Rubber Ducky Ties and Resumes

Resumes are like ties.

In a world where baggy khakis, wrinkled polo shirts, and Dockers are accepted as professional modus operandi I stick out like a sore thumb.  I show up wearing my patterned shirts and knit ties and get stared down like a monkey is perched atop my dome; however, I don’t flinch and take the stares as compliments.  In my love for fashion I don ties frequently and in my familiarity with these odd pieces of fabric do run across the occasional god-awful, breath taking tie that should never ever be worn.  You know what I am talking about, the one with duckies on it or the holiday tie that lights up and sings. We all know the regular ugly tie offenders in our offices and hold our laughter inside out of professional courtesy.  Resumes are like ties. 

In a world where the tangible is at times seen as archaic it seems counter-intuitive that a piece of paper summarizing a person in one page or less is universally accepted.  Everything is moving toward paperless and electronic, less and less in-hand documentation is needed.  I was actually just discussing with my wife the other day how carrying around a piece of paper that you must make sure is new every 6 months in the glove department of your vehicle is silly.  I often wonder when the big transition will take place with older mediums like insurance cards and resumes, but until then I will hesitantly participate.  Ties are a good thing, they really make an outfit that is otherwise decent pop.  It’s amazing what a little piece of silk or wool (depending on the season) can do for an entire look.  In principle and theory a tie is nice and this is where the sentence should stop, however, this small piece of material can be and is often abused in such a way that it does the exact opposite of what it was intended to do.  Resumes in theory are a good thing, although the method of expression seems outdated.  The idea of reducing large things into easily digestible bits of information made easily accessible makes sense.  The most encouraging thought of progression I’ve seen in quite some time regarding resumes came in the ideology of a Twesume.  Basically it is a 140 character summary of you and what you’re looking for using the 140 character model of Twitter.  As nice as that progressive thinking is, there still remains the problem a resume can cause. 

Sometimes a resume can hide a person.  Sometimes resume can be filled with 10 years of insurance industry experience, but hide the reality of a creative, high pressure environment loving, intuitive thinking, big picture understanding person with potential and raw talent best suited for anything but insurance.  This is the dilemma I face daily.  I started in insurance as a teenager fresh out of high school and have just progressed within this field since then.  I’ve adapted and done quite well for myself, but my strengths would actually be used best in another area.  How does 10 years of experience in insurance convey that message? 

I’ve learned something encouraging in the past 7 months though.  A resume truly doesn’t matter and is only a technicality if you are viewing the professional world holistically.  People don’t hire resumes, people hire people.  I’ll cover the connection of people over resumes in another post, but the general idea is that your resume is something that should be asked for as a technicality.  You should be in a position where people want to hire you regardless of your past professional experiences summed up on a single piece of paper.  This requires you to think more critically about your past.  How can you use your past to expose your strengths in action?  That is truly what your resume should be about.  Your past experiences should be viewed as times when you could and did express the strengths you can use in whatever it is you are interested in.  Can you find a trend or theme in your resume?  Resumes can be real nice but like an ugly tie, sometimes they just get in the way of people taking you seriously.  I’m not for not wearing ties, I just think ugly ones should be discarded, and the same rings true for resumes. The reality of resumes in the professional world isn’t going to change anytime soon, so how can you leverage your past experiences to help you shine moving forward or to persuade others of your abilities and strengths?

Dear Adam (an open letter about journey/process)

This morning as I stood in the living room I felt the burden you have of making something happen in 2012, but I also know how hard you can be on yourself.  In an attempt to stop you from allowing doubt and impatience to tear you down I thought it’d be wise to write you(me) a letter as a reminder of where we've been in 2011 so 2012 will look brighter when times seem dark. 

05/18/2011 

This is a date that should not be forgotten.  This is a pivotal day in your life, one in which you decided to stop floating and put in the tough work of discovering yourself.  You first exchanged emails with Barb on this date (Barb is a career counselor that I met to dig in deep on deciding a career choice based on data).  Through personality and other platform tests Barb helped you discover your intuitive and most natural strengths and personality traits.  Through this you discovered who you are and why you were, what made you tick.  This was a great bottom line to discover because it helped you really understand why you were good at some things and not good at others.  Often times people get confused and think they are incapable or not smart enough to do certain things when in reality the true focus should be on what they should be doing as an expression of their natural makeup.  You now know your strengths and over the past 7 months have worked hard at trying to focus them. 

