Month: April 2024

The Key to Business Success

The Key to Business Success

This is a significant month in my history – Nine years ago in April 2015, at the peak of my earning years, I left my role as a financial planner after 24 years.

In my last blog, I explained how God multiplied my business significantly in less than five years. A logical question is, why would I ever consider leaving a business that God had obviously blessed?

Journey

I find it so interesting how God uses little things to nudge us along the way. In April 2012, we visited our daughter in Calgary, AB. We attended Centre Street Church, then the book store after the service. There I discovered the NIV Stewardship Study Bible. I briefly looked through it and saw there was so much alignment with the Kingdom Advisors Core Training that I had studied in 2011. I decided to purchase it (USD $39.99) and proceeded to the cashier. I waited in line, then laid the Bible on the counter and took out my wallet to pay.

The cashier simply said, “That’s yours!”
I responded by saying, “No, I just picked this up and am here to pay for it.”

She then explained how someone had donated this Bible with the understanding that whoever expressed an interest in it – it was to be a gift to them! I was completely shocked but couldn’t help believing that God was working through this somehow.

Interestingly, about one year earlier a pastor shared something with me (a “word from the Lord”) that I sincerely questioned. For me, this was one of those things that needed to be tested and confirmed, but I decided that rather than reject it, I would park it, then wait and see. It went something like this: “You are to leave the old word and God will give you a new word that He wants you to share.” The question that I struggled with was that I love God’s word so much; how could I leave any word that was God-given and so meaningful?

The Word – Stewardship

That first evening I had gotten my Stewardship Bible, I opened it to Genesis 50 and read such a powerful story. It illustrated even deeper what Joseph meant when he said to his brothers (in vs. 20),

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Immediately across from this verse was a story that came from the province that I was born and raised in and where I was practicing as an advisor for more than 20 years.

God Meant It For Good

Good things can come out of bad beginnings. The story of a fishing fleet that left a small harbour in Newfoundland and was caught in a terrible storm illustrates this point. The ships, caught in a storm, did not return home when expected, and during the night, the mothers, wives, and children of the fishermen, walked along the shore looking for some sign of their loved ones and praying for their safe return. That same night, one of the homes in the village caught fire and burned to the ground. When morning dawned, the entire fleet of ships sailed back into the harbour. Everyone rejoiced except the woman whose house had burned. She approached her husband in grief and said, “We are ruined! Our house and everything we had was destroyed by fire.” Her husband shook his head. “Thank God for the fire. It was the light of our burning home that guided the whole fleet into port.”

Ronald E. Vallet

Was it a coincidence that we were in Calgary and just happened to into the bookstore that day? What are the chances of walking into a Christian bookstore that exists to sell products and be given such a gift? Was God involved and using this event to lead me toward “a new word” which was clearly stewardship?

Living as a Steward!

I remember the day well. It was the end of my work day – I sat alone in the waiting area and just looked around at the reception area, my office, then the filing cabinet which represented my clients and the assets under management (AUM). I started to pray (out loud) and surrendered my business to God. “This is yours, Lord. It’s not my business, I surrender it to you. Please use this business for your glory.”

The overriding purpose of Christian stewardship is glorifying God. God was transforming my thinking – I was no longer the owner, I was only the steward. I was overcome with gratitude as I recognized how God had been active in my business to help me build meaningful relationships.

Today, as I continue to read my Stewardship Bible, I see how King David was “overcome with gratitude. His natural inclination was to give back to God and he longs to build a house for the Lord. But Nathan shuts down David’s enthusiasm” with a message from God:

“God reminds David that he has never asked for a house. In fact, God turns David’s offer on its head, announcing the he (God) will instead build David a house, establishing his throne forever.”

The Stewardship Bible, How We Give to God, p. 504

Reading this made me realize that what David desired was quite different than what God intended. It’s less about what we want to do for God and more about what He wants to do for us! When we completely surrender our business to God, our deepest desire shifts to running that business for God’s glory. Interestingly, it seems God turns our offer to Him on its head! Our work becomes an opportunity for God; He (God) works to build a business for us.

That my friend is the real key to business success!

The Secret to Growing Your Business

The Secret to Growing Your Business

In the past several weeks I have had multiple conversations with self-employed entrepreneurs who have expressed the urgency to focus on growing their business.

I completely understand the urgency and have been in the exact situation myself ​- fully focused on growing the business with little time for anything else. ​Based on my own experience, as long as my sole focus remained on growing the business, I was working hard and striving for success. I was doing all the right things like marketing myself, networking, asking for referrals and in general, working hard. None of these are really secrets to success, are they? They are simply the necessary elements we would immediately think about and without implementing, success would be extremely unlikely. All of these efforts gave me only a measure of success as a financial advisor.

However, it was only ​when I focused on ​incorporating God into my business that I truly came to reach a level of success that I desired and at a rate of growth that I had never thought possible. In the last 5 years that I was a practicing advisor, my business grew by more than 1200%.

As I look back, this business success happened only when I began to invest some of my time away from the typical business opportunities. I started a training course that gave me a different perspective, namely that God was more interested and involved in my business success than I realized. Somehow, I was convinced that my own efforts had brought me this success, but then again, I wasn’t the first to come to that conclusion. God reminded the Israelites how He fed them manna and cared for them in the wilderness because He knew they might want to take the credit for their prosperity.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Deut. 8:17-18 NIV

Despite this verse being underlined in my Bible, it was far too easy for me to emphasize the part I played in this success, and in so doing, diminish the role that God played in it. Sure, my ability played a part, but who gave me the ability? While my training, education, sales skills had to be developed, ultimately it was God who had positioned me in this role to start with. He had opened the opportunity to be trained in this field and I certainly would not have chosen this path on my own.

The global financial crisis of 2008/2009 was a time of profound soul searching for me but was very pivotal in my journey. It led me to a deeper study to earn my CKA® (Certified Kingdom Advisor®) designation which helped me understand God’s activity in my business.

The result: first, surrendering the ownership of my business to Him, then second, my striving diminished as He grew the business. Maybe that’s exactly what John meant when he said, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

For the record, the S&P 500 did increase in value from 2010 – 2015 by 92%, so this does account for some of the growth in business. The remaining 1100% growth that occurred in less than 5 years is much more than I could have ever accomplished unless I decreased and He increased.
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