How faith driven entrepreneurs and investors should fight poverty

— by Efosa Ojomo

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40

The Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus the question, “which is the great commandment in the Law?” to test him. His goal wasn’t to truly learn what the greatest commandment was and how he might orient his life towards it. It was to stump Jesus. 

See, there were more than 600 Jewish commandments that devoted Jews had to follow. It was a heavy burden, but the Pharisees had somehow figured out how to follow as many laws as possible that they were considered the holy ones. 

In addition to being burdensome, following the laws cultivated a spirit of pride. So, Jesus came to give them, and the many others who would abide in him, rest. As such, he simplified the many 613 laws into two.

Love God. Love people. That’s it. Everything else is background noise.

For people used to engaging in so much activity, hearing that must have been difficult. But for those who were truly looking to abide in God, help their neighbors, and surrender all to him, it was indeed good news. 

Those who found rest in the words of Christ understood that they could spend their whole lives trying to obey the 613 Jewish laws and still lead miserable lives. Jesus helped them see that obeying the laws was never the goal. It was simply supposed to lead them—to lead us all—to God. 

By falling short, we would be reminded of God’s grace. 

For how could the greatest commandment, according to Jesus, be for us to love Him and others if He wasn’t the personification of love itself? It’s paradoxical, but by focusing on love, we inadvertently accomplish the other laws. 

Love supersedes the 613.

Similarly, when it comes to fighting poverty, faith driven professionals—investors, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists—can focus on the many signs of poverty. We can go into poor communities and build wells and schools for people who lack; go on short-term mission trips to provide much needed healthcare where there are few hospitals; and donate significant sums to sponsor children who, through no fault of theirs, have been dealt a difficult hand in life. 

To be clear, this activity does have some impact. But much like the 613 laws, waking up everyday and striving to provide water, schools, and hospitals is burdensome. How many well-meaning Christian mission trips to build things have we funded? How many can we say have led to lasting impact in the lives of the people we went to serve? Most people who were poor when we started investing in their lives remain poor today.

Unfortunately, too many of these projects focus on the symptoms of a deeper problem and not the root cause. This happened to me when I started Poverty Stops Here (PSH). Through the help of many friends and members of my Church family at the time, PSH built many wells in communities and provided funding for schools. But much of what we built didn’t last. The wells broke; the schools were subpar; and sustainability was hard to come by. Through the process, however, we learned.

We were not building the mechanism that helps societies eradicate poverty and ultimately prosper.

That mechanism is innovation.

But not just any kind of innovation, market-creating innovations. These innovations are unique in their ability to transform complicated and expensive products into products that are simple and affordable so many more people in society can afford them. When investors and entrepreneurs build market-creating innovations, they provide a foundation for robust economic growth. They provide jobs, taxes for governments, and, most importantly, they can lead a cultural revolution that highlights the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship.

For example, when Henry Ford created the Model T, he made cars and mobility affordable to a whole range of people who historically couldn’t afford cars. As a result, he created hundreds of thousands of jobs and changed the landscape of the United States, and the world. Many other entrepreneurs believed they too could create affordable cars and thus, an industry was born. 

The mechanism to help people move around more easily was the Model T, a market-creating innovation.

When faith driven professionals focus on this market-creating innovation mechanism, they have even more of an opportunity to significantly change culture in a country. By building market-creating companies, they can influence so many people—from their employees to the customers they serve—with the love Jesus spoke about, and subsequently influence culture. Their influence is more likely to last because the organizations they create will last.

Jesus helped the Pharisee lawyer see that focusing on love was the greatest commandment. Love, in many ways, transcended all the laws one could follow. Similarly, for faith driven professionals looking to eradicate poverty and suffering in the world, innovation is the mechanism. We can do a world of good by getting the mechanism right.

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