V.L. Thompson's Blog, page 6

Can Religion and Business Learn From Each Other?

Mention the words religion and business in one breath, and chances are good that someone will take offense. It’s a common conviction within most Western societies that the two do not and should not be mixed—ever.

Yet when Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan began to investigate this controversial arena, they found a lot of dissatisfaction with the status quo, as well as tension and confusion, among both executives and clergy.

On the executive side, says Nash, “Just across the board, interviewees would be saying, ‘This is a life as a business leader that is very lonely. It requires many masks and many responsibilities that aren’t from the same person I am at home and in my church on Sunday, and I don’t know how to navigate that transition.’”

“BUSINESS IS MADE UP OF MANY RELATIONSHIPS AND ACTIONS THAT REPRESENT EVERY HUMAN EMOTION POSSIBLE AND EVERY HUMAN MOTIVATION.” — LAURA NASH

Mainstream churches, meanwhile, were not benefiting from the distanced relationship, and indeed were ceding ground to secular spirituality and its offshoots from New Age crystals to personal empowerment. How to bridge the Sunday-Monday disconnect?

Nash, an HBS senior research fellow, and McLennan, the dean for religious life at Stanford University and a former senior lecturer at HBS, describe the hurdles as well as a practical framework to overcome them in their new book, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life.

“This is one of the great uncharted areas that is part of most people’s lives, and yet we haven’t prepared managers and the business community to think about this very strongly,” Nash says.

“What we were very concerned about with the book is not to set out a blueprint for solving this, because we don’t think there is a blueprint. What there is is a very deep need for self-reflection and community reflection.”

Nash expanded on these views in an interview with HBS Working Knowledge senior editor Martha Lagace; the following is an excerpt from that interview.

Lagace: What is an example of a business issue that someone could start to discuss with his or her theologian?

Nash: Let me back up and give you an example of the kind of thing that might cause them to say, “My religion is of relevance here.” But then whether they should talk directly with their theologian is an open question.

Say you are in a negotiation for a large contract. If you get the contract, the company’s going to grow quite a bit. But you’ve had to put a lot of resources into the construction of this deal. And it’s risky, very risky. The terms of that deal begin to look unethical to you from any number of standpoints—layoffs; cost-cutting to the point where you know you’re going to stretch your work force very, very thin; quality tradeoffs that may mean that you’re not going to be delivering on what you say, and there may even be a safety factor. Honesty inside the marketplace in terms of how you’re representing yourself and what you can deliver.

All these things are typical stresses in the business environment.

Where would religion fit in there? Well, religion could fit in a number of ways. One is, first of all, the personal perspective, that sacred self: “I am more than the deal.” It’s really easy to forget that you are something more than the deal when you get in these high-stress situations.

Catalytic exercises such as meditation or prayer or reading a sacred text [could] pull them out enough to keep that perspective. When they keep that perspective, they also start to keep their heads and get creative in the way they structure the deal. It may give them courage to kick back. You know, if people are fearful, for example, they can get very abusive; they can get very destructive. That’s not always the best way to approach deal making. This whole thing of win-win situations: if you’re really hating the other person, it tends to escalate and deals break down that way. Greed kicks in; whereas if your religion is from an ethic of love—which sounds so squishy—in fact it can be the anchor for good business practices.

So religion in that case, in the catalytic and foundational area, can really begin to have a deep effect both on the emotions in a business deal and on the ethics. Business people think in terms of problem solving and practical solutions, so we’re asking a lot here because doers are not usually reflectors. And yet they find the need for reflection.

What can religion learn from business?

I think there’s a lot of room for cross-learning here. One of the things I think the religious community can learn from the business community is that the realm of business is not as simple as it tends to think it is, that capitalism is not this monolithic thing called The Market that exploits and tricks people. And that business is made up of many relationships and actions that represent every human emotion possible and every human motivation.

It’s very hard if you’re a religious professional who’s gone to a seminary that’s never had a course on anything except global capitalism at the most abstract level, and hostile level. And you’ve never met these people and you’ve never visited their work sites or met businesspeople except in your territory, where the masks are on. I think we feel sympathetic with a level of not knowing in the religious community, but you can’t be a good critic unless you understand. So the first thing is they could learn about the complexities of the actual business world, and its human aspects.

Another thing that religious communities have not grappled with as well are the responsibilities of management.

