Mobile Donations

A list of all short codes to text to donate on your phone bill in the United States:

1. Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross for Haiti efforts. This effort is run by Mobile Accord.

2. Text YELE to 501501 to donate $5 to the Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Foundation. 501501 is run by Give On the Go.

3. Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee.

4. Text RELIEF to 30644 to get automatically connected to Catholic Relief Services and donate money with your credit card.

5. Text HAITI to 85944 to donate $5 to the Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International.

Online Donations

A list of websites to submit you donations online securely.

6. Donate Via Google Checkout

7.Donate Via Causes of Facebook

8.The Salvation Army is sending 285,120 boxed meals of rice, soy, and vitamins to Haiti. Donate to the Salvation Army by clicking here.

9. Help Support the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. President Bush emphasizes the need of a long-term commitment to Haiti’s recovery.

10. Hope for Haiti has held the vision from the very beginning that the people of Haiti are the ones who take control of their future and we are here to lend a needed hand along the difficult path. Donate Here.

The bible says God is honored when we give to the poor for it is like we are lending to the Lord himself, Proverbs 19:17 & Proverbs 14:31.

Photo Credit by: American Red Cross

Shoeboxed.com founded by Duke graduated and entrepreneur Taylor Mingo has been an answer to the prayers of so many business owners and entrepreneurs. Receipt management has been the death of a lot of business owners, especially around tax season. Offices are clutter with receipts along with other paper documents.

Since the launch of Shoeboxed.com, business owners can now see the floors of their offices. Shoeboxed.com became a blessing to many Entrepreneurs. by allowing them to scan in receipts and business cards or have ShoeBoxed.com to do it, save you the trouble. Receipts are stored by store name, date, total and can be sent to Quicken, PDF, Excel, Freshbooks (which is how I discovered shoeboxed.com) and more. Business cards can be imported from Outlook, Gmail, Linkedin, Salesforce, etc. Statistics on spending are automatic generated and you can store receipts to the account via email.

I used Shoedboxed.com for almost 12 months now and it has made my life a lot easier. Especially in my start up stage, tracking expenses and storing important documents. This software made it a lot easier by allowing me to scan important documents online such as contracts and other sensitive information in addition to my receipts from various purchases. I love the feature which allows you to add side notes to each receipt such as how you paid for the item (i.e. credit card, check). I haven’t really used it for storing my business cards, I’m not saying it is not a useful feature, it just does not work for me at this time.

The purpose of these blog is post to promote various business web apps that normally major companies only have access to. Now, I’m presenting this particular web app to help your organization and yourself get in order.

Prosper Media Group, LLC., is Digital Marketing Firm that uses technology to help businesses communicate better with their customers and employees just like the major companies. If you would like to know what software is how there than can help your business save time, money and grow in sales send me an email, Click my name: Pedro Moore or fill out our contact form.

Week 2: Ecclesiastes 1:3-4 & 9-11

3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

The words of the Preacher yet again confront us with a very challenging and inconvenient truth. We Are Nothing! The “freedom” of entrepreneurship is often seen as the way out of our brokenness, but please do not be mistaken my friends. Your work; your ambitions; your wealth; your poverty; your testimony; they are little more then a recondite ripple in the tapestry of our Holy God. The obvious translation of this weeks scripture would simply confirm that it’s not about you, it’s about Jesus. However, we’ve all heard that message a million times and still unabashedly adhere to the carnality that pervades our hearts. I’ve written a story to illustrate this point:

There once was a small flower patch, next to a playground, in a large park near the middle of a city, where a bee flew from flower to flower, day after day, gathering nectar. The bee, though it desperately longed for a life beyond the confines of its flowers, worked very diligently to perform it’s duties well. In that same time and place there was a child. Everyday, the child and its mother would visit the playground in the park near the flowers where the bee gathered its nectar. One day, while the bee flew from flower to flower and the child played, the two shared the misfortune of meeting.

On the day of the meeting, the child, recently learning to say and recognize flower, laughed and clapped and walked near the edge of the flower patch as the bee worked. The bee, like any other day of its life, flew from flower to flower gathering nectar for its colony. However, underneath the quite facade of the bee’s diligent work, existed a desire to be more; in fact, the bee dreamt of not being a bee at all. The bee, no matter how preposterous it sounded, wanted to be the greatest painter that ever lived. The bee understood how outlandish his aspirations were, especially as a successful honey manufacturer, so it kept its dreams to itself for many years.

