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259 results found for "leadership"

  • Control Freak Entrepreneurs – Stop

    I like updating my own website.Ā I enjoy composing my weekly emails that go out from Creative Complex and sending them out.Ā I love project managing.Ā I’m also good at following up on my sales calls, collecting credit cards and booking appointments. Can you believe that even though I had an assistant, a project manager, a web developer, and an account executive, I still performed all of their jobs?!?! What a mistake on so many levels.Ā  But the biggest mistake in doing this was that I was robbing others from growing…from flying from their nest and soaring with me. We can do that sometimes as entrepreneurs.Ā We think that we’re the only ones that can do it the best.Ā  We get impatient.Ā We step in to help at the first sign of something not going they way we would do it. Deuteronomy 32:11 says, "Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions." Godpreneurs realize that there are times you step into problems, but its momentary.Ā  In the end, the goal is to let that person learn how to soar like you so you can let God take you to places you’ve never imagined. As for me…I USED to like doing all of those tasks I mentioned at the beginning.Ā  But…I don’t do them anymore.Ā Even though I’m great at these things, I have people on my team that are flying because I let them go. Godpreneur Rule #42:Ā Let go of the tasks so your team can face and solve problems on their own and learn to soar with you. #WorkLifeBalance #SharpenLeadership

  • Wisdom Wednesdays: Give of Your Time

    I’m in the business of consulting.Ā  I make anywhere from $199 – $499 an hour for my time. Proverbs 11:25 says A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Although I volunteer at church and go on medical mission trips, which are both refreshing others, I also feel compelled at times to refresh others by offering my consulting for free. As Godpreneurs we serve a boss that will send us paying clients, but will also send us non-paying clients…or can’t pay as much as I charge (discount clients). Be sensitive to the spirit.Ā  I’m not saying to just give away your services to anyone and everyone from the church.Ā  The spirit will lead you.Ā  It will ā€˜feel’ right to do this. We must have faith that God will refresh us…because His word says it. #SharpenLeadership

  • Learning the Gifts and Talents God Placed in Us

    For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10 NIV) You were born and handcrafted to serve the marketplace, and God’s gifted you with something others don’t have. Your ā€œtoolkitā€ is what you should reflect on today. These gifts and talents point the way to your exact business. For example What are your top talents? What do people come to you for advice for? What comes easy to you, but others struggle with? What could you do blindfolded? What spiritual gift has God put inside of you? There are many tests out in the marketplace that help us discover more about ourselves in this area. There is a StrengthsFinder assessment to identify ā€œStrengths/Talents,ā€ and that’s available at gifts.churchgrowth.org. This one will help find your spiritual gifts. I developed the www.GodpreneurTest.com which will reveal both your strengths and weaknesses. God placed gifts and talents inside of us for our business’s success; He knit us from other mother’s womb (Psalms 139:13). Knowing what our talents are equipped us to launch businesses more in line with our calling and helps us lead purpose-focused brands into the marketplace. It’s not about what we do; it’s about who we are in Christ. There’s a big difference! Godpreneur Rule – Godpreneurs uncover who we are first so we can then know what we were born to do. #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling #GodpreneurAcademy The Business God Created You To Start Have you ever wondered why you received the talents and gifts you have been given? We, as entrepreneurs, were born to do. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

  • Letting Go of the Past Bad Experiences

    Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1‭-‬2 NIV) If you want to fulfill your longing to lead a purposes-focused business and feel meaning in your marketplace, you have to be leading a ā€œBorn to Doā€ business, and the only way to truly experience this is by letting go of the past and running towards your destiny. Easier said than done, I know. Here’s the strategy that I found works, and I hope it works for you too. Uncover – ask God to show you anything in your business past that could have hurt you and needs healing. Discover – Let God help you forgive that person or situation so that He can reveal to you how he’s going to use that situation for your good moving forward! Recover – now it’s your turn to reclaim what’s been yours all along. Through the memorization of promise-related Bible verses, God will take your burdens and release you into your calling because scripture will replace your hurt with hope! We can’t move forward if we’re stuck in the past. Period. It’s physically impossible. And it will continue to make us sick with worry. The bible says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12 NIV) The enemy doesn’t want you to move into your calling because it would glorify God too much because we’d become a tree of life in the marketplace! What we were born to do would bring heaven to earth, killing the enemies plans! We Godpreneurs can’t change the past, but the future of our businesses is a blank canvas that God wants to co-create with us. Let go, and let God! #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling #GodpreneurAcademy The Business God Created You To Start Have you ever wondered why you received the talents and gifts you have been given? We, as entrepreneurs, were born to do. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