Churches are not managed terribly well. Employee practices are notoriously discriminatory or conflict-avoiding [in a way] that can be very stressful on an employee. Businesspeople tend not to run away from those conflicts as quickly. They tend to be peacekeepers but not in a way that avoids conflict, whereas clergy tend to be peacekeepers in ways that repress conflict.

One of the things we found when we researched religion and the business world was clergy saying, “Well, we’re managers, too, and we don’t do any better at bringing our faith to management. It’s the part of our job we hate the most.”

I think there’s a lot of education that could go on from the business world to the churches in terms of “You know, this isn’t as scary as it looks.”

There are some hard decisions that have to be made. One is just understanding that the range of problems is much more complex. Second is that the responsibility of management is something that can be addressed, rather than swept under the carpet. And the third thing that religious professionals can learn is a kind of pragmatic problem solving. Our sense was, you really need both of these voices; it’s not that you want to turn every pastor into a businessperson. But there is an alternative world.

One of the things we found out is if you just put out a kind of road map for the two world views, they were at such odds with each other—business and the church—that you can see why the stereotypes start up and the inability to bring any kind of sense of support to faith and work occurs. You had doers versus thinkers. You had the business community feeling [that] business is a series of actions, and the religious community thinking it’s The Market. It had a feeling of faith being a very positive and constructive building force, economically constructive among the business community; and you had it being a “stand with the poor” among the religious community.

Well, both views are important, we do need to stand with the poor; but if you can’t imagine any kind of constructive action by the wealthy, it kind of leaves successful businesspeople out of the religious picture.

We call these “tripping points.” They just really got in the way of any kind of joint communication in this area. First of all, [the lack of communication] marginalizes the churches in a very real way. People are voting with their feet and not attending mainstream churches much, although now after the World Trade Center events [it has changed], but it’s not going up because “It’s an important part of my ordinary life.”

The second reason we think it’s so important to get these two groups together is that business as usual does have a number of moral problems that are very stressful to deal with. It needs mutual learning. It needs multiple perspectives.

There’s a third reason that popped up in the 90s: globalization. There now is an awareness that if you are in any kind of a global corporation, you’ll be dealing with multiple religious world views somewhere under the surface. A lot of times they’re very obvious, but a lot of times they’re just slightly under the surface. And there’s a kind of humility in the face of “Gosh, I don’t know anything about Islam, I don’t know anything about Buddhism, what is religious conflict in India going to have to do with my factory?” There’s a lot of curiosity to know this foundational religious information better than we have in the past.

Read full article by Martha Lagace hbswk.hbs.edu

Empower Your Employees Through Continuous Learning

Succeeding in business is rooted in the ability to adapt and change with the world around you. What works one day, might not the next. And with today’s always-changing world, failure to keep up with the latest approaches to getting stuff done will not bode well for you or your business.

To keep up with today’s fast-paced world, it’s essential that businesses take the time to educate and allow their employees to learn – on a continuous basis. A bit different than formal education-styled learning, continuous learning is a relatively abstract concept that more organizations need to seriously consider – for the benefit of their employees and the future of their businesses.

Understanding Continuous Learning

Continuous learning is the constant process of endlessly absorbing new information and skills. For individuals, it’s a way to keep up with ever-changing work environments and developments by improving skills and growing knowledge. Group-based learning focuses on how a team can transform and respond to changing conditions. There is no clear beginning or end to continuous learning, but the process should advance both an individual’s career and/or the organization in some way.

Continuous learning also forces a company to evaluate and reexamine what it already knows. This includes learning about new policies, methods, and practices integral to job functions, as well as reviewing organizational values and expectations.

“The More You Know, The More You Grow”

If your employees are itching to learn, let them! The more they know, the more they will be able to contribute to your organization’s overall goals and objectives.

Some people believe this type of empowerment leads to higher turnover; it’s not true. When you provide the tools and environment for your employees to learn new skills, you’re providing your organization the opportunity to grow and prosper too.

Think of it this way. Where would you be without your employees? Chances are your organization wouldn’t survive without the individuals who, day in and day out, support the growth of your business. So, why wouldn’t you provide them with the tools and opportunities to grow, evolve, and mature as contributing members of your team? After all, the growth and evolution that continuous learning facilitates will benefit your organization in so many ways. It might even take you to a level of success you never thought possible.

