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More on God’s answer to my question, “What does love have to do with business from His perspective during this recession?”

Let me ask you a question, “What’s important to you about Valentine’s Day? I ask that question at times when I speak and usually the majority of the responses I get are “romance.”  If people expect and want romance why do we so often relegate it to one day of the year? Of course romance means different things to different people but to some of the groups I speak to it means: attention, time spent being fully present, respect, thoughtfulness, interest, listening with the intent to hear, understanding, significance, acceptance and love.

What really makes the economy and world go around or function is people and love. If business is relational, and it truly is since everything starts and ends with someone in a business transaction (an exchange), what are you doing to enhance, develop, or romance those relationships? I see or view profits or money as the fruit of working with and developing relationships. Today many in business have the exact opposite view. They work to achieve profits at all costs. Many are forsaking relationships. I believe God wants His people to get it right, His way. Relationships and love come first. 

Economics is defined as the science and study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. In reality it is the flow of money, or the cycle of money through a business.  At this time rather than concentrating on the economy and all the negative effects and on money and sales, I’d suggest you focus on relationship economics. I define it as the flow of love throughout your business as it relates to all your stakeholders. Make an emotional investment by romancing each and every employee, customer, prospect, supplier, person who calls or drops into your location, etc. Treat and have each employee treat every person they speak to or see as if it were Valentine’s Day each day and the other person was the most important person in their life. I believe by transacting business this way great things will happen in the business such as: heightened productivity, greater efficiency, increased sales, greater understanding, improved morale, less stress, less absenteeism, less sickness, more joy and cooperation in the workplace. Your business will create greater value causing sales to soar.

God is providing us with opportunities to get back to basics – which is to exhibit love in all relationships. When you focus love on relationships, within and outside the business (all stakeholders), you win.  The fruit of unconditional love in relationships is money.  Not the reverse. I believe this recession and all the unemployment is telling us to get back to love and relationships in business and that those who do will succeed and win.  Recall the old Fram Oil Filter TV commercial of the 70s?  Its theme was, “pay me now or pay me later.” I believe it’s time to do business God’s way – romance every relationship you encounter.

More on God’s answer to my question, “What does love have to do with business from His perspective during this recession?” Recall in part 1 of this blog, God brought to my mind Matthew 22:37-40, reminding me of how I was to love all. The next question I had was, “Who is my neighbor?” God prompted me with the Bible story (Luke 10:30-37) that answers the question who is my neighbor and challenges us with the way people are to be treated or served.  Many are familiar with the story, most likely from Sunday school, called the Good Samaritan. I hope after reading this you will call it ‘The Everyday Samaritan’ and model it daily.

The story takes place in Israel with a Jewish man traveling by himself on a road known as being unsafe because it was inhabited by robbers. The traveler was robbed, beaten, stripped of all his clothes and left for dead along the side of the road.  Three individuals passed by the traveler. One passerby was a priest who one would have certainly thought would have stopped but didn’t. A second was a Jew, a native countryman.  He didn’t stop either. A third passerby was a foreigner, a Samaritan, who was hated by the Jews and one would think that he would be the least likely to stop and lend the traveler in distress a hand, but he did stop as he felt compassion and empathy for him. The Samaritan administered first aid to the ailing traveler, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, saw that he was made comfortable and left money with the inn keeper for the traveler’s care and stay at the inn. The Samaritan did something so totally out of character by a hated foreigner and with no hope of payback.

This story leaves us with several questions, especially as it relates to people you see in your daily business context.  Who is my neighbor, and do I need to help them?  The most practical and logical answers to these questions today are that anyone that crosses your path is your neighbor and anyone who needs help that you can afford to provide. I feel many today you come in contact with are like the traveler: they are stripped of self-confidence, self-worth, hope, faith, meaning, and opportunity; beaten by competition, by fellow employees and supervisors, by failure and pressure and stress to perform; and are abandoned, lonely and filled with fear and doubt. Today many in the workplace walk blindly past others (employees, customers, competitors) failing to lend a hand or to serve.  Many are too busy, preoccupied with their own stuff and are also filled with fear and doubt and fighting to keep or justify their own jobs. 

I believe God is saying to all it is time to take up the mindset of and act like ‘The Everyday Samaritan’.  It’s time to stop making excuses of ‘I am too busy’ or ‘that is not my problem’ or let our nearsightedness (consumed with me and my own world) get in our way. Stopping to serve is highly compatible with God’s design for this earth; relationships are extremely important. As God has demonstrated via His business, Nature, business and life are relational for us too. However, we find many times it is easier to cross to the other side of the street. To truly live, connect daily with the reality of your fellow man. 

Next time I will delve further into God’s answer to my question.

Since I was asking and God was answering, I asked Him, “From Your perspective what does love have to do with business during this recession?” 

