This week is Entrepreneurship week at BYU.  They have huge events for entrepreneurs and investors going on this week, with networking, business plan competitions, and speakers.  I was asked to speak on one of the panels today that was focused on Going to Market Strategies.  It was a fun session and we talked about the importance of creating technologies or products that can actually be sold, not things that just sound cool to build.  We discussed different approaches to selling from the different viewpoints of the panelists.  The students in the session were awesome and it was cool to see how many of them have great business ideas they are putting together at such a young age.  One of the more unique ideas was a young man who developed a belt buckle that has belt faces that can Velcro on and off so you can swap out the buckle faces to mix it up.  He even had a cool backing that allowed your iphone to be mounted as your belt buckle, which I could see being very popular amongst high school kids who are trying to sneak their cellphones into the classroom by disguising them as a belt buckle 🙂 ).  There is something really magical about the energy of entrepreneurs.  It creates a momentum that just builds and builds and there is such an amazing spirit of optimism and drive that it is impossible to be around them without getting fired up and excited yourself.  They are like a big force of energy and I LOVE being around it.

Then this evening we went to the BYU Founders dinner to hear Kevin Rollins, former CEO of Dell, speak to us.  He gave a great talk about the stats on happy people.  It was really fascinating to hear the studies they have done on people to trend line the groups that have the happiest ratio of happy people.  To narrow it down to the results for you, it came down that people with faith in God were the happiest (no surprise to me there and I couldn’t agree more as faith in God gives hope…), people with families were the happiest, and entrepreneurs were among the very happiest…my personal feeling is that this is the result of entrepreneurs having a belief that anything is possible, they have a natural optimism that anything is possible and they tend to believe they are lucky people so they are always looking for good things to happen to them.  Again, that is just my thoughts on why they showed statistically happier in life.  It was a really interesting talk and I would love to get copies of all the stats he shared so I could post them for you – I will work on getting that.

After Kevin finished speaking, I was surprised when they announced that I had been chosen as the 2012 Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  Kevin Rollins himself graciously presented me with the award.   I had no idea that they were planning to present me with this award and I was completely humbled and honored by it.    Thank you to BYU for this amazing recognition.   I was really happy to have my husband and darling daughter Ashley with me at the dinner.  My daughter insisted on having our picture taken with my trophy so she could immediately instagram it to facebook.  It’s amazing how quickly teenagers spread the word! (see picture below)

All in all it was a really nice day.  Tomorrow morning its back down to BYU for the Founders Board Meeting and an afternoon of business plan competitions.  I am really looking forward to a FABULOUS FRIDAY and I wish all the happiness and joy to each of you this weekend – my challenge to you for the weekend is this – do something new and exciting – do something you have thought about wanting to do for a long time, but just haven’t gotten around to doing – become part of THAT BIG FORCE OF ENERGY and excitement that makes this world a happier place!

~Amy