On this particular day, while the child played near the edge of the flower patch, the bee became full of bitterness and animosity. The bee was tired of denying itself the pleasure of more fulfilling life so it decided to fly far, far away from the flower patch it had spent it’s life working in. At that moment, the bee, mentally charged with fear and anticipation and the child who was playing frivolously among the flowers collided. The bee, petrified by the frightful screeches of the child, did the only thing it knew to do; it stung the child. The child instantly erupted in a wild display of painful horror. No one in the park knew what happened but from the sound and sight of the child leaping and rolling and stomping through the flower patch they knew it must have been very, very painful.

During the child’s outburst, the bee was struck and now laid helplessly upon the dew of the grass. Barely able to raise it’s head, the bee saw what seemed to be a never ending sea of trampled and disfigured flowers. It’s head hung low, the bee began to think how quickly it’s life’s work had been so irreparably ruined. Meanwhile, the mother sat with the child cradled in her arms. When she found the source of her child’s pain, the bee watch as she and the child left the playground. Now realizing the gravity of it’s actions, the bee began to sob with heart wrenching sadness. No human at the park or bee in it’s colony could hear it’s anguish. Hours later, all alone, the bee took it’s final breath. This happened as the child slept. When the child awoke, a new bee began to fly from flower to flower, unaffected and unaware by the events of the day, and life went on.

Can you see yourself in this story? Did you decide to fly far, far away from the flower patch? If so, to who’s faith did you cling? If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably leaned upon your own understanding and decided to pray, rather then prayed to decide. It may seem like I’m playing a juvenile game of semantics but this fundamental change in perception is always the difference between success and complete failure. If you look at the phrases closely you’ll see what I mean.

When a person has decided to pray, they have resolved in their minds that the way that seems right to them will not, as scripture tells us, lead to death and destruction (Proverbs 14:12). However, our fallen nature, as was discussed in the previous post, seeks exoneration. We can’t wait for something new to happen. That urge for new is a desperate desire to fix what is broken within us. However, it can not be conceived before God’s revelation, which is above the sun. It’s the irony of not being able to focus on the Son, even in its physical form as sun, that has created the world we see around us.

The Preacher tactfully reminds us of our inherited brokenness as he agitates the futility of our humanity with questions such as, “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?” The weight of our uselessness often leads us to make decisions apart from the wisdom of God (deciding to pray). Fortunately he does not leave our total destruction up to our own doing. Those that love him are not left to fend for themselves. In the midst of our broken circumstances his grace engulfs us as he causes all things to work out for our good (Romans 8:28) In the story of the bee, it’s search for happiness was misguided because what it actually needed was the peace the surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). How many of you are seeking peace from the brokenness you feel inside? Have you ever stopped to consider that you’re not the only one? People buy your goods because they are searching for peace too….a service to placate the empty busyness of deed; a shirt to cover the internal yearning for validation; adding friends to your social network as a way to eradicate the sorrow of being forgotten by the world. The beauty of the story of the bee is that life goes on. No matter what you’re running from or running toward, life will go on no matter what. The deepest of your pains will go away and the hole that it leaves will be quickly filled by a God that is working everything out for the good of those that love him.

Week 1: Ecclesiastes 1: 1-2

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!”

Live a Double Life, Please your Flesh& your Soul

You started a company. Good for you! Now you can rightfully gloat, accumulate depreciating possessions, economically discriminate and wrongfully attribute your selfish prayer life for your individualistic success. Harsh words I know but this is real. Many Christians enter the world of entrepreneurship for seemingly noble reasons that turn out to be anything but that. We are to be in the world but not of it, new creatures, a peculiar people. Unfortunately we live a double life. One which edifies our Savior and another that edifies our flesh.

How many of you engage every deed as though it were as immutable as the wind? I would imagine not many. The constant thought of ones own mortality is hardly a source of motivation, yet the Preacher confronts us with that very notion in the opening verses of Ecclesiastes 1. Although the words of the Preacher are hard to face they must be astutely heeded; especially as entrepreneurs.

