Here are 10 lessons from the Bible that explains God’s laid down guidelines and principles for success in this life and business. While I was sitting down “jejely” beside the road catching some fresh breathe. The Holy Spirit began to remind me about some truths from the Bible and how it applies to life and business. Then I brought out my pen (digital memo) and I began to write.
1. Don’t look down on yourself – you are the image of God. Rather, Know your worth & place in God. Self-realization is the first step to a great life. Find out who you are and what your purpose is and would be. Jesus found this out when he read “…the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…” Luke 4:18. Nehemiah found out this when he heard the news of how his home town (Jerusalem) had become desolate. (Nehemiah 1-2)
2. Know something; whatever you think is worth anything – study to know it very well. David knew how to use stones and “catapult”, Joseph knew how to interpret dreams, The Men of Issachar knew the times and what should be done per time; most notable people God have used at critical times actually got to a point of mastery of what they know. What do you know? How are you getting to mastery of it?
3. Be a skillful salesman. Learn to sell yourself; never delegate the job of selling yourself to another man. Remember how Joseph told one of the kings servants to remember him when he gets back to the palace. David tells stories of how he killed the bear and the lion; giving reasons why they should trust him to kill Goliath. Jesus intentional asks people who are healed to give public testimonials. Success figures in the Bible are also great sales persons. Don’t be carried away with the miracle of five loads and two fishes. Don’t stay at the level where God has to always fend for you when he already gave you power to fend for nations – through the mastery of sales techniques.
4. Build a team. God doesn’t like lone-rangers. He knows about human limitations, he gave the first man a wife because – it is NOT good for a man to be alone. “For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:10. Even Jesus – your Lord and Savior, needed a team; who are you?
5. Build Continuity into your plans. If you don’t plan about anything, please plan for your death. Even God had made his plan for human afterlife clear. What is your own plan on how your business, family and other dealings will go when you exit this world? Joshua was Moses’ exit plan; Jesús carefully taught his disciples on what they should do and how they should behave when he die. Don’t confuse this as wishing death on yourself. But death is certain and God wants us to prepare for it. Remember when God sent the prophet to Hezekiah to say “…put your house in order, you will die in…”. God actually want us to always put our dealings in order so that we don’t waste resources through the gap we create when we die.
6. Be known for something. Stop “confusing” your angels 👼. One of the first points above was about knowing something. Now, we need to consciously portray that we are known for that thing. We might think that it’s something that happens naturally, that when we are good at something; people will just begin to know us for it; but that’s not always true. We need to consciously brand ourself has someone who is good at that thing by exercising our gifts freely. Remember Joseph the dreamer? How he kept interpreting dreams for people? Even in the prison, he interpreted dreams for the kings servants.
7. Be prayerful. Now this is where most Christians get it wrong, either by not praying at all or praying amiss because of lack of understanding of what prayer is. Prayer is the process of opening your channel of communication with God. Now what you “discuss” with your God is your problem, but you must ensure that channel isn’t permanently closed; opening it as frequently as you can to firstly open up the truth in your heart to God and also receiving from him. Prayer is not so hard, it’s not only about climbing mountains or halting all your work for some big retreat. It’s first about ensuring there’s constant flow of communication between you and your God – speaking to him regularly and paying attention to his guidance and teachings. Prayer is not “the key” as people always say – I would call it “a key”: only one of many spiritual advantages we can enjoy as Christians. Many are stuck at the point of leaving everything else and just praying, forgetting that God wants us to remain relevant in this world by doing other things other than pray.
8. Write. Writing isn’t just for authors, every human being with a great calling have something in common; they all have something written about them. Either they wrote it themselves or someone wrote it about them. I found out God wants us to live a well “documented” life. A lot of places in the Bible, God mandated his prophets to write down his instructions. Also, the Scriptures today are available because some people took the pain to document their life and their journey with God. God wants us to document our lives, he want us to document our businesses, he wants us to document the instructions he gives to us. He wants us to document everything we can document about ourselves. So that it can be useful to others as other people’s writings has become a blessing to us today.
9. Ask for the money! Many are always shy to demand for renumeration for their products and services. Its unbiblical to allow others to get away with your sweat because you are too shy or you don’t want to appear desperate. Remember, David asked what the reward is for the person who will kill Goliath. The Bible says “for the worker deserves his wages” – Luke 10:7 (NIV) and 1 Tim 5:15. God wants you to ask for your money accordingly as per the service you render. If you don’t do this and you are poor, it’s your fault for disobeying the scriptures.
10. Seek people first. In your business and any other ventures, “Seek ye first the people (customers), every other thing follows”. It’s biblical to take conscious efforts to look for customers before you look for what to give to the customers. Yes, I know this may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s a “Jesus-based” principle. It is okay to think about what you want to offer your customers, to think about how you want to serve your customers; but don’t do too much about creating your products and services unless you have thought-through and practicalized how you intend to make your customers. You will want to know what part of the Bible I learnt this from? John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself…”. Jesus Christ in this passage, after he won the heart of his disciples and confirmed that “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2), he set out to go “prepare”. You would have asked why he didn’t prepare before coming the first time? Well, it’s simple – it’s more expedient to prepare to get customers. Moreover, your whole business enterprise should center around your customers, so the earlier you get to meet them, the better.
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