  • Choosing God Over Our Comfort!

    Have you ever had an incident in your business that makes you want to throw in the towel, fire everyone, quit everything, and start over from scratch? For me, it happens more often than I’d like. And in the past, I’ve taken all of the above actions and started over. It happened to me when I was doing marketing for nightclubs. I had an incident with a client. I took it as a sign from God that He didn’t want me serving the nightlife industry, so I started my business over. It also happened when a client of mine wasn’t getting the service I thought my employees were providing. I kept trying to correct the issue, and my team kept producing bad results. This time I didn’t fire my employees, the client fired ME! We lost the contract. On the pilgrimage of launching and growing our businesses, God is looking to transform us and make us more like His son, Jesus. And God will cause certain indicates to happen that I call the ā€œturning point.ā€ This is the fork in the road, drawn by God so that we can change the direction of our business towards where He wants us to be going. I gave you only two examples of incidents in my business, but God in His creativity can use an infinite number of incidents and situation that can radically change us, cause an imbalance in our thoughts, and provoke us in such a way that will rock the foundations of our businesses. On our pilgrimage, God wants us to choose Him over our comfort. Jesus says in the bible "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". (Matthew 6:33‭-‬34 NIV) Sometimes, the incident you’ll go through in your business will be negative, like mine. Sometimes it can be positive, like a great conference you attend with a mind-blowing message that has you come back fired up for a new direction. Negative or positive, on our pilgrimage of creating a God-First business, God will use a turning point situation to call us closer to Him and to increase our dependence on Him… if we choose the right path at the fork in the road. What’s the right choice? Easy. THE HARDER PATH! I always smile when I tell this to clients. You don’t get a great body by eating Sweets and sitting on the couch. That’s easy to do. You only grow by choosing the path you’ve taken less. We all need an incident to happen in our business, so we are forced to make a change. That situation will come on its own, on God’s timing. We don’t choose the incident; the incident chooses us. We can’t force it; it will happen. And it will happen OFTEN! We must begin to expect it to happen, and be like Paul when he says ā€œfor I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.ā€ (Philippians 4:11) Maybe this blog post is finding you at a place where you haven’t given your business fully to God. Like me, maybe you’ve been serving industries that don’t honor God. Or, maybe you’re doing something you weren’t born to do, and your actual calling is in a different business, industry, or service offering. When we’ve decided to put God First in our business, we started a Pilgrimage to draw closer to God and become like Christ. The current business we’re in is comfortable, but we need to be ready to throw off that comfy plan to follow God’s higher calling. This is how our businesses positively advance in the God-First direction! Will it hurt? Maybe. Will it be uncomfortable. Yes. Will we be naked and vulnerable? Temporarily. But this is where God makes the impossible possible in our business, and God will take you to new levels of contentment. God wants to provide all of us Godpreneurs provision for our businesses beyond our wildest dreams if we appreciate the turning point situations and choose to get out of our comfort zones while on our pilgrimage to experience the breakthrough. #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling #WhatBusinessIShouldStart The Business God Created You To Start Have you ever wondered why you received the talents and gifts you have been given? We, as entrepreneurs, were born to do. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