Continuous learning allows your employees to feel like they are contributing team members of your organization. And with their newly acquired knowledge comes a great deal of advantages, including improved self-confidence and maturity, the sharing of new ideas, implementation of new and improved ways of doing things, a boost in productivity, and a sense of empowerment and increased happiness. Finally, and most importantly, it creates an organizational culture that supports and facilitates learning and an environment where individuals want to work and prosper.

Learning in itself is a continual process. We never truly stop learning. Continuous learning helps bring new ideas to the table and keeps employees up-to-date with new developments and the latest changes in technology. When your employees have a profound sense of understanding about new techniques and methodologies, they’ll want to put what they have learned into action. It becomes a win-win for everyone: your employees become more well-rounded; and they are willing to share and enlighten others with their newly acquired knowledge.

 

Getting Started

Whether your organization is promoting individual or group-based continuous learning, here are seven ways to get started:

1.  Encourage employees to ask questions if they are confused about anything.

2. Allow employees to keep up with the latest industry happenings through reading relevant news, blogs, and other resources.

Read full article by Courtney Christman from Experts.AllBusiness.com

The Biblical Principle of Sowing and Reaping

What does it mean – Reap What You Sow?

If what you have is not what you need, it’s not your harvest, it’s your seed. 

Though the originator of the above saying is unknown, its relevance to Christian living should not be overlooked. So often Christians with insufficiency hold tight to what they have when it would be wise for them to let some of it go — to plant it for future benefit. Releasing is biblical. Hoarding and holding is not. 

The law of sowing and reaping is called a law for a reason. It is a Godly principle and part of a covenant He made with Adam and all of Creation in Genesis 8:22: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” 

So far, the earth has not ceased, which means that the principle of seedtime and harvest (reaping and sowing) remains active and mankind is still subject to it. Whenever humans obey the laws of God, it takes discipline and faith in the beginning, but in the long-run, blessings follow. When people disobey God, their actions are void of faith and lessons are usually learned the hard way. 

No doubt the act of sowing for the purpose of reaping is often done with caution for those who are new to the faith or in the midst of a major test or trial. For example, a single mother working two jobs to feed her children and barely able to pay rent might question the sanity of paying tithing or making a contribution beyond the 10 percent required. And yet, the Bible asks Christians to test God with this type of sowing in Malachi: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts. The Scripture goes on to say that the windows of heaven will open and there will be so much blessing, there won’t be enough room to store it. 

It’s not often God says to test Him. In fact, nowhere else or for any other reason does God give Christians permission to do so. Throughout the inspired Word in the Bible, God gives commands and requires Christians to demonstrate faith. The good news is that God also offers promises for those who are willing to trust Him. A good example is Proverbs 11:18 that says, “Seeds sown in righteousness will have a sure reward.” Galatians 6:7 also helps to prove this point: “For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” 

Of course, the Scripture in Proverbs is specific about the type of seed that brings rewards. If righteousness is required from the one sowing, then this implies that a Christian living outside of God’s will may not expect such a positive return. In Wikipedia and Merriam Webster’s dictionaries, the word “righteousness” is defined these two ways. 

- One that has been “judged” or “reckoned” as leading a life that is pleasing to God.
- Acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin.

 

Read full article by Jamee Rae on ShareFaith.com

LinkedIn Is No Longer Optional For Small Businesses

Social networks are not an optional channel for businesses anymore; they are a must have, and for small businesses, LinkedIn is one of the most important. LinkedIn allows you to provide authenticity and credibility to you and your business. LinkedIn users come with a professional mindset, so go ahead, market yourself and your business—they are interested in hearing from you. However, there are still some small businesses missing out on the power of LinkedIn for their business.

Here are 4 reasons your small business should be on LinkedIn
1. Personal branding

When you go to an event to promote your business and introduce yourself to someone, the next step that person will take is to look you up online. A LinkedIn profile allows you to be found and showcase who you are, so be sure to take advantage of everything it has to offer.  To enhance your credibility, add rich media like videos, presentations, and sales sheets.

Think of your LinkedIn profile as a compelling presentation of your professional self that encourages the viewer to connect with you. A LinkedIn best practice is to speak in first person because the intent of your profile is to provide other users with a welcoming introduction to who you are. By speaking in first person you’re able to engage your audience and encourage them to continue the conversation with you.

2. Free marketing

A LinkedIn company page is a free marketing tool and if used correctly, can be an effective one. It’s not intended to replace your site; it’s more of a supplement to drive people to your site. The small businesses who are not taking the time to build out their company page on LinkedIn are missing a huge opportunity to connect with potential customers and increase awareness.