Recall from Part 1 of this blog, God instructed me to view others as He saw me and to romance Him as well as all others. He reminded me what I had both witnessed in person and learned from Michael Pink during my trip with him and 38 other business people in February 2009 to the Panamanian rainforest.  God’s business, Nature, and more specifically, the tropical rainforest, is very abundant and prosperous in part due to the relationships developed therein despite the poor soil (low capital) and going through a dry season annually (recession).  Authors Tachi Kiuchi and Bill Shireman of “What We Learned in the Rainforest” said, “We discovered the most valuable resources of the rainforest were not the trees or other physical resources but the relationships.”  Since God provided His business, Nature, for our use and instruction, I felt God telling me to pay more attention to relationships and to tell others the same.       

Prior to becoming affiliated with the Rainforest Business Institute as a coach, I was a commercial lender for 37 years. As my life’s work had been in providing financing for business owners, I asked God to show me how business owners could obtain capital for their businesses during and after this recession. His answer was, “Wealth, like in my business, is in relationships.  See people through my eyes of love; romance those relationships. Business owners are failing due to a lack of knowledge and obedience to my laws.” He said for me to tell business owners at this time, “If you want or need working capital, cash flow, wealth or funds to survive, look to your relationships and love them according to Matthew 22.” He further said for me to tell them “to romance their relationships, especially their employees.”

John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach, mentions in his book, “Wooden On Leadership”, reading a statement from a famous coach during the early portion of his career that really helped and guided him in his future relationships. He adopted the saying as a philosophy and told each of his players at the beginning of each season, “I will not like you all the same but I will love you all the same.” This philosophy is one of the major reasons for his successful career as a basketball coach. There’s a life lesson in this for each of us.

There is a silent thief running free and loose in many businesses and families today.  He doesn’t make much noise – but sure steals a lot from you.  All that is needed to help perpetuate this silent thief is to do nothing.  Who is this silent thief?  Neglect!  Neglect of important relationships in your business – employees and customers primarily as well as in your family.  A word of warning and advice today against this silent thief is found in Proverbs 27: 23-24, “Know your sheep by name; carefully attend to your flocks; Don’t’ take them for granted; possessions don’t last forever”.  God is saying to take care of what is truly important. You might not consider people and relationships that important, but He sure does. What you don’t take care of, you may very well lose. Neglect is very damaging in your important relationships. Your business may be like a spinning gerbil wheel, but the thief doesn’t care. The longer you let relationships go, the harder it’s going to be to fix.

Next time I will share a little more what God said in answer to my question.

Since moving to western North Carolina three years ago from Houston I have really fallen in love with color.  My wife and I go hiking often and we get to experience and enjoy four seasons of the year and all the vast colors that each season brings especially the brightly colored leaves of autumn along with a wide variety of animals, birds, plants, and flowers. My life is literally filled with color daily.  In retrospect I realized color was all around me while I lived in Houston but I failed to see it!    

This fall I asked God why color was so important to Him and why He filled our lives daily with so much color. God’s answer was that the color reflected His nature, His beauty.  Beauty is part of His essence. I recalled Genesis 1:27 where it says man is made in God’s image and likeness.  Wow, this means part of my essence is beauty and color like God’s. I asked God again why color was so important to Him. His answer was that the color I saw and greatly enjoyed daily was how He saw me. I was beautiful in His eyes and I was something special as a human being, created by Him as something of great value and worth and something to behold, to marvel at. I heard Him speak to my heart, “Larry, see all the color all around you that you are enjoying and that you are moved emotionally by? That is how I see everyone I’ve created and that is how I want you to see everyone you come in contact with. I want you to see them through my eyes of love. I want you to tell others what I’ve told you about color, beauty and how I see all my creation. Romance me!  Romance all others you see and come in contact with. When I speak, my dialect is ‘LOVE’. Everyone is, regardless of their language, able to understand love. Since I made you in my image and likeness when you speak I want your dialect to be like mine, “LOVE.” Go and speak to them in this dialect.” 

God then reminded me of Matthew 22:37-40, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar:  Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.” 

1 Corinthians 13, called the love chapter in the Bible, describes love as: never giving up, caring more for others than for self, doesn’t want what it doesn’t have, doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, isn’t always “me first”, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end (Message Bible). 

Those filled with this kind of love will be a powerful force in whatever environment they find themselves in and have the potential to create great things in the workplace. 

In part 2 of this blog, I share with you God’s answer to my question, “What does this mean for us during this recession?”

As a business owner you may be in a pickle at this moment. Your lender may not be in the position to provide you with the capital or business loan you need to fuel your business, acquire that physical asset you need or the short term working capital loan to take advantage of that special opportunity.  Another side to the business loan question is your business might not be in the position to qualify for a loan or possibly a renewal based on terms and conditions you desire.

In my role as a business advisor I visit with many unhappy business owners. They are not receiving, in general, the help from their lenders they feel they should be receiving. Most really don’t know what to do or where to turn.

As a former commercial lender and now an advisor to business owners, I use my past experience to help frustrated business owners build or restore the bridge to a satisfactory relationship with their lender. Much of my efforts consist in helping the business owner understand what the lender is going through, thinking and needing from them at this point.  This type of advice seems at times harsh and counterproductive to the frustrated business owner.

