Solomon’s business principals Part 4
”The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty; but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.”
Proverbs 21: 5
This week we finished up Solomon’s 10 principles for business and personal life.
So let’s just dive right back in where we left off.
Solomon’s ninth principal is to PLAY THE LONG GAME “ REMAIN FOCUSED AND PATIENT.”
The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty; but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty (Proverbs 21: 5).
Many businesses and people make the mistake of running from one plan to another, from one supposed opportunity to another, and losing the focus of their core product or service. (What I like to call shiny object syndrome)
Be patient enough to let your business take root, find its customer base, and grow from there.
One of my biggest mistakes in business and when I was working for others was that I wanted results today!
I switched gears / jobs soooo fast that I never really got a good handle on what the real potential is.
This is probably one of the hardest things to do.
As an entrepreneur (and the trucker inside of me) I like to switch gears quite often. (get the trucker joke, HAHAH)
The problem with that is that when we switch gears it’s usually just when we are starting to get momentum.
Russell Brunson talks about when he had a conversation with an ultra-successful person. They joked with him and said that he was just like everyone else. He got a little success on one project then moved on to the next one. Just like a community theater
Their way to get to where they are today was simply taking the show on the road.
The way to be ultra-successful is to keep doing the same show in different towns until you get it perfected. Then take it worldwide to MAJOR cities.
The last principle we are going to talk about is to KNOW THAT YOUR WORK IS FOR GOD’S GLORY FIRST.
Solomon wrote Psalm 127: Unless the Lord builds the house; they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city; the watchman stays awake in vain.
In words seemingly meant for business owners: It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late.
If you want your effort to count for something, if you want to reach significance and not just success, direct your efforts to God’s glory and build your business as a testimony of excellence to His Name.
How often do we labor in vain because we are doing what we want instead of what God needs us to do?
It happened to me and I’m sure it will happen again in the future.
If you have ever been to our business website www.Eclipse-dot.com (shameless plug) at the bottom of every page there is a verse.
This is just one way that we help to show the world our faith.
We have had several people tell us that it is not a smart idea to mix faith and business.
Our answer is that there is no other way to run a business than to mix faith in it. Because without God we would not have a business.
As you can see all 10 of these principles are extremely easy to follow. And YES God did leave a playbook for how to live our lives and conduct business.
- BE DILIGENT AND WORK HARD.
- WORK WISELY. Work smarter, not harder.
- PURSUE EXCELLENCE. Always
try your best to be the best at what you do in everything you do.
- WORK PROACTIVELY.
Don’t wait on the sidelines, jump in and get to it. Stop procrastinating.
- BE HONEST ALWAYS.
The good Lord LOVES honesty, just like all of us do well. So be honest in everything you do.
- USE DEBT SPARINGLY. Try your best to work off of your own finances without borrowing too much $$.
- WORK COOPERATIVELY.
Working with others is your KEY to success. Without them you do not stand a chance of surviving, let alone thriving.
- ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS WITH VALUED PROFESSIONALS. Be smart enough to know that you don’t know it all
- PLAY THE LONG GAME “ REMAIN FOCUSED AND PATIENT. Be patient enough to let your business take root, find its customer base, and grow from there.
- KNOW THAT YOUR WORK IS FOR GOD’S GLORY FIRST. If you want to reach significance and not just success, direct your efforts to God’s glory and build your business as a testimony of excellence to His Name.
Take Action
Now is the time to put ALL of these principles to work in your life. Write them down, print them off, tattoo them on the back of your hand (ok maybe not the last one)
A lot of people say that reading is leading. Well guess what?
THEY ARE WRONG.
That is only one step of leading a GREAT life.
The next step beyond gaining knowledge and wisdom is implementation.
You can learn everything about the world but if you never implement any of what you learn you will still NEVER make any progress!
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and implement what you just learned!
Prayer
Lord, God, Father in heaven. Today we come to you to say, Thank you. Thank you for the wisdom. Thank you for the love. Thank you for the ambition. Thank you for the people you place in our lives. Thank you for the ability to share. Thank you for EVERYTHING!
God, we know that you hold the whole world in your hands. Please give us the power to always proclaim you as our leader. Give us the courage to follow your words and wisdom. Give us the ambition to jump when you say jump. Give us the faith to follow you through the fire so we can feel the cool breeze of your on our body. Lord, you are so amazing and you give us so much more than we deserve. (Especially me) For that we are grateful.
God, we have more requests in this prayer and that is that you continue to bless us in everything we do. Bless the mission of God’s First Life. Bless the mission of raising kids. Bless our marriages. Bless our adventures. Bless every aspect of our lives. God, thank you for everything you do for us and everywhere you guide us.
We ask all these things in your precious son’s name.
Amen
A Little More
God takes us places that we never EVER expected to go.
As I sit here writing this I think back to the days when I HATED to read and write.
Yes you read that correctly.
There was a time in life when I literally HATED reading and writing. I would skim directions and when it came to writing I all but refused to do anything but shorthand notes that I could never begin to interpret. (And not just because my writing was horrible it was literally illegible.)
The thing is that God has given me a love for writing. Just like he has for business.
You see I grew up thinking that I NEVER wanted to own my own business, because I did not want to have to worry about where the money would come from to pay myself.
It was ingrained in me by dad (love you dad) that it is better to work for someone else and do a GREAT job for them than it is to work for yourself and grow a business.
It’s nothing against my parents at all, it’s just that we never talked about the positive sides of owning a business.
So I never even thought about it.
I know what you’re thinking, Dan you started talking about reading and writing and now you are talking about business. Boy you sure have a one track mind. Lol
Give me a few and I promise that I will get to the point.
Anyways..
We change!
I know it might hurt some of you to hear that, but yes we change. And it is a good thing.
As a kid, I used to go to my grandpa’s house and spend a few weeks over there in the summer helping him.
Grandpa Phelps liked to drive faster than my dad did.
There were several county roads out by him that we drove several times a day back and forth to the house that had a hill on them.
And he would fly down those roads.
I still remember a few times when my little hinny actually left the seat as we topped over the top of the hill. As a kid is soooo much fun riding with grandpa.
Then one time I went over and he was no longer flying over those hills. I asked him what caused him to slow down. He said that there was an accident on one of the hills and he didn’t want us to be in one.
He changed.
Just like I changed from HATING reading and writing to taking 30 pages of notes at the last 3-day seminar I went to.
Just like I started writing blogs and devotionals every week.
Just like I read more than 30 books in 2021.
Just like parents change to grandparents.
Just like I changed from not wanting to own a business to wanting to own multiple businesses.
The thing is that God gives us the courage and the reason to change. We just have to listen to him.
So, the next time you think about change? Think about what you will become after you change! Think about the amazing new adventure you will get to go on after you change! Think about the people that you will touch because you changed!
Now thank God that change happens! Thank him every time you notice a little change.
Because if you changed 1% every day for the next you would see 352% change in your life!
How amazing would that be?
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world