One of the ways your company page can help increase your brand awareness is through boosting your presence in search engine results. In order to do this make sure you know which keywords or phrases you want to rank for and then use them within the copy of your company page. For example, if you’re an orthopedic shoe company you will want to include keywords like, “orthopedic shoes”, “orthopedic shoes for women”, “orthopedic shoes for men”. You can use tools like Google Adwords and SEMRush to find out which keywords you want to show up for.

 

3. Extended sales arm

The people in your LinkedIn network could aid your next sale. The power is in the network you have built and the connections you have made—think about vendors, the people you work with, and the people you meet along the way at events.

Read full article by Kristina Cisnero on blog.hootsuite.com

8 Ways to Make Your Crowdfunding Campaign Pop

For Joanna Griffiths, launching a crowdfunding campaign was about more than raising capital for her startup. Griffiths turned to Indiegogo in 2013 to test the market for Knix Wear, a line of women’s underwear made from moisture-wicking, odor-absorbent fabrics. “It was the last test in a series of tests I conducted before launching the business,” explains the Toronto-based entrepreneur.

Even though Knix Wear garnered support from 518 backers who pledged more than $50,000 for the 2013 campaign–on a goal of less than $40,000–crowdfunding was a challenge. “I thought if I had a great idea and a strong platform, I would sell thousands of units,” Griffiths recalls. “But getting every single new backer was a struggle.”

As crowdfunding gains popularity as a financing model–Kickstarter, for example, has seen more than $1 billion pledged since its 2009 launch, and more than 19,000 successful campaigns last year alone–a growing number of startups are clamoring for support from backers, making it that much harder for ‘treps to stand out.

Before you sign on with one of the 200-plus U.S. crowdfunding platforms, master these tricks for launching a successful campaign.

#1. Have a solid plan.

The “field of dreams” approach doesn’t work for crowdfunding, according to Indiegogo co-founder Danae Ringelmann. “You can’t launch a campaign, go on autopilot and expect money to come rolling in,” she says.

Merely posting pleas for support on social media isn’t enough to help startups reach their funding goals, either. Successful campaigns are built on solid plans.

In fact, Richard Swart, director of research at the Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance at the University of California, Berkeley, found that campaigns that successfully raised $100,000 spent at least 200 hours preparing for a crowdfunding effort and an average of 136 hours managing it–all before pledged funds hit the bank.

Prior to launching the Knix Wear campaign, Griffiths studied successful crowdfunding efforts and backed a handful of projects to get a better idea of the ways in which smart startups approach their campaigns. She also created an editorial calendar that outlined the day-to-day strategies for social media, posting updates and soliciting media coverage from national news outlets and popular blogs that served as a running to-do list for the six-week campaign.

#2. Solicit prelaunch support.

It’s a rookie mistake to wait until a crowdfunding campaign goes live before reaching out to prospective backers. “To reach the funding target, the first 30 percent of funds needs to be committed before the campaign goes live,” Swart says.

That goes beyond simply contacting everyone in your network to request support. “You need to develop relationships with thought leaders, celebrities and other supporters who will back the project and [agree to] amplify your message on social media before going live,” he says. “To be successful in crowdfunding, first you build a community, then you engage them.”

#3. Make it personal.

“People fund people, not just ideas,” Ringelmann says. Successful campaigns feature videos that introduce entrepreneurs and capture their passion, as well as offer cool perks that allow backers to engage with the product.

To raise capital to create her Jiva Cubes line of instant coffee, Natalia Rodriguez recorded a three-minute video highlighting the product’s organic Fair Trade ingredients and offered boxes as incentives. She hoped that coffee lovers would contribute toward the $15,000 goal she set for her 2012 Kickstarter initiative.

But pledges totaled a little more than $3,500. Rodriguez attributes the lackluster response to her failure to create a compelling campaign. “I didn’t think about what people wanted,” she explains.

Less than one month later, Rodriguez launched a revamped campaign to secure startup capital for Jiva Cubes. Her new video highlighted her entrepreneurial spirit and provided a more in-depth product demonstration; new perks gave backers more opportunities to sample the product and share feedback. Backers responded to the changes, contributing $21,173.

#4. Respond to feedback.

Engaged backers offer more than just cash–they are “a critical resource for the entrepreneur, not just for the funds they are donating to the project but for the ideas they are sharing,” according to Dan Marom, co-author of The Crowdfunding Revolution. In other words, soliciting feedback from supporters–and responding with adjustments to marketing strategies, product designs or price points–is as important a part of crowdfunding as raising capital.

