Success, Sacrifice, Sustainability and Succession
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s all about getting ahead, getting seen, and getting heard. Whoever appears more on social media platforms, whoever gets heard more on YouTube and assorted podcast arenas, will reach greater levels of success. Unfortunately, most of it is not well-deserved success. They haven’t put in the years of hard work that our ancestors or previous generations have. They have often hit the height of their success in their early 30’s, providing us with information that is opinion based, without the years of experience, and, or research. Okay, I will admit not all of them I listen to are like that; there are many great sermons, podcasts and YouTube videos.
Here are the downfalls often associated with this kind of success. First, and foremost, is their succession planning. One person won’t live forever. If the provider gets sick, or dies, their products and services go to the grave with them.
The generations before us looked into the future. They had succession plans for their children to further the family business. They seemed to inherently know that their kids, and then their grandkids, would bring their hard work of building a sustainable business model to a level they never could. Or, they had a plan to sell to someone who would carry their work into the future.
No matter how you slice it, most of today’s success had been built on the blood, sweat and tears of the generations before us.
This generation is looking for a road to success! They are young and without years of experience and the wisdom of our forefathers. They haven’t inherited the years of hard work and building personal relationships. They have built audiences on their clicks not their expertise. Unfortunately, only years of learning, whether from life and or school, builds long term success.
My purpose for sharing this is not to criticize but to bring a reminder of the danger of not building your business on a firm foundation of hard work. “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” – Proverbs 14:23
It may seem at first that those who plant little are harvesting more but I beg to differ. Good habits of daily planting and then watering will bring you larger returns, they just come at a slower pace.
Success and sustainability require sacrifice. Succession requires a secure foundation that future generations can build on.
All of us who make profit from our products and service need to remember that God watches our every effort. See your work as an act of worship to God! Our businesses honor God when we approach them with this mindset. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” – Colossians 3:23 Then all will go well with you!