  • Overcoming Busyness in Business: Strategy 1 – Find Purpose

    Take a look at my calendar and you’ll see a busy guy.Ā  You might be impressed at how I’ve left not white space in my Google calendar.Ā  Everything is in there – eating schedule, workout schedule, meditation time, reading time, private events and business meetings. But what’s it all for? To make money?Ā  To be a better human?Ā  To squeeze everything I can out of life before my time is up?Ā  Maybe all of the above? Anyone can seem busy.Ā  Anyone can give themselves something to do just to feel like they are working.Ā  But if we’re honest with each other, the day ends and sometimes we still feel empty, unfulfilled, and think back and say ā€˜what the heck did I do today’?Ā  We literally can’t tell our spouses anything because we have no clue. Psalms 39:6 says ā€œSurely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be." If a business has no purpose, the organization will be like zombies walking around just trying to collect their next paycheck.Ā  Money is really the only purpose. If we entrepreneurs fill our schedules up with the purpose of making money, then we’re the same. Being a busy entrepreneur isn’t wrong, but busyness requires intention and purpose. This is a big reason why I had to make God my CEO, hold my calendar accountable to his purpose for me and my business, and fill it up according to moving forward on the visions he has given me. #EnhanceFocus

  • How Christian Business Owners Should Handle Angry People

    I received a nasty phone call from a client that wasn’t too happy about the progress my team was making on a project we were doing. There was yelling, screaming, name-calling, and blaming, followed by a barrage of insults and unsolicited advice on how my company should operate. Years ago, I would have fired right back and laid it on this client even harder than what was done to me. I’ve been chewed up and spit out before, so I know where this could have led. I’ve fired this client on the spot in similar spats and not thought twice about it – poof, be gone from my life. But I’m different now. I’ve learned the art of diffusing a situation and winning the client’s heart right back to me so we can course-correct and finish the project out with grace. We’ve all experienced terrible tirades from callous clients. Whether it was our fault or theirs, when expectations aren’t met, or some outside factors come into play, people stop being kind, and the relationship is threatened. At this point, we have a choice of mirroring the client’s feelings and engaging in the negativity or taking the higher road and diffusing the situation to come to a peaceable resolution. We know God would want us to take the higher road, but easier said than done. How can we change our ways when we’ve always been used to arguing back, flaring our temper, and defending ourselves to the point of destroying client relationships? The answer is in the most famous preaching ever given on the planet. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount lays out the eight beatitudes, which are qualities of the people that enjoy special favor from God. The third beatitude is Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5 NIV) Many people think meek means weak. Yes, they rhyme, but that are opposites. Meekness means power under control. Jesus even described himself as ā€œmeek and lowly,ā€ but Jesus was the most influential and powerful man to walk the earth. If you’re looking to achieve greatness in your business, learning meekness will be critical for your success. When you are a meek entrepreneur, you have come to serve, not to be served. Therefore, you hold back asserting yourself for your benefit, but instead, display self-control that benefits everyone involved. The next time a client or situation makes your blood boil, and you feel the anger or frustration rising in you, remember the meekness captured by Psalm 37:1-11, which starts our with, ā€œDo not fret because of the wicked,ā€ and concludes with ā€œthe meek shall inherit the land.ā€ In business, you have relationships with partners, employees, vendors, contractors, shareholders, clients, prospects, and competitors. At every point in our day, someone can threaten our ā€˜good mood,’ and from one second to the next, we could turn the world on fire. However, Jesus is guiding you to do as He did and curb your urge to use power to avenge the wrongs done against you or to build your image and instead use whatever power you have to serve and build others up. What does this look like in our businesses? For me, it has saved many business relationships, and even made them stronger! What could have ended up with a burned bridge built our relationship and landed me an even bigger contract and more referrals from the client I described at the beginning. See, because I kept my composure through all the insults, the client ended up telling me that he had a very long day, frustrated with so many other things in other areas of his business, that I was the one he took out his anger on. He apologized for his words and thanked me for keeping my cool. He commended me for keeping my composure and told me ā€˜that Christianity stuff is working for you.’ That’s what it’s all about! We Godpreneurs are God’s witness here on earth of what a relationship Christ can do for our personal development. Meekness is evangelism in business. Sure, it can be extremely challenging to give up our power to God’s agenda, especially in business. In a cut-throat environment where financial profit is god, it seems to be the self-promoting aggressive entrepreneurs who get ahead more often than not. However, anyone who looks out only for their interest loses out in the end. People who are thirsty for power are often lonely people, lacking in meaningful relationships. These people may have accumulated materialistic things and achieved monetary success; they will eventually find out that the world controls them. On the other hand, Jesus promises that the meek Godpreneur ā€œwill inherit the earth.ā€ Jesus came to bring Heaven to earth, and when we display meekness, we’re doing our part to create this new heaven and a new earth in our respective marketplaces. Imagine if we all submitted our business power to God. Imagine heaven all around you – in every meeting, every relationship, every transaction. When we become meek, Godpreneurs, we receive God’s grace and all the good things we desire that otherwise might elude us. How are you going to use meekness today? I pray you’ll submit your power to God and let Him lead you to exercise control as Jesus did – for the sake of others. #BusinessBibleStudy #SharpenLeadership Jesus’s 8 Steps For Achieving Greatness in Business Achieving greatness starts when we learn about humble dependence on God and trust that He will always bring new resources into our business. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

