I know that after seeing the title of the article, the question “What does faith have to do with establishing a business?” will pop up in your head. However, if you read about entrepreneurial and business write-ups about starting a business and being successful at it, there is one hidden key element that many people do not mention and that is ‘faith’. This is not some religious sermon but if you look at the picture with a blank mind and fresh set of eyes, you will see that ‘faith’ is one of the major driving forces behind all our decisions. Faith is the hidden link between a successful and a mediocre entrepreneur.
What is faith?
Faith is complete trust or confidence. An anonymous person said, “Faith is the ability to act, the ability to go forward despite tremendous doubts.”
George P. Burnham states that,
“I can’t do it, never yet accomplished anything; “I will try” has performed wonders.”
This explains the importance of ‘faith’ in starting a business or even keep your business from falling apart. Faith is that one thing that enables you to go beyond mediocrity. Every great business venture is based on faith on the part of the entrepreneur. All the great successful business companies that we look up to today would be nowhere if their entrepreneurs did not take that one leap of faith in their decisions and ideas. I have seen people achieve the impossible, just because they had belief and faith.
An anonymous person once said,
“Whatever happens, do not lose hold on the two main ropes of life – hope and faith.”
When you get to study the life of great entrepreneurs, inventors, and billionaires who are dropouts, you will marvel at their level of faith and self-belief.
Faith is what made Thomas Edison go on with the idea of his light bulb experiment. Faith is what kept him going even after 10,000 failures. And, he achieved his goal. He did not let failures set him back. His faith kept him moving forward.
The Wright Brothers were mocked for imagining the possibility of a flying machine. After many failed attempts, they succeeded in transforming their dream of an airplane into reality. Their faith and self-belief was the driving force.
Look at the world-class billionaires that we look up to today, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, and many more. All of them dropped out of college because they had faith in their business ventures. Today, all of them are celebrated for their business strategies.
Ajaero Tony Martins, founder, and publisher at Profitable Venture Magazine Ltd, very beautifully explains the relation of faith and self-belief by saying that,
“Some people intertwine self-belief and faith but I stand to say they are not the same. Faith is not self-belief. While faith says it can be done, self-belief says ‘I can do it.’ While faith says there is a possibility, Self-belief says ‘I am the possibility.’ Faith without self-belief is vain.”
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