Our Flesh Begs to be Innocent

“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!”, the Preacher shouts. These words are used to convey ideas of brevity, unreliability, frailty and futility, lack of discernible purpose; yet they also convey the need to be proven wrong. The Preacher seems to be screaming and pleading with God for an answer which we will find later is “beyond the sun” (throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher makes statements which allude to his observations being of the earthly realm not heaven.) Examining the paradigm of this scripture through the lenses of a Christian entrepreneur, one should immediately reconcile that total depravity upon God and his everlasting and exorbitantly sufficient grace is at the root of our faith; however, just as the Preacher, we should also concede to that fact that our flesh beckons to be exonerated. Even in perfection, Adam and Eve sought to be placed in higher esteem in the sight of God. That “innocent” desire lead to the first sin and a continuous fall from grace for all of man kind. As entrepreneurs, doesn’t our pursuit of higher esteem mirror the Preacher’s desperate cry for exoneration? We pursue every dollar as though it were the glory of God himself. We hasten to label our every “good” thing as a blessing. We seem to never stop to consider the frailty of filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

Invest Value into Others

Christian entrepreneurs must be of the greater good. The proverbial higher calling if you will. Our endeavors must always reflect an inward gratitude for the salvation we’ve been unrightfully awarded, lest we should boast (Ephesians 2:8-10). If our eyes are not constantly fixated on this truth, our works will be as forgotten as a single petal in a field of flowers. Whether you are new to entrepreneurship or working on your twentieth company, sojourn with a heart of empathy (mental or emotional understanding of the life experiences of others without personal infraction). Empathy will require that you invest value into others and their circumstances. If we leave for just a moment our own desire for monetary consumption, we’ll find that a whole world is drowning under the weight of vanity. They don’t need another person to sell them something, they need someone to show them the hope of a life centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Pursue the One that Endures Forever

The pursuit of happiness is a constitutional right of every living man; however when that pursuit is defined by the vanity of sin, it will most assuredly be forgotten. We all want our lives to count. As entrepreneurs, we can only hope our businesses will make a lasting impact on humanity. In light of all of this my friends, I urge you to pursue the one that endures forever. Do everything as unto his Glory with an empathetic heart and you will have the reward you seek.

Suggested Reading:

The Pursuit of Happyness

Quincy Troupe (Contributor). Harper Paperbacks 2006, Paperback, 320 pages, $3.00

Start Where You Are

Chris Gardner. Amistad 2009, Hardcover, 320 pages, $6.48

Business Owners are NOT CEO’s

I can hear the answers now: “I am a seller of this thing…”, “I am the provider of this service…”, and even “I am in business to make money.” What I am about to say next will shock most and even more are going to disagree with me. Being a seller of a thing or a provider of a service is not the business that you are in. You are in the marketing business. Your title isn’t CEO but CMO – Chief Marketing Officer. Before you decide not to read any further, let me explain.

Never Outsourced What Brings in Money

How can you be a seller of a thing or a provider of a service if you have no customers? You could have the best product or service, but if you have no customers/patients/clients then you have nothing! Too many business owners focus 80% of their energy (if not more) on non-income producing activities (i.e. activities that could be delegated to staff or outsourced). “But Ralph, I can just outsource my marketing.” Sure you can, but consider this: There are two things that should never be outsourced in a business, the thing that brings in the money (marketing) and the thing that distributes the money (accounting). Every business owner should have oversight over the flow of the money.

God Wants Us to Increase our ROI

As Christians, God calls us to be good stewards over all that He has given us – our souls and the souls we have tied to us, the communities we have influence over, the bodies He has blessed us with, and His finances He has entrusted us with (Luke 16:1-13). God has given each of us a gift, an anointing. He expects a return on what He has given us…A return that should yield increase for the Kingdom of God (Matthew 25:14-28).

As a Christianpreneur, God is looking for a return on the business he has blessed you with. Outsourcing your marketing is a bad idea because no one knows your customers, your niche, and your product/service like you do. Effective marketing is less about telling your customers and prospects about your latest sale, product, or service and more about connecting people with what they need, want, or desire. Who is going to know that better than you – “the seller/provider of a thing”?

The “Set It and Forget It” Mentality

Now don’t hear what I didn’t say. Seeking help from copywriters, direct-marketing experts, and other professionals to assist you in building an effective marketing system is ok, in fact, recommended, but outsourcing your marketing is ill-advised. The ‘set it and forget it’ mentality is detrimental to your business, thus your marketing. Using that mentality, you would wake up one morning and wonder why your business is crumbling around you (Luke 16:2).

So the thing that you sell or the service that you provide isn’t what makes your business…it is the customers that you foster, through effective marketing.

Suggested Reading:

This article really intrigued me. I discovered it on Church Marketing Sucks‘ website. A site that I follow to keep me up to date on marketing strategies for churches for my freelance company. Send me an email if your church or business needs help with marketing Pedro.