Based on all this information the top three careers that people like you were successful and happy in were (in order) 1. Professional athlete 2. Marketing/Advertising 3. Mental Health Counseling.  Marketing/Advertising ended up being what you chose to focus your strengths on and explore.  Starting from scratch you researched and contacted as many advertising and marketing agencies as you could.  Through that you have met a great number of good people, people who now know your story and what kind of journey you are on.  You’ve networked and marketed yourself so well over the last 7 months that in a horrible economy, with zero experience, and no connections you have received 2 flattering job offers.  Sure it is easy to get down about these opportunities not working out, but remember that these were people interested in you, enough so to desire you as an employee.  Circumstances didn’t allow these to blossom into anything more than flattering offers, but you learned a lot from each and met great folks as well.  It’s easy to get discouraged because you have not found the perfect opportunity yet, but you’ve accomplished much through marketing yourself the way you have.  Keep up the work, and when you doubt read this, be reminded that you are doing the right things. 

I’m not one to think I know it all or ever will, I just hope others can learn from my experience.  I hope you may glean something from this open letter.  If nothing more, I hope you can find the encouragement the future me will need throughout this journey.  Stay strong friend and trust in yourself and the process, be patient, be grateful, and trust you do and will reap what you sow.

Your Dinner's Dad

Be careful to manage your brand appropriately and concisely.  Brand management is essential to personal and professional success.  The biggest fear any business or individual may have is becoming irrelevant or unfavorable.  Evading these ghastly outcomes is a culmination of how one manages their brand. 

Determining what a brand is and how that term is relevant to individuals would be a great way to start.  But instead I’ll start with your dinner’s dad, a Cow.  Farmers brand their cows as a way to identify them.  They take a hot iron twisted and manipulated into some form and sear the flesh of the cow.  This is an easy way to encompass identity.  This farming term has been translated into the business world as a way for an organization to establish their identity.  Branding should not be limited to business and farming.  Branding is essential to personal success as well.  Professional and personal success may look a bit different, however, have a similar adversary.  Individually and professionally becoming irrelevant or undesirable is the dark place no one wants to visit. 

How does this happen, how does someone become irrelevant or unattractive to others?  It begins by understanding branding and, that even if unintentional, you are a brand.  Most often those who do not pay any attention to their brand become something they did not intend.  I addressed personal responsibility for what we produce for others to experience in my last blog.  To build upon that, once one accepts the responsibility for what they are putting out there they can then focus on the result they desire. 

If you are trying to start your own business you should create a brand, separate from your personal identity.  Your friends and loved ones support you, however, do not want to be bombarded with irrelevant content.  This does not mean your content is not good or that you are bad in some way, it just means our culture is all about relevant content; we don’t like content that is not directly relevant to us.  It is beneficial and more effective to focus on the brand you want to create. What message are you intending to sell?  Who is your audience?  What’s the desired outcome?  By focusing on these questions you can be concise in your approach of promoting your brand.  I made this suggestion to a good friend of mine recently.  I am a friend of his on Facebook and am genuinely interested in what is happening in his life as an individual.  I am not interested in mixed martial arts at all.  The advice I offered was to create a separate Facebook page for his mixed martial arts hobby.  This way he can post content that is relevant only to those who are interested in MMA.  His audience is focused and message is clear.  In branding it’s all about being concise and focused.  You must be clear about your identity.  Professionally and personally mismanaging your brand could turn you into content that is glossed over and not paid any attention to. 

Cows are uniquely identified by their brand.  It is important to farmers to clearly know where there cows are.  We have the same responsibility for our own brand; we must be intentional in how we identify ourselves to others.

Judge That Book

My entire life I’ve heard, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  My entire life I’ve nodded my head and smiled like a programmed robot.  My entire life I’ve always felt uncomfortable with how this is universally accepted and applied carelessly.  What I mean by that is I do not think a person should be judged by the color of their skin or any obvious superficial things that they have no control over, blue eyes, brown hair, etc.  Furthermore and however (which I am enthused to use together because I’ve never seen it done) I do think books are judged by their covers and at times this age-old mantra should be thrown out the window.  Again, and hopefully this will not be glossed over because I am saying it twice, I do not think anyone should be judged by exterior appearances they have no control over, like race, hair color, eye color, etc.

