customers and co-workers - then you
will have true purpose that enables
you to get through the tough days at
any job. It’s important to remember:
There is no dream job, but serving can
create purpose and contentment that
can make the most difficult job feel like
a dream. Oh, by the way, he nailed a job
at Starbucks!
3. Serving Creates Value for you and
for others.
We live in a world where you can
be famous for being famous. The
popularity of social media faces like
the Kardashians is misleading us.
What have they created? What value
have they brought to the world? So, it’s
easy to buy into the promise that “If
you want to attract new clients, or build
something, you have to make yourself
visible.” A few years ago I booked a
flight to Austin to spend a week at the
South By Southwest music festival
- hundreds of bands - with my sole
purpose on finding new band clients.
I spent loads of money, handed out
lots of business cards, shook hands
and met so many people. I came back
to Nashville and never received one
single new client from that trip. What
happened? On reflection, I realized I
missed so many opportunities to love
and serve others that week, because
my focus was only on me, my needs, my
business, not on the needs, brokenness
and businesses of those with whom I
was rubbing shoulders. You see: “I was
trying to make myself visible, but God
wants us to make ourselves available.”
Giving value lasts.
4. Serving Creates Provision for you
and for others.
Serving gives and attracts while
8 • Solutions
Networking takes and repels. “The
Best Marketing Plan” for your product
or business comes through genuine
love, generosity and care for others.
When you build relationships on those
themes - without strings attached
- you open up a stream of provision
that flows both ways. I have given free
legal work to a client who could not
afford to pay and then watched him
become my highest billing client a few
years later. This is a spiritual principle
on which you can stake your business,
your relationships, your life. It never
fails. The world calls it karma, but God
calls it planting and harvesting. (2
Corinthians 9:6-9)
5. Serving Changes the World because
it changes others. We all want to
leave a mark. But sometimes our
dreams seem so out of reach - they are
beyond our education, beyond our age,
abilities, resources and our networks.
What is the key? Start small. When I
start getting frustrated with my impact
on the college campus where I teach,
my wife Carol always reminds me: “It’s
one student at a time.” Find someone
who is lonely - someone hurting - shine