Within a week of launching on Indiegogo, Griffiths realized that marketing Knix Wear as a product for incontinent women was ineffective. Based on feedback from potential customers, which included questions about whether the fabrics wick sweat and minimize odors, she reshot the video, scrapped the original messaging and refocused her campaign to emphasize the benefits of the product for all women, not just those with health issues.

“Crowdfunding allowed me to engage with customers and get their feedback before spending a ton on production,” Griffiths notes.

#5. Consider a lower funding target.

Although her inaugural crowdfunding campaign exceeded its goal, Griffiths lowered her funding target for a 2014 follow-up, believing she had a built-in psychological advantage. “It’s a lot easier to rationalize backing a campaign that is 100 percent funded,” she points out.

The strategy worked: The follow-up campaign hit its target of more than $13,000 within two weeks and went on to raise more than $38,000.

Setting a smaller goal on Kickstarter, where just 44 percent of campaigns hit or exceed their funding targets, could mean the difference between collecting a check or conceding a failure. “Reaching a funding goal is the kind of early validation that makes [backers] want to get onboard,” Indiegogo’s Ringelmann says.

Read full article by Jodie Helmer onEntrepreneur.com

Dealing With Difficult People God’s Way

Dealing with difficult people not only tests our faith in God, but it also puts our witness on display. One biblical figure who responded well to difficult people was David, who triumphed over many offensive characters to become king of Israel.

When he was only a teenager, David encountered one of the most intimidating types of difficult people—the bully. Bullies can be found in the workplace, at home, and in schools, and they usually frighten us with their physical strength, authority, or some other advantage.

Goliath was a giant Philistine warrior who had terrorized the entire Israelite army with his size and his skill as a fighter. No one dared to meet this bully in combat, until David showed up.

Before facing Goliath, David had to deal with a critic, his own brother Eliab, who said:

“I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” (1 Samuel 17:28, NIV)

David ignored this critic because what Eliab said was a lie. That’s a good lesson for us. Turning his attention back to Goliath, David saw through the giant’s taunts. Even as a young shepherd, David understood what it meant to be a servant of God:

“All those here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:47, NIV).

While we should not respond to bullies by hitting them in the head with a rock, we should remember that our strength is not in ourselves, but in the God who loves us. This can give us confidence to endure when our own resources are low.

 

Dealing with Difficult People: Time to Flee

Fighting a bully is not always the right course of action. Later, King Saul turned into a bully and chased David throughout the country, because Saul was jealous of him.

David chose to flee. Saul was the rightfully appointed king, and David would not battle him. He told Saul:

“And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds, so my hand will not touch you.’ “(1 Samuel 24:12-13, NIV)

At times we must flee from a bully in the workplace, on the street, or in an abusive relationship. This is not cowardice. It’s wise to retreat when we are unable to protect ourselves. Trusting God to exact justice takes great faith, which David had. He knew when to act himself, and when to flee and turn the matter over to the Lord.

 

Dealing with Difficult People: Coping with the Angry

Later in David’s life, the Amalekites had attacked the village of Ziklag, carrying off the wives and children of David’s army. Scripture says David and his men wept until they had no strength left.

Understandably the men were angry, but instead of being mad at the Amalekites, they blamed David:

“David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.” (1 Samuel 30:6, NIV)

Often people take their anger out on us. Sometimes we deserve it, in which case an apology is needed, but usually the difficult person is frustrated in general and we are the handiest target. Striking back is not the solution:

“But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6, NASB)

Turning to God when we’re attacked by an angry person gives us understanding, patience, and most of all, courage. Some suggest taking a deep breath or counting to ten, but the real answer is saying a quick prayer. David asked God what to do, was told to pursue the kidnappers, and he and his men rescued their families.

Dealing with angry people tests our witness. People are watching. We can lose our temper as well, or we can respond calmly and with love. David succeeded because he turned to the One stronger and wiser than himself. We can learn from his example.

 

Dealing with Difficult People: Looking in the Mirror

The most difficult person each of us has to deal with is our self. If we are honest enough to admit it, we cause ourselves more trouble than others do.

