Entrepreneurial Failure & Crisis, Don't Miss This Opportunity to Reinvent.

I'd like to dissect two realities as an entrepreneur, Failure, and Crisis.

Both are inevitable, equally painful, yet offer an opportunity to reinvent yourself, your business, and your faith.  

Have you heard this quote? "Success is failure turned inside out." True Dat!

Every entrepreneur who has experienced much success knows this. Intimately. 

Failure is part of the path to success, it's figuring out what doesn't work so you can know what does. As long as you learn from it, each failure takes you one step closer to success. I call this cracking-the-code. 

As a serial entrepreneur, I've learned to be patient with failure, knowing that I'm on the path to success. I've had to learn to be content, no matter my circumstances, choosing to live above them. This requires that I bulletproof my mind with faith in God's promises, a victor mentality. It's an attitude that governs my contentment.

Philippians 4:11-13 - Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Learning to be content, while failing, is something deliberately cultivated by our faith. But understand, being content is not being complacent. It's not waiting around and doing nothing. It's not maintaining the status quo. Contentment is never quitting, no matter the obstacle. Contentment is your commitment to continuing walking forward, no matter the obstacle. 

Never. Ever. Quit.

Wannabee entrepreneurs are famous for this. As soon as failure hits, they quit. If they can't see a way, then as far as they are concerned, there is no way. They limit their entire future to their past limited experiences. Wannabees are always wanting, never satisfied. They miss out on the win.

Contentment is grounded in faith in God's promises for your success. You must endure and persevere, never giving up or letting go of what you have already taken by faith. Bulldog faith. Never ever let go.

I don't do this on my strength, I do this by God's power inside me and His amazing grace. It's my rest in Him. He is my business partner. When I am weak, He is strong.

People who aren't content are often in contempt. Outraged by everything and everyone. Victims.

That my two cents on failing into success. Now let get into CRISIS. Crisis feels like getting sucker-punched. You didn't see it coming, even if it should have been obvious, it somehow takes you by surprise. 

I've often said we are in one of three life stages, in a crisis; coming out of a crisis; or while everything seems fine, unbeknownst to you, you are headed right for a crisis. 

In business, the crisis always seems to hit our pocketbook. Our revenue.

I've been in so many crises over the past 37 years, so many stories, so many setbacks ... but hear this loud and clear.

EVERY setback is a setup for a comeback. 

If you are asking God for miracles in your life, don't be surprised when you suddenly find yourself in a position to need one. 

Your crisis (even the self-inflicted ones) are opportunities from God, an invitation, to partner with Him. He knows exactly what to do and how to do it. I'm not saying He created the crisis, but Jesus is always the solution.

As an entrepreneur, your crisis is an opportunity for a TOTAL makeover in your business and faith. A change of how you think, and what you do. It's how you get amazing results.

The crisis always leads to a radical shift. A shift to reset your expectations. To align them with the 6000 plus Biblical promises. You are one shift from your dreams coming to pass. 

What you could not make happen on your own, God will cause you to accomplish. It will be bigger than you thought, and it will happen quicker than you could ever imagine. And when you are partnered with God, your Creator, it will be more rewarding than you ever dreamed of.

Ephesians 3:20 - Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us.

Like Jesus's first miracle, where He attended a friend's wedding, and the bride and groom's family ran out of wine. This would have been a huge disgrace. A crisis. Then Jesus's mom asked Him to get involved. His mom then tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Jesus instructs them to fill six huge containers with water. They did. Jesus's first miracle was to accelerate a 20-year wine process. And in an instant, He turned ordinary water into an amazing wine. 

When we partner with God in the marketplace, we make the choice to allow Him to take us through a TOTAL makeover. It's how we get unstuck. He'll use your crisis to advance you. 

God provides the path, method, and mentorship to relaunch our businesses and faith.  It's a choice. It's an action. It's an attitude.

Isaiah 43:18-19 - “Do not remember the former things, Or ponder the things of the past. “Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.

God wants to do the same for you. He'll turn your water into wine. 

-Gerald