Every time I fly I have a tradition, one I’ve kept since I started flying solo, buying a new book.  I am so involved and engaged in everything throughout my everyday life that I am always intentional and trying to grow and learn.  So, when I get the chance to unplug and take some time off, while on my way, at the airport, I don’t allow myself to be so planned and on point.  My long held tradition has been buying a random book based on its cover.  I have found some grossly underachieving books and many deeply cherished paperbacks that I hold dear to my heart.  Point here being, judging a book by its cover is something everyone does and at times it can be a good thing.  The good and reality of judging a book by its cover is that one can trust in his or her intuition.  Intuition and hatred are very different and can be easily identified.  I think the liberal application of a well-intended mantra has done two things; 1, undermined trust in intuition and 2, created easy escape routes for personal responsibility.

Gut feelings can be accurate if held accountable by reality.  Running around having feelings of grandiose outside the boundaries of your reality is not what I am talking about here.  Gut feelings should be questioned with logical reasoning.  While walking to your car at night in a dimly lit parking lot being followed by a man in a dark hoodie should give you a gut feeling that something is about to go down or that you could be in danger.  Let’s hold that intuitive thought accountable with reality now.  It is night and you are alone.  The parking lot if not well lit and you are alone.  This guy has been following you with his hood on for 2 blocks.  It makes sense to feel uncomfortable.  If any of these factors change, say it is the middle of the afternoon and you are walking downtown at lunch surrounded by thousands of people, then reality would squelch this gut feeling.  If your gut feeling or intuition is contrary to reality then I say dismiss it.  However, if you have an intuitive feeling about something that is supported by reality and reasoning then you should trust yourself.  Not judging a book by its cover has minimized the importance of intuition.  One should not feel wrong for having a gut reaction to something because they have this burden of not judging a book by its cover.  If the cover has a picture of a vampire I doubt it contains content about accounting for stay at home moms.  If something smells funny you don’t eat it, unless it is a delicious gourmet cheese, they always stink but man oh man are they pleasing to the palate.  My point here is where you see smoke there is fire and if a situation adds up to make you feel a certain way and your reasoning is logical then you should trust your intuition. 

Personal responsibility is avoided quite often, especially in social media because people think they shouldn’t be judged by their cover.  It’s almost as if the “don’t judge a book by its cover” has been abused and is now a way for someone to say they are not what they express, but something different.  Profile pictures, status updates, and tweets represent who you actually are.  If an employer finds your Twitter account and begins to read your feed and discovers you are always degrading women you should not be surprised to not get hired.  You can at no point say, oh that’s not really how I am and beg that they not be so quick to make a judgment about you.  Unless you are bipolar or have multiple personality disorder then what you produce, whether it be tweets, status updates, comments made, art, etc., you are expressing what lies within you.  Each of us (outside of race and genetically predetermined features of our “cover”) is responsible for our cover. What we represent ourselves as is our responsibility.  I often tell young guys I play basketball to be careful about how they represent themselves online because employers and the rest of the world are watching and have access to these things.  It’s easy to point the finger at the world for judging you, but any content that you produce is a direct representation of you and much like an apple tree you are identified by your fruit, what you produce.  Judging is not bad, unless it is filled with hate or hypocrisy, we all judge, daily we make judgments based on what we experience.  Escaping responsibility by asking people to not judge by what you produce is weak and delusional.  We are responsible for what we produce and should be held accountable for that, individually. 

 The cover is the best short representation of what lies inside a book.  Old parables reference agriculture to address this book cover ideology often. It’s a simple idea, apple trees produce apples.  Pear trees do not and never will produce watermelons.  A tree is identified by its fruit.  This same principle applies to how we as individuals represent ourselves; our book covers if you will.  This whole don’t judge me by what you see should be thrown to the wind and individuals should be held responsible for what they present to the world.  Again, I clarify and want to be clear stereotypes or racism or any other kind of hate is not what I am talking about.  Hate is bad, sound judgment is good and there is an obvious difference between the two.  Making sound judgments on what you see is absolutely appropriate.  What’s inappropriate and downright careless is to avoid personal responsibility by asking others to not consider the content you put forth. What cover are you putting forth?  Does your cover represent what you’d like to be seen as? 

