Too little to live for

"The trouble is, as modern people, we have too much to live with and too little to live for . . . in the midst of material plenty, we have spiritual poverty." (Entrepreneurs of Life p16)

Science is meaningless

"Science is meaningless because it gives no answer to our question, the only question important to us, 'what shall we do and how shall we live?'" (Leo Tolstoy, quoted in Entrepreneurs of Life p17)

An idea for which to live and die

"The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wants me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die." Soren Kirkegaard (Entrepreneurs of Life p15)

Getting all A's - and failing

"You can get all A's and still flunk life." Walter Percy (Entrepreneurs of Life p15)

To live for something definite

"For the secret of man's being is not only to live . . . but to live for something definite. Without a firm notion of what he is living for, man will not accept life and will rather destroy himself than remain on earth." Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Entrepreneurs of Life p14)

Man without purpose

"The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a waif, a nothing, a no-man."

Thomas Carlyle (Entrepreneurs of Life p14)

Aligning interests

How do you know to what extent it is right to ask God to bless the work of your hands? This prayer is the measure:

To the degree that my work brings You glory, pour out Your blessing.

Aligning Interests
Praying like this aligns our interests. It says, "Inasmuch as I am seeking first your kingdom and righteousness, would you add all these other things that you've promised?" And implicitly it acknowledges that if our work does not glorify Him, that we dare not ask for blessing.

Any good business aligns the interests of the involved parties. For example, when I worked in the financial services, there was a major shift from commission revenue to fee-based revenue. The concept was simple. The broker should be paid for adding value - not for moving money around. When the investment grows, the broker gets paid more; he doesn't just get paid for buying and selling.

I would suggest that gospel entrepreneurship is simply that venture of creating value in the world that not only aligns the client/vendor/employee/owner relationships, but also aligns itself with the interests of the King and His Kingdom.