— by Ryan Ramsdale

Transitioning from a tactical to a strategic mindset is a journey. It’s a journey that I have been on longer than I recognize. I was thinking of this journey as a one-way, no lay-over trip, that is, if I was thinking of it at all. Along the way I’ve experienced moments that I interpreted as the arrival at the destination of higher-level strategic thinking. As it turns out, those perceived arrivals were merely milestones or lay-overs.

Two recent experiences helped me to uncover the reality of where I am on the journey.

1. While discussing a development project in a recent team meeting, we talked about the technology required to deliver on the project and our conversation stalled. As a team we started to cycle on how the development required is or isn’t possible and who is qualified or not to complete that work. The comment that stood out to me was “technology is the enabler; we need to keep our eye on the goal”. The inference here was to keep our focus on the mission not the support mechanisms that get us there. While we do need to have a plan that is tactical, measurable and executable that includes the details, getting locked on them is not going to move us forward. Getting stuck there is a cue that our thinking had become too tactical, and our eyes were off the mission. This was the challenge to my default position.

2. That evening I went home, and it was time for our weekly budget conversation. As my wife and I recently transitioned to a new method for managing our income, book- keeping and spending we are equal parts excited and frustrated. We believe in the plan, but it brings into question so many habits we have formed for over 15 years of marriage. My lens on this issue is narrow and the instant something doesn’t compute my anxiety escalates. We end up making very little progress in the conversation as we abandon the conflict (my journey regarding conflict issues will have to be a future article).

The next morning, I connected the dots between these two experiences. In our team meeting, we refocused on the mission and the fear around who would complete development of a product became a manageable step that just required the right action plan. The same perspective presented itself in my personal example. Why was I so anxious and fearful about our budget conversation? My focus.

Money is an enabler to our goals, not the goal itself. I caught myself in this tactical mindset again. I’m trying to plan, anticipate and track every cent from a place of fear. Fear that the money will go somewhere other than the regimented budget allocation. The question I never asked was “does this still get us towards our goal?”

Now the light has fully exposed the issue. We do not have a goal!

My focus has been the tactical all along. Manage income to perfection each pay period; but to what end? Putting my feet up and patting myself on the back for being such a disciplined guy? How does that move our family forward?

I realize this may not be a huge revelation to some of you reading, but to a high analytical detail-oriented person, this IS a big deal. For some of you, this will resonate.

In the absence of a clearly defined mission fear and anxiety have a far greater impact on progress. Fear comes in and can immobilize us if we don’t know where we are headed. Overcoming this fear starts when we take the time to establish where we want to be in the long term. You, your organization, career, department, business, relationship- all of it.

With a goal, a mission or a destination in sight we can power through. We can run with endurance the race that is set before us.

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[ Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash ]

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. Today’s guest is Hamilton Powell of Crown & Caliber. He buys and sells used luxury watches, and today he’s going to share with us how he got started on this entrepreneurial venture and what it means to “kill the good idea fairy.”

 Psalm 119:33
Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees,
    that I may follow it to the end.

As it relates to the entrepreneur’s identity, we certainly have our own battle that’s unique versus most others where we’re hardwired to perform. And I think that we have to be very careful to make sure that we’re wrapping our identity, not in our performance, not in the day to day, but in where it should be. 

And for me, my go to verse here recently has been in Psalm 119:33. 

It’s teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the paths your commandment for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. 

Confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared. Turn away the reproach I dread and another person is a disgrace I dread. For your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts and your righteousness give me life. 

So that idea of take away the disgrace I dread. How often am I or any of us so fearful of that disgrace that we dread, particularly as entrepreneurs? So instead turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. 

So I’ve just found that verse is now sitting on my desk. I look at it every day and it’s like every month it has new meaning to me. There’s a new layer that’s peeled back on that and just shows the power of the word that is living and it changes as you go through other things. The word itself doesn’t change, obviously, but its meaning to me becomes more and more rich with every chapter I go through.

We continue to count down the Top 100 Books for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs with…

Strong and Weak

by Andy Crouch

Flourishing people are strong and weak. Two common temptations lure us away from abundant living—withdrawing into safety or grasping for power. True flourishing, says Andy Crouch, travels down an unexpected path—being both strong and weak.

We see this unlikely mixture in the best leaders—people who use their authority for the benefit of others, while also showing extraordinary willingness to face and embrace suffering. We see it in Jesus, who wielded tremendous power yet also exposed himself to hunger, ridicule, torture and death. Rather than being opposites, strength and weakness are actually meant to be combined in every human life and community. Only when they come together do we find the flourishing for which we were made.

With the characteristic insight, memorable stories and hopeful realism he is known for, Andy Crouch shows us how to walk this path so that the image of God can shine through us. Not just for our own good, but for the sake of others. 

As entrepreneurs and business leaders, how do we avoid abusing our power? This is one of many topics Andy Crouch addressed on his podcast with FDE.