David was no different. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, then had her husband Uriah killed. When confronted with his crimes by Nathan the prophet, David admitted:

 

Read full article by Jack Zavada from Christianity.About.com

7 Ways to Keep Your Team Hungry

Startups are notorious for having long hours, a lot of bumps in the road and many projects occurring simultaneously. When times get tough and your team is down, here are seven ways to keep them motivated.

In many ways, startup employees are easy to motivate early on in a company’s life. Like founders, the earliest team members are hungry for a challenge, passionate about their product or solution and eager for knowledge and financial rewards.

Nonetheless, it takes a significant amount of time for a successful company to develop, sell and iterate. Most companies are not Mailbox (which famously sold to Dropbox a month after launching). This leaves founders (and startup managers) with a big question: After months or even years of late nights and weekends, how do you keep your team motivated?

Based on my two years of managing experience with Travefy — an online group travel planner — here are seven budget-friendly tips to keep your startup team motivated.

1. Reiterate your vision. Then, reiterate your vision.

When starting your company, you likely recruited talent not with the promise of dazzling six-figure paychecks or state-of-the-art facilities but rather with a strong vision of your company or product. The pay cuts and long hours are made worthwhile because of a belief in what you’re building and a desire to be a part of something new.

Nonetheless, as time goes on, many founders stop sharing their vision or roadmap as they themselves get into the weeds. Don’t fall into this trap! Constantly share with your team the ever-changing visions and goals of the company. Remind them of what you’re all building towards and let them feel the excitement.

2. Remember that equity aligns interests.

To this end, make sure that all interests are aligned by giving your team true company ownership — through an employee stock options plan. Equity changes the employee mindset from “going to a job” to “being an owner.” This feeling of ownership can be an intense motivator throughout the long startup road.

3. Never create false urgency.

Credibility is established over time and lost in an instant. False urgency or deadlines are a huge deterrent to morale and an easy way to lose credibility.

By sharing your vision and roadmap, as well as ownership, you can organically ensure everyone understands the race against cash burn that all startups face. Don’t create burnout and distrust. Save those chips for the real times an insane deadline pops up — because they will.

4. Recognize the power of food.

Among the countless extrinsic motivators, food is inexpensive, universal and easy to manage. A weekly team lunch (or dinner for staying late) is a relative drop in the bucket compared to the goodwill and motivation it will create. Moreover, having food is also literally a productivity booster. The time employees would normally spend leaving to buy and eat food will now be spent as team bonding and a good meal will keep your team alert for the remainder of their daily tasks.

As a note, this does not mean you need to hire a Google-style executive chef. At Travefy, we’ve had fun team barbecues with hot dogs and chips for eight people for less than $10 total.

5. Celebrate wins.

While every day feels like a race from one project deliverable to the next, take the time to celebrate wins and milestones. Whether it’s a big development release, a customer-engagement milestone, or even a new skill mastered by a teammate, acknowledge it.

Additionally, celebrating milestones helps put the overarching progress your team has undoubtedly made into perspective, which can be difficult on the day to day.

 

Read full article by David Chait on Entrepreneur.com

How God Uses Suffering for His Glory: Five reasons we must face affliction

Since God is the source of all goodness, his glory is the wellspring of all joy. What God does for his own sake benefits us. Therefore whatever glorifies him is good for us.

And that includes the suffering he allows or brings (biblically, either or both terms can apply) into our lives.

God refines us in our suffering and graciously explains why: “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this” (Isaiah 48:10). For emphasis, God repeats this reason.

If you don’t understand that the universe is about God and his glory—and that whatever exalts God’s glory also works for your ultimate good—then you will misunderstand this passage and countless others. Some consider God egotistical or cruel to test us for his sake. But the testing he does for his sake accrues to our eternal benefit.

How often have you heard people say, “I grew closest to God when my life was free from pain and suffering”?

Suffering can help us grow and mature.

Josef Tson, who faced much evil in communist Romania, told me, “This world, with all its evil, is God’s deliberately chosen environment for people to grow in their characters. The character and trustworthiness we form here, we take with us there, to Heaven. Romans and 1 Peter 4:19 make clear that suffering is a grace from God. It is a grace given us now to prepare us for living forever.”

Mountain climbers could save time and energy if they reached the summit in a helicopter, but their ultimate purpose is conquest, not efficiency. Sure, they want to reach a goal, but they want to do so the hard way by testing their character and resolve.

God could create scientists, mathematicians, athletes, and musicians. He doesn’t. He creates children who take on those roles over a long process. We learn to excel by handling failure. Only in cultivating discipline, endurance, and patience do we find satisfaction and reward.

