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THE ENTREPRENEURIAL
SPIRIT
Give,
and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed
down, shaken together, running over, will be put
into your lap; for the measure you give will be
the measure you get back.
—Luke 6:38
In the dictionary, an entrepreneur is defined
as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes
the risk of a business.” While the definition
is valid, it seems sterile without a reference
to the entrepreneurial spirit.
When I think about the big leap I took by venturing
out on my own, I had more on my mind than just
organizing, managing, and assuming the risk of
a business. My thoughts focused on Noah's faith
in God when he built the ark. Genesis 6:13-16
describes God telling Noah that he would destroy
all flesh because the earth was filled with violence.
Then God instructed Noah to build an ark measuring
300 cubits in length, or about 450 feet. The ark's
width should be 75 feet and it should stand 45
feet high.
Imagine how much Noah had to trust God to take
on such a task. Working with crude tools, Noah,
a farmer from Ur, and his sons, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth, constructed this huge vessel--the biggest
ever built in its day. Noah built it exactly to
God's specifications, never deviating from his
instructions. The ark was supposed to save Noah
and his family from an impending flood, yet there
were no clouds in the sky that showed any sign
of even a rain shower. Still, Noah and his sons
worked day and night on the ark. People came from
near and far to see the four driven men build
the huge ark in the desert. Neighbors and visitors
ridiculed and cursed Noah, yet he never abandoned
his faith in God.
True, starting my own company was a miniscule
task compared to Noah's. I was the son of a mechanic,
who was also a man of the soil. My father worked
a small farm--consisting of a couple of cows,
a few chickens, and some hogs--to feed his family
of ten. Even though I had received my business
degree from Central Missouri State University
in 1973 and had held various sales and marketing
positions with Union Pacific Railroad and Federal
Express, people didn't hesitate to question me:
“What do you know about owning your own
business? How could you quit a good job to start
your own company?”
When you dare to have ambitions, people tend
to ridicule you; they become vocal about why you
cannot and even should not attempt to pursue your
dream. Some well-meaning friends and family members
are trying to protect you, while others may be
jealous that you might succeed. Few have the same
belief in you that you have in yourself. There
will always be someone who wants to rain on your
parade, but an entrepreneur can't be swayed by
other people's standards. Don't let them put you
into a box. If you buy into what's expected of
you, you'll be restricted by others' limitations.
Better you should be guided by God's unlimited
promise. We've all been told: “Finish your
education, get a good job, work for a good company,
and you'll have a great life.” In other
words, work all your life, get a gold watch, and
retire.
This message is repeated and reinforced by people
who are all too willing to tell us what they think
we should do. Friends, teachers, and even college
professors continually reinforce it, and then
parents confirm this message to their children
by being living examples of it. It takes a leap
of faith to raise yourself above what others expect
of you. The hardest thing to do is take that first
step to overcome your fears and self-doubt, especially
when you're surrounded by doubting Thomases who
constantly reinforce those fears, based on their
personal beliefs.
Becoming a player in the world of Information
Technology (IT), which was a new revolution in
the 1980s, presented challenges to all who sought
entry, and, in particular, an African-American.
To this day, I can visualize the frowns on the
faces of friends and family who said, “You
know they won't let you do that.” I wondered,
“Who are they?”
Following about ten years of employment in corporate
America, in 1984 I started my own company, Transportation
Business Specialists. My transition to the role
of sole proprietor was difficult; it meant no
longer having a supervisor to rely on, no steady
paycheck, and no expense account. The umbilical
cord was cut; I relinquished the safety net of
a large corporation. Along with a second entity,
a sister company I created called Transport Administrative
Services, we provided services to the transportation
industry by locating inefficiencies in the commercial
freight industry. These auditing services revealed
how much the railroads were losing for undercharges
as opposed to overcharges. At the time, many companies
provided overcharge services informing customers
that ship by rail when they were charged too much,
but nobody had ever taken our approach and worked
the other end of the equation. Consequently, we
were engaged to do an undercharge audit of three
years' worth of freight bills for Union Pacific
Railroad, which meant that my company would manage
$15 billion of rate information for a single client.
The only way to handle that amount of information
was through a local area network to link all of
their operations, so we built what was at the
time the biggest network in St. Louis. After I
learned the benefits of effectively integrating
technology to solve business problems, I formed
my current company, World Wide Technology, in
1990 with an investment of $250,000, hard-earned
money from my two earlier ventures.
WWT wasn't exactly an “overnight success.”
We had our peaks and valleys, and although I never
missed a single payroll, many weeks I didn't receive
my own paycheck. Employees always came first.
At one point in 1993, things were so tight, a
collection company repossessed my car right from
our parking lot. Fortunately, I ran after the
car and was able to stop it so I could retrieve
my briefcase from the trunk.
When friends and acquaintances asked my wife,
Thelma, about our new venture, and she explained
what our IT company did, they'd roll their eyes.
Once a woman told Thelma, “Well, you guys
must like living on the edge.” We quickly
learned to throw conventional wisdom out the window,
knowing that what the world thinks is wise, God
thinks is foolish.
It is always darkest before the dawn, and even
in the most discouraging times, I never lost my
faith in God. I was in his hands, and I always
knew the Lord would look after me. I constantly
reminded myself that when God told Abraham to
take his only son to the altar to sacrifice him,
Abraham did as he was told. Imagine the confusion
in Abraham's mind--a man who was incredibly old
when his son was born, and yet he was prepared
to sacrifice him. At the time, Abraham didn't
know God would have him sacrifice a lamb instead.
If Abraham could have such faith in God, I believed
I too could trust God to look after me.
Throughout my life, I have followed examples
set by individuals in the Bible, such men as Abraham,
Noah, and David, who had been given a charge to
do God's work. And I, through my business and
my daily life, have a charge to do God's work,
to be obedient and find favor with the Lord.
As the Bible tells us, we are here to sow seed
into people's lives. In Luke 6:38, Christ says:
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good
measure, pressed down, shaken together, running
over, will be put into your lap; for the measure
you give will be the measure you get back.”
I live my life by these words. My objective in
business is not driven by how much money I may
make. I seek to serve and to give to others.
In business, my biggest job as CEO and owner
of my company is to serve others. My charge is
to serve the employees of this organization and
serve them well. In my company, I strive to nurture
service and commitment to others, an attitude
that places others before us. We abide by this
philosophy rather than participating in a self-serving
culture, and it permeates externally to customers
and suppliers. Then, like a pebble cast into a
lake, its ripples eventually reach the shore.
Trust and loyalty communicated to others assures
long-term success.
Jesus devoted his life to serving others. Even
at the Last Supper, Jesus demonstrated that he
was here to serve when he knelt to wash the feet
of his disciples. In doing so, Jesus humbled himself,
because Hebrew culture viewed the washing of feet
as the lowliest of acts. Some of his disciples
were so embarrassed, they argued and refused to
have their Lord and Savior serve them. But Jesus
was there to serve, just as he was there to sacrifice
his life for us.
Similarly, the success of a business owner is
dependent upon his or her desire to serve others.
I believe this philosophy of servitude epitomizes
the entrepreneurial spirit.
(Click
here to view this chapter in PDF.)
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