57 minute read
Soul enterprise
Go ahead, try this at home
Here’s one person’s take on how all of us can appreciate how dependent we are on people we have never met and who may live far away: “As you walk around your home, bring to mind all the people who built it, treated its timbers, baked its bricks, installed the plumbing, and wove your linens. When you get up in the morning, remember those who planted, picked, and spun the cotton of your sheets and who collected, treated, and exported the beans you grind for your morning coffee. You enjoy their products, so you have a responsibility for them, especially if they were working in poor conditions. Who baked the bread you toast for breakfast? Become aware of the labor that went into the production of each slice. As you set off to work, reflect on the thousands of workers and engineers who build and maintain the roads, cars, railroads, planes, trains, and underground transport on which you rely. Continue this exercise throughout the day.... We are what we are because of the hard work, insights, and achievements of countless others.” — Karen Armstrong in Twelve Steps to A Compassionate Life If you ever hanker for chicken on a Sunday, you won’t get it at Chick-fil-A, the second-most popular purveyor of chicken sandwiches in the United States. Plain and simple, its 1,500-plus restaurants are closed on Sunday. The other six days are enough to bring Chickfil-A’s annual revenue to $3.4 billion.
The closed-on-Sunday policy was not initially based on religious principle, according to Dee Ann Turner, a 25-year company veteran who serves as “vice-president of talent” (human resources). In an interview with Mark Russell in Faith In The Workplace Newsletter, she discloses that it came about because founder Truett Cathy was tuckered out.
“He needed rest,” she says. “He said that if a person couldn’t earn a living in six days, then he needs to do something else. It was about rest, but also about spending the time to rejuvenate and get strong again to serve his customers. As he hired people, he also realized how important it was for his employees to also have a day off.”
While the policy began for practical reasons, it is also consistent with Cathy’s Christian belief that God is honored when we take a day of rest, says Turner.
“People always say to Truett, ‘You could make so much money if you opened on Sunday.’ His response is that we’ve been so successful because we have not been open on Sunday. When we started in the mall business, Chick-fil-A always led all the restaurants in sales even though we were only open six days to their seven. I think that is still true even though the majority of the restaurants are now free-standing.”
Turner oversees recruitment, selection and retention of 750 corporate staff and 1,000 Chick-fil-A franchisees. She screens franchise applicants for moral character, competency and “chemistry” — the ability to fit in with the team and have similar good chemistry with their own community. Researching and selecting the right franchisees, who operate as independent contractors, is important in preserving the company’s values, she says. “You have to make sure you are choosing the right person. At Chick-fil-A, we don’t just work together, we do life together. We hope to be in a relationship with the franchisees and staff members for a very long time. We have to understand how to live and work with one another.”
It’s an expensive process but worth it, Turner says. As a result, “we very rarely have to end an agreement with a franchisee.”
The biblical Golden Rule is never far from her view. “I have to make a lot of decisions about people’s lives,” Turner says. “When I am interviewing someone, it may be the fourth or fifth person I’m interviewing that day, but it can be a 30-year decision for the interviewee. Some decisions are easy to make, but others are very difficult.... It is not an everyday decision. It really is about someone’s life and livelihood. When I have to turn down a candidate, I remember that this is someone’s husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter. I want them to be treated in the way I would want those people in my life to be treated.” Turner has come to see her work as a ministry, though initially she had other plans for “full-time” Christian service. “I now realize that ‘my full-time ministry’ is to help others find their path in life and discover where they can use their gifts and talents at Chick-fil-A.”
Is this why we love coffee?
Does your morning cuppa joe give you more than just a caffeine jolt? Like a faith boost, perhaps? Biblical scholar Ben Witherington reports that coffee has a strong faith connection, having been first brewed in Ethiopian monasteries and then exported far and wide. “The very word ‘cappucino’ refers to the Capuchin monks whose habits are the same color as this brew,” he writes in Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor. “Coffee is a Christian beverage in origins, but you’d never know it today.”
Working for love
“Joy begins when we know why and for whom we work. Most of us work for love, whether we realize it or not. That is, we work to provide for people we love, such as our spouse and children, our neighbors and friends, perhaps even our nation.” — R. Paul Stevens and Alvin Ung in Taking Your Soul to Work
Have I got a deal for you
Do unto others...
It’s been 50 years since Isadore Sharp opened his first Four Seasons Hotel and began the process of building one of the most recognized lodging brands in the world. He attributes his success to strictly following his version of the Golden Rule: “The simple idea that if you treat people well, the way you would like to be treated, they will do the same.” (Globe & Mail) Used-car dealers often get a bum rap. Who, then, would imagine how the simple act of selling a reliable pre-owned vehicle could have this ripple effect? A young entrepreneur sent us this note after buying his first automobile. “Cruising along to work after spending the last several years exclusively on public transit has me tearing up and giggling with sheer joy. My 9.3 hours of bus time per week has been reduced to approximately three hours in the car and my energy level (at work) has already improved (which is good for my clients, too).”
Overheard: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill
Work, pray, love
From computers to ultralights, Kansas couple combines life and entrepreneurship
by Arlene Rains Graber
They work, play, and live together. James and Kathy Wiebe also eat, pray, and love together. 24/7? Some days, but individuality and differing outside interests reigns for this couple.
The information — or digital — age, where global communication is possible through the Internet by way of personal computers, allows professionals to work from home or even at the beach armed with a laptop and Bluetooth. It is also the age where couples join forces and home-based businesses sprout up daily.
Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor reports there are more than 18.1 million home-based businesses in the United States alone.
The Wiebes are part of this group. Even though James Wiebe has at least two offices outside his Wichita home office, he says, “All decisions are pretty much made right over there at the kitchen counter. That’s where we look at documents, go over crucial business tasks and make the bulk of decisions.”
James is a tall, lanky, fiftyish computer guru who for the last three decades has concentrated on staying ahead of technology. He
describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, having developed three businesses over the past 30 years. First, he founded Newer Technology Inc. which became a leader in Macintosh CPU upgrades, and earned a credit in the movie Jurassic Park, television’s 24, and in the original Transformer movie.
Next, with the help of his wife Kathy, they founded WiebeTech, developing and marketing digital forensic computer storage devices. At that time, the entire business was in their house. Kathy worked downstairs, James upstairs.
“We had three employees also working in our home plus our two daughters,” says Kathy. “The girls were only in junior high and elementary school, but they joined us in the distribution area, and we paid them by the piece to
“If an instructor does not give them solo status, then they have no business flying our airplane,” he says. In the past, they’ve been part-owners in a Cessna 172 and owned a Cessna 206 and logged over 900 hours for business on the 206.
