vladimirgrebenar 
When building a heavy and complex structure, one of the first steps is to examine and analyze the bearing capacity and subsidence of the soil on which the structure is to be built. The basic properties of the soil determine the complexity, ie the weight and foundations of the building. The foundations must necessarily be such that they give the building resistance to undesirable mechanical external influences such as earthquakes, floods, rains, storms, etc.
The Lord Jesus himself described it this way: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock” (Mt 7: 24-25). It is undeniable how the people of that time were aware that the foundations of a house were important for its stability. Nevertheless, greater meaning and knowledge of Jesus’ words should be sought.
Jesus emphasized “ Everyone who listens to these words of mine ” and the words Jesus said to the apostles before were, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Moreover, Jesus further gave a comparison of how imperative it is for man to do the will of the Father when he said that not even many signs and wonders of faith will justify those believers who did not do the will of the Father. Doing what is the will of God the Father is actually the purpose of our existence.
Another word for purpose is mission. Every man on earth has one or more missions to accomplish, and accomplishing that mission is our fundamental task in this world. If we strive for the truth, we will realize the mission of our life in concrete circumstances. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. When Jesus returned from the high mountain from prayer, the apostles asked him to teach them to pray. Jesus told them not to enumerate as pagans in prayer, and gave them a pattern on how to talk (pray) with God. We need to approach God as a good father and talk to Him about everything. Jesus certainly listened to the word of the Father and thus carried out the mission from day to day.
The title of the Gospel text according to Matthew is called “Acts, not just words.” Therefore, the mission of human life is deeds, not in the first place the prayer of enumeration ‘Lord, Lord!’. In this chapter, Jesus made it clear and unambiguous that prayers can be a testimony against a believer if there are no deeds after those prayers, and he said this so radically that he enumerated all the fruits of the most powerful prayers (prophecies, revelations, miracles of faith…) and that yet man can miss his mission on earth and fall.
The Lord said: “Then I will declare to them solemny, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers’” (Mt 7:23). The Lord is sending us a message here: “Reveal your mission – do the will of the Father.” Saint Ignatius, listening to the Holy Spirit, wrote that man becomes humble when he does the will of the Father. Therefore, humility is not humiliation and conscious loss of reputation in front of others, on the contrary it is the ability for a person to accept to do what comes to him through life in truth and spiritual inspiration.
The true mission of our life is most powerfully revealed through the prayer of listening in which we should allow God to speak to us in silence of heart, and not just enumerate and say to God let me solve this, give me that now, so I don’t go where you are now… Man it can be truly and successfully accomplished only if it listens to the Holy Spirit what needs to be done in its vocation and that path leads to eternity. Unfortunately, many believers say that they do not have time to listen to the will of the Father in prayer, because they are too busy not to have time to give a little time to the Creator of time.
Many today do not have time to allow God to speak to them in inspiration and silence of heart. That is why many Christian initiatives fail, many businesses fail, many parties fail, practical Christians often fail because they do not do the will of the Father, but their own. One of the greatest misconceptions we make today is to invoke God’s help and blessing on our decisions that are a reflection of our will, that we have not listened to or do not want to know if it is the will of the Father.
Whenever we make a decision that is our will we must be aware that the outcome of that decision is under great question of success.
On the contrary, whenever we make a decision for which we have received in silence and through prayer positive encouragement that the Lord wants just that path, then that decision is guaranteed to be successful. God’s choices are only seemingly more difficult, and in fact in the long run the best and easiest.
We need to know that easier choices in life, with less risk and more certainty very often as wrong choices lead us to failure and decline.
Fascinating, but science has proven that the highest rates of business failures are those business ventures that were seemingly easier and safer, and the highest rates of survival and success are those business ventures that were harder and more complex to start. The recommendation for start-up entrepreneurs is to think big enough ideas from the beginning. Success in accomplishing a personal and business mission does not have to be a success in the eyes of the world, nor does it have to be immediate success, but the believer knows that some outcomes of doing the will of the Father are a valuable experience in the greater mission of life, salvation.
Many cynics would now ask, “Well come on, when it’s that simple, let’s see how God’s voice is heard.” The childish answer is simple, if we are able to go to school for decades, work for decades, learn other languages and new technologies, have we not been able to learn so simply and easily to listen to the will of the Father? The answer is even simpler, we didn’t want to and don’t want to because of our arrogance. Pride is the doing of one’s own will, and pride is man’s first sin. We love ourselves the most, so we do what we want, and prayers and masses often come to us as a way to try to manipulate how good and just we are.