Understanding Understanding

There is peace in understanding.  Where there is peace prosperity follows.

Isn’t much of life over complicated by our lack of seeking understanding rather than thirsting for precision?  To clarify what may seem like cryptic rhetoric what I mean is we walk/run/float through life daily and most have experienced people trying to convert others to their way because they know what’s best.  This leads to all sorts of conflict and damaging scars.  Method A is the way to get there and it is my responsibility as an advocate for Method A to convince everyone of its and my validity.  You see this kind of behavior and underlying thought processes in politics, religion, business, science, sports and a myriad of other subjects.  The Republicans know what is right so the Democrats are clueless.  Creationist seem foolish to evolutionist scientist.  Chest passes are better and more accurate than behind the back passes.  Christianity is the only way to enlightenment and all the other religions and zealots of the world are out rightly wrong.  We live in an us vs them society.  This is unhealthy and polarizing.  As a society, personally and professionally, if we focused on understanding others more so than changing them we would flourish at anything we set our minds/efforts to.

Personally seeking to understand others rather than agree with them has a twofold benefit.  First, the seeker automatically becomes a great conversationalist and immediately likeable.  Carnegie’s classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People talks a ton about making people feel important by asking questions.  If someone talks about themselves a lot in a conversation they walk away thinking you are a great conversationalist.  If you don’t know what I am talking about because you have never read this book I suggest it highly as something that will change your life for the better.  Secondly, any opinion you may have that could or would cause conflict is neutralized because you are no longer worried about being right, but are actually interested in understanding another’s’ opinion.  Even if you disagree you understand, which is better than incongruity.  At my core I am about certain principles and those principles are not going to be changed by anyone externally making an effort to do so.  Any change an individual makes must be one they decide upon.  This decision is made by understanding.  Take the painfully interesting show Intervention. It gathers a substance addict and their family in a room to help the addict understand how their addiction is affecting everyone else.  Have you ever tried to tell someone they will stop being addicted to a drug?  It doesn’t work.  The family explains to this person how they feel about all this.  The addict can understand how his actions are hurting those he/she loves and is inspired to change.  The decision is made by them and isn’t one forced upon them.  It is not about telling the addict how bad they are hurting themselves or any other form of prescriptive banter, it is all about understanding.  Political conversations/arguments could be a lot less volatile if individuals sought out to understand why another holds to a certain viewpoint.  Often times I have found that by engaging in conversations where you seek understanding it becomes clear that the person actually doesn’t understand their own views.  Sometimes seeking to understand someone else unveils their own lack of foundational knowledge to hold to such a belief (in whatever it is they believe).  This miraculous unveiling inspires them to reconsider their position.  Maybe they come to agree with you, but maybe they don’t, either way it is better that they and you understand the position even if it’s different.  Understanding another helps you respect their position, even if you disagree.  Imagine the great amount of peace that would abound if we all sought to understand each other.

Professionally seeking understanding makes you teachable, a good listener, and smarter. These three qualities alone set a person or their business apart.  Professional “understanders” are in marketing.  My particular world view and belief in seeking to understand others makes me a great fit for marketing and if you’ve been keeping up with me personally as of late you know that’s the path I’m aggressively pursuing.  You have marketers and advertisers.  I think these two often get used interchangeably which can be confusing.  Marketing is seeking to understand a business’s needs or helping consumers understand your product/business.  Advertisers seek to sell by tantalizing senses (generally speaking based off my experience).  Advertising seeks to sell in the way that can be off putting.  You need this, you’re not cool without this, we are better, etc.  These are all prescriptive methods and much like arguing different opinions typically don’t have lasting outcomes.  I will never ever buy a vehicle from anywhere but CarMax.  This bold statement has to do with marketing vs advertising, understanding vs conversion.  Pulling up to the dealers lot you often times get made to feel like a wounded animal surrounded by sharks ready to attack their prey as soon as you open that door.  They go on and on about why you should buy here and NOW all the while making the customer feel uncomfortable and pressured.  I’d imagine a lot of impulsive decisions are made on the stereotypical car dealer lot.  You pull up to CarMax and are greeted and then assigned a sales person who basically just helps understand your needs, makes suggestions, and allows you to make an informed decision based off your needs, not their commission.  It was easier purchasing our vehicle than it was our couches.  CarMax gets marketing, CarMax gets understanding people.  As a business when you can make your customer feel like you are interested in them and trying to understand their needs you automatically get a fan and potential client.  No matter how good a product is if I am made to feel uncomfortable or like that company isn’t interested in meeting my needs then I am unlikely to patronize that establishment.  Seeking to understand people is what business is about at the essence of any issue.  Someone along the way understood a group of needs and saw they could make money by meeting that need, thus the birth of a profitable (hopefully) business. 

