YOUR FIRST LOSS IS YOUR BEST LOSS

          The most difficult discipline in business to execute as an entrepreneur:  your first loss is your best loss.  An entrepreneur is determined and perseveres.  An entrepreneur encourages others to work their strengths within the vision and direction of the entrepreneur – the entrepreneur is a cheerleader of the business.

          A start up business, or a real estate opportunity an entrepreneur purchases, takes a lot of hard work.  An entrepreneur has lots of time into the project.  An entrepreneur begins looking at the project as his “baby”.

          A key to getting better at this discipline, when beginning a new venture, is to set out specific exit strategies.  The phrase “exit strategy” is not a bad word.  An entrepreneur simply preplans to try different courses of action.  However each exit strategy must have a detailed method of measuring so the entrepreneur knows one strategy has not worked thus he has to act towards the next strategy then do it.  Of course deadlines for each exit strategy is equally important to measurement.

Finally the last exit strategy is to shut the project down.  This is executing taking your first loss as your best loss.  Most likely the entrepreneur would have defined or measured the “first loss” in terms of money expended or lost.  There is always another opportunity in the future if the entrepreneur has not exhausted himself of all potential resources and emotionally zapped himself beyond recovery.

By the way, the second most difficult discipline in business is saying no.  If an entrepreneur learns to master this second discipline, the entrepreneur decreases the chance of having to complete the first most difficult discipline!

PEACE IS A GIFT FROM GOD

The desire to control leads to sin.  The desire to control causes strife with God and within one’s soul.  The desire to control is contrary to peace.

The motive behind the desire to control is to be in charge or, in other words, to be God.  The motive to be in charge deceives oneself into self-destructive behavior.  For example, many men who I have counseled, and I myself, behave anxiously when we experience peace. God’s peace is unnatural to sinners who want to be in charge.  Human nature wants struggle and chaos compared to God being in control.

Peace does not come from one’s doing.  God’s peace comes from our Father in heaven, only through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Because Jesus is a free gift, obviously I am not in control.  If a sinner does not, with help of the Holy Spirit, master the need to control the sinner will act or omit to act according to God’s will.

          I sabotage peace from God.  My not being in charge of peace is disconcerting.  I then create chaos, which I am familiar with in my carnal nature.  At least, I reason, I am comfortable with my controlling the state I am in.  Deception!  Oh, wretched being that I am – thank God for Jesus Christ!  Romans 7:14-25

          Peace is a gift from God.  Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Apart from Jesus I am nothing.  Apart from Jesus I cannot have the Holy Spirit indwell within me; consequently I cannot have any fruit of the Holy Spirit or peace itself without Jesus in charge of my mind, life, soul, and heart.

RELYING ON JESUS AS NEVER BEFORE

Within three minutes after loading in the back of the van on Thursday morning, August 4th to leave on the mission trip to Cambodia and Thailand, panic spread through me. I had started my malaria immunization pills as directed, at eleven o’clock the day before, and now I was feeling what I could best describe as a combination of sea sickness with the flu.

Now the thought of the 55 hours of travel that lay before me seemed overwhelming. When the van pulled into Chicago, I was thinking about simply staying there and having my wife pick me up, but I prayed and continued on. When the plane arrived in Los Angeles, I was willing to forfeit the $3,500.00 I had already paid, and purchase a ticket back home. All I could think of was curling up in a ball in my own bed.

I called my wife from Los Angeles and scared her with my verbal fragility. I asked her for prayer and also for prayer from my sister in law. They prayed and I continued on my journey.

Over the next few days my “mild case of malaria” included shaking, chills, headache, hot flashes, tiredness, nausea, sweats and more. During this three day episode, the single response from my mouth, and in my mind, was the Name of Jesus.

In Cambodia on the 6th, after taking another capsule with the continuing result, I simply quit taking any malaria medicine. I trusted Jesus would either keep me from contracting malaria or heal me later if I did. While I lay awake that first night, wrestling in bed, I prayed continuously. Again, Jesus’ name was my single strength.

Did I need to endure this sickness to put Jesus in the foremost part of my mind?

Jesus was faithful. He served the orphans and my teammates, allowing me to participate, and He gave me the biggest taste of heaven I have had on earth. The Holy Spirit has shown me that Jesus’ kingdom is infinitely larger than I once envisioned in own mind and heart, and the orphans are in the front row. God allowed me to kneel at the orphans’ feet and worship Jesus with them. Now I can pray to the Father to help me better focus on Jesus’ kingdom.

UP FRONT BAIL OUTS

The authority for a city in Indiana to act as a governmental entity comes from the Indiana Code which the Indiana Legislature passed into law. One group of elected decision makers working for the city and for voting taxpayers is council members. Council members each individually make decisions like every other human being using their own preferences. Two examples are: i) council members who appropriate a half million dollars for the city to purchase buildings prefer to spend taxpayers’ money and lose tax revenue from private ownership of the real estate; and ii) council members who vote to loan taxpayers’ money as wholly forgivable prefer to forego the city making a profit (interest). Is the thinking behind these two preferences productive for the taxpayers?

