Entrepreneurship | The Pope and the CEO

God Is a Shield

By Rich Swanson Recently, my pastor presented a message about the character of God. I felt it was especially relevant to entrepreneurship. The message was part of a series on what God is like. It is an important concept. Consider the words of Canadian theologian A. W. Tozer, in his devotional classic, Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” To teach us about the character and personality of God, the Bible gives stories about His interactions with people, and metaphors which describe Him. On Sunday, the topic was “God is a Shield.” Though we are not as familiar with shields as those in the ancient world, the metaphor is a helpful one. Shields were used for protection. They were made from wood, metal, or leather, and served to deflect spears, arrows or rocks being hurled by an enemy. God describes himself as a shield in several places in Scripture (notably Genesis 15:1 & II Samuel 32:33-36). Two conclusions were drawn based on the fact God is a shield, both with tremendous relevance to the faith-filled entrepreneur: One, because God is a shield, you can live without… Read more
Entrepreneurship and the Garden of Eden

Posted by Rich Swanson This post is adopted from a lecture I heard by Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City. He is a regular on my iPod. We can learn a lot about how God designed mankind by looking at Adam and Eve’s lives in the Garden of Eden. It is the Garden – life before the fall – where we find clues about our true nature and the purpose of work. God made us in His image, as creative beings. Unlike other species, humans have the ability to co-create with God, who is the Creator of all things. Thus, when we innovate, we express a portion of the image of God within us. The Book of Genesis tells us the first “job” was gardening. Gardening is cultivating soil and vegetation to produce something of both use and beauty. It is an appropriate metaphor for work of all kinds. The work for Adam and Eve was to “tend” the garden; that is to combine the existing resources and create something both useful and beautiful, which mankind and God would enjoy together. This is the true nature of work: to arrange available resources in innovative ways, in… Read more
It Is More Blessed to Give Than to Receive

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) This is the basis for capitalism according to George Gilder author of Wealth and Poverty. Giving first, with the expectation but not the guarantee of receiving something later, is what capitalism is all about; and the principle has been around for a long time. In “Wealth and Poverty,” Gilder describes the first capitalists as displaying this kind of motive and practice. Anthropologists studying ancient peoples from the Solomon Islands discovered an interesting system of wealth creation. Any man who wanted to gain influence in his community would throw a party for the community. Others would also host such parties creating a competitive environment whereby each would try to outdo the other. Sound expensive? In a sense it was, so each leading man would need to amass a certain amount of resources to plan his next big event. He did this by limiting his own consumption to save for the feast. Eventually, workers and investors would get behind the aspiring individual to plan for and execute a bigger celebration than the last. In this way the young executive would gain laborers (farmers who would set aside a portion of their… Read more
The Complexities of Development in Haiti

On a recent broadcast of This American Life, the show’s host, Ira Glass, documents the complicated processes behind economic change in Haiti. After half a century of receiving billions in aid, the average Haitian makes less today than fifty years ago. The plot line is tragically familiar. A gregarious Haitian single mother owns two mango trees on a mostly barren farm. She might be well positioned as mangoes are Haiti’s primary export, and market research shows that the industry could grow significantly with some help. However, despite a river adjacent to her property, she cannot get water to her farm. All it would take is a canal, but it’s complicated… Others in her community are also mango farmers. They farm a few trees, harvest the mangoes, and store them under their beds until a purchaser comes through town to buy them. The buyer sells the mangoes to an exporter. In this case the exporter is Jean-Maurice. He would like to expand market share in the US, but has to settle for less because the mangoes he receives are in such bad shape. His solution is simple: ask farmers to place their mangoes in a crate to protect them, so he… Read more
Entrepreneur Stories by Partners Worldwide

Partners Worldwide has many wonderful initiatives – one of them is Africa Works. Their goal is to start 100,000 businesses across Africa to help transform Africa by the year 2020. Businesses by the people and for the people. They post many stories and short videos of the individual entrepreneurs on their website. I was particularly impacted by the story of Anabela Matola from Campira’s poultry operation. It never ceases to amaze me how doing business can build people up and help them reach for previously unimaginable goals! There are over 20 other stories on the Partners Worldwide website, as well as many other helpful resources and ways to get involved.
How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution

Very good article by Daniel Isenberg in the recent edition of the Harvard Business Review. “Although the story never ends, the action principles I have listed will help governments move the needle of entrepreneurship in the right direction. Engaging the private sector, modifying cultural norms, removing regulatory barriers, encouraging and celebrating successes, passing conducive legislation, being judicious in emphasizing clusters and incubators, subjecting financing programs to market rigors, and, above all, approaching the entrepreneurship ecosystem as a whole will allow governments to create economic growth by stimulating self-sustaining venture creation. Ireland’s president, Mary McAleese, recognized the extraordinary effect that could have on a society. In 2003 she said: “Today an educated, self-confident, and achieving generation can see the power of its own genius at work in its own land as a culture of entrepreneurship transforms Ireland’s fortunes, creating a new future for our children and an economic success story of remarkable proportions.” … that about sums it up!