vladimirgrebenar 
Many people are wondering if they are invited to start a business endeavor or start their own business. Equally, many entrepreneurs are considering whether to start some more new ventures in their own company. A business venture is, by definition, “a new business or business activity, especially one that includes risks.”[1] Therefore, business ventures involve risks. Risks are, by modern definition, events that may or may not occur and that may have positive or negative effects on the business. The fundamental difference between people who start business ventures and those who do not decide on this life adventure is in the perception of risk and belief in failure or success.
We can say that we were all in a situation where we were thinking about a business venture. Some people when they think of starting a business venture first see an opportunity for success, while other people first see threats that lead to a business downturn. The fundamental difference between those starting a business and those not deciding to do so lies in the perception of opportunities or threats. In other words, the difference is whether the person contemplating the venture is more in faith or more in fear.
When thinking about an endeavor, the individual sees first what is in himself. A braver man first sees an opportunity for success, a man in fear first sees a fall. An entrepreneur does not manage the market, but adapts to it and that is why entrepreneurship is an adventure. The market is always uncertainty, bigger or smaller. Many who could start their own business cannot cope with the uncertainties. So, they are looking for safer jobs and do not want to start their own business. The perception of an opportunity or threat stems from our emotions.
Emotions and spirituality are not the field that the scientific discipline of entrepreneurship deals with to a greater extent. Entrepreneurship psychology interprets the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, but does not provide guidance on how to achieve these characteristics in order to succeed. Does this mean that there is no answer to the question of how to achieve the qualities of a successful entrepreneur? Indeed, it could be argued. Science cannot heal a man’s heart from fears and make a man capable of starting a business. Therefore, diplomas, doctorates and other achievements in education do not have a decisive influence on starting an independent business venture. One can therefore rightly ask how much faith in Jesus Christ can help in an entrepreneurial adventure?
Some entrepreneurs do not think about it, because for some reason they do not have practical experience of faith in Jesus, but they have experience of how important business ethics is in business, which precedes success. It is much harder to become and remain a successful entrepreneur, by doing good only on your own, relying on ethics, without a living faith in Jesus Christ. It is easier to become and remain successful by having faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The Scripture gives us guidance on how to become successful because the whole revelation is a call to action.
We read in the Book of Genesis, on the first page of the Bible, how important it is to be successful in running a business. God created the world as an endeavor in “six phases” which, according to biblical language, are “six days,” because the seventh day entered “rest.” For each phase of the endeavor, it says, “God saw that it was good.” At the end of the sixth day, when he finished his endeavor, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). So, God teaches us that a business venture must be successful in business continuity.
God, through His Holy Word and prayer, gives man special emotional gifts that we call spiritual graces, which cannot be received by people who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Such emotional gifts cannot be achieved by man alone, because they are beyond his natural strength. Graces are key to human success regardless of the field of human creation. Entrepreneurs, like many others, suffer from more or less various fears. For example, fear of the future, fear of the best people leaving, fear of market uncertainty, fear of conflict resolution, fear of litigation, fear of leaving a partner, fear of new stressful situations, fear of failure, fear of not being able to pay due obligations…
No man can help an entrepreneur with the advice “you should not be afraid of all this.” Only the love of God can heal and free man from fear. Psychology teaches how to suppress fear or learn to deal with fears. Jesus heals and frees from all the fears we carry within us!
God’s intervention is key to business success as God sees it. There is a big emotional difference in how a believer enjoys business success and hopes for even more, compared to an entrepreneur who without true faith anxiously wonders if he will maintain success. A man who relies on Christ is stronger than a man who relies on his own strength when traveling on an entrepreneurial adventure. True Christianity is most deserving of the development of an entrepreneurial culture and entrepreneurial society in the Western world.
Can we hide the fact that the father of economic science, free market and entrepreneurship, Adam Smith, was a Christian and a theologian? When it comes to entrepreneurship and business success in the full sense of the word, such success is not possible without spirituality and faith in Jesus Christ. True business success means that the entrepreneur is successful in other areas of life as well. So, there is success in the family, healthy relationships with good workers, business partners, and the wider community.