For all of the wisdom in the book of Proverbs, the word “marketing” is not found. Furthermore, a key word search through 18 different Bible translations returns just one finding with the word “marketing.” In The Message version, 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.” While I am not going to insert or extract a certain theology from this one verse (not to mention one translation), it does make for some interesting arguments, especially given its context.

The bigger picture here is the word “marketing” and how it relates to today, given its non-existence in word-form (at least how we understand it now) centuries ago.

Ray L. Edwards does an interesting job attempting to argue 5 adcopy principles pulled right from the pages of the Bible. David T. Pope does an even better job at convincing people why churches should not be marketing themselves.

Arguments on both sides of the coin exist everywhere. Obviously, the issue of marketing the church is a hot one.

Perhaps for a moment you could take off your hat on either side of the conversation and face the reality that people need to be reached. There are people right now in your community that don’t know God. There are children without fathers, families without hope. How are you reaching them? How do they know your church exists, and what it exists for?

If you’re against creating a brochure or postcard, how about just walking the streets, talking to people? How about doing an event in the park? How about actually going to the people instead of waiting for them to come to you? The Bible has plenty to say about that.

And if you do decide to create some marketing materials, please don’t create stuff that sucks.

Originally Posted: Is Marketing in the Bible? By Brad Abare. Please leave your thoughts.

Suggested Reading:

Faith-Based Marketing

Bob Hutchins. Wiley 2009, Hardcover, 256 pages, $15.74

Brands of Faith

Mara Einstein. Routledge 2007, Paperback, 256 pages, $27.00

The Social Media Bible

Lon Safko. Wiley 2009, Paperback, 840 pages, $16.79

The Facebook Marketing Bible

Justin Smith. CreateSpace 2008, Paperback, 170 pages, $38.45

Matthew 5:42
Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

Deuteronomy 15:8
But you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

Psalm 15:5
He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Proverbs 3:27-28
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.

Exodus 22:25
If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.

Leviticus 25:35-37
Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your countryman may live with you. You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.

Psalm 37:26
All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.

Deuteronomy 23:19-20
You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.

Proverbs 28:8
He who increases his wealth by interest and usury gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.

Deuteronomy 24:10
When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge.

Psalm 37:26
All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.

Nehemiah 5: 1-13
Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, “We, our sons and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live.” There were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.” Also there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.” Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words. I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, You are exacting usury, each from his brother!” Therefore, I held a great assembly against them. I said to them, “We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us?” Then they were silent and could not find a word to say. Again I said, “The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? And likewise I, my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this usury. Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you are exacting from them.” Then they said, “We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say.” So I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. I also shook out the front of my garment and said, “Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” And they praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.

Suggested Reading:

YOUR MONEY MATTERS

Malcolm MacGregor. Bethany House Publishers 1977, Paperback, 176 pages, $5.85

Money, Purpose, Joy

Matt Bell. NavPress 2008, Paperback, 208 pages, $3.86

Below is a list of seven books on leadership from a Christian perspective. The book “Lead like Jesus” is on my wishlist on Amazon.com.

Jesus on Leadership

Calvin Miller (Foreword). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 1998, Paperback, 272 pages, $7.75

Spiritual Leadership

J.Oswald Sanders. Moody Publishers 2007, Paperback, 208 pages, $8.00

Christianity needs powerful voices in today’s world, voices from strong leaders guided by God and devoted to Christ. Spiritual Leadership will encourage you to place your talents and powers at His disposal so you can become a leader used for His glory.

Lead Like Jesus

Ken Blanchard. Thomas Nelson 2008, Paperback, 272 pages, $5.58

With simple yet profound principles from the life of Jesus and dozens of stories and leadership examples from his life experiences, veteran author, speaker and leadership expert Ken Blanchard guides readers through the process of discovering how to lead like Jesus. He describes it as the process of aligning two internal domains-the heart and the head-and two external domains-the hands and the habits. These four dimensions of leadership form the outline for this very practical and transformational book.

Be a Leader for God’s Sake

Bruce E. Winston. School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship 2002, Paperback, 192 pages, $17.99

Bruce E. Winston, Ph.D., School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship (2002)
This is a rediscovery of Jesus’ principles of leadership through a study of the Sermon on the Mount showing the values-base of leadership as presented in the Beatitudes and the application to today’s organizations. Winston also develops the biblical base for leadership as he takes the reader through the Fruit of the Spirit as presented in Galatians 5. Finally he presents a working profile of a leader as he analyzes the Romans 12 motivational/spiritual gifts.

