Scripture for Six Stages of a Start UpSample

Success: It’s Not About Us

So, you’ve made it. You sold your first product, made it to the second round of funding, just had your initial public offering, or finally sold the company for a profit. Whatever level of success you have experienced or are experiencing, it’s hard to think of that as a struggle. Life seems pretty great during those times, doesn’t it?

But what if we’re measuring success by the wrong standards? What if God has a different unit of measurement to determine our progress? What if success, as much of a blessing as it can be, is also one of our greatest risks for struggle?

Before these verses, Paul lists all the reasons he has a right to worldly confidence. He was born into the right family, trained by the right people, lived in the right city. Yet, in this passage, he’s very clear—none of that matters. Why? Because he has something better: a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Paul understood that the process of knowing Jesus and being known by Him is infinitely better than the experience of any type of success. Making our first million isn’t as good as being known by the Creator of the Universe. Increasing our company’s return year after year isn’t as fulfilling as increasing in the knowledge of our Heavenly Father over those same years.

Our salvation is God’s success.

It’s that simple. There is a “surpassing worth” in knowing Christ—this is all God wants for us. But when entrepreneurs experience success, when our business finally takes off, we run the risk of putting our worth in the wrong places. While success is a great thing, and while there’s nothing wrong with wanting our business to grow, it’s important to hold on loosely to our own triumph and cling tightly to an identity based in Christ. 

Because like Paul, we can identify ourselves by all these earthly things—be they bank account numbers, growth rates, employment increases, or any other success metric. But there’s a better approach to both life and success.

When we understand that our identity is as God’s beloved children with full inheritance rights through the righteousness given to us through His Son, we can handle success completely differently. Instead of letting it own us, we can let the reality of our identity in Christ sink in, and we can be fueled by gratitude for it in such a way that we then bring all that we are to the altar with joy as our meaningful form of worship. That’s what it looks like when the life of a leader is transformed.

Further Thought

• How do you define success as an entrepreneur driven by faith?
• What are the ways your views of success differ from the secular world’s definitions of success?
• How can you take what Paul is saying in these verses and apply it specifically to the way you live your life?