The Entrepreneurs

… on CNBC

What makes this show so inspiring?  Start-ups who go big, products that bring quality and variety onto the market, solutions to everyday problems… I think because the show is driven by personal story.

Also, everyone appreciates a little ingenuity.  ”Work smarter, not harder” is all part of the American dream.   

And the Greater Good?  Either the product or service is furthering someone’s right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness (in the marketplace, I see most business centering around the “happiness” factor)… or the Good is served through foundations.  Spanx, a company that uses fabric to help shape women’s bodies into the more accepted and sought-after (and worked-after, and starved-for) “shape” or lack-thereof flatness… Spanx created a foundation to help women in other countries and cultures to have the opportunities that we as American women have considered inherent rights.  No, not the shape/flatness. Namely, education.  Go for it, girls.  

Speaking of Spanx, I recognize what total hypocrisy I live in.  I do want that shape, where acceptable, that flatness, where the fitness magazines tell me is possible.  I would buy Spanx to make my clothes lay flat, to smooth out lines where my skin, in it’s natural state of trying to protect me and be helpful, creates a roll or crease…

and back to Entrepreneurs:  I watched 2 segments: one on the granola company “FEED” that started in a studio apartment in NY by a set of male-model roommates, and the other about Sara Blakely inventing Spanx and creating the company that is now honestly a market standard for shapewear.  

And I left inspired, thinking about my “roots” in arts management, about how satisfying it is to come up with solutions to problems.  

And how much intentionally building community is like entrepreneurship.  I learned a lot of stuff my first year out of high school (while part of a team who was intentionally building community) that I heard again in my management classes.  Some things were to do with “wearing a lot of hats” and “having your hands in…”

I haven’t come up with all the things I see in common, but I feel it when I imagine the CofC campus in 2004 and then look at the community that’s grown there, now flourishing in 2008 with 70 people’s hands in small group gatherings, bible study, service projects, creative expression, worship… 

And when I imagine next year, what do I see?  A new business idea?  A new ministry idea?  Or my hands in a bunch of things, or several hats to wear…. under the title of Campus Staff Minister?

 

The end of the show had the host (ol’ whassis name) tell us what these entrepreneurs have in common– no fear, etc.  Also they are really good looking white people.  Just a note.

this was titled “life questions”

So, here are some things that come up for me as my friends are in line to start careers.  

 

I think almost anyone in any profession or career will come up against the pull of this world, whether it be military power or monetary gains, or even the feel-goodest of helping out (teaching… the great push “make a difference” in kids lives)… the desire for more power, more money, more good feelings.  

and Jesus DOES ask us to lay that down, to resist that pull, in fact to give in to HIS PULL on our lives.  Which is our hearts to him.  Life in the Spirit.  So what about not quitting that job/career/environment but bringing redemption into it? Restoration?  What does that look like– how does that actually play out, and what mindset would motivate a life of restoration in the workplace?

During my time in Madison with InterVarsity I noticed a free ”Starting Businesses for the Lord” brochure, and was really impacted by Ana Li’s talk about Upward Mobilization (and Asian-Americans pursuing this American dream) being NOT what Jesus is calling for.  Also one of the “world changers” (IV alum) we talked about was the owner of a successful construction company who has set a salary “ceiling” for himself.  So how does he do what he does?  How does he follow the Lord in his business life?  Maybe InterVarsity has some insight in this as they proclaim “whole life stewardship” as a core value.  

(a google search of this phrase gives a quick answer… there are a lot of people who want to make this work! Is Google really all i needed to get the answers to these deep and troubling questions?!  Almost.)

I’ve got IV’s “Whole Life Stewardship” homepage here with links to bible studies about faith in the workplace, a Marketplace bibliography for further reading, and a “reflections” page that looks like a good resource for intentional conversations about Jesus+Everyday life, and Quotes by category like Power and Wealth and Poverty 

“Have you learned to listen to the two kingdoms and then discern the difference between the culture and Christ? One has an all consuming source – the difficulties of family, work, community and government. The other makes its appeal through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as it slowly and unevenly grows in His followers. But the two are similar in that they both engage and demonstrate cruelty, destruction, sin and war. The difference comes with the response to this dilemma. One appeals to your survival and self interests while the other suggests you become a servant of others, including your enemies. One thrives on a “Thank God, It’s Friday” mentality focused on your perceived right to pleasure. The other declares “Thank God, It’s Monday” because, in Christ, we enter the torrents of life and work to serve others as we have been served by Christ himself. He loved us – we can love others in His name?“

By: Pete Hammond
Source: Pete Hammond, lecture, 4/90 – Columbus, GA 

“The success of a consumer culture depends on people loving money more than life.“

By: John Leax
Source: Cryptic sayings from John Leax, associate dean at Houghton college from an article in the Houghton Milieu, August, 1993, pages 7-10

 

::::: So now, what about choosing a life of poverty?  What would it take to get on the street, into the community, etc?  Do I even know what that entails?  What would the sacrifice be?  What about the gains?  I guess I should stick with my original thought here and say “if this is the lifestyle choice that Jesus is leading you into as you walk in His Spirit…”  

more on that, and some other book references/reviews later

 

::::::  In order to do this new /counter(american)cultural thing, I (and you) need a strong support base, community.  I know people who live in such a way that RELATIONSHIPS usurp the rat race in politics and business.  The national prayer breakfast has something to do with it.  

Get real with good questions for them.  Get involved in relationships in the fellowship and see where that takes you.  People may be on the same path as you are.  

YOU may be important in someone else’s journey along the Way.  Being in a ministering relationship may bring you life, may bring you along the Way.