Are we sure we will not hear, “Depart from me! I never knew you.” Only a humble man can do the will of the Father, and God is unsurpassed and knows what is best for us, just as a parent knows what is best for his little child. the best. God as a Father cares that we are happy, blessed, successful, healthy, materially situated, joyful, full of accomplishments and smiles.
God cares that we are valued by the people He values, and He does not care that we are praised by the world that crucifies Him. The former saw him after the resurrection, the latter did not have that privilege. There is not yet a man born in the world who is disappointed in doing the will of the Father. For a little trial, there is already a hundredfold reward on earth. Our problem is that we expect everyone to admire and accept us and that we look at the world like a utopian. If we follow Christ, we cannot expect the world to love us. And now the cynical question, what does all this have to do with the mission in entrepreneurship? Fundamental!
Science proves that the first prerequisite for business success is a well-defined mission of a company, but science does not provide an answer on how to know the true mission. I often find myself faced with a hypocritical interpretation of scientific knowledge. For example, science proves that emotional intelligence and empathy (compassion for others) are more important to business success than rational intelligence, but lecturers have no answer to the question of how to become more emotionally intelligent. It is the same with the question of how to discover the true mission of a company.
The question of the company’s mission is actually a question of the purpose of the company, and that question is “why does the company exist?” Every company exists to meet some needs of its customers. The mission of a company is necessarily focused on customers and consumers (i.e., those for whom we create, not us as employees) and if the mission were wrong, the company would disappear over time. And here we have the gospel in action if we seek God’s will in business.
In business language, it would be like this: an entrepreneur must discover a business mission, and that mission is always focused on meeting customer needs, it can only be effective if it creates added value from limited natural resources and work to customer satisfaction. Theologically, it would read as follows: man must know the purpose of his existence in order to realize his mission as a believer in acts of love in communion with others.
Every time an entrepreneur is focused in his work on the market and economically creating products and services that are a response to real human needs then he carries out his mission in work and certainly survives. A believer who gives himself to others receives it from others. An entrepreneur who delivers his product on the market to customers for their needs, receives money from customers. Trade must be an interaction of evangelical values, the entrepreneur gives the buyer what the buyer needs, and the buyer gives the entrepreneur the money the entrepreneur needs.
Entrepreneurs who decide for themselves what to produce, without wondering if there is a need for customers for a new product are very likely to fail, because these decisions are the result of arrogance, doing their own will. That is why many unsuccessful entrepreneurs curse the state, the authorities and others, believing that they are to blame for their failure. A critical factor in market success is not enumerating “Lord, Lord,” but knowing the true needs of other people and meeting those needs.
That is why many atheist entrepreneurs who have realized the true mission of creation are often times more faithful in deeds than the entrepreneurs who enumerate “Lord, Lord come to my company and protect me and my company, my family, bless our decisions and work” instead of praying “Lord grant us the Spirit of humility to always do in our company what is your will and produce what you want us to do for others, let the Holy Spirit touch our hearts to know and carry out the mission of our company ”.
Thus, the best mission is revealed in truth, silence and prayer. It is a professional obligation of entrepreneurs and managers to continuously review the mission of the company. Many people think that entrepreneurs and managers realize their mission in the first place through profit, but this is a wrong assumption. Research has shown that companies that are established in the first place for profit have the highest rate of business failure.
On the contrary, the highest survival and success rates have companies established with a well-defined mission that is carried out by the business, and the profit is then the result of ethical and responsible business. Guidelines for business success are not described in the scientific and professional literature. Nowhere will you find how someone has scientifically proven how a company’s true mission is revealed.
Science has only come to realize that entrepreneurs and managers who have recognized the true mission of a company are successful in successful companies. Is there any guidance in the Bible on how the mission is revealed? The Lord said, “What you hear in secret, preach on the rooftops!” In other words, what you hear as inspiration for the mission, do it in public and do not be afraid.[1]
[1] The article was published with minor changes in: Veritas. Glasnik Sv. Antuna Padovanskog. Croatian Province of St. Jerome of the Franciscan Conventuals. Zagreb. Sveti Duh 31. Number 7-8. July 2019. p. 30.