  • The Audience of One

    I have to admit that I let my business be guided by market trends, what my competitors are doing and, sadly, chasing after profits. I let outside factors determine the direction of my company sometimes. Other times, I’m guided by an internal compass and a desire to please God. It’s a constant battle. Whenever we entrepreneurs talk about our business plans and activities, we use terms like ā€œmy aims, my ambitions, my goals, my desires.ā€ Some of us do things purely for ourselves, but most of us, unconsciously, perform with an eye of approval of some audience or other; Our parents, our staff, our competitors, our clients. The question is not whether or not we have an audience, but which audience we have. Only one audience matters:Ā  God. An entrepreneurial career lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others – the Audience of One. Imagine running your business to only please one person.Ā  Imagine doing everything with such perfection because you work for God, for His purpose and calling in your life. Imagine a world where every entrepreneur lived to please God.Ā  I’m not saying everyone drops what they are doing to become a pastor.Ā  No.Ā  Right where you are, in your current industry, what if you worked to only please God. That’s my mission in life… showing entrepreneurs what it’s like to run a business for an Audience of One. I’m trying daily. #SharpenLeadership

  • How to Part Ways in Business Relationships

    I don’t like conflict. I avoid it. I do everything in my power to block it from my mind. Sometimes I’ll stay in a hurtful business relationship simply because I don’t want to have the conversation. Ā It happens with partners, employees, contractors, vendors and clients. I guess I just want the problem to disappear on its own. I want the relationship to fizzle out and make itself disappear. The problem with this strategy is that it takes time and leaves too many lose ends untied. Worst case is that the relationship doesn’t fizzle and next thing I know it’s 1 year later and I’m still involved. I believe relationships are a temporary assignment by God to help two people achieve a purpose in a season of both people’s lives. Ā How temporary? Ā It could be seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, even decades. Ā It’s not up to us. Ā We just need to recognize that it’s temporary. (PS I’m not talking about your marriage, that’s something God brought together and you need to work through it until death do you part. Ā Some of you readers were getting really excited where I was going with this, I could tell.) We want relationships to work, and I think we all have a tendency to avoid conflict and stay together because it’s our instinct (survival by numbers) and it’s God’s intention for us to be in community and communication with others so we can grow. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas got into a dispute about where to go next with the gospel, their mission in growing the church. Ā There’s no detail on how the dispute went down, but in the end, they went separate ways to accomplish whatever their spirit was insisting they do. "They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches." Acts 15:39‭-‬41 NIV God had them both together for a season. They needed each other. But now God was ready for them to go their separate ways…to accomplish more separately than they could together. Maybe you’re in a relationship that it’s time to recognize that the season was great together, but now it’s time to go and accomplish your hearts missions on your own. This is an easy conversation to have when you speak from a perspective of ā€œwhat does God want us to do?ā€ It’s a matter of two people reflecting on their goals, visions, and missions that God has for them and recognizing that the two might not align anymore and it’s time to move on. Imagine the strife we could all avoid if everyone was focused on the mission God has set out for each of us individually. We would recognize seasons endings much faster so we could all accomplish God’s purposes sooner. Godpreneur Rule #84: Godpreneurs recognize that relationships are seasonal and gracefully communicate that when wanting to part ways. #EnhanceFocus #BusinessPartnerships

  • Preparing Your Team for God’s Business Growth Plan

    I used to think it was my lack of leadership skills.