Understanding cannot be overlooked or minimized.  To succeed one must understand.  Understanding brings peace and where there is peace prosperity follows.  Do you seek to understand others personally?  Do you seek to understand others professionally?  Would people describe you as a person who truly is interested in understanding them?  

Churchhill, Jesus, and Glee

“If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

-Winston Churchill

Last night I had a very interesting conversation with a very wise man. No, it was not Winston Churchill because that would be really odd, being that he died over 40 years ago.  We were discussing the possibility of deflation and the world economy.  It culminated in a discussion of how the church has so strongly influenced the ideology behind some of our politics and even the economy as a whole.  This morning a friend of mine laid down this sweet little ditty of a quote by Churchill on me which further goaded me to write and think more critically about this issue and the implications it carries.

Deflation is the new buzz word in the economist realm.  The idea at its most basic level is that as more and more globalized competitors arise that the price at which the wealthy operate will have to decrease or cease to have income.  A better stated definition and explanation can be found here. (http://economics.about.com/cs/inflation/a/deflation.htm).  The supply of money goes down and the demand for other resources increases.  These other resources are people.  As the demand for supplies increase at the same time the economy is continuing to crash.  So supplies are needed yet capital remains aloof.  The answer to this problem is logical; continue to get supplies desired with less money.  Outsourcing is no longer a theory, but an inescapable reality.  Globalization and a world economy is truly putting our “American Dream” at risk.  The days of making a good living for doing a certain profession are in there dying stages. No longer can an x-ray specialist in America charge outrageous fees.  The demand to have these x-rays analyzed is not the issue though.  The issue is found in globalization and a world economy. With the rise of educational institutions and the ease of access we are now seeing an unprecedented world-wide educated population. With technology and the internet anyone with the motivation and money can get online and get the same degree we get in America. So you have doctorates in India, where the cost of living is super low which does not necessitate a high income level, able to do the same job as an American for a third of the price.    As the companies make less and less money they are looking for ways to create or maintain profit margins.  It makes sense that a company would want to pay less for a product or service.  If that same product or service can be offered at a fraction of the price and quite possibly be better quality then a sound decision is made.  The opportunity or scary part, depending on how you chose to perceive challenges, of this reality is that trades and professions that can be reproduced for a lower cost will eventually have to operate at the same costs of their overseas competitors or be forced to settle for government support. Government support is funded by taxing those who make all the money.  If those who make all the money no longer have the high income to tax in order to support these programs then how are they funded?  Seems like some kind of sick cycle to me.  I suppose this reasoning led Churchill to his famous quote.  As a young person who doesn’t make much money it makes sense to tax those who do to support the have-nots and such.  As the young person becomes the one getting taxed the ideology and passion becomes more practical and conservative.  That makes perfect sense to me!

Tax the rich to support the poor.  This is the way our government operates.  My question is why and when did this mentality begin. This brings me to the church.  This is not meant to say it is evil because obviously I am part of the church at a universal capacity. This is to point out what I think are the beginnings of a mislead thought process and theology deeply buried by years of practice.  In his ministry Jesus is always talking about the poor and how we should treat them well.  I think the direct application from Jesus speaking to a Jewish society to ours with no interpretation or translation of principle is dangerous though.  God does have a huge heart for the oppressed, but it is what we define as oppressed or poor that leads us down a path with a dim future.

