April 2023

Unconventional Business by Rick Boxx is one of the best books I’ve read on a biblical approach to business. It is short and easy to read and yet it covers the full scope of business management. It doesn’t simply challenge us to manage our businesses in a God-honoring way and counter to conventional wisdom, but it also provides practical guidance on exactly how to do so.

The book teaches biblical approaches to leading your business based on five key principles: develop a God-centered plan; prepare yourself as a leader; cultivate and mature your team; grow the top line; and enhance the bottom line. These five principles provide the framework for the book’s 14 short chapters. Unsurprisingly, the book is biblical — often referencing examples or admonitions from scripture. It is also very practical, often laying out the specific steps you can take to implement the concepts being taught.

For over 20 years Rick and his ministry have been a blessing to me. I strongly recommend this book and Rick’s ministry to any Christians in business.

You can read my full review of Unconventional Business here.

This week Rick and his team are hosting their annual Unconventional Business Summit in Olathe, Kansas. You can check it out here: https://unconventionalbusiness.org/summit23/

When I was about 12 years old, my family joined the Green Hills Golf & Swim Club and my dad started teaching me how to play golf. Two words he often said to me as we were playing have stuck with me and have shaped many aspects of my life: “Ready Golf.”

Technically, the term “ready golf” refers to an agreement among players that whoever is ready to hit their shot should do so.  I remember my dad’s use of the term slightly differently. As a pre-teen boy I’m guessing I was easily distracted. From my father’s encouragement, I knew that as soon as I hit a shot I was to begin preparing for my next shot.

My dad had to repeat the phrase to me often. It did not come naturally to me to stay focused and be prepared. I’m sure that our earliest rounds of golf were much slower than they needed to be because of my youthful fidgeting, misdirected energy, and lack of focus. I imagine that my father, more than once, wondered whether this idea of joining a club and teaching me golf was such a great idea. But in time I learned.

From my dad’s repeated reminder with those two words I developed a mindset to always be thinking ahead, always being prepared for the next action, wasting as little time possible in whatever I was striving to do. I see that in everything I do in my work and my life. Sometimes it’s a blessing. Sometimes it’s not. But it’s a part of who I am.

Although I don’t remember focusing on the formal definition of “ready golf” during those Green Hills days, I do think I’ve practiced those additional aspects of that concept throughout my career. There have been several times when I have “hit out of turn” because it didn’t make sense to wait any longer. Entrepreneurs don’t wait to be asked before they develop a solution to a known problem. Star employees don’t wait for a role to be added to their job description before stepping into an obvious gap. They do the work that needs to be done and maybe they’ll even get credit for it. Being always ready, looking ahead, and being sensitive to changing conditions positions you to move the game forward. Sometimes you even win.

Are you playing ready golf? Maybe you should give it a try!

Read the full article here.

Brothers Chip and Dan Heath wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Made to Stick, so when I saw their follow-up book, Switch, for a bargain price at Half Price Books, it was a no-brainer to pick it up. Their books are fun to read, well researched (those two attributes don’t often go together), and teach us how to do something hard in a way that, well, sticks.

Switch did not disappoint.

Change is hard and so we are naturally resistant to it, some of us more than others. The authors introduce a 3 part framework that helps explain why it’s hard to get people to change. They then use that framework to explain how to overcome the challenges and help people to change for the better. The three parts of their framework are the Elephant (our heart), the Rider (our head), and the Path (our environment).

The book is fun to read because it is full of encouraging stories that not only demonstrate the approaches being taught, but help us see that people like us really can lead change, even when it looks almost impossible. By the time you finish the book, you may realize that the authors have used their own framework to change many of us readers from those “skeptical that change initiatives work” to those “ready to lead the charge”. 

Read the full review here.

I first encountered Lowell Busenitz while serving as Entrepreneur in Residence at Oklahoma Christian University. Each year I would mentor student teams competing in the statewide business plan competition. Our teams were blessed with success in the small schools division, but the teams from the University of Oklahoma dominated the large schools divisions. Busenitz was co-founder and director of OU’s entrepreneurship program. At that time, I didn’t realize that we shared our faith in Christ.

Before earning his PhD and becoming a college professor at a research-focused university, Busenitz spent six years in christian college ministry followed by several years running his own construction business. He brings all of these experiences to Soul Work. The book takes scriptural truths and applies them in practical ways to real life just as a campus minister would with the students under his care. Busenitz uses stories from his own business and those of others he’s mentored to show what the lessons he’s teaching look like in real work situations. The book also relies on research to support some of his conclusions.

Although written by a recently retired academic, Soul Work is not an academic treatise filled with big technical terms and dozens of references to scholarly papers published in vaunted academic journals. Rather it is a practical and accessible guide for anyone seeking to integrate their faith with their work.

Read the full review here.