James says the plane has a market with retired pilots, amateur photographers, and hobbyists who like to build things. That’s where Kathy, who is a marketing specialist, comes in. The ultralight also fits the person who has flown for years, is losing medical certification due to age, and is looking for one last airplane.
When you work from home and own your own company, it’s difficult to turn it off, say James and Kathy Wiebe. That’s why Friday date nights are important.
Opposite page: James Wiebe pilots one of his Belite aircraft over central Kansas.
pack boxes. They still work at various jobs for the business.”
They sold WiebeTech to CRU-DATAPORT in 2008, however the name remains. James is still an occasional consultant for them, and does a lot of speaking engagements on computer forensics.
By 2009, the team was off and running once again, founding Belite Aircraft. The couple acquired tooling, and existing parts and production rights to the Kitfox Lite aircraft, given they would rebrand the company. Belite was born and the Wiebes were in the ultralight aircraft business. Since then, James has redesigned the aircraft parts from steel, wood or aluminum, to carbon fiber allowing for a much lighter and more economical plane.
The Belite is offered in both kit form and as a completed flyable airplane. There are no requirements to fly the ultralight, but Wiebe says they always recommend that the person be able to fly an airplane solo.
Kathy is an attractive, smart, personality-plus
conservative, whose creative branding experience matches the visions of any start-up company. She brings years of experience to the table from Associated Advertising, then owned by her father, Pres Huston. She started as a copywriter and eventually led the media production efforts.
She tells the story of how she and James began working together. “I had left Associated and was doing a lot with my church and charity work, plus raising two daughters, so I wasn’t looking for another job. I’m not an electronics person. I mean, I can operate the computer and am a whiz on software, but I know nothing about hardware.”
James had just started WiebeTech and was getting ready for the huge Mac World trade show. Kathy developed his marketing kit for the booth, and was ready to settle back and listen to reports of progress from the show. But at the last minute the person going with James had to back out. That meant Kathy needed to go and help him at the booth.
“Once those doors opened at the trade show,” she says, “thousands of people swarmed in and for the first two hours it was ‘James what’s this? James how does this work?’ sort of thing.”
Even with her limited hardware knowledge, it was evident they made a successful team. “That particular trade show put us on the map and after that it was expansion after expansion,” says Kathy.
The Wiebes met while Kathy was at Associat-
ed and James owned Newer Technologies. “It was a blind date,” says Kathy. “Not Their individual love at first sight. It took awhile to figure it out.” skills complement There were differences. Kathy says her each other. James strength is with public relations and accounting. is the inventor, James is the visionary and risk taker. He is not Kathy the detail-oriented and Kathy is very detailed. He loves to go fly fishing, flying, practical planner. and camping. Kathy’s
outside interests are geared toward volunteerism. She works tirelessly as a volunteer for CASA (a child advocate organization) and is an advocate through the courts for a family of children. Kathy has also started a church tutoring program with Pleasant Valley Middle School, and teaches Intro to Entrepreneurship at Wichita State University.
They’ve been married 25 years, and have worked together for the past several years. So how does it work for husband and wife with varied skills?
“As an entrepreneur James is willing to take risks that I have trouble with,” says Kathy. “I’ve had to let go and trust God that He will take care of us. James can see the outcome and that’s really not my gift. If I didn’t have a faith that someone else larger than me will take care of the situation, it would be very difficult.”
Dave Franson, executive director of Wichita Aero Club, who has known the couple for several years, says “James is a genius and can make a successful business from anything. Kathy can take his genius and create a salable marketing campaign. Together, they complete each other.” Debbie Trimmell-Martin, good friend and gal pal of Kathy’s, says the Wiebes work well together because of two factors. “The number one factor is they respect each other both professionally and personally,” she says. “Two, their individual “Even in today’s skills complement each other. James is the inventor, and she is the precarious practical planner.” Still, both admit it economy, it’s an takes work. Trying to get together on the excellent time to same page took awhile, and James says they start a business.” definitely had some disagreements in the beginning. “The things that trigger you as a couple will also trigger you as partners in business. You have to work at communication. The commitment to each other spiritually gets you through it. It’s all about how you handle conflict that matters. We’ve come to have a healthy conflict resolution strategy by being aware that both of us sometimes say things that drive the other person nuts. But, we’ve learned to not only stay focused on the point of discussion, but also how to resolve it.”
“Most conflicts are not life or death,” says Kathy, “and if we let them go and not want to always be right, it saves a whole lot of conflict and increases personal emotional health. Let the me-me-me thing go.”
When you work from your home and own your own company, it’s difficult to turn it off. “James makes sure we have date night on Fridays,” says Kathy. “We pretty much own two of those balcony seats at the Warren Theater.”
The one thing that James admires most about Kathy is excellent prioritization. “She has a strong sense of right and wrong on both a business and personal level. I’ve learned a lot from Kathy on how to incorporate my faith into my work view. You know a lot of folks profess Christianity but do a poor job of integrating it into the workforce.”
For Kathy, it is James’ determination. “When he wants to develop something he doesn’t quit until it’s perfect and workable. When we were dating, the one thing that impressed me was how open to change he is. It has never been ‘my way or no way’.”
For future entrepreneurs, James has this advice: “Have a solid long-term business plan, then ask yourself, how am I going to finance this thing in the event my worst case projections come true.”
Even with today’s precarious financial world, James sees advantages for a start-up company. “You are really taking a huge risk in this economy, but if you have the means to stick it out, it’s an excellent time to start a business. The reason is this. It’s never been so easy to do branding. Because if you are doing marketing right now, you’re sticking out in front of all your competitors, who are scared to death of starting a business. Another thing is, because there are so many who have been laid off, it’s never been easier to find talented employees.”
The Wiebes have been successful, and find pleasure in sharing it with others. “We’ve discovered that one of the largest joys in life is giving things away,” says Kathy. “We’ve been able to do some fun things for people. In fact we set up a foundation and our joy is giving.”
For the future, Kathy sees herself working in some area of Christian ministry. “I love the CASA work I do, but down the road, I can see myself perhaps working with missions — helping impoverished nations in business areas.”
For James, he says “Retirement would look a lot like our life now, just with more travel to interesting places. This business cycle we’re in is going to take five years to grow. After that, I don’t know, but if I get a good idea, it’s possible to start another business.”◆
Reprinted by permission of East Wichita News, Wichita, Kansas
Dyslexia — a hidden “gift” for entrepreneurs?