As dentists, physicians, parents, and pet owners regularly demonstrate, suffering may be lovingly inflicted for a higher good.

We think to “love” means to “do no harm,” when it really means “to be willing to do short-term harm for a redemptive purpose.” A physician who re-breaks an arm in order for it to heal properly harms his patient in order to heal him. In his book, A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis wrote,

But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. … What do people mean when they say “I am not afraid of God because I know He is good”? Have they never even been to a dentist?

If cancer or paralysis or a car accident prompts us to draw on God’s strength to become more conformed to Christ, then regardless of the human, demonic, or natural forces involved, God will be glorified in it. A friend whose husband died wrote,

One thing that I’ve become convinced of is that God has different definitions for words than I do. For example, He does work all things for my eternal good and His eternal glory. But his definition of good is different than mine. My “good” would never include cancer and young widowhood. My “good” would include healing and dying together in our sleep when we are in our nineties. But cancer was good because of what God did that He couldn’t do any other way. Cancer was, in fact, necessary to make Bob and me look more like Jesus. So in love, God allowed what was best for us … in light of eternity.

 

God sometimes uses suffering to punish evil.

While personal suffering doesn’t always come as punishment for sin, this doesn’t mean it never does. God speaks of bringing judgment on his children for participating in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner (see 1 Corinthians 11:27-32). David knew he’d suffered because of his sin (see Psalm 32:3-4). Christ said, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline” (Revelation 3:19).

God’s occasional direct punishment in this life reminds us of judgment to come, just as his . occasional direct rewards in this life remind us of coming reward. But we should never assume we know God’s reasons when he hasn’t made them plain.

God can use suffering to display his work in you.

When Christ’s disciples asked whose sin lay behind a man born blind, Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned” (John 9:3). Jesus then redirected his disciples from thinking about the cause of the man’s disability to considering the purpose for it. He said, “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Eugene Peterson paraphrases Christ’s words this way: “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do” (The Message).

Nick Vujicic entered this world without arms or legs. As told in his life story on his website, www.lifewithout limbs.org, both his mom and his dad, an Australian pastor, felt devastated by their firstborn son’s condition. “If God is a God of love,” they said, “then why would he let something like this happen, and especially to committed Christians?” But they chose to trust God despite their questions.

Nick struggled at school where other students bullied and rejected him. “At that stage in my childhood,” he said, “I could understand His love to a point. But … I still got hung up on the fact that if God really loved me, why did He make me like this? I wondered if I’d done something wrong and began to feel certain that this must be true.

Thoughts of suicide plagued Nick until one day the fifteen-year-old read the story in John 9 about the man born blind: “but that the works of God should be revealed in him” (New King James Version). He surrendered his life to Christ. Now, at age twenty-six, he’s earned a bachelor’s degree and encourages others as a motivational speaker.

“Due to the emotional struggles I had experienced with bullying, self-esteem and loneliness,” Nick says, “God began to instill a passion of sharing my story and experiences to help others cope with whatever challenge they might have in their lives. Turning my struggles into something that would glorify God and bless others, I realized my purpose! The Lord was going to use me to encouarage and inspire others to live to their fullest potential and not let anything get in the way of accomplishing their hopes and dreams. God’s purpose became clearer to me and now I’m fully convinced and understand that His glory is revealed as He uses me just the way I am. And even more wonderful, He can use me in ways others can’t be used.”

As Michelangelo used his chisel to form David from a marble block, so God may use suffering to form us into the image of Christ.

When Nanci and I saw David in Florence, it took our breath away. To produce his masterpiece, Michelangelo chose a stone that all other artists had rejected. Seeing that huge marble block’s hidden potential, he chipped away everything that wasn’t David. The master worked daily to transform it into something surpassingly beautiful.

Read full article by Randy Alcorn on FamilyLife.com

Square Wants to Compete With Small Business Lenders

Square is beefing up its effort to finance small business owners. The San Francisco company, best known for making credit card readers that plug into mobile phones and tablets, has provided $50 million in financing to more than 10,000 merchants since last year through a business called Square Capital. Today the company announced it has raised funding to expand the program and extend “hundreds of millions of dollars” in financing to Main Street, according to a release.

The new funding comes from Victory Park Capital, a Chicago firm that previously provided $75 million in debt financing to Kabbage, another online small business lender. Faryl Ury, a spokeswoman for Square, declined to say how much the company raised.