Private decision makers who prefer making profit must think critically before venturing into a new, productive opportunity. Private decision makers (private venturers) are motivated to do so, compared to politicians, because private decision makers have their own “skin in the game.” Private decision makers must think through income and expenses. If income is not greater than expenses, private decision makers would not move forward with the possible new venture because there is too much risk.

Politicians who prefer to influence private venturers’ profit decisions with selling buildings under cost, providing money with forgivable loans, and incurring construction costs for private venturers’ developments while spending taxpayers’ money, directly cause private venturers to lose clarity. Private venturers allow the expenses they do not have to pay for because the city is paying with taxpayers’ money, to trump the risk and reward analysis. Such private venturers do not figure out how to manage the real risk in order to move forward since they are getting “bailed out” up front. Up front bail outs lead to hurt feelings, sour relationships, poor decisions, and lost jobs.

IDENTIFYING DECISION MAKERS

The authority decision makers hold is great and affects many people. Decision makers make judgment calls that once are made, carries with such judgment calls long term effects whether good or bad. Decision makers’ thinking leading up to the judgment calls is important to understand. Decision makers who are elected officials, for instance, make judgment calls once they get elected which most of the voters do not even know about. Elected decision makers commonly are not held accountable about their thinking.

One reason elected decision makers are not held accountable is because voters do not identify who exactly is making the judgment calls. If decision makers are not identified, then voters cannot explore the thinking of the decision makers separately since voters do not know whose thinking to explore. Decision makers are difficult for voters to identify because when judgment calls are made, terms like Congress, the Indiana Legislature, the City Council, or the City are used.

The City of Elkhart, for example, is not a decision maker. The term City refers to many different groups of people like the City Council, departments, the Mayor’s staff, and citizens themselves. The term City is a collection of many different people some of whom are decision makers. The City being made of the collective individuals cannot make judgment calls. The City is incapable of being held accountable for its thinking because the City does not think. The City’s representative legislative group, namely the City Council, is also incapable of being held accountable for its thinking because the City Council does not think, the elected members of the City Council think.

In order for voters to make those with judgment call authority accountable, voters must understand who is making the decisions and supposedly thinking. Voters cannot get confused with collective terms like City and City Council but must identify who is the elected official who is supposed to think before making a decision. Once voters begin keeping tabs on an elected official about such elected official’s habits of thinking, voters will understand the attitude of the elected official and better understand whether the elected official is a servant leader.

DO NOT GET CAUGHT UP IN SEMANTICS - JUST DO IT

When the velocity of cash flow is like a gluttonous bubble, the phrase “market share” is overused without understanding. During recessions the phrase is not used as much. Regardless of good economic times, or bad, the phrase has less relevance to a solid enterprise than sales people think.

A well thought out enterprise defines market by initially answering the question, “Who are the buyers?” The most faithful buyers are buyers who recognize they cannot do without and want what the enterprise is selling. The buyers’ perceived value of what the enterprise sells is greater than the price so the buyers buy.

There is something to sell today, but most importantly tomorrow and days, weeks, months, years, or decades after tomorrow, on which buyers will spend more compared to their spending in the past. A solid enterprise, after identifying buyers, answers “What do the buyers want to buy?”

After the enterprise identifies buyers and identifies what the buyers want to buy then, and only then, should the enterprise figure out how to supply the buyers with what they want. The enterprise must communicate to the buyers that the enterprise has what the buyers want. The bottom line is the enterprise must figure out who to sell to, what to sell, and how to sell it – and in this order.

IS JESUS ENOUGH?

I trust most everyone knows the best answer in Sunday school class is Jesus. He is also the answer to who we are to serve as our king. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33.

Have you noticed that the majority of discussion about Matthew 6:33 revolves around the things added to us humans. Most people hope in the tangible: things they can see, touch, and keep for themselves. “[B]lessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29b. Belief is hoping in the intangible and something you do not control.

The world today knows nothing about serving a king and seeking someone else’s kingdom. In the name of democracy, to free humans from serving anyone above themselves, people kill each other all of the time. The United States of America was founded on rebellion from a king. Of course when people kill and rebel they believe they are doing so for the right reason: to overcome tyranny.

Left to ourselves we humans do not know how to conquer the tyranny of sin. Jesus gives us the only way. He makes “the way” easy for us: trust Him and serve Him as king. The bottom line is we do not know how to serve a king and we do not know how to look out for the best interests of our King’s kingdom.

One of the great attributes of our God’s character is He helps us with the gift of Jesus and the Holy Spirit despite ourselves. Our King Jesus teaches us to trust in our Heavenly Father who looks out for our best interests. "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” Isaiah 48:17. Our Father knows it is in our best interests to trust Jesus and to add to His kingdom. When we do not know how to serve our King, Jesus continues to give us Himself. “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 4:19.

Is King Jesus enough for you?