential learning, right? I mean, it’s literally the laboratory of life where you go, “You know what?” In fact, you know, it’s interesting you have a lot of people who are business owners who go back to school because they feel like they want… If they want to make themselves more valuable for a potential employer. First of all, I see your eyes go… I see you go, “Why in the world would a business owner go back to work?” And it’s true. But some do. Because their businesses fail. But then they get back to the work. -They get a little letter or something that can put after their name. -Yeah. -Little, little initials, right. That’s true. It does help on a resume. But ultimately, though they do learn… There’s certain things that are kind of hard facts, if you will, the theory of business leadership and business management and whatever else, administration. But they learn more in that, the time that they ran their own business. Because it’s where the rubber hits the road. It’s where they really dealt with actual employees as opposed to just learning the theory of organizational development. -Yeah. -You know. And behavior and all if that stuff. So, I took five years to get my degree at BYU. -Of human biology. -Yeah I was a… I fell some classes and… -What’s this? What’s this bone? -The ulna or the radius. -Yes. He doesn’t even know. Well, no it depends on where your arm is twisting at. – I just trapped him. He doesn’t know. -Okay. -I was going to say.
Anyway, sorry. So, you did five years to get your degree. -And I learned a lot. -Of course. -I learned a lot but looking back, I’ve learned so much more since graduating. How about human biology? No, not about human biology but certainly quantity of knowledge and definitely applicable. Like applied knowledge. Because I didn’t go into dentistry. Nothing to do with medicine or… -Of what he was dreaming of. Now, I value my science background because I think kind of in a scientific way. And I valued that. I love, you know, kind of the scientific method. -Yeah. You know? -Office ease. -Yeah. Making sure you’ve got a good sample size. And I’ve got this foundation. But really everything that I’ve learned at business is all been self-taught just because entrepreneurship can be really tough. It can be really tough. And I’d all be transparent and admit that the majority of the years that I’ve been an entrepreneur, I have not been successful financially. It’s been a struggle. But I’ve been so darn committed to it because I love it. And passionate about it and even when the bank account is in the negative, I still believe in what I’m doing. And it’s, it’s such a relief. I’ve stuck with it on. And I’m here. I look back at all those hard times. I look at all the hard times that I’ve had. -This is cathartic for him. And I look back at all those hard times and the lessons that I learned and the person that I’ve become in the process. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. -Yeah. -I would not trade it. -Yeah, well you live and learn. Really that’s what it. Is as I’m saying is, the school of hard knocks, you know, the kindergarten of getting the crap kicked out of you. You know, whatever you call it. You know, it’s just the lessons of actually getting out and doing it. Holy cow. If he had just dawn and gotten a degree and spent all that time getting that… And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with getting an MBA or anything like that. It’s going to work for the vast majority who become CEOs of major corporations or bigger small companies. But the entrepreneurial spirit is just strap on a pair and go do it. And you know, you take some mitigated risks, you fail now and then, you learn from your failures and you stay. But this is it: It’s being committed to what you started with. It goes through modifications through time. But the basic kernel of what you started with is the same basic thing that you have now. Except now, as opposed to just being a turd, it’s a polished turd. If you’ll forgive the disgusting imagery. But that’s the old saying. And now, it’s becoming more of something vital and valuable and worthwhile. Stuff that you can teach other people. Things that they come to you and they go, “Oh, great Nate.” Hat in hand, right up to the door. I’ve seen them. What can you tell me about my future? -Let’s switch gears and talk about creation. -Okay, I believe that we are… We all have an innate desire to create. It can tie into a religion beautifully. -I thought you meant THE creation. Just creation, okay. -I believe that as God’s children, we definitely have an instinct to create. (-Hmm) -That you know, maybe your beliefs agree or a-line or disagree in some way. -We certainly all share the desire to procreate. -Okay. -Well, but I’m saying that’s also creation, right? But I mean it is propagating the species. Keep going. -Think about… Let’s go back to business. Entrepreneurship. When you’re the creator of a company, you get to decide the direction you get to create the products or services, you get to improve them. It’s very fulfilling. Especially when it succeeds. What provides me the biggest amount of fulfillment is seeing my clients get a result. The main reason why I don’t sell website design anymore is not because it didn’t sell well. It’s not because my clients… This is a real statistic. Over 99% of my clients were happy with their websites. I tracked how many people complained out of the 600 or whatever, there was only like three people that we couldn’t please. -Nice. And so, they were happy with their website. So, why in the heck did I stop but it was profitable. Okay, my clients weren’t getting a lot of traffic to their websites. They were happy with it. It was beautiful but their family saw it and it was just, “Hey, I’ve got a website, I’m legit.” And also the traffic that did go to their websites, they really weren’t making sales. It wasn’t a conversion machine. -Yeah. -And it wasn’t providing me fulfillment because I wasn’t helping my clients get results. I created something but it’s like, “Well, what good is this creation if it’s not fulfilling its ultimate purpose?” -Right, yeah. -And so, I’ve tried lots of different things and I found this place here on YouTube where we can create YouTube videos, we can launch a channel in a certain way, we can get a result and every one of my clients. It’s working. -Yeah. -It’s working. -Yeah. -I love it.- It’s cool. -So and I look back and it’s like, “Look where we’re at. I created this.” And it’s just such a… -So for you, that’s really the payoff. The years of struggle and of challenges and whatever else. I mean, it’s worth it for you to get to a point where you go. I’m actually… Not just doing what I want to do what I’m good at. But what I’ve always wanted to do is to help my clients get results. To see the results. -Yeah. And I look at that as that’s huge personal development. From where I started to where I am. I’ve really grown a lot just because of this this opportunity.
