God Wants you to Succeed.
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
Proverbs 16:3
The other day I was having a conversation with someone who I would consider a pretty strong Christian.
They go to church most Sundays.
Aren’t afraid to talk about God with the world.
Enjoy living a blessed life and give credit to God for their blessings.
All in all, I would say that they are doing a great job trying to follow what God wants them to do. And that my friends are all that we can ask for.
As we sat together sipping on a good cup of joe he paused for a second and asked this question.
Dan, how do you do it?
Do What Bud?
How do you continue to be an entrepreneur and a good Christian? Don’t you feel like at times you are chasing the love of money? I mean are you ok with using tactics and playing on people’s emotions and needs just to make $$?
I paused for a moment to reflect on the question.
To be completely transparent with you I almost laughed. Because a few years ago I had the exact same thought. And that is partially what held me back from starting this journey sooner.
Anyways¦.
After pondering how to answer this question in a way that he would completely understand without coming across the wrong way I gave him this answer.
Can I answer your question with a question?
How do you feel about taking money from someone when you work for them?
I could see the question marinating in their mind.
Then I added, You know me pretty darn well. Have you ever heard me talk about any of our clients as though they are just a way to make $$? Or when I talk about them do you hear how much I really care for each and every one of them and not just business, but their personal life too?
Then I continued, I can personally say that now that I am an entrepreneur my love for money is actually less than it was when I was an employee. I LOVE going to work EVERY DAY! Heck I am up before 5 am almost every day and I LOVE it!!! I look forward to hearing from our clients. I love being able to give back to the community and our team. I get the opportunity to give people experiences that they might never get otherwise, like helping them work through a limiting belief or grow their business by keeping God involved at a HIGH Level.
We had a GREAT conversation that lasted for a while. And we both talked about verses.
Of course, he brought up the verse of loving money (1 Timothy 6:10). And the one about how you can’t worship both God and Money. And you can’t serve 2 masters (Matthew 6:24)
The truth is that I KNOW that I was CREATED (by God) to be an entrepreneur and grow an empire, Money Is Simply A Byproduct Of Serving Others.
You see he was genuinely concerned for me. He wanted to make sure that I was keeping God close in my life.
And for that, I really appreciate him taking the time to talk to me about this brutally hard topic. It took him real courage to bring it up.
I admire that.
A lot of times I do not talk about $$ figures with people anymore because when I start talking about what our business is capable of and some of our goals, it literally scares them.
It used to scare ME too!!!
But now that I have changed my view they no longer scare me.
They excite me!
The thing that I have really come to realize is that God wants us to be successful.
He wants us to go out into the world, grow his following and ours, share his word, and be the best people we can be.
As long as we are committed to him and give him credit for everything he does, which is everything. He will have our backs while pushing us forward.
When we are good stewards of the ideas that he gives us, then he gives us more. Just like the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25: 14-30. God wants us to think and work hard to succeed.
You see, God wants us to succeed!
He wants you to Succeed!
Take Action
Now is the time to take action, it is time to change the way you think.
Did you know that I created and am recording a Podcast?
Leading From the Middle of the Pack.
You can find it on all the podcast platforms. Or you can check it out on our company website. www.eclipse-dot.com/podcast
Today I want you to listen to a podcast that I recorded a few weeks back. Mastering your Mindset (season 1 Episode 21), was released on 12/13/2022.
Go through the CTFAR framework that I talk about in the podcast.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my podcast to get the latest episodes!!
Prayer
Lord, God today we come to you simply to say thank you. Thank you for everything that you give to us. Thank you for the opportunities that you present us with. Thank you for helping us to have the HARD conversations with others that we love.
Thank you for giving us the chance to believe in ourselves the same way that you believe in us. God, today I have only one favor to ask of you. That is you would help to guide us to be GREAT servants. Help us to serve our employees, help us to serve our family. help us to serve our clients.
Help us to serve our employees/team. Help us to serve our spouses. Help us to serve you. Lord, we pray that you would open our ears, minds, eyes, and hearts to see, hear and feel you in every aspect of our lives.
Lord, thank you for the opportunity you give us to share your word with the world!
We ask all these things in your precious son’s name.
Amen.
A Little More
Sitting in the terminal of our little airport I opened up my podcast app and made sure that I had a few episodes of my favorite podcast downloaded so that I could listen to them on my upcoming flight.
Recently I found Born To Impact by Joel Marion and Dan Kill Mode Long, a podcast by Christian entrepreneurs and leaders.
I wasn’t an entrepreneur and to be honest, it wasn’t even really a thought to start a business at this point in my life.
The truth is that before finding this podcast, I listened to music for my daily commute to and from work. On every trip I took (every other week for work) I had either tv shows or movies downloaded so that I could binge-watch them on the flights. At night I would settle down and do nothing while watching tv.
Then one day I felt pulled to look for a podcast. I mean a few people had told me that I should find one.
Ok, what the heck I’ll give it a try.
I did a quick search and after reading a few reviews I found “Born To Impact.
Anyways..
Back to the airport.
As I boarded the plane I pushed the headphones into my ear to drown out the noise from the other passengers and pushed play.
I got my notebook out and started taking notes. (That’s how good this podcast was for me. I literally took notes from their content. Pages and pages of it.)
As I sat there listening they said something that hit me like a brick wall.
Money is just a tool!
Yeah easy for you to say, you have lots of it. That was my first thought.
Then they continued to explain what they meant.
Money comes and goes. You can always make more of it. Having money is nice but it’s not necessary to be happy.
I paused the podcast and let that one thought marinate in my mind for a while.
Then I do what I always do and I simplified what they just said and made it relatable to me.
My new version of it is this, Money is just a vehicle. Some people drive Ford Pintos and some fly in Private Jets.
All of the vehicles can get you to where you want to go. The main difference is the amount of time it takes to get you there, the comfort of the ride, and how others perceive you when you get there.
With more money, you can get to your next destination faster.
But faster is not always better.
Heck, some of my favorite memories so far in life have been long road trips with Jenna and the family!
When I first started my entrepreneurial journey it was never about money.
It might sound crazy, and you might not understand this but..
Money is just a tool and one way to measure growth in your business.
Notice I didn’t say success.
Success is measured completely differently! Money might be one aspect of success to you, but it is not the sole contributor to measuring success.
Have you ever watched Shark Tank, the TV show?
Notice that when the sharks are really interested in a business they get down and dirty with the number pretty darn fast.
What does it cost you to make the product? How much do you sell it for? How much have you made so far in the business? How much have you made in the last 12 months?
They want to know the numbers.
But there is always at least one Shark that asks them a question like, How long do your customers stick with you? or maybe, What is your CTA (Cost To Acquire) a customer?
And when they find a business they really like, it is all about branding the entrepreneurs themselves.
One of the most heard phrases on that show is, What I’m looking for is a company where I can pour gasoline on the fire by adding some capital and expertise that I have!
They know that money is just a tool.
It is not how we measure happiness.
As I reflected on that entire podcast I found, I didn’t agree with them at the time. In fact, it almost turned me off their podcast.
I hope that doesn’t do that for you.
But.
What I really discovered was that they were right.
Money is just a tool.
And we all have a choice in what we do with our tools. We can either polish them (save our pennies and never spend any of them).
Or use them to help us get more tools so that we can do different jobs and do them faster. (Invest those pennies in tools that help us grow.)
It is our choice what we do.
I chose to invest, not polish!!!
What are you going to do?