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.
Lorne Robinson's Blog 