Servant Leader

Ken Blanchard. Thomas Nelson 2003, Hardcover, 128 pages, $4.00

Best-selling author of The One-Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard, along with Phil Hodges, reveals the meaning of servant leadership modeled after Jesus Christ. Based on Blanchard’s and Hodges’ Faith Walk seminars, business leaders come to realize that teams are more powerful than the sum of the individuals and to recognize their people as appreciating assets.

Servant Leader summarizes the Four Dimensions of Leadership:
# the head (leadership assumptions and methods)
# the hands (application and leadership behavior)
# the heart (edging God out)
# the habits (solitude, prayer, study of scripture, unconditional love, etc.)

The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus

Charles C Manz PH.D.. Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2005, Paperback, 190 pages, $3.15

The idea that a happy workforce is an effective one isn’t new. However, organizational consultant Manz (Business Without Bosses, Wiley, 1993) brings a fresh approach to the concept, showing how the deeper vision of the gospels can teach business leaders to emphasize commitment over a bottom-line agenda by recognizing the value and contribution of every individual. Applying lessons from Jesus’ parables to the corporation, Manz illustrates the effectiveness of “mustard-seed power”: that truthfulness, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and love are the farthest-reaching approaches a leader can use to inspire others to contribute their best work efforts. Written for a broad audience, this is suitable for both public and corporate libraries.

Leadership Lessons of Jesus

Bob Briner. B&H Books 2008, Hardcover, 240 pages, $8.82

The business world is rife today with books about leadership styles (e.g., Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People). In their book, Briner and Pritchard hold up the example of Jesus as a leader worth emulating by modern leaders. The book is composed of 51 short reflections on verses of the Gospel of Mark that demonstrate the principles of Jesus’s style of leadership. Each chapter opens with a long passage from Mark and then focuses on one key verse from that longer passage. The remainder of each chapter is a mini-devotion on the particular leadership quality illustrated by each passage. For example, Briner and Pritchard narrate the story of Billy Graham and the temptations he has faced as a great modern leader as an illustration of Mark’s story of the temptation of Jesus by Satan. Some of the other principles of leadership that emerge from this book include the ability to delegate, the practice of strategic withdrawal and the practice of loyalty and honesty. Because of its choppy style and its vignette-like structure, the book ultimately lacks any coherent vision of leadership style.

Proverbs 24:27

Prepare your work outside and make it ready for yourself in the field; afterwards, then, build your house.

Proverbs 28:20

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished.

Ecclesiastes 11:2

Give a portion to seven, and also the eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.

Proverbs 15:22

Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.

Matthew 25:14-26

“For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’

Suggested Reading:

The Intelligent Investor

Warren E. Buffett (Collaborator). Collins Business 2003, Paperback, 640 pages, $10.65

Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Robert T. Kiyosaki. Time Warner Books 2000, Paperback, 403 pages, $7.46

Why are you in business? Is it because you don’t like being told what to do? Did you want to always be your own boss? Did you discover one day you had a gift or talent that could make you money so you opened up your own business? Did you think you would get rich or make a lot of money? Perhaps you lost your job after 10, 15, or even 20 years and decided your fate would never be in the hands of another? Whatever pushed you into your purpose of entrepreneurship, did you know that the one of the greatest gifts that we could give to another is to serve them?

Remember in John 13:3-15, when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in an act of servant hood to show them how very much He loved them. After Jesus completed washing all of His disciples’ feet, He told them they needed to follow His example as their Lord and Teacher and wash one another’s feet (John 13:14). I believe what Jesus was saying was unless we are willing to serve one another, we have no true part in Him or in each other. If we love someone to the highest degree, we will be willing to serve that person. Isn’t that what our clients and customers are? We exist to serve them. In our relationship with Him, Jesus calls us to sacrifice our self-will. We are not to be served, but to serve. We are to be sensitive to other people’s needs, even in little thiings. We, like Jesus, should seek to serve others rather than merely letting them serve us. When we have people in our lives who serve us in various ways, we should always treat then with the utmost respect and be good to them.

Put the word to work, and ask not what can I get today, but what can I give.

Suggested Reading:

Unleashing Excellence

Dennis Snow. Wiley 2009, Hardcover, 256 pages, $14.29

Invisible Profits

Robert Moment. The Moment Group 2007, Paperback, 104 pages, $19.95