A Worldly Business vs. God’s Direction – How to Stop the Double Life

When I graduated from Cornell University in 2003, I came back to Miami and had the ultimate job waiting for me – a nightclub promoter. 

Think about it. I’m 21 years old living in the city that 99% of people my age would give anything to call home or at least an extended vacation.

Then in 2005, I saw the nightclubs needed help with their branding and marketing, so I and my boys started the agency I have today, Creative Complex. We had an office on south beach and all the major nightclubs as our clients. We were some 23-year-olds living on top of the world.

But in 2007, a friend invited me to church and my life took a 180-degree turn. By 2009 I was baptized and a full-blown born again Christian. 

The problem is that my business was still in the nightclub industry, and we had even moved into doing work for the strip club world. My life was cut into two halves – my nightlife side and my church / spiritual growth side. 

I was living a double-life. At night I was Mr. Party Guy, but at church and at small groups, I was Mr. New Christian Guy. Neither side of my friends knew who I was really, because I was pulling off being two different people. 

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when my pastor referred me over to another church that needed a website. It was a pretty big project because it involved doing the website of an association of about 100 churches. But as they were reviewing my proposal, someone on the board of directors went to my agency website and saw all the nightclub clients we work with. 

I was caught. 

My double life was exposed.

Now I had to choose. Was I going to try to keep the charades going and weasel my way into convincing the church to still do business with me, or was I going to finally decide to hang up my hat and retire from the nightlife once and for all?

We all have things in our business life going on that go against our morals and principles, or at the very least push the boundary and put us on the edge of right and wrong.

The problem for us Godpreneurs is that if we’re sitting here interested in money, security, image, and reputation, the world will pull us in one direction while God’s word will take us in a different direction. 

Thi tug-of-war is was causes us to compromise our integrity, compartmentalize our business lives from God, become inauthentic in our walk, and mix up our motivations. We might be able to pull it off for a while, but at some point, the domino’s fall and we get exposed. 

But God has a plan. His plan is to purify our hearts so that over time, He would release blessings on us as we begin to bring our lives into alignment with our calling and all the amazing plans He has for our businesses.