Okay. So, I kind of touched on this earlier about about business is hard. Really, I’ve come to learn and embrace that mistakes really are stepping stones success. -Mm-hmm. -And I don’t intentionally go out and try to do something that’s going to fail. -Of course not. -Right? So it’s like… It’s not like saying, “Ooh, I love mistakes. I love making mistakes.” Because we don’t like making mistakes. But.. -They’re opportunities. -Exactly. Every mistake gives us an opportunity to learn. -Right. And then to do it again the right way or better way. -Yeah, there are some organizations. Again, I’m a speaker and a trainer. I deal with a lot of different organizations. And often, I hear those that have a culture where they actually… They don’t try to nurture mistakes but they don’t come down on hard on the person or fire them, Much worse. They recognize them. They say, “Thank you. That’s a lesson learned for us. Because you failed on that, we now have our body of knowledge is growing based on this particular product or service. We’re never going to do that again. Thank you. Here’s a couple of tickets to a movie. We don’t encourage you to screw up again.” But it’s not, you know… -Wouldn’t that’d be a cool boss to have? -And they’re and they’re out there. That’s what I’m saying. You know, they have that same, that same mentality. -Alright. So, I want to wrap this up with a question that came in on Quora. The anonymous person said, “When did you regret being an entrepreneur?” So, I have I, as much as I loved it. I thought about that when have I ever regretted being an entrepreneur. I wrote down a specific example. Because there was a time, I remember it’s a memory seared in my brain. I was sitting in the Walmart parking lot needing to buy diapers. -In a car? -Yeah sitting in a car. Did I not say car? -Sitting at the park lot. -I’m being very literal. Because if it’s seared in your brain maybe you were just sitting in the parking lot. -I was in a car but I needed to buy diapers. But I knew that there was no money. I knew our checking account was like slightly in the negative. And I just… It was just a real emotional time. Like, What am I doing!!? You know? Like, how come this isn’t working. And I’ve had many instances like that where… And you hear a lot. I heard from parents, I heard from friends, “Why don’t you just go get a job?” -Yeah. -Oh! I hate that. It’s so emotional with that. It’s like, “Come on guys, I’m working way hard.” You know? -Well, but you know you can’t… I know you… It’s easy to say don’t take things personally, right? But I mean everyone that loves you it takes everything personally. And they love everything about you. And so, that is just the natural, that’s the natural man, the natural man or woman saying, “Look, it’s not working. It’s not that we don’t believe in you. It’s that we think your business sucks.” So, that’s… Hopefully they never said that. But you know what I mean? It’s like, you know, there’s a chance that.. And I think this is what’s true. As an entrepreneur, you conceive, deliver a diaper that baby. And so almost symbolically, in the fact that you’re at a Walmart parking lot and you’re in your overdraft, you’re overdrawn on all of your funds. Just to get diapers for a real child. But in a way it’s like, your baby needs, you know, has a poopoo. You know, your baby needs new diapers and you just don’t even have enough to do that. But you know, your your business is your baby. -Oh, yeah. I look at what I’ve created, what I’ve done. and it’s like, “Yeah, I’m behind but I’m not going to set this aside.” Because I believed in what I’m doing. And I’ve learned so much and I’ve grown and say, “How could I throw this all aside and go back to being a stinking employee?” That’s how I… -In other videos, we’ve established already his complete disdain for being employee. And that’s I think what keeps you… Keeps driving you. Which is awesome. What do I say after that? I’ve talked about poopoo and diapers and love. This has been… We’ve really run the gamut of human emotion and waste. So the question that I have for you that I’d like to see in the comments is “How is entrepreneurship a personal development program for you?” Something that we didn’t touch on here. I will read it, I’ll respond. Glad you’re here. We’ll see you tomorrow.