Have You Started Your Own Business Yet?

In 2015, while visiting a Church in Nairobi Kenya, I heard a not-so-usual call to action. The speaker had just asked the congregation: “Have you started your business yet, or are you in the process of starting one”? I learned this question was asked of the congregants every Sunday. Yes, there was the call for salvation and the call to join the prayer line for broken bodies to be healed. But this was a call to enterprise, to resourcefulness and to improvisation. Money is mentioned about 140 times in the Bible. Not so you fall in love with it, but so that you apply wisdom in its attainment, utility and in benevolence.

You Can’t Get Rich on a Salary

I write to inspire you to start your own business. You can’t get rich on a salary. Read that again. A salary is good for stability but fails in predictability. Now, I’m not saying quit your day job today and start a new business. I’m saying to continue being faithful 100% to your current job. But in your spare time, start/ run your own business. It usually takes 3-5 years to mature but that’s a much better prayer point – God please mature my business, than God please fire my boss. If it does mature, you will be in a better position to take care of your family, your posterity and God’s work on earth. And if not, well, you have your job.

Lord, Show me an Opportunity

It’s true that 90% of all business startups fail. This is often postulated as a reason why not to engage in enterprise. Better get a job instead, they say. But that is a wrong way of thinking. Think instead, if 9 of 10 businesses fail, then all I have to do, is start 10 businesses. 9 will fail and 1 will be a hit. I will then quit the other 9 and focus on the 1 success. That’s the type of regenerative thinking you ought to engage in. This mindset will keep your eyes and ears trained on spotting opportunity.

Nothing to fear but fear itself

Starting your own business is not easy. The probability of failing is high. Which of course breeds the fear of failure. But the real fear is being in the same place you now are in, next year. Yes, you may fail but what if you succeed? Oh, what if you succeed? The inherent difficulty is there to keep others from trying, not you. The hurdles are not there to keep you out. They are there so you can show how much you want it. If it were easy then everyone will have it, and then you will just be average. But you are created above average. As the speaker in Nairobi asked, so I ask you also: Have you started your business or are you in the process of starting? I look forward to your reply