Click on the book cover to check out the Reviews and Purchase at Amazon

This article was originally published here by The Washington Institute

— by Dr. Steven Garber

To keep on keeping on.

I first remember seeing those words in a “head shop” in Berkeley in the glory days of the counterculture, and they have run through my heart ever since. Mostly playful at the time, with perhaps a little hippie hope built into the graphic of a cartoonish character making his way through life, I took the words more seriously, wondering even then about the challenge of keeping at it, of staying the course… to keep on keeping on.

Years later this grew into the very heart of my own vocation, and I spent ten years in graduate study thinking about it and then years and years of writing about it, teaching the question to many people in many places. How is it possible to deepen our faith, hope and love — the very meaning of vocation — through the years of life? What is it to become more deeply rooted in who we are and why we are as we move from our early 20s into our 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s and beyond, rather than slowly by slowly discarding what once seemed to matter so much to us?

I thought about this again last night, watching the highlights of the Monday Night Football game of the New Orleans Saints vs. the Indianapolis Colts, when the almost 20-year veteran Drew Brees broke the all-time NFL touchdown record. Through his years in San Diego and New Orleans, he has thrown 541 touchdowns!

His story is surprising.

When he was playing his heart out at Westlake High School in Austin, TX in the 1990s, he “starred”— with a perfect record for his senior year and a state championship — but no Texas university even offered him a scholarship. He wasn’t “that” good, and he went off to Purdue, and yes, played very well. As they say, the rest is history, a surprising history.

Earlier this fall I was in Austin for a weekend, speaking at Christ Church Anglican on the meaning of vocation for the church in the world, and as I am wont, I wanted to contextualize as best as I could. So I thought a lot about Texas, and about Austin, before I went, wanting to make sure that the songs and stories which would thread their way through my lectures would be authentically Texan. As the apostle Paul has taught us, “Even your own poets have said…” and they do, and we should listen.

So I began with Willie Nelson, Austin’s native son and my favorite-ever traveling music — “Stardust Memories” — reflecting on the idea of pilgrimage, of the “travelin’” we do in the years of our lives. But then I drew in some of the best-known Texas quarterbacks in recent memory: Vince Young and Colt McCoy from the University of Texas, Johnny Manziel from Texas A&M, and Robert Griffin III from Baylor. And yes, I noted in passing that while each one was judged to be the best of the best college quarterbacks of their day, awarded this-and-that trophy, none made it in the NFL, at least not for long. While that is not a tragedy in and of itself, it is worth remembering, perplexing as it is perhaps. Why? What happened?

And then I offered the hometown hero, Drew Brees, who has surprised everyone but himself, I am sure, with his excellence and brilliance as a player, becoming the “best of the best.” And while often a good football player is not a good man, in Brees’ case they are the same person; from all we can see and hear, he is the real deal, as good in life as he is on the field. That is unusual, and that is worthy of honor.

Then I acknowledged that the question of sustaining our commitments and loves has been the great question of my life. What is the relationship of what we believe with the way that we live? How do we coherently connect our knowing and doing? What does vocation mean? And how do we keep at it, sustaining our vocations in and through the years of life?

That has kept me up at night, and that has kept me at my life. More recently, I have asked, and asked again, “How is it possible to know the world, and still love it?” realizing as I now do that that is the most difficult question of all, the one we are most prone to stumble over. For almost every good reason, we choose not to, knowing enough of ourselves and the world to know that it will cost us too much — that the world is too much and that we cannot bear its wounds, wounded as we are. We choose to suppress and repress instead, knowing but not doing, as we intuitively know that our knowledge means responsibility. And we do not want to be responsible.

Football is not life. Even Texas football is not life. Even Friday night lights are not life. But football is a window into life, maybe a metaphor for life, if we have eyes to see. While most don’t keep on keeping on, some do. Why they do has been the question of my life for the whole of my life.

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[ Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash ]

— by Hamilton Powell

Early on in a start-up’s life, one must be prepared to iterate…a lot. To think you have got it right on the first try is naive. You don’t have it right. You will need to duck, dodge, and weave your way into the right business model and solution for your target customer. Enter the “good idea fairy.”

She is a crucial component of the early years of any start-up. And she is you, the founder. An important part of your role is avoiding failure by inserting a flood of continuous ideas into the company. Armed with a healthy dose of pessimism, the good idea fairy sees problems before they occur and always has a multitude of alternative paths to take in case of failure.

She is a vital member of your early team. While your company is nimble you are able to heed to the many callings of the good idea fairy. She captains your pirate ship of a business, filling your days with swashbuckling with your merry band of marauding team members. But this merriment and lawlessness can’t last forever. Eventually, your company will need to graduate from pirate ship to naval fleet. No company is sustainable as a pirate ship long term. Privateering must be replaced in favor of a deadly combination of processes, systems, and strategies.

This does not, however, mean the good idea fairy must not be thrown off the ship. She simply must be enlisted in a different way altogether. A new operating system must be adapted for making decisions. Remember those late-night emails with your impulsive ideas? That has to stop. Remember your ability to jump out of your chair and announce a new initiative you have been thinking about since lunchtime? Nope – that has to go.

