Faith & Entrepreneurship

When you venture off into the unknown to start your own business enterprise, what is the force that makes you think you will succeed?

You must have strong faith to believe you can fly.

Simply put , you have faith! It is an essential pre-cursor element to entrepreneurship. Before I go pontificating about the subject I must give proper credit to my cousin Anita Connors, (http://www.atconnercpa.com/index.html), a CPA in Philadelphia who hipped me to this novel concept. She has built a vastly successful business and produced a documentary of her life story which is a strong example of the principles to be discussed here.


So many people get twisted into knots when you discuss faith, but at its core faith is simply a belief that is not based on proof. A brand new business has no sales stats, no past performance, simply an idea and someone's faith that it will succeed.


With faith being such an essential element, all those who venture out on that proverbial limb and start a new business should logically become students of faith. Any tool that will assist and strengthen your faith logically seems to have a direct ability to impact your entrepreneurial pursuits.Some great quotes on faith:

• “Keep your dreams alive. Understand [that in order] to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”
  – Gail Devers


• “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to”
  – George Seaton


• “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”
  – Douglas Adams


• “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
  – St. Thomas Aquinas


• “Faith... Must be enforced by reason...When faith becomes blind it dies.”
  – Mahatma Gandhi


• “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
  – Reinhold Niebuhr


• “You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.”
  – Mary Manin Morrissey


• “Faith isn't faith until it's all you're holding on to”
  - unattributed

Being an entrepreneur gives rise to the occasion when you learn firsthand, “it’s lonely at the top!” Being the boss creates occasions when burdens run high and friends run away. The bills flow constantly, while customers seem sporadic. It is only by faith that you can continue to move forward, continue to believe. Having a strong spiritual faith allows the entrepreneur to give up his worries and place them in something greater than themselves. It is this ability to know that no matter what happens I am not alone that allows me to maintain my daily sanity without the regular use and constant abuse of intoxicants.

I personally continue to seek new ways to exercise my faith spiritually, professionally and personally. The greater one's faith, the greater one's potential. So as we all grow , let's spread some tools for a more faithful life....


Think about it and let me know what you think.