  • Lead And Follow From Jesus Perspective.

    From elementary school, I can always remember being in some kind of leadership position. Oftentimes, I think this can lead to leadership fatigue, pride, and a slow-down in our true potential We can find rest from our own feelings of leadership responsibility if we can understand that Jesus came (Acts 2:32‭-‬33 NIV) When Jesus ascended into heaven, it started his leadership role as king over every

  • Failed in a Business Venture? Here’s Why You Need to Try Again

    I can’t even begin to count the number of failed ventures, partnerships, marketing campaigns, and product launches I’ve had in my entrepreneurial career. Since 2005, I’ve been collecting the failures, analyzing each one, and building something better the next time. But there are times I want to hang up the hat, call it quits, and head back over to a comfy 9-5 where, at this point in my career, I could be making well over $500K with bonuses and stock options. Any entrepreneur who has failed in a venture will immediately agree that business ownership can hurt. But after the wound has healed a little, they will also be the first to try to do it again and again because of the joy it brings. I remember my first business, Creative Complex. It was immature, painful, wonderful, and hopeless all at the same time. When it failed, I could have just given up on business or learned from it and looked harder for a better, more satisfying business next time. I chose the latter and I’m so glad I did. Several years later I found my purpose and passion in business and now I’m married to my calling – my ā€˜born to do’ identity. It has not always been easy. In fact, there have been moments when my wife has wondered how she could have married someone with such financial instability. But those thoughts were only momentary and the shared joys of her being able to stay home with our child and not work have been immense and overflowing. I’m not the best business person in the world, but the marketplace seems to love me through thick and thin. Its honest advice may hurt sometimes, but I can always depend on it. Wisdom has given me everything it has to give, and together we move forward to bring visions to life. The Bible says: "Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly". Proverbs 3:13‭-‬18 NLT Entrepreneurship hurts—but it is well worth the pain and sacrifice. Next to my family, nothing has given me more reasons to live for than the passion of pursuing my calling. And since I’ve put God first in my business, He’s the one closest to me, and no matter what happens, I can trust in the spirit with my life. Look for your calling in business, live for what you were born to do, and you will find it. But in order to keep the business, you must give it away. Give it to God. We Godpreneurs give ourselves to their entrepreneurial calling; trust in God to be faithful and accept his holy spirit wisdom into our ventures. #SharpenLeadership

  • My Tool for Dodging the Troubles that Come with Entrepreneurship

    I started my Instagram account @dailygodpreneur as a way to remember all of the little things that God teaches me about entrepreneurship. There are tons of nuggets of wisdom and I have a strange funny feeling I’ll never be done penning all the knowledge for as long as I keep seeking it. I need all of this wisdom because, quite frankly, entrepreneurship is TOUGH WORK! Ā If you’ve owned a business for 1 day, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The way I see it, by seeking out wisdom and adapting the principles I learn from the bible, I’m putting on a bullet proof vest. Ā Each month, that vest is able to get stronger and resist bigger bullets. Godpreneurs will succeed by attending to the many seemingly small principles for life’s success offered by God. The bible says "My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord , and you will gain knowledge of God". Proverbs 2:1‭-‬5 NLT These principles will be like the bulletproof vest making it impervious to being overpowered by outside forces. A foolish person relies on individual gifts and personal strength; however, this is the epitome of weakness, because there is no unity of purpose supporting his efforts. Therefore, he stands alone. Godpreneurs find their strength by reinforcing their bulletproof vests. Godpreneur Rule: Don’t look merely to your natural gifts, but focus your energy on marshaling all available resources. #SharpenLeadership #ShareYourTestimony