Once your company has begun to achieve a “naval fleet” status, you must filter your ideas through an operating system based on your company’s long and short-term vision, available resources, priorities, and values. Here at Crown & Caliber, we chose the EOS model (adopted from a book by Gino Wickman called “Traction”). This has revolutionized how we take great ideas and decide what to pursue and what not to pursue.

Completely cutting off ideas will lead to stagnation and eventually death. No one is suggesting that. But if ideas flow in unfiltered, they will kill your company in a different way: fatigue. Imagine a bus.

When you are driving the bus and you choose to take a sharp turn, you don’t feel it that much. However, the passengers in the back of the bus are probably on the verge of nausea from these sudden changes in direction. Once your company has reached a level of maturity, you can no longer just “throw out” ideas with your team as freely as you once did. It will confuse the team and may even send a subtle message of distrust.

At this level in a company’s life, your words matter more than ever. My coach, Bob Lewis, has said on multiple occasions: “When the CEO whispers, everyone else hears a scream.” The ideas you freely float to the team must be done so responsibly, through an operating system like EOS. 

The world is competitive. For that reason, you cannot be a mile wide and an inch deep. The good idea fairy can ultimately destroy your business more than any competitor could. Imagine how elated you would be to learn your fiercest competitor just decided to spread into ten other categories. You would be ecstatic because you know this lack of focus only serves you, the competitor.

In the same way, fairies and pirate ships and impulsive bus drivers require a process and a system to turn from a liability to an asset. Only you can make that happen.

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[ Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash ]

— by Jon Elder

Oftentimes, it feels like a Christian is an entrepreneur is an oxymoron.  Honestly, the vast majority of entrepreneurs are unsaved and are focused on one thing: profit.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Profit is the name of the game but as a Christian, there is a higher calling.  And that is to honor Christ.  My story is one that is not only unique but inspiring because of the Lord and what He chose to do with my business.  

So, some quick history.  I started an Amazon-based business in late 2014 with a simple product, a golf brush.  I had a general interest in it as I had enjoyed golfing earlier in life and was fairly cheap to source from overseas.  This one product eventually grew into 100 across various categories.  To say my business grew fast is an understatement.  In my first year of business I did just over $100k in sales.  The very next year I did over $1.5 million in sales.  At my peak, I did over $6 million in sales and was a top 3000 Amazon seller!  Then came 2019 when I sold my business to a private buyer for seven figures.  All I all, it was a 5-year journey that grew me, challenged me, and increased by faith in God to a level I hadn’t imagined was possible.  

So, how does one exit a successful business faithfully?  As a Christian, you are called to serve others unconditionally regardless of who they are.  Biblically speaking, this included the buyer of my business of course!  Because of this belief system, it changed the way I approached the exit and the buyer.  Instead of simply looking at it from a financial perspective, it became more of a partnership with the buyer.  Desiring that the buyer of my business experience success after the transfer was important to me.  This resulted in some training of the buyer before the actual sale of the business and starting the onboarding process in a way that didn’t leave anything out.  The real training, of course, came after the sale, which required me to fly to the buyer’s home state to do some intensive in-person training.  During this part of the training, it was a real joy to walk through incredibly detailed aspects of the business and ensure that the buyer had a good grasp on what I was teaching.  

I think another way to stay faithful during an exit is to be honest from the very beginning about your business.  This applies to your financial books to real challenges you experienced.  I think this is crucial because it not only brings you buyers who are genuinely interested in the business, but it brings people who want to take what you built and make it even greater.  From the start of the search for a buyer to closing on the business, I kept lines of communication open and transparent.  Why this is not commonplace is beyond me as it built up trust between myself and the buyer.  

Lastly, I think that it’s honorable to run a business like you always would all the way up until the sale.  I have heard one too many horror stories about guys who will lose steam once talks are getting serious with a buyer and will start neglecting critical elements of their business.  This not only makes you look bad but it can end up with a buyer being in a terrible position post-sale.  That is not God-honoring one bit!  It took me 8 months to close on my business and I’ll be honest, it was always tempting to get lazy and neglect the business.  I’m glad that didn’t happen, and I stayed the course!  The buyer of my business is now growing the business and is in a great position to take it to new heights and be highly successful.  

As a Christian, every element of your life should reflect Christ.  It’s not always easy but the verse that comes to mind is Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  This is a verse that my wife and I teach my son and have encouraged him to memorize.  No task is too great for a Christian who has the great assurance of salvation!   

So, what’s next for me?  Well, during the training sessions I had with the buyer of my business, I realized I enjoyed teaching others.  Naturally, Black Label Advisor was born!  This is my new venture, a VIP style consulting service focused on one on one service with nothing but 100% focus on you.  I assist and help others on their Amazon selling journey to hopefully experience the same success I had.  Feel free to connect with me! 

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[ Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash ]