As the year 2014 progresses in this second month, a lot of people’s minds are on how they will succeed in their businesses or careers. Desiring to succeed in your chosen field or endeavour is a good thing. So how can we ensure that we do much better this year than previous years? Business or entrepreneurship is an institution because it is the means by which a group (society/culture) chooses to solve one of its core social problems — in this case the production and distribution of goods and services.
Because God created people in His own image, we are designed to live eternal, abundant lives in relationship with God and in community with other people. The purpose of every institution including business or entrepreneurship is to enable and encourage the realisation of such a life. People in business can freely rely on God’s Spirit to give wisdom, creativity, compassion and competence for their engagement in business.
God reminds us severally in the scriptures that He is the One that gives true success whether in our personal lives, ministry or businesses. Your attitude to success determines whether you are successful or not and the kind of success you have. Are you in bondage to the whole concept of success? We must be cautious about getting into bondage to success or being locked into the necessity of it. There is nothing wrong in wanting to be successful or in setting clear goals but success is much more than that. Your identity and who you are must not be determined by how successful you are. Your personal identity lies in your relationship with God.
Worldly success is based on such things as the amount of money in your bank account, the number of cars you have in your garage, the amount and type of clothes you have in your wardrobe, the type of ivy league schools your children go to, the number of degrees you are able to acquire, the number of women you are able to gather together under your roof and whether you are able to do and acquire as much as your friend or school mate or brother or father has done and acquired. It is a continuous rat race. Fulfilment cannot be found in such things. You buy a new car today and you want a newer and better and more powerful and more expensive one tomorrow. You build a three-bedroom house today and you are thinking of how to build a ten bedroom one tomorrow. You buy a new cloth today and tomorrow you must get the one made of a better and more expensive fabric. This doesn’t mean you have to despise success but your perception and understanding of this concept must be in line with God’s own.
We should not measure success by money. When people say, “That man’s worth ten million dollars,” that says he’s wealthy, but it doesn’t prove he’s successful. That ten million dollars can be easily lost. For every human being created by the Almighty, the measurement of success is simply the ratio of talents used to talents received. What you are doing with what you’ve got, plus who you are becoming. Are you a growing, maturing individual? Whether you work in business, or in ministry, or as a day labourer, professional, or academic, if you are using a large percentage of your talents, you are successful. The person doing the most with what he’s got from God is truly successful. Not the one who becomes the richest or most famous, but the one who has the closest ratio of talents received to talents used.
What are some of the steps we can take to succeed this year?
- Discover and Live by Your Purpose
- Plan Adequately
- Be Persistent
- Watch Your Character and Conduct
- Be Dependable and Consistent
- Work Hard
- Seek God’s Guidance and Be Unceasing in Prayer
Also, to be deemed as successful in business, the business must be run in such a way that should not transgress the following boundaries if it is to fulfil God’s purposes:
- Should not treat or affect people in a manner inconsistent with human dignity;
- Should not fail to pay employees just compensation;
- Should not require that employees work under unreasonably dangerous conditions;
- Should not be inconsistent with the long-term sustainability of the created order;
- Should not fail to comply with all duly adopted and applicable laws;
- Should not mislead people and should be honest in all business dealings;
- Should not preclude people from keeping the Sabbath or disrupt God’s intended rhythm of rest and work;
- Should not fail to reflect God’s intended balance of beauty and function.