  • How Hard (and necessary) It Is to say ā€œI’m Sorry, You’re Rightā€

    The business partnerships I’ve been in are hard. Looking back now, I can see that a lot of the problems stemmed me coming into the venture full of pride of ownership and pride of the gifting and/or financial contribution I was bringing to the table. So when things didn’t go right, my pride would puff up and I would begin to criticize, point fingers, play the blame game, and deflect the conflict back at my partners. Oh, and forget about me ever saying ā€œI’m sorry.ā€ (laughing out loud). Now I’m different. I’m a Godpreneur in various business Partnerships with other Christians and non-Christians. I’ve learned that apology is the cure for pride. Apologizing to our business partners is hard work. Saying I’m sorry and changing our business behaviors is even harder, and what makes it so hard for us is pride. Being in a partnership always to some degree involves each person fighting for control. It’s like being in the longest game of tug of war where the only way to stop struggling is for someone to fall. When our behaviors in the business partnership are driven by pride, we want to win every argument about money, always be right about a client. If we see difficulties in the operations is our partner’s fault, we bring up our partner’s admitted shortcomings of the past, and explain away or deny our own sins and weaknesses that we brought into the partnership. We need to change our mindset entirely on this partnership dilemma. Partnerships can be the very thing that God’s put into our lives to continue to mold and shape us into the likeness of Christ, thus becoming the best Godpreneurs possible. We need other people’s input and critique to know how we sound, how we look, how our actions affect other people in the business. In humility, we need to realize that we aren’t quite as brilliant and tough as we think we are. The Bible says: ā€œDo not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of youā€ (Romans 12:3). When your business partner has an issue with something you did or didn’t do, develop the habit of stopping for a moment and asking yourself ā€œHow did I contribute to this issue?ā€ The golden nuggets you’ll discover will propel you and your business to heights you could have never imagined. Then, just say ā€œI’m sorry, you’re right, I could have done XYZ different, and I’m taking responsibility for that.ā€ Easier said than done, but imagine if we all operated from this mindset of self-reflection and personal responsibility? Wow! Godpreneur Rule: Godpreneurs say I’m sorry and take responsibility to grow in our partnerships. #BusinessBibleStudy #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnerships Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership Instead of reading the blog posts, take the video course!Ā  I personally teach you the method.Ā  You get: Workbook 3-Video Teachings Access to dozens of courses in the Godpreneur Academy! Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

  • Safety is the new synonymous with Better partnerships

    I was very selfish in the first 5 years of my partnership.Ā It was truly all about me and how I could benefit from the company.Ā I used my Ivy League status, my interpersonal skills, and my sales ability to bully my way through decisions in the company.Ā I cared about my partners, but to the extent in which it helped me.Ā I loved my bros, but I loved myself more. I remember one of my partners reminding me constantly of my selfishness, but I didn’t see it.Ā I thought I was the nicest guy ever…that’s what my mom told me! Although our partnership is over now, I wonder if things would be different had I known the things I know today. You see, what I’ve learned is that we are naturally selfish.Ā We’re born selfish.Ā It’s our instinct of survival to think of ourselves first.Ā We all enter partnerships with a ā€˜what’s in it for me’ mentality. If we’re honest with each other, we all suffer from this selfish condition (if you don’t anymore, kudos!).Ā  So how do we identify and remove this selfishness? What I’ve learned now that I wish I knew before is that there are 8 keys to removing selfishness and we can find them in the bible in Philippians 2:1-8. "If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human !Ā  Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion." The keys are this: Agree with each other Love each other Be deep-spirited friends Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. This isn’t a call for you to lay down your visions, not lead, let yourself be abused, or not defend what you feel strongly about.Ā The irony is that if you can follow the steps above, you’ll actually become even more powerful and influential in your partnership.Ā You’ll be able to win your partners over to your vision much easier.Ā  They will know your heart and trust you more. If all of us can be Christ in our partnerships, we’re truly living out the gospel in our businesses. #BusinessPartnerships #SharpenLeadership #GainConfidence

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