A “staggering” number of business owners share a common language-learning deficit
Think back to your school days — was there a kid in the next desk who couldn’t read a sentence without stumbling? Where is that kid today? Chances are, leading a successful company.
That struggling reader may have had dyslexia, a language-learning deficit that makes it difficult to process words on paper. Many go through school thinking they are dumb. Yet they may in fact be brilliant ... and future entrepreneurs in disguise.
Dyslexia affects five to 10 percent of the population. But among entrepreneurs the figure is higher. Much higher.
Many dyslexics excel in business. Think of Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways; discount brokerage mogul Charles R. Schwab; and Cisco CEO John T. Chambers.
Are they just lucky exceptions? Not by a long shot, says Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London. While it is known that dyslexics do well in business, Logan was the first to measure the percentage of dyslexic entrepreneurs. When she surveyed 139 business owners in the United States she found the number who said they were dyslexic to be “staggering.” Indeed, 35 percent identified themselves as dyslexic, more than triple the prevalence in the general population.
Why is this?
Many dyslexics learn early how to master survival strategies and develop razor-sharp intuition that can be a catapult into the world of entrepreneurship. “We found that dyslexics who succeed had overcome an awful lot in their lives by developing compensatory skills,” Logan says in a New York Times interview. “If you tell your friends and acquaintances that you plan to start a business, you’ll hear over and over, ‘It won’t work. It can’t be done.’ But dyslexics are extraordinarily creative about maneuvering their way around problems.” Her study also found that dyslexics were more willing to delegate authority, giving them a significant edge over nondyslexic entrepreneurs who may be inclined to exert total control. Emerson Dickman, president of the International Dyslexia Association in Baltimore, agrees. “Individuals who have difficulty readWhy dyslexics are so creative ing and writing tend to deploy other strengths,” You may have heard the old joke about the dyslexic atheist who didn’t believe there was a dog. Sadly, that perpetuates the idea that dyslexia is mostly Dickman, himself a dyslexic, told the Times. “They rely on mentors, and as a about reversing letters, when in fact that manifestation result, become very good may be rare. There are many different facets. at reading other people
Dyslexics process data differently. As a result they and delegating duties to often have to perform vastly more mental computa- them. They become adept tions to recognize certain words. Their brains may func- at using visual strengths to tion 400 to 2,000 times faster than other readers. “The solve problems.” dyslexic will be able to master many skills faster than the Entrepreneurs are average person could comprehend or understand them,” known as hands-on people says Ron Davis in The Gift of Dyslexia. with limited appetite for
“In the dyslexic, the creative urge is profoundly pushing paper. Reading a stronger than in individuals who do not possess the lot of reports is more likely dyslexic’s basic abilities,” he adds. “Because of picture the domain of corporate thinking, intuitive thought, multidimensional thought and managers, who barely curiosity, the dyslexic’s creativity is greatly enhanced.” register on the dyslexia
In his book Neurodiversity, Thomas Armstrong writes, scale. Logan’s study found “Perhaps there will come a day when the dyslexic is no that only one percent of longer seen as a disabled person but is looked upon more corporate managers have as a different kind of information processor whose out- dyslexia, far below the of-the-box brain is a decided asset to the world.” ◆ average for the general population.
The best-known dyslexic in the Mennonite
world is Pennsylvania therapist Abraham Schmitt. His book, Brilliant Idiot: An Autobiography of a Dyslexic (Good Books, 1992), has been a huge encouragement to fellow sufferers.
He describes dyslexia as a “language-learning deficit.” The word literally means “impaired words.” In his case, it manifested itself as a bleep or short-circuit in the brain that reversed letters within words. As a result, he did poorly in subjects that required much textual reading, like English. “But in subjects such as physics, biology and algebra, taught using multisensory methods ... I had nearly perfect grades.”
There were compensations, too, in his chosen field of therapy. “Because I had long ago realized that I could not think in a linear way, I used every effort to expand my more spatial, intuitive process of thinking,” he writes. This stood him in good stead when he became a therapist. “Because I could not remember series of facts and exact
Many develop information, I had learned to experience life situarazor-sharp tions much like many of my clients did.” intuition that Not every dyslexic experiences identical difficatapults them culty. Many have problems with words they cannot visualize, such as “when.” into the world of For most, however, reading large chunks of text is entrepreneurship ponderously slow. Also common is a seemingly universal sense of inadequacy in an educational system geared heavily to fluent literacy. As a result, they feel inferior in school. Like Schmitt, many have said, “I often thought I was a dumb child.” In the following articles three successful Mennonite entrepreneurs share their own journey with dyslexia. ◆
Seeing life in pictures
It’s ironic that Mark Loewen would discover his dyslexia by reading a book. The book was Brilliant Idiot: An Autobiography of a Dyslexic by Abraham Schmitt.
“My mother pushed it in front of me and for whatever reason I started reading it,” says Loewen. “What was really amazing was the way I related to the author’s experience. I cried through lots of the book.”
“That was a real watershed,” says his wife, Bonnie. “Mark does not cry easily. It was like a self-discovery that washed through 47 years of life.”
As if twisting a camera lens, the book brought his past life into sharp focus. Now he had an explanation for his struggles in school, and for his feelings of intellectual inferiority amid notable business success.
The discovery sent the Loewens on a hunt for more. They searched out research online and bought whatever books they could find. Some of the research was disheartening, painting dyslexia as a curse. But most was surprisingly uplifting, naming dyslexia a gift.
The reading helped undo simplistic stereotypes about dyslexia, says Mark. “I have learned that it is a complex way of learning where, in part, we think right brain, through pictures, rather than left brain through linear thinking.”
A right brain thinker, he explains, can process data much faster through multi-dimensional pictures than the left brain thinker but may struggle to memorize phone numbers and recognize letters. Since educational systems tend to exalt left brain thinking, dyslexic people typically suffer from low self-esteem. But, as noted in Julie Logan’s research (see previous article), dyslexics are more likely to be highly entrepreneurial and often find themselves in ownership but not in detail-driven management. The discoveries helped explain why Loewen, by his own description, “often felt stupid” even while achieving business success. “School was horrible for me,” he says. “Even though I pushed through one year of college and two years of university, graduating with a 3.3 average, I was always at the bottom or near the bottom of grade school.” His older brother excelled in school and went on to earn a doctorate while Mark stayed home on the farm. Their father, who was also dyslexic but didn’t know it, once told Mark, “If you’re not going to be a farmer you’ll live out of a lunchkit all your life.” His father had never gone beyond the eighth grade, yet served with distinction on church and business boards, including chairing the Steinbach Credit Union, the leading financial institution in eastern Manitoba. Like many successful dyslexics, the elder Loewen relied on his wife to do a lot of his writing. Mark and Bonnie Loewen at home in Today Mark Loewen carries on Blumenort, Manitoba. multiple businesses in the area sur-
rounding his home near the town of Blumenort. He farms 1,000 acres of cereal crops and raises 30,000 turkeys. Until recently he was a shareholder of Deere Country, a John Deere dealership. Last year, they merged with Enns Brothers, Manitoba’s largest John Deere outlet of which he remains part of the ownership group. He is part-owner of Steinbach Hatchery and Feed, the largest locally owned poultry feed mill in the province and largest leghorn hatch in western Canada.