Can business success be called careerism that neglects one’s own family, children, workers, and other stakeholders? Is it success if the entrepreneur puts personal material status and ego first, far ahead of everyone? Shipwrecks in life and true success in business cannot be placed in the same definition. When God gives His blessing, He gives it in all areas of human life. Entrepreneurs who have neglected their own family, workers and their families and other people have only apparent success. Apparent success is not true success, and can often be a curse for the family of entrepreneurs and other people, who have suffered trauma and damage due to apparent success. True business success means that all stakeholders benefit from the business venture.
The business venture must be a blessing for the people and family of the entrepreneur. Every person who is considering starting a business should ask themselves whether the effects of the business will be good for other people. It may happen that some stakeholders complain unjustifiably, telling negativities and lies about the entrepreneur. Such people are mostly envious because they are unsuccessful in life. Envious people cannot rejoice in success, but they would rejoice in the fall of an entrepreneur. If he wants to be successful, the entrepreneur must stay away from such people and keep them away from himself, his family and business. Such people should not be employees, customers, service users, suppliers or in the role of important stakeholders. When an entrepreneur chooses them for his stakeholders, he will experience the fire of hell in interpersonal relationships and such people will inevitably do harm.
When a company is committed to Jesus Christ from the beginning, such people cannot work in a company with strong Christian values. An entrepreneur must choose business stakeholders based on common values, such as responsibility, innovation, creativity, proactivity etc. When thinking about success, an entrepreneur should ask himself the following questions: a) would I buy this product or service I offer to customers, b) are my suppliers satisfied, c) are my workers satisfied, d) did I pay taxes fairly, and e) is my family happy?
Christian entrepreneurs need to ask themselves another fundamental question: “Does this business venture celebrate Jesus Christ through its fundamental values?“ God is glorified in business more by deeds, less by words. If only one stakeholder is found to be permanently and unfairly deprived because of apparent success in business, it is best to give up and let others know how to do it. That is why it is written: “For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath” (Mark 4:25). Do Christians know why apparently successful businesses fail? They are only a matter of apparent success, selfish profit, false concern for workers who are often times at a minimum wage, but there was no blessing for all stakeholders. After given time and missed opportunities for change and repair, God decided to give the market to those who “have” the knowledge and competencies in order to “have even more.”
God gives time to entrepreneurs with business difficulties to raise efficiency to a high level and to the satisfaction of stakeholders. Many Christians are greatly mistaken when they think that God will answer their prayers for work, and that they have deprived stakeholders like workers, suppliers, customers, or the state. Moreover, they think that God will tolerate such omissions for a long time. God is not a means to an end. Many entrepreneurs do not understand that they have an even greater responsibility to fix what is not good, precisely because they consider themselves believers.
God is not biased because of religious affiliation. Christians, keep in mind that all people, regardless of denomination, are children of God! Weren’t the “Holy Three Kings” pagans, and they were proclaimed saints of the Catholic Church. By their deeds they testified for the Lord whom the traditional believers rejected! God will support the business endeavors of atheists and people of other faiths who testify to a faith that is deeply inscribed in the heart of every human being. But they will not support the work of traditional Christians who pray and profess the faith only in words, while they have a profit idol in their hands with dissatisfied stakeholders.
Our Father loves all those who have not yet had the opportunity to know His love and His Son, but according to their own conscience firmly strive for the good. A big profit is a blessing to the entrepreneur when all the shares are paid on time and fairly. Profit can be a great curse and idolatry if it unjustly deprives other people and organizations.
An entrepreneur can decide with whom to build his business story. There are three choices. Independently and relying on your abilities, by faith in Jesus Christ or by seeking help in the wrong places with the wrong people. God allows us to make choices of our own free will. An entrepreneur makes a commitment to Jesus Christ when he decides to fulfill his obligations according to God’s Ten Commandments, that is, as the Holy Mother Church teaches. Commitment to Jesus is an act of free will without which God will not intervene in the business story. An entrepreneur’s commitment to Jesus Christ means that the entrepreneur plans to run the business together with Jesus.
[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/business-venture (accessed: December 2020)