Feel guilt about success? Should businesspeople feel guilty if they are successful? Not at all, says one businessman I know, adding that there’s nothing wrong with making a decent profit. But some businesspeople I have spoken to say they get the impression from their churches that they should feel bad if they make money — that there’s something wrong with making a healthy profit. Now, we’re not talking about salaries in the tens of millions of dollars here, like the CEOs of some huge companies. But we are talking about making more money than average. However, while some businesspeople have a better than average income, they also have much larger than average debts and obligations — the amount of money some of them owe would take your breath away. Says one businessman: “When people look at me, they see the factory, my 200 employees, my vacation to the south each winter. They think I must be incredibly rich. And I am — on paper. But the truth is that I’ve never been in such debt in my whole life.” He adds that to buy his business, he had to sign over everything he owned to the bank to secure the loan — house, car, pension. “If my business went under, I’d lose everything,” he says. “And I could lose it all tomorrow — we’re always just a few bad decisions or the loss of a couple of key customers away from being in big trouble.” When it comes to success in business for Christians, the rest of us seem to have ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, we admire them, but on the other we seem to resent them for it. At the very least, we seem to expect them to assuage their guilt at becoming successful by driving older cars, living in modest houses and never talking about their vacations. All that, plus making large contributions to worthy causes. Sometimes it seems the highest tribute we can give businesspeople would be the one seen in the headline of a Christian magazine: “He gave away a fortune to follow Christ.” What about all those who keep their fortunes, but also follow Christ? Contrast this to how we feel about artists, musicians or authors. When they reach the pinnacles of their careers, with successful shows, concerts or books, we celebrate their success. Articles are written about them in church periodicals, and they are often also asked to share at churches and conferences. We want to know: How do they integrate their faith and art? How do they use their gifts for God? This rarely happens to successful businesspeople. Why the difference? I think one reason is the amount of money involved. The fact is that businesspeople usually make more money than most artists, musicians and authors — fields where lack of money is often viewed as the hair shirt that validates the end product. But lots of successful businesspeople were also once living on the edge, putting in 16 hours a day, seven days a week, when they were starting out. They can also talk a lot about sacrifice. They can talk about the things they gave up and the prices they paid to produce their “art” — in this case, their businesses. They can also talk about how they integrate their faith and life and use their gifts for God. Should businesspeople feel guilty for being successful? No more than the successful artist, musician or author. Everyone has to answer to God about how we used the resources we received in the course of our life’s work. Some people just have more money to be accountable for. — John Longhurst
The Marketplace January February 2011
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Making it work “Making a business work is incredibly satisfying and exciting. Even when a business fails, a resilient entrepreneur gets up and goes at it again having learned from their first experience. Business is an incredible process where creativity, tenacity, risk and hard work can bring financial fruit and a broad impact. “God instructs us in Genesis 1 to be fruitful and multiply, to work the land, to create and increase. I believe business falls under this mandate — and what an amazing process to be involved in!” — Mark Plummer, a coffee trader who works with Thai growers to get their high quality but unknown coffee onto the world market