Bonnie says his dyslexia helps to explain why he has strong “court sense,” to use a sports image. “He’s very good at seeing the whole picture, very intuitive about how things fit together,” she says. “He doesn’t see A,B,C and D separately, but sees A to Z together. He doesn’t see them in linear fashion, he sees them in pictures. If we want to build a gazebo on the house, he already has the whole picture in his head, while I only have the color of the paint.”
A close friend says, “I always knew reading wasn’t something Mark was good at, but he’s really sharp with financial concepts. When an opportunity comes up he’s very quick to understand how it works and make an assessment. He’s one of the sharper financial whizzes I know.”
Some would call Loewen a serial entrepreneur. Bonnie, a gifted writer and preacher who brings a literary dimension to the marriage, describes it this way: “I’m an insatiable reader; when the book closes I’m looking for the next one. It’s the same with Mark in business: when he closes a deal he’s looking for the next one.”
Not all these deals are “just business.” His entrepreneurship has a strong social bent, including providing affordable housing and gardening opportunities for Central American immigrants.
When his congregation launched a water project in Kenya, Loewen’s “picture vision” kicked right in. He saw opportunity for long-term investment in this project and together with his church, figured out ways to network whole communities. “He already had a picture in his head for the long haul,” says Bonnie. “He has that ability to dream beyond what I see in the moment.”
Loewen is still processing his life’s experiences
through the grid of his new self-understanding. He is growing more comfortable with the “gift side” of dyslexia and why he so naturally thinks outside of the box and sees opportunities where others don’t. Now he knows, too, why reading is a chore. “A lot of dyslexics can read well but after a couple of pages they’re done,” he says. “It’s not fun for them.” And, since reading is so central to contemporary measures of educational success, “it’s hard to trust your own judgement when you feel you are too stupid to read well.” Even personal relationships can be affected. “Not everyone is pleased to find that you can pull off multimillion-dollar deals when, after all, you can’t even read well in public,” he says. “There’s a terrible conflict when you’re succeeding even though you’re not supposed to. But maybe there’s even more conflict if you’re supposed to succeed and you don’t.” Now that he is nearing the age of 50, Loewen sees potential as a mentor to others. “I think it important,” he says, “that those who have struggled all their life with dyslexia, and like me may not even be aware of the source of it, would benefit by understanding the connection between their way of learning and their strength and expression in life through business.” ◆
Graphs yes, text no
Adecade ago Margaret Fast picked up the book Brilliant Idiot: An Autobiography of a Dyslexic by Abraham Schmitt. She wasn’t far into it when she said to her husband, “Bill, this is you.”
“Then we read it together,” says Winnipeg businessman Bill Fast. “Until then I didn’t know.”
The discovery that he was dyslexic helped explain his lifelong unease with reading. While he has an uncanny grasp of graphs and three-dimensional drawings, large chunks of text will stop him in his tracks.
“I have to read every single letter,” he says. “The speed of reading is so slow that I’d get frustrated and just give up. I don’t like movies with subtitles because I can’t read fast enough to keep up. If we do go to one, Margaret quietly reads the subtitles to me.” The difficulty in reading makes spelling a major problem, so much so that occasionally spell-check does not recognize the word. Numbers, especially financial numbers, are different. While he sometimes has a problem with phone numbers The worst day (a pair, like 26 and 62, for example, might switch on him), he has almost a sixth sense for numbers that don’t jibe. was Sunday, “If I scan a page of numbers I can pick out within a few minutes if something isn’t right. I’ll say, ‘You better when he’d have check this number. We can’t have this kind of differential between one month and the next’.”
to read aloud from the Bible
But those skills don’t help when you’re trying to
pass freshman English. “All the way through high school I was not passing the English courses,” Fast says. “If it was
Photo courtesy of IDE
physics or chemistry it wasn’t all writing. Oral reading was always very difficult. When we studied Romeo and Juliet, I’d read the classic comic book to get an idea of what it was about.”
The worst day of the week was Sunday. “In Sunday school we’d all have to read a verse from the Bible. I’d try to count ahead to prefigure out which verse would be mine, so I could practice it in my mind. I was already nervous, really uptight, and if I counted wrong and made a mistake in which verse I had to read, and end up with one I hadn’t practiced, I’d stumble and flail around and feel highly embarrassed, because this was in front of my peers. I already had all the usual insecurities and self-image problems common
Michael Horsch gives 50 or 60 speeches a year, but don’t expect him to show you a text. He always speaks off the cuff. Writing isn’t his thing.
He also doesn’t like long e-mails. “If they’re more than three sentences long, I don’t read them,” he says. “I delete them.” His co-workers have learned that long written discourse is no way to communicate with the boss.
Horsch is dyslexic. But that hasn’t stopped him from building Horsch Machinery into a global manufacturer of agricultural seeding and tillage equipment.
Horsch discovered his dyslexia when he was entering his teen years in Germany.
“My mother was upset because I could not read or write properly; my teachers would get mad at me. Obviously my grades weren’t very good, either. My mother talked to my teacher. At that time dyslexia was not an accepted thing. My teacher had read an article about it. He told my mother, ‘He always looks out the window; he doesn’t really want to follow the lesson. When he has to read and write he hates it, he cannot really do it right, I think it must have something to do with dyslexia.’ He recommended she take me to a psychiatrist in Regensberg.
“I still remember the day she took me there. He did all kinds of funny things. He had me look at pictures and then he took the pictures away and asked me to describe what I had seen. I wondered, what in the world is this guy doing. The outcome was that I had some sort of dyslexia.
