What is the difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur?
I’ll reveal the answer at the end of this post.
This question was brought up by the workshop speaker on Learning Styles that was conducted last Wednesday on my return to Cedar Girls’, after a three week absence.
The topic of Learning Styles and how everyone has a unique approach to learning, determined by several factors which are listed in my workshop notes folder in the office but not yet in my brain, was an interesting one, especially when you think about how it affects classroom teaching and how a teacher can and ought to accommodate every student’s needs as far as possible.
If it is possible, of course.
The escape clause, however, is the maxim “True learning begins at home� or, to be more precise, as soon as class ends. So dear students, when you read this, remember that poor, little, old me can only do so much in fifty minutes of class time and the rest, thank God, is up to you.
And, I suppose, what armies of tutors your parents can conjure up for you.
Anyway, what struck me most and what I was most thankful for during the workshop was the speaker’s candid sharing about his life. He is a Christian and his faith and current perspective in life has been very much moulded by his nosebleed-inducing rise to riches – owning twenty-six properties at the age of twenty-nine – and his rather rapid demise as well in the economic recession of 1997. In between all this, his wife left him because of an inability to suffer a simpler lifestyle and he managed to raise his daughter single-parently, while starting a new business that is socially-conscious and active. His company plans to build ten orphanages and they give talks on in schools on how to develop socially-conscious entrepreneurship.
Phew.
Listening to his incredible testimony, I was reminded of the call to be salt of the earth and light of the world laid upon me by no less than my Lord Jesus himself. The workshop speaker was a living example of how one can honour God with the talents given to him by God, not only in the sphere of full-time Christian ministry, but, in this case, the sphere of business. It is great to hear of a brother glorifying the Father with his good deeds in an area that many Christians find difficult to reconcile their faith, especially considering that business is essentially profit-driven.
The workshop speaker made no apologies for making money but also stressed that it would ultimately be futile and meaningless if the profits earned are not used in some way or another to benefit society or, as I would put it, used in love for people.
Very inspiring as it puts a new spin, a godly one, on the Singapore dream of making mooga bucks.
And as I thought more about it, I realised the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this post was what made the difference in ensuring that his dreams did not remain merely that but were converted to living, breathing reality.
And I had to ask myself, “Do I have what he has?�
Has what marked the early years of my walk with God grown or even still exist within me?
Am I willing to pay the price that this precious difference always, always demands of those who bear it?
Am I willing to humble myself before my Father and to rely on His Spirit and His grace to ensure that it will not just exist but blaze for His glory and His kingdom?
I am willing.
Father, I am willing but I am weak.
You are my strength.
You are my reason.
You are my all in all.
May I be burnt up before You.
Amen.
The answer?
Passion.