  

The Christmas special of Glee aired last night (13-Dec) and inspired me to finish this writing I started two years ago.  Amazing how little things inspire you and connect old thoughts with new ones.  I had 2 reactions to the episode initially.  It was very ballsy of the directors to have one of the characters to read the Bible on the show.  Not saying I was offended.  I actually think that Christmas should be remembered for its original meaning and celebration.  I am sure many will cover the religion and outrage over the reading of the Bible from this episode on the internet this morning so I’ll leave that to them.  The second reaction I had was one of disappointment.  This reaction reminded me of my thoughts on the economy, poverty, and what helping the poor looks like that I started 2 years ago.  It is important to analyze our impulses.  Our reactions to external factors or foreign environments are direct reflections of what lies deep in our mind and soul.  In a touching move last night the Glee club met Ms Sylvester at a homeless shelter to give back. One of the many story lines in this episode was several characters reflecting upon the true meaning of Christmas in comparison to the consumerism they were experiencing.  I think it is nice to give back and essential to the world spinning.  I am moved to tackle this sensitive issue because every year I see this movement to give back to the poor and I am always left a little disappointed.  Disappointed in the assumption and general definition of poor or oppressed.  Yes, Jesus was all about the poor and oppressed, but that was in a very Jewish culture several thousand years ago.  Many well-intentioned people feel burdened every year around Christmas time to give back to those less fortunate, which is always reduced and limited to homeless folks.  I think it is very limiting to see homeless people in America, for the most part, as the only expression of poverty or oppression.  Homeless in a thousand year old Jewish culture, oppressed in that same culture are very different from those categories in our culture.  In my experience most on the streets of Indianapolis choose to be there.  Maybe I’m a bad person, but when I hear these “sad” stories on radio and news stations about the amount of homeless people sleeping in 17 degree weather I kind of roll my eyes and don’t feel sorry.  There is a winter contingency plan in place that demands any shelter make room for anyone when the temperature is under freezing.  There is no such thing as a full shelter during the winter.  I’ve spoken to many of the homeless in our city and asked why they do not use a shelter and a lot in my experience have just not wanted to deal with the rules. 

Poor isn’t a problem that can be fixed with money.  The government tries to throw money at poverty and we all see how successful these program are (note the sarcasm).  Money is a tool to be used mismanagement of the tool is behavioral and psychological.  Addressing the tool is a very shallow perspective.  The tool isn’t the problem, the use is.  Rather than being so concerned with helping someone one time with a tool handout wouldn’t it be so much better to teach them how to manage this tool?  As Christmas season continues to build and emotions are tugged, it is of most importance that we consider our impulses before acting upon them.  Is there anything wrong with showing up to make the poor smile? No.  Is there anything wrong with serving people in a homeless shelter? No.  Is there something wrong thinking that is the expression of poor in our society? Absolutely!  As the kids ran around smiling and singing in that homeless shelter last night I could only think that the rest of America was being inspired to reproduce these expressions of giving to those less fortunate, remembering the poor like Jesus, and my heart sunk a little thinking of how many other great needs go unnoticed and unaddressed because of how poor has been traditionally defined in our culture.  I challenge anyone considering giving back to truly reconsider their definition of poor, the poor Jesus addressed and had a heart for had much less to do with cash and more to do with cultural dilemmas.  I applaud all who seek to be generous.  I do not want to see generosity only lavished into one area when so many other needs exist.  Furthermore, how does this sudden stroke of inspired generosity carry on into the next day, next week, next month, etc.?