“When I found out what this meant, I said, ‘Hey, I can
to young people. I felt like a loser.” He found it all the more frustrating because he loved knowledge. “My biggest fascination is how do you make things work,” he says. To cram for exams Fast would write concise lists of all the key things he thought he needed to know, compressed into the smallest document, then memorize it. “If I put my mind to it I could see that page and duplicate it in my Bill Fast, left, with a client of International Development memory,” he recalls. “That Enterprises (IDE) in Lusaka, Zambia. Fast is past board took me through most of my chair of IDE Canada. math and science courses.” He failed English in each of his high school years and had to go to summer school. He came out with an average just high enough to get into engineering at University ☞of Manitoba. There was one more hurdle — first-year
A way to sneak through life
act stupid and I even have a passport for it. A passport to act stupid.’ I took that as an excuse, and I still do it today. Whenever anything comes up having to do with reading and writing, and I don’t want to do it, I have an excuse — ‘here I am, disabled, and I have a passport for it, so don’t bother me’,” he says with a chuckle.
That “excuse” has a downside, says Horsch. Three of his four children are also dyslexic, and they sometimes turn his excuse back on him. “They’ll say, ‘Well Dad, you didn’t go very far in school, and see what came out of it, so why should we’?”
Does he see his dyslexia as a predictor of entrepreneurship? No, says Horsch. He sees it more as an obstacle he had to overcome. “For me there were no other options than business. I couldn’t make it in the traditional text world. I had no other way to go because no one would hire me with the grades I had.”
After struggling through high school, Horsch entered a German apprenticeship program. What he really wanted was to be a farmer, so he worked on his uncle’s farm to satisfy the requirements. In the process, he could give free rein to his innate genius for innovation and design.
A pivotal experience was a year in the United States under a Mennonite Central Committee program. He worked with two Mennonite enterprises in Nebraska and Kansas, now combined as Harper Industries. (Horsch currently serves on MEDA’s board with Tim Penner, the CEO of Harper Industries.) He would have preferred to stay in
engineering had an English course. After struggling through that, “I basically sailed through engineering.”
As if that hadn’t been punishment enough, Fast enrolled in an MBA program at the University of Western Ontario. He struggled with the heavy dose of case studies, staying up late to get them read. “By the second year I was married, and Margaret read all the cases to me. That made life a whole lot easier.”
He graduated in the top 10. “How I got there, only the Lord knows,” says Fast.
Fast was invited to work for his father-in-law, prominent lumber and hardware dealer Henry Redekopp. “I got my second MBA from him,” Fast says of his late mentor. Redekopp offered Bill and Margaret a chance to buy the window part of his business, which became Willmar Windows (sold to Jeld-wen a few years ago).
Any poor self-image he suffered in his youth dissipated when he began to succeed in business — something he has done in large measure. Besides building Willmar into a leading window manufacturer, his current involvements include HiQual, which produces fabric-covered buildings and livestock handling equipment, as well as part ownership in All-Fab Building Components, a roof truss manufacturing company, Olympic Building Supplies, a retail lumberyard, Excell Battery company and ComforTek, an importer of stacking chairs.
Does he see a positive side to his dyslexia? “Because you have it, you think differently, you have to think differently,” he says. “You don’t have the expertise and ability to think the other way.”
Knowing what he knows now, Fast muses about going back to his Mennonite high school to tell students his story. “I’d tell them that just because you may be having a problem doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. I’d tell them to hang in and work with what you’ve got. There really was no way for me to correct my dyslexia, but there is a way for you to figure out what you can do on the positive side to make things work for you.”
As for teachers, “I hope they would be conscious and observant to look at the kids beyond the stupid things they do to cover up. I did a lot to cover up, a lot of stupid things. Why? To somehow compensate for my inability to excel in another area.”◆
the U.S., but had to return home to fulfill authorities realized the important role of his alternative service obligations, as Ger- his growing company and gave him a permany still had a military draft. manent exemption. Score one for innova-
Horsch worked in a hospital near his tive problem-solving. home. But changing light bulbs and helping nurses push beds wasn’t very fulfilling. Today, Horsch runs the company He thought he could perform a better with his wife Cornelia, his brother Philipp service by starting a company. and his cousin Traugott (who serves on the
“I had this idea for a no-till seeder,” board of MiCredito, MEDA’s microfinance he recalls. “I asked my father and uncle — institution in Nicaragua). The company ‘can I build it for you guys?’” employs 650 people directly, plus many
They agreed, and financed him, giving subcontractors. It operates in two dozen him money to buy steel. countries — from Ukraine to the United
While doing his service during the day, Michael Horsch: operating States. To service their far-flung market he planned out his company at night and manuals in 18 languages they publish brochures and operating sketched things he wanted to build. He manuals in 18 different languages. rented a farm workshop from his father and began to “I never wanted to do what I’m doing,” Horsch says. weld the seeder together. “I wanted to become a farmer, not a farm machinery
As he went about enlisting customers he discovered a manufacturer. All I wanted was make enough money to provision in the law to exempt people from service if they buy a farm. Instead, I ended up with this machinery busiwere doing something else that served the public interest. ness. Today I’m happy to have both. I’m a farmer and a With the help of a lawyer, he persuaded German authori- machinery manufacturer. But that was not the intention.” ties that his new company, although it was still mostly an Has being dyslexic been a good thing, then? “Actuidea-in-process, would qualify. They granted him a one- ally, yes,” says Horsch. “It’s helped me sneak through life. year exemption. It’s a risky way, but sometimes it makes it a lot easier.”
“In this one year I built my business,” he says. “I hired Two things about it still annoy him, he says. “I have a more people and got more orders.” hard time reading the Bible, and I have a hard time read-
When the year was up he gained another one-year ing patents. I can spend two hours reading a patent, and I exemption. This went on for 15 years. Finally the German don’t know a single thing I’ve read.”◆
Selling shoes outside the box
Journey of a giver-in-chief
by Kathy Heinrichs Wiest
On the stage in front of an audience of 1,100 business-suited and high-heeled executives at Fresno Pacific University’s Business Forum, Blake Mycoskie stood in a rumpled cotton plaid shirt and cargo pants. With a shock of unruly curls and wide grin, he looked more like a free-spirited grandson of some business executive than what he really is — the founder and CEO of a $30 million shoe company called TOMS Shoes.
Mycoskie’s other title with the company, Chief Shoe Giver, fits him better. It’s easier to picture this dynamic young guy on his knees slipping a pair of new shoes on a child in a rural village in Argentina than behind a corporate desk in an executive office. The act of placing shoes on children was a life-transforming experience for this serial entrepreneur who is blurring the line between business and philanthropy and finding phenomenal success at “doing well by doing good.”
