Becoming a Godpreneur – Part 1: A New Identity
Updated: Jan 18, 2021
When I first started letting God into my life again, it started out through the area of relationships. I was a South Beach nightclub promoter so I was constantly in and out of relationships with women. Life was empty and I felt lonely. I was looking to settle down.
A girlfriend of mine at the time started talking to me about God. To please her, I attended church on Sundays. At first, infrequently and often after a night out at the clubs. Then, I began to see this ‘God thing’ as something much bigger, and I started to crave going and wanting to know more about God.
My personal identity was beginning to change.
Meanwhile, my business identity remained wrapped in the nightlife world. We were the top nightclub flyer design company. I was writing nightlife marketing books and speaking at the nightlife conventions. We reached almost half a million dollars in sales in one year.
But something wasn’t sitting right. My personal identity and my business identity were at odds with each other. As CEO of this growing company, I also began to find myself in a different mindset than my partners, employees, contractors, vendors, and clients. It came to a point where I had to choose.
Why choose? Why not keep both? Why not forget about the God thing and just keep riding the upward trajectory of where my company was going. I knew it couldn’t be both. It was either the red pill or the blue pill (Matrix quote). What was my identity going to be in? Christ, or Nightlife?
How do we choose God and become a Godpreneur when our whole life we’ve been an entrepreneur, doing business on our own?
In becoming a Godpreneur (and staying one), I’ve come across 3 steps that helped me become a Godpreneur and make the choice to put God first in my business.
Step 1 – Adopt a God-Like Mindset
The first step is knowing that I’m created in God’s image.
The Bible says:
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27 NIV)
Identity is defined as who we are. It’s what makes us who we are; it’s what makes us unique. Still, this can be hard to understand because many of us entrepreneurs are still learning who we are each day, still getting to know God more in our businesses and personal lives. Many of us are being transformed by the renewing of your minds. Many of us are going through a spiritual growth and we’re questioning everything we’ve done up to this point. But we can rest in the fact that God’s identity is our identity, what was lost has been found. If I was born in His likeness, then it only makes sense to own that identity.
You were made in the image of God. This is who you are to your very core. No matter what you or others like about yourself or don’t like about yourself, your identity is in God.
Step 2 – Eliminate Haters
Second point is that our new identity is eliminating the haters.
The Bible says:
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." (1 John 4:4-6 NIV)
Your business partners may call you things like church boy or crazy Christian. But God says these things are not who we are. Other people do not choose our identity. God chooses our identity. He tells us who we are.
Step 3 – New Partnerships
The last step is bringing on a new, stronger partnership.
The Bible says:
"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5 NIV)
He says that we are His creation; He made us entrepreneurs for a reason. And no matter what you like or don’t like about yourself, you matter to God. He created us to have a relationship with Him. Apart from that relationship, we’re on our own in this world. Doesn’t matter how many partners, employees or clients you have, you’ll always be alone if you don’t have God.
When we realize that we are made in God’s image, and remove haters from around us, we allow ourselves to partner with the best business partner, the only one we were meant to partner with.
When I made the decision to become a Godpreneur, it gave me purpose, it made business make sense to me, and I began to see what my gifting and talents were in business and how God could use them for His greater plan, while helping me achieve my personal and financial goals.
Godpreneur Rule #26: A Godpreneur finds his full identity in God.