Face the Future with Faith, Not Fear

Stepping out in faith to take ownership of my work exposed me to new opportunities. To be honest, while I…...

October 4, 2022

Today, in my High Tech Journey to a Linked In World Episode 5 video, I talked about how I volunteered with the Hugh O’Brian Youth (HOBY) Foundation in the late 1980s, which organized a three-day Leadership Seminar about the American Free Enterprise system for high school sophomores. I applied my newfound computer and software skills to double the amount of money raised for the program here in Indiana. I did this by creating six different mail merge templates so that I could personalize fund raising letters sent to existing donors. Without my new computer and brand-new word-processing software that had just been invented in the late 1980s, this would not have been impossible.

Here is the key point I want to impress on you: Because I was willing to learn about these new technological innovations, I was able to help the organization more than double the amount of money it raised.

But that’s not all. What happened next literally changed my life.

One conference speaker at the HOBY seminar talked about how USA Today was revolutionizing the newspaper business. They had introduced the concept of creating short “nugget size” stories. No more than two sentence long, these “news of the day” articles were created for all 50 states. This approach, which also utilized color graphics that readers could digest without reading long, wordy stories, was also made possible by the same computer technology I used to create the personalized letter templates.

Listening to the man speak, I started to think about what I did for a living, and it got me to thinking: Could I become an entrepreneur? In the late 1980s, I worked as the Senior Research Associate for a government watchdog organization called the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute. I researched and wrote reports about Indiana budget and tax policy. Such research reports were rather long and dry, and few people read them. But, by learning about the way USA Today was revolutionizing the newspaper industry, I started to think about how I could write “bite size” articles about public policy issues in my state of Indiana.

I did my research into how to launch a newsletter writing business, marketing my newsletter to government affairs professionals, trade associations and law firms lobbying in Indiana. I called my newsletter and government affairs consulting business “Indiana Issues.”

I have to say that going into business was frightening, but I learned a great deal about myself and what was possible. That experience was another huge step in my journey on my way to accomplishing the second of my three goals – to earn a living doing what I enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 says that “to eat from the fruit of our labor and rejoice in that labor is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.”

Stepping out in faith to take ownership of my work exposed me to new opportunities. To be honest, while I never made much money with my newsletter, it in turn led to still other opportunities. From that experience, I learned to face the future with faith, not fear.

I hope this story of my first attempt at becoming an entrepreneur has been of help to you. What about you? Have you ever thought about taking a risk to improve your personal situation? And, if this idea of starting your own business is of interest to you, then check out the course, Creating Your Business Strategy .

Thanks so much for joining me for this Journey Step.

Until next time, remember that the wise man makes knowledge acceptable (Proverbs 15:2).

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