Before founding TOMS Shoes in 2006, My-
coskie already had some well-honed entrepreneurial skills. By his 30th birthday he had started three different businesses. After an intense period of start-up for his third enterprise (an on-line driver’s education service) he headed to Argentina for a little rest and recuperation.
His mission in Argentina was to learn to play polo with an expert Argentinean instructor. An entirely different mission caught his imagination when he encountered a group of volunteers collecting used shoes from wealthy neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. Intrigued by their project, he invited himself along with the group as they traveled to the villages around the city, delivering the shoes to children.
“I remember getting on my hands and knees and putting shoes on kids’ feet and just feeling my spirit filled with joy,” says Mycoskie. “I had never really done anything like this before, and it totally overtook me.”
As he pondered his experience, he basked in the good feelings both the volunteers and the recipients had from the experience. He enjoyed imagining how the shoes would improve the children’s lives. For some it would make it possible for them to finally attend school. All of them would be protected from the injuries and foot diseases that plagued their community.
But Mycoskie’s polo instructor raised a disturbing question: What happens in a few months when the children grow out of their new shoes or the shoes wear out from daily use? Would they all be back in the same place they were before? The thought disturbed Mycoskie and started the wheels of entrepreneurship spinning. The result was a business-based plan to provide a sustainable source of shoes for the children he had met.
Mycoskie returned home to California with
three duffle bags stuffed with 250 alpargata, a traditional Argentinean shoe. His plan: sell the shoes for a price that
would not only cover the cost of the purchased shoes but also supply a pair of shoes to a village child. In three months, he figured, the duffle bags would be empty, and he would return to Argentina to spend his profits on the children’s next sets of shoes. He called the venture “Shoes for Tomorrow” (later shortened to TOMS) and the TOMS Shoes model of “One for One” was born — a for-profit business that invited consumers to participate in giving to a person in need.
Mycoskie’s vision for this new venture was small. He would have this little shoe business on the side, he figured, while continuing work with his partners on the driver’s education enterprise. But his efforts to find outlets for his 250 shoes hit paydirt when a Los Angeles Times fashion writer happened on his display in a shoe boutique. Her newspaper story of a shoe company where each buyer gave a pair of shoes to a child in need captured people’s imagination. TOMS’s web site was bombarded with orders for 2,200 pairs of shoes. Mycoskie flew back to Argentina to set up a supply line to Serial entrepreneur Blake My- meet the exploding coskie visits with students at demand. Meanwhile, Fresno Pacific University two business interns worked from the kitchen table in his Venice, Calif., apartment contacting customers to say that delivery would take several weeks.
Five months into his TOMS shoes venture, Mycoskie took his interns, his parents and other family and friends — a team of 16 shoe-givers — on their first shoe drop. He needed the whole team because instead of bringing back 250 pairs of shoes, they were distributing shoes to 10,000 Argentinean children. Mycoskie looks back at how his views of business have changed: “When I was younger I used to think that as a businessperson my responsibility and job was to make as much money as I could…and then maybe when I was…ready to retire I would get to be in giving and philanthropy and helping others.” To his surprise he found that “you can actually do both at the same time!”
Mycoskie says his parents were key in his drive to give and serve. “My parents are both amazing, compassionate people,” he reflects. “While we didn’t really engage in a lot of volunteer trips or things like this, they were always very compassionate with the people in our local “To see Scripture community and how they could serve. I really come to life think that’s where I got it from.” through a business He also finds a mandate for lifelong is really amazing” giving in Proverbs 3:9-10: “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty.”
“To see Scripture come to life through a business is really amazing,” says Mycoskie. “We were giving shoes away even when we were losing money those first couple of years, but we kept on doing that, and I think we’ve been extremely blessed that we remained faithful.”
Mycoskie says his sense of calling came at
that first TOMS shoe drop in Argentina. The team had made their deliveries and was packing up to leave a village when a mother of three boys came to him with tears in her eyes. Through a translator she explained that up to that moment her sons had been sharing one pair of shoes. Since shoes were required at school, her boys would rotate, each attending school for a day and then staying home two days while the others got their turns. Now they could all attend every day.
“When I started TOMS I knew kids needed shoes, but I had no idea it could change someone’s life this much,” he remembers. “After that conversation I said, ‘That’s it, I have been called to get as many shoes on kids’ feet as I can in the world’.”
After four years in business, TOMS Shoes has made a good start on that mission. In September the business celebrated the millionth pair of shoes given to children around the world. But to Mycoskie, that is just a step along the way. “It’s sort of a milestone that someone can write about,” he says, “but it was kind of anticlimactic for me because there is still a lot of work to do.”
In Mycoskie’s mind, the work is twofold: First he wants to alleviate suffering by providing shoes and helping with treatment of various foot diseases. Second, he wants to see others follow his lead and break out of the status quo of business. “We want to use our story to inspire other business leaders to create the next TOMS,” he says. “There is a lot of room for business to incorporate more giving and not depend on donations and the nonprofits.”
Speaking to students and business groups around the country, his business plan is outside-the-box, his style is unconventional and his message is focused: “Incorporate giving in your life — the earlier the better. It blesses you in ways you can’t imagine.” ◆
Kathy Heinrichs Wiest is a freelance writer living in Kingsburg, Calif. Her article appeared first in the Christian Leader, the U.S. Mennonite Brethren magazine, and is used with permission.
God’s Account
Reflections on the way to Firstfruits Holdings Ltd.
by John Oudyk
John Oudyk, president of Power Vac Services, Cambridge, Ontario, was recently invited to speak as part of a series on faith, money and stewardship at his congregation, Bloomingdale Mennonite Church. Following is a condensation of his comments:
Quite bluntly, I am affluent. By that I don’t mean to say that because my income is above the so-called poverty line in Canada, I am wealthy. No, I’m affluent. Sandra and I do not have significant debt. We have savings and investments. We have good jobs. So I speak from a position of privilege and abundance.
I grew up in a Christian family of first generation immigrants. My parents seldom talked about money, but their actions were very loud! I watched my father faithfully put an envelope in the weekly church offering plates (most Christian Reformed churches pass two plates around: the first for the church budget and the second for a special cause). I was encouraged — no, told — to give a portion of my paper route earnings to the church. Most weeks I did. But I have to confess that some weeks at the beginning of the offertory hymn, I would make a big splashy display of a $1 bill and make sure all family members noticed. But before the plate arrived, the bill would be returned to my pocket and be substituted for a quarter. The ting in the metal plate would result in a discussion after church about tithing and giving. I also remember something about the “left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing” (Matt. 6:3).
