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Meditation
The city of Jerusalem is represented as the bride of Christ (Rev. 21:9b). This signifies a love relationship. In contrast, Babylon is represented as a prostitute, and the image of buying and selling is used. In the new Jerusalem God and Jesus give themselves for the city’s well-being (Rev. 21:3-4), so the city can shine like a bride (Rev. 21:9b-11).
Our business life can be compared to these two types of relationships. All too often we still think in terms of buying and selling, while God wants us to think in terms of love and servitude. My own experience shows that life becomes more beautiful and more enriched as soon as you start doing business from a motivation of love and servitude.
Instead of thinking ‘’How can I make money of this client? How can I convince him to buy my products or services? How can I turn him into a customer of mine?’’, you start to think ‘’What does this client need? How can I serve him and provide for his wishes or needs? How can I help him grow and flourish?’’ Each of the two lines of questions represents an earning model for our company. The response to these two different types of questions may even lead to the same product or the same service. However, businessmen asking the first set of questions will find personal satisfaction in the profit that is made; while businessmen asking the second set of questions will find contentment in the service that is rendered and how the client values this. My own experience is that the client’s interests move to the background as soon as the focus shifts to profit maximation. This often puts pressure on the well-being and interests of the client. In addition, concessions tend to be made in matters of product and service, as long as the client accepts this and does not complain. If we are on this road, we slowly move towards an inferior or suboptimal business model with a service that no longer lives up to acceptable standards, and the quality of life deteriorates.
The Jerusalem way of thinking is entirely different, for the well-being of the clients is the focus of the business activities. The sustainable and honest source of this way of thinking is love. Here, love is not a commercial trick or a transaction, but a sincere desire living in the heart of the entrepreneur and his/her inner motivation. Love as the source of our entrepreneurial activities wants to be expressed, regardless of the situation or financial return. Thus, the financial return necessary to do business has become a means and a result, instead of a goal in itself. God is the source of this love and his desire is to share this love with us (1 John 4:7-12). Love imparts us with a quality of life and entrepreneurship that, for me, exceeds the material.
Question for the day
Where do you see love in your way of doing business?
About this Plan
How can we as entrepreneurs contribute to the happiness and well-being of all those involved with our company? Where do we find our own happiness and contentment? The biblical cities of Babylon and Jerusalem form the basis of this first series. They are symbols for two ways of thinking about happiness and business.
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