Faith And/In Business

I may have misled or confused many of my old friends.  I may have somehow allowed some to think I’ve left my faith in order to focus more on business.  I wrote my first blog on July 17, 2007.  Between July of 2007 and today there is a noticeable difference in my content.  If one were to take the time to read every post chronologically the maturation of a man would be seen.  The content has changed most recently and my focus has been less on faith and more on business.  The noticeable change in subject matter has caused some to question my faith, which is interesting to say the least.  I decided to not pigeon whole myself into only writing about faith because then my network would be filled with only those interested in reading about faith.  I did this intentionally because I am more than my faith.  Actually I am my faith, but it expresses itself in many more valuable ways than only theological discussions or religious prescriptions.  It all started innocently enough but through maturation I’ve learned that my earliest writings were full of you ought tos and things should be this way.  I really thought I knew the answers and what was best for humanity in specific areas.  The problem was my micro-level arrogance.  What I mean by that is faith covers a large area and for the most part is broad in nature.  It doesn’t touch specific issues like political affiliation, how to deal with being pregnant after a rape, or any other hot topic in a modern society.  Most faith is ancient and originated in cultures much different than ours, cultures we really can’t imagine.  This reality drove me to Bible College.  I wanted to learn more about this ancient faith I said I believed in and held to so zealously.  My favorite aspect of my time at a Bible College can be summed up in one word, context.  I absolutely loved, and still do, studying the history of the text we were studying.  Who wrote it, who was the audience, where was the author when they wrote or spoke this, was it intended for a person or persons, etc.  These questions are essential in reading ancient texts.  The danger is applying principles intended for someone else directly to yourself and I quickly found myself in this boat and unfortunately have said and written many things I’d now never write or say.  Some saw this zeal as an asset and strength while others saw it as a downfall and flaw.  The nuclear separation on sides and opinions is dramatic because we are all too busy seeking agreement and conformity.  Faith has become such a hot button that I’ve stayed away from covering it at all.

My natural strengths and intuitive habits align me to best fit within the marketing area therefore I completely submerged myself in this arena.  I’ve surrounded myself with books, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, local business associations, and anything else that would connect me more into the marketing world. In doing so, I’ve focused solely on writing about that and my journey to wherever I am headed.  I’ve applied the very same principle of pigeon holing myself into one area of subject matter again.  My blog has evolved and changed so much that some would claim that my faith is not clear or that I am nebulous and elusive when it comes to really knowing my faith.  I challenge this opinion and actually challenge my own thought process of creating a dichotomy of faith and business. 

I’m not implying in any way that we should all adopt Tim Tebow’s outspokenness on faith issues.  (Insert disclaimer, I don’t really care one way or another for Tebow personally because I don’t know him, I think he is a good player nonetheless)  I personally think faith is deeply intimate and personal and is best and most appropriatley shared with deep relationships, unless out rightly questioned.  If someone inquires to my faith or asks me specific questions I am not saying I should not answer, I am saying basically keep it to yourself unless you have the relationship to support such deep talks or are being asked directly.  That’s to address one end of the prism, but I’m interested in addressing the other position as well.  This position holds that one can successfully and should separate their faith from their business.  This is an unhealthy and impossible separation.  One’s faith is a personal belief in something.  This effects and changes a person at their very core.  The metaphor used mostly has to do with agriculture.  Trees produce fruit depending on the type of tree they are.  Apple trees produce apples, etc.  You’re not going to get a pear off an apple tree.  That’s simple, yet people forget that very same logic when considering professionalism.  I think the major flaw in the professional world is that we hire people as if they are machines.  We assume there is some internal switch our employees can turn on or off when they hit the office concerning their faith.  This basic, unspoken, belief has us focus on things that are truly not the importance of how a business successfully operates.  Success can be seen in revenue brought in or how effective a business operates within.  This success is driven by what?  Success is driven by people.  Business is all about people at it’s very core.  Someone sees a need and knows they can fill it, they charge money for that.  It’s still about meeting people’s needs/desires at some level.  We fill our walls with people but treat and interact as machines.  In interviews no one asks how you treat people or view authority or how you have matured over the past several years, they ask how you can put a square block in a square hole.  Most interviews don’t ask anything more of someone than answering the questions correctly.  I recently met with a person who was actually interested in hearing about my experience with starting a church, what I learned, how I’ve grown, etc.  They were interested in me, as a person, my faith, what makes me tick.  This challenged my thinking that faith and business do not dance together well because honestly I cannot be me without it.  Employers hire people who have faith and that faith dictates how they live.  I’m not talking about someone’s faith that they verbalize, but one they actually believe based on their actions.  Faith is deductive and one’s faith is about how one acts and can be traced back from there, not the other way around. 

What I am saying here is that it is important that a person not attempt to separate their faith from their work because doing so makes them a machine.  Employers should be interested in the person that will do the functions of the proposed job, not just how they can and will perform.  Performance can be addressed and changed; a person at their core is much harder and less likely.  

There is no separating a person’s faith from their business because how they do business is a direct reflection of what they are all about, so why not learn about what drives a person?  Do you find yourself making this costly separation often?