Square Capital isn’t structured as a traditional loan, but as a merchant cash advance. The tech company gives merchants a small amount, and merchants repay that initial sum plus a fixed premium. Square collects repayments as a set percentage of the merchant’s daily credit card sales. Application is speedy: Square uses its credit card processing data to decide how much money it will offer, and how much it will cost.

Those differences aside, merchant cash advances function much like loans. Square Capital charges premiums of 10 percent to 14 percent on advances that it expects to be repaid in about 10 months, according to Ury. Under those terms, a merchant might repay the equivalent of a 34 percent annual percentage rate on a $5,000 advance, more than double the rate on the average business credit card, butcheaper than what many other lenders charge.

This kind of nonbank lending is a growing market. CAN Capital, a New York-based alternative lender, estimates it will make $1 billion in loans this year. A competitor, OnDeck, is reported to be headed for an IPO. PayPal (EBAY) says it’s lending $1 million a day to merchants through its own working-capital offering.

The main appeal for merchants is that these new types of loans provide fast and easy access to capital, usually for smaller dollar amounts than banks like to lend. It comes at a high cost. OnDeck typically charges more than 50 percent APR on loans of as much as $250,000, according to documents from an OnDeck bond offering.

The ability to undercut other lenders may be especially appealing to Square, given that it’s facing cutthroat price competition in its core credit card processing business: Last week, Amazon.com (AMZN) introduced a processing service that’s cheaper than Square’s.

Read full article by  Patrick Clark  on BusinessWeek.com

Should Christians and non-Christians work together in business?

In the Bible there are a lot of clear-cut examples of what to do, and what not to do. For the other areas in our life when there are no direct scriptures we should rely on the Holy Spirit and look for similar examples in the Bible. In the case of being in business with non-Christians, this category falls in a gray area where there are not 100% direct scripture matches. However, I do believe we can find similar concepts and scriptures in the Bible and apply them to this case.

Before I begin my scriptural examination of this issue, we should first categorize the way we are working with people in business. To this end, I believe people fall into three categories from a business aspect: partners, employees, and contractors. Partners are people who are on equal footing with you and help shape the direction of the company; usually co-owners. Employees are people who you hire to help you do business over the long-haul, but are operating in a subordinate role. And contractors are people or companies who you outsource specific business functions to on a temporary basis.

Now, based on these three classes of people, I believe there are different standards by which you choose someone to work with. If our first assumption is that the person or company that is under consideration is qualified for the job function, then we must examine their belief system and values to make a sound determination.

Partnership is serious business

With partners, I believe Christians should only work with fellow Christians that name Jesus as Lord because a partnership is like a marriage and you need to marry someone that has your same life values.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? – 2 Corinthians 6:14

This scripture clearly warns Christians not to be bound together with unbelievers, and this surely includes business partnerships because a business partnership requires two or more parties to agree on a business direction, and move in that direction.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? – Amos 3:3

If partners have different value systems, someone will have to compromise and usually it will be the Christian that compromise.

Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee. – Exodus 23:32-33

Here again God is clearly stating – do not be in partnership with unbelievers. The reason given is that they will cause you to sin by following their non-godly beliefs.

If you are in an unequally yoked partnership, should you get out of it? Well, it depends! In 1Corinthians 7, Paul addresses this same concern in terms of an unequally yoked marriage. He said that if you are married to an unbeliever and they desire to stay with you, then let them stay because you may be able to redeem them. And if they want to leave, let them leave. This same principle could be applied to unequally yoked business partnerships.

However, if you decide to terminate your partnership and you lose money in the process, don’t worry about it because God can restore what was lost. In 2 Chronicles 25:6-7, King Amaziah was in an unequally yoked partnership, and God through a prophet told him to terminate it even though he had already paid them. King Amaizah was afraid to do it because of losing money, but the prophet answered his fears by saying “The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.” So you see, even if you lose money by breaking the partnership, God can restore it back to you if you follow His will.

Employees must have a value system

Now with employees, I believe you don’t have to follow the strict rule “of being a Christian,” however, if they are going to work for you they have to conduct themselves in a Christian manner. I will never forget a lecture given by Samuel Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A. He said “You don’t have to be Christian to work for me, but to work for me you must act like one.” You are not married to employees like partners and they do not control the direction of the company. They provide a service to implement the direction.

Read full article by by Amos Johnson Jr, PhD on AmosJohnsonJr.com