Still, in my family of origin, money was viewed as a scarcity, even though in reality it wasn’t. Sure, financial sacrifices were made in order for four children to attend an independent Christian school. We vacationed in a tent while others went to Florida. Many of my boyhood friends received weekly allowances or cash for A’s on their report card. When I would float this idea, I’d be reminded that my daily chores weren’t always completed. But there really was more than enough. My parents just chose to not give
John Oudyk: pushing the stewardship envelope
us any money. We were encouraged to continue our education, but the unspoken understanding was that it would be self-funded. In this way, I’m convinced the immigrant values of hard work and independence were reinforced; perhaps too much. Sandra’s family of origin, on the other hand, did not have as much. My mother-in-law, with five children in six years, perfected the “envelope” system of money management in the late 1950s. In the Mooibroek household there were literally about 20 envelopes of cash representing various budget categories. If Sandra needed/ wanted a pair of boots, she would have to go the appropriate envelope and determine if there was enough cash. If there was enough, she would then decide if she was willing to part with it in order to buy the boots. If the envelope was empty, she made do. Sandra and I modified these ideas somewhat when we became an “economic unit.” We agreed early on in our marriage that our goal was to live on one income. So those first five years when we both worked outside the home and did not have children were significant accumulation years. We could quantify our effective tax rate
when we did our taxes every April. We also saw that our charitable giving essentially redirected dollars from the general coffers of government to charities whose values we felt were more in line with ours. When daughter Anneka arrived, we attempted to both work part-time: Sandra three days a week and I four. Sandra and a friend joined the garage sale circuit. We shopped at the Thrift Store. We had various degrees of success. Sandra introduced a ledger for each child, the “Oudyk” bank (a shoe box covered with paper) which paid three times the prime rate and so forth. Unfortunately, our children will tell you that their Mom and Dad are not very consistent record keepers.
Nonetheless, this Oudyk “economic unit” was able to enroll our oldest child in kindergarten at an independent Christian school. For me that moment held more than the typical emotions some parents have when their children begin school. I was profoundly grateful that we were financially able to leave our child at a school where our Christian beliefs and values would be reinforced as an acceptable point of view. However, even in our community of believers here at Bloomingdale, this was not always viewed similarly. Not long after we started attending here in 1994, a BMC member wondered out loud to me about our “very good income” which allowed us to afford independent Christian school rather than wondering about the things we were giving up.
John Oudyk and Sandra Mooibroek — “economic unit”
But in such a Christian school in 1975, I
remember studying the novel Silas Marner by George Eliot. In particular, I remember a repetitive scene in which the reclusive main character removes the floor boards in his bedroom to pull out his sack of gold coins. He then lovingly lets the hoard of metal tingle through his hands. Yet, at that point in the novel, Silas has no family, no community and lives a miserable existence. It is obvious to me now, and was back then, that this is not healthy. Not long after that I started to question the wisdom of my coin collection.
Later in my MBA schooling, I would learn a lot of economic jargon: terms like opportunity cost, M1 and M2 money supply, trade balances and GNP – the Gross National Product. I faithfully regurgitated the definitions in order to get my degree. However, at the same time I became aware of organizations like the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto whose economists were proposing alternate definitions like the GPI — the Genuine Progress Indicator. For example, does it really make sense to include as positive economic activity all the goods and services associated with environmental disasters like last spring’s Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout?
Much of my thinking about faith and money comes from a little book in our church library, Firstfruits Living: Giving God our Best by Lynn Miller (Herald Press). I skimmed over it last night hoping to cite him as the person who said the Bible speaks about money more than any other topic. Instead, I was reminded that among other things, Lynn wrote and spoke about living a life of gratitude in which we give God our best. He suggests opening a bank account labeled “God’s account” to distribute funds. We did this with a title of “God’s Account” care of John Oudyk and Sandra Mooibroek. I then asked my lawyer to change the name of our numbered holding company to “Firstfruits Holdings Limited.”
Over time my attitude to money has shifted. I now try to operate out of a model of sufficiency not the false dichotomy of scarcity or abundance. I like the retirement/ financial planning idea first introduced to me by the Mennonite Foundation: Establish a figure or lump sum of money you feel necessary to provide you the income to live and distribute the surplus income or capital to charities. With respect to our will, Sandra and I have also advised our three children that they have a symbolic “fourth sibling.” In other words, if Sandra and I were to die before they reach the age of 25, our estate will be distributed in quarters, not thirds. The “fourth” sibling represents a list of charities and organizations that will benefit from 25% of our estate. I update the list of recipients as charitable priorities change over time. We now give much more to organizations that have a global emphasis: MCC, MEDA, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation.
I am convinced that part of the reason for my psychological breakdown in 1996 was due to my imaginary financial pressures. I am not able to count the number of times Sandra had to show me with pen and paper our expenses, our income and our resources. Regardless, my recovery was hampered by the financial reality of being the sole income earner of a young family with three children who were under seven years old. I was, and am still, self-employed in a service business that provides a “want” not a “need.” Up to that point Sandra and I had often joked about the fact that once the children were born, our financial partnership remained on a sound footing: I would look after the inflow and she would look after the outflow. Not a lot of dependence on God’s sufficiency in this joke, is there?
I recently became aware of a book by Eugene Smith in which he says the Christian church’s mission over the last centuries has had four major compromises, the fourth being a compromise to money. How are we here at Bloomingdale doing with respect to this compromise? ◆
by Kirsten L. Klassen
What do you do to help employees put away more for retirement?
That was one of the issues Mark King faced in 2004 when he became president and CEO of Greencroft Communities, Goshen, Ind., which provides retirement living and services at six affiliate communities in Indiana and Ohio.
While he was impressed with Greencroft as “a very healthy organization” geared to steadily improving quality, he sensed that not enough employees were building a secure retirement. In fact, only 10 to 12 percent of them were contributing to their own plan. King was concerned about this, particularly what it meant to those making low wages.
“We’ve got to change this, don’t you think?” he asked his management team. He strongly believed it was important to create a healthy environment (both body and finances) for employees. Moreover, he wanted employees to be able to someday afford a Greencroft community when they retired.
“A lot of employers offer matching programs, but a certified nursing assistant making $9 to $12 an hour finds it hard to think about savings,” King said. “To me, this is a justice issue. All Mennonite employers should be concerned about helping their employees save for retirement.”
King devised a plan. First, Greencroft would contribute three percent of each employee’s salary to the account. Then, they would divide employees into three groups according to their salaries to contribute an additional match. Greencroft would contribute an additional three percent to each group, but the criteria for each group were different.