My objective is to help the business owner become an ally or asset to the business lender and lending institution! Most banks and lending officers are frustrated and don’t know what to do with all the negative issues they have to deal with.  Why not be part of the solution rather than part of the problem?

According to a survey I heard recently based on information from the bank regulatory agencies, the following are the major issues banks are being cited for by these regulatory agencies which places the bank on the hot seat:

• Insufficient Board governance
• Insufficient Treasury management
• Compliance with regulations
• Credit quality

You may not be able to help your bank with the first two points.  But here are several things you can do, if you currently have a loan relationship, to gain favor in your lenders eyes and possibly help repair and restore the bridge to a more satisfying, productive relationship:

• Call your lender and ask if you have any outstanding loan exceptions or credit quality issues with them.
• React quickly by supplying or correcting any outstanding loan exceptions you have.
• Seek to understand their position first, not have them understand your possible excuses.
• Don’t fight them or their paper work.  Your goal is to have the bank erase your name off any delinquent list they have whether it is a compliance issue or credit quality issue.
• If your loan is substandard according to the bank regarding credit quality, give the bank whatever you can provide in writing to help them understand your position and what you are doing to correct your situation.
• Take initiative monthly with at least a phone call to offer help to resolve any situation regarding your loan and to keep them abreast of what is happening in your business.
• If you don’t know what to do, get professional help, like from me.

Taking proactive steps to resolve any issues your lender has with you will go a long way to build a better relationship with the lender in the future.  The goal is to help solve their problems by becoming less of a problem to them.

I believe business first and foremost is relational. Think or imagine what you do daily – everything in business touches a person, a relationship.

There is a silent thief running free and loose in many businesses today. He doesn’t make much noise – but sure steals a lot from you. All that is needed to help perpetuate this silent thief is to do nothing. Who is this silent thief? Neglect! Neglect of important relationships in your business – employees and customers primarily. What you don’t take care of, you may very well lose. Neglect is very damaging in your important relationships. Your business may be like a spinning gerbil wheel, but the thief doesn’t care. The
longer you let relationships go, the harder it’s going to be to fix.

Let me ask you a question, “What’s important to you about Valentine’s Day? I ask that question at times when I speak and usually the majority of the responses I get are “romance.” What is important about romance to you? Of course romance means different things to different people but to some of the groups I speak to it means: attention, time spent being fully present, respect, thoughtfulness, interest, listening with the intent to hear, understanding, significance, acceptance and love.

Make an emotional investment by romancing each and every employee, customer, prospect, supplier, person who calls or drops into your location, etc. Treat and have each employee treat every person they speak to or see as if it were Valentine’s Day each day and the other person was the most important person in their life. The fruit of a Valentine’s Day mindset daily in business is: heightened productivity, greater efficiency, increased sales, greater understanding, improved morale, less stress, less absenteeism, less sickness, more joy and cooperation in the workplace. Your business will create greater value causing sales to soar.

Are there times in business where you feel you and others you are communicating with are speaking different dialects? I believe the universal dialect is ‘LOVE’. Everyone is, regardless of their language, able to understand love. Go and speak to them in this dialect.

Put in a different context, many problems experienced in business today, I believe, are the result of an orphan spirit in the workplace as well as the lack of a true godly, supernatural fathering spirit. Where the orphan spirit exists and the fathering spirit is absent relationships disintegrate.

This fathering spirit is characterized by unconditional love, exhibited by our Heavenly Father Himself, as He gave freely His son, Jesus, to redeem and accept fully mankind. This highly desired spirit needed and wanted in the workplace is contrasted by what is mostly seen and exhibited today – a heart that is self centered, self-absorbed, self-serving and puts itself above all others. The fatherless spirit exists when business owners, executives, supervisors and managers “abandon” those under their charge in the workplace by focusing and centering themselves on their own needs and desires at the expense of others.
The lack of a true, godly supernatural fathering spirit promotes the orphan spirit in the workplace. Several characteristics of the orphan spirit usually witnessed in the workplace are:

• Obsession with self
• Inaccurate perception of the value of both themselves and others
• Compulsive drive to succeed at all costs
• Insecurity accompanied by the need to control others
• Inability to handle rejection properly, feeling they are most always rejected by others and they will be rejected by others and they deserve to be rejected
• Critical, judgmental spirit
• Uncontrollable anger

Several root words describing the fathering spirit are: a nourisher, protector, upholder, comforter, exhorter, one called to another’s side, aid, and advocate.

Question: what is the most valuable asset in each business?

It is my opinion that for many years the most valuable asset in any organization – the employees – have been reappraised downward or devalued by fatherless owners, executive management, supervisors and managers. I believe God is telling us that one of the ways to improve the economy and individual businesses is to unleash the “fathering spirit” in each business as well as to romance all relationships in the business. This is truly the strong stimulus package each individual, business and the economy needs.