This is a letter I wrote to my mission president today. He is a great man who has taught me a lot.
President Webb,
I've been thinking a lot about you the last couple of days and thought I would write you a quick note. First of all, we missed you at our wedding. We don't feel bad though, and hope that you don't either, because after the wedding, I found out that there were a handful of invitations that got returned, and yours was one of them. So I should really be apologizing to you for not making sure you received our invite.
My wife Angie and I live in Provo where she works in a real estate office as the executive assistant to a bunch of realtors, and I go to school at BYU. I'm majoring in urban development and double minoring in business and communications. I have a very part time job where I sell websites to real estate agents. Somehow my wife and I found jobs where we both work with the same type of people. I am also preparing for the summer where I'll be managing a sales office selling pest control in Portland. I've been recruiting a lot (which gives me an excuse to fly home every couple of weeks) and am very excited for another round of summer sales.
The reason Ive been thinking about you probably comes from the fact that Ive been reading your business blog. You give great advice that has helped me mentally prepare to manage 30+ college aged sales reps this summer. Every time I read one of your stories, I think of you telling them in the Caracas mission home to a bunch of eager zone leaders. Those were such mind forging days for me. You instilled in me a fascination for business that has stuck. I have attempted to start my own business a couple of times since I got home, but like many starry eyed college students, nothing ever came of them. Like you say, there has to be passion, which was the very thing I lacked.
I have found an outlet for my entrepreneurial spirit with the whole pest control gig. It gives me great real-world management experience that I value and a chance to experience the concept of leverage as I recruit, hire, retain and train sales reps to sell pest control for me. I like that, and so far it has paid the bills and then some. I managed last summer also and learned a lot of painful lessons that hopefully I will be able to apply this next summer.
I've been listening to some great podcasts lately that have also fueled the ambitious fire within me. My two favorites are the HBR Ideacast by the Harvard Business Review, and the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. From what you write in your blog, I think you would like those two. Those podcasts, combined with self improvement books, blogs like yours and the ones you recommend, keep pushing me to train myself to be a great business leader somewhere, someday. I keep wanting to jump ahead 5 years and see myself running my own business or going to Harvard or being groomed at a big company to be the next Jack Welch. When I read in your blog that you were a CEO at the age of 27, (I'm 25) I wonder if in two or three years I'll be able to do the same.
President, I look up to you so much and you should know that you are and have been one of the greatest role models I have known. I remember all the great stories you've told from your past about your successes and even your failures, and that has become the model for how I want my life to be. You are a great man and I aspire to be more like you. For that reason, I have decided that you are going to be my mentor. I know that is something I should probably ask you about first, but all I really want to do is write you every once in a while and hope for a response with feedback. Heck, maybe you could blog about the experience. I feel like you could help me find a little more direction for what I want to do with my career.
I hope all is well in the Webb household and pray for you and Sister Webb. I would love to hear from you soon.
More to come.
Mucho Amor.
Mark S.