Employees in the lowest-income group would contribute only one percent of their salary to be eligible for the full three percent match. The middle income group would contribute two percent, and the highest-income group would contribute three percent.
Greencroft participates in Mennonite Retirement Trust, which is sponsored by Mennonite Church USA and administered by Everence Trust Company. King presented the idea of a differential matching contribution program to Marlo Kauffman, Everence’s retirement plan manager.
Kauffman was intrigued. “We had to do some research to determine how to implement Mark’s request,” he says. “Internal Revenue Service guidelines prevent employees with higher salaries from getting better benefits than those with lower salaries. No one had ever tried to offer better benefits to employees with lower salaries.”
In the meantime, King asked his employees how they would feel about the proposed match. He found higher
Reviews “We’ve got to change this”
Greencroft matching program helps employees build their future CEO Mark King and Kathy Brewton, vice-president for human resources, review plans for a new wellness center at Greencroft’s Goshen facility.
paid employees were not offended by the proposal; instead, they thought it made sense.
Once Kauffman gave the go-ahead, King’s management team was still skeptical that employees would actually increase their contributions. The team agreed that if they got 50 percent of employees to contribute, they would call the initiative a success.
Today, five years after it was implemented, 75 to 80 percent of the lowest and highest-income employees contribute to their retirement accounts. The middle income group lags slightly behind.
“This has been fantastic,” says Kauffman, who also believes Greencroft’s approach could work with other employers.
One of the keys to increasing participation has been education — about the retirement plan matching program, and on broader topics like money management. Christine Scherer helps provide that education in her role as Everence financial advisor for Greencroft. She says, “There are really three types of people: those who have had matching programs before are quickly on board, those who are initially skeptical and reluctant, and those who are afraid the program is taking something away from them.
“For the people who are concerned about what’s coming out of their paycheck, I break it down into dollars and cents, showing them how much money they’re leaving on the table if they choose not to contribute. When they realize it’s something for them, they’re on board. This is something that happens again and again,” Scherer says.
Some people think only those with lots of money save for retirement, and that, therefore, they’re excluded. “Setting such a low threshold for participation helps get these people to realize that saving for retirement has relevance for them,” she says. “I really want people to at least get the match. Once they see I have no ulterior motive, they start to think of the match differently.”
Still, King believes there’s room for improvement. “Just the other day, I read in the Wall Street Journal how saving seven to eight percent of our incomes isn’t
Among the goals — enable employees to afford a Greencroft community when they retire.
enough. For us to be able to maintain our lifestyles, we should be saving 12 to 15 percent,” King says. “So that’s our next challenge — finding ways to help employees save even more.”
For King, helping employees build a more se-
cure retirement is part of a larger values-based orientation that seeks to involve employees in big decisions about their benefits, such as healthcare.
“In the last 10 years, the cost of providing employee health coverage has gone from $2,000 to $8,000 a year,” King says. “So far, we’ve paid 100 percent of the cost of our employees’ coverage.” Greencroft is at the end of a five-year conversation about changing this. “Our management team believes it’s important to give people time to think and process. We talk with our employees, help them understand the issues, and ask for their ideas. We propose solutions and then test them.”
In 2009, Greencroft began a formal wellness program, offering annual health screenings to provide their employees with baseline information. Employees were screened in four areas: blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and smoking.
The organization also established a wellness committee and plans to offer yoga classes at lunch, as well as lunch-and-learn events that feature health topics.
In 2010, employees were screened again. Those who did not meet the minimum standard in one or more areas had to pay up to 10 percent of their health insurance premium.
Greencroft has asked Everence to provide individual and group coaching services. “Employees appreciate getting help and counseling in areas they need it – cholesterol and weight management, diabetes, for example,” King says. “We’re also building a wellness center for residents and employees, thanks in part to a large donation from a local family.”
King believes the role of management is best summed up in Micah 6:8 — “... what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” For King, doing justice for employees means, “We’re ambassadors. We’re here to serve our employees.”
Kirsten L. Klassen works in the marketing department of Everence, formerly MMA.
The funny side of faith
by John Longhurst
Is faith funny? Cuyler Black thinks it is.
“I believe that God is a God of joy,” says Black, who draws cartoons about the funny side of Christianity.
“When Jesus talks about heaven, he talks about a banquet or wedding, a place of joy and laughter,” he says. “Laughter is a part of who God is.”
Born into a preacher’s family in Ottawa, Black, 44, published his first comic strip when he was 10. From 1984-90 he published another strip about life in high school in a local newspaper; when that ended, he syndicated a new strip in a dozen newspapers across North America.
In 1996 he gave up cartooning to work with young people. “I decided I didn’t want to be chained to my drawing table, so I dove into youth ministry,” he says.
His first youth ministry job was at an Anglican church in London, Ont.; in 2000 he moved to an Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, Conn. Three years later he picked up his pen again, this time to create a few cartoons to raise money for a youth mission trip.
“People really liked them, and asked me to make more,” he says.
As demand for his cartoons grew, he pondered doing cartooning full-time. “I checked out Christian bookstores and discovered there was a humor deficit in the Christian marketplace,” he says. “I thought I might try to fill it.”
In 2008, Black started Inherit the Mirth, a company that produces greeting cards, calendars, books and other products about the funny side of faith.
He acknowledges that not everyone will appreciate his sense of humor, which has been described as The Far Side — a wry, surrealistic and bizarre comic by Gary Larson — meets the Bible.
In one of Black’s cartoons, for example, a younger bearded man is wearing a robe and riding a skateboard over a building. The caption: “Jesus clears the temple.”
In another, an older bearded figure is doing his laundry, putting light clothes into the washer and leaving darker items in the basket. The caption: “And God separated the light from the dark.”
A third shows two bearded men in robes playing basketball. One stops the other from scoring. The caption? “While playing a lively game of pick-up basketball, Peter denies Jesus three times.”
“Not everyone’s going to find them funny,” says Black of his cartoons. “But my goal is not to make fun of Christianity — just to have some fun with it.”
Drawing cartoons about the funny side of faith might be fun, but the business side of being funny isn’t always a laughing matter.
“Life as youth minister was much more secure,” he says. “Starting my own business is like walking a tightrope without a net. My income is whatever I generate by myself and with my talent.”
When you’re a one-man show, generating that income isn’t easy.
“People don’t realize that the person taking their order, filling it and taking it to the post office is me,” he says.
Finding time to be creative is also a challenge.
