Creating a mindset for business comes with focus and determination. It helps to hangout with someone that has more experience than you have in business.  By Gary Shotton #000400

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Business Mindset

By Gary Shotton

Hello, I’m Gary Shotton and I’m here as a part of inspiring better business. And today I’m going to talk about the subject “Business Mind”. You know, as an analogy here we have people that are sports minded, they’re very sports minded and they can tell you the name of the players, whether it’s a baseball, football, soccer, World Cup football or they can tell you the name of the golfers and they know all about the leagues and they know who won and when and they know the titles. I mean they just know everything about sports. They’re sports minded. There are other people that are maybe interested in style, and they’re interested in music, let’s say they’re music minded, and they can tell you the songs and some music and they’ll tell you who the artist was and when they wrote the song and whether it was a remake of a song. I mean, they’re just music minded, and they’re maybe gifted in those areas and so that’s why they’re gifted in that area.

So, I’m going to talk about being business minded and having a business mind. And it’s not something you’re born with, but I think there’s a unique calling to business, a special interest that some people have, and some people don’t. And I think you should find something that you’re interested in and go with it. I don’t think everyone listening to me and everyone on earth should own a business. I think everyone should pay their bills. I think everybody needs a job. I think everybody needs to provide for their household.

And a lot of times we’re talking about starting a business when the first step is just enough money to support your own personal family household needs. That can be a small business. And sometimes that’s all it’s going to be. The entire history of that person is going to be satisfied and content and fulfilled and having enough income to meet the needs of the family household. I’ll just say something as simple as a shoe repair. I know of a place in town that the gentleman has been a shoe repairman for years and years and years. He’s good. And he can set his own hours and he has enough business, and he is fabulous. And so, there’s nothing wrong with that. He can be content to have income for his household, and he can set what we call a lifestyle. He can have enough income for his household, and then he can do a few things to increase his income, not have employees, not have the burden of heavy payroll and lots of other things but help his lifestyle to a next level without hiring anyone, those are okay things, but I’m a business minded person.

I’m not sports minded. I’m not music minded. I don’t have time for all that, but I do have time to read biographies about Christian businesspeople. Because I like to hear how they got started. I like to hear how they covered hurdles and problems. I don’t want to hear someone that says that everything was perfect from day one. I know that’s not true. So, I know that not who I want to listen to. But I’ll read biographies, and I’ll study, and I like to be around somebody that is in business. And I want to catch the business mind that they have. They’re business minded and it’s something that I can absorb and learn. And a lot of it’s learning by mistakes. Some of the mistakes. Of course, everything does not have to be a mistake, but you can learn from your mistakes. Don’t view that a mistake or a setback is detrimental or a failure, just say what can I learn from that. You’re adding to your business mind.

You see, I want to think like a businessperson. I want to go, a level above that. I want to think like God thinks about business. That’s what we’re really doing. I want to see in the Word of God how God dealt in the business world. I’ve told many people that reread the Bible, just with a little different slant if you’re interested in business and ask yourself, how many business lessons can I learn in reading the Bible. Because we can scan over things and learn a Sunday school lesson for kids, or something for just day to day activity but there’s tons of business lessons in the Bible there and you got to look for them.

Just a quick example is the little boy with two fishes and some loaves of bread; here Jesus does a miracle and feeds 15,000 to 20,000 people. And at the end of that Jesus said, how much? Go gather all that was left over, and he counted the number of baskets of bread that were left over I think in one case 12. You know what that is?. That’s a record keeping, that’s a log record keeping. Jesus keeps records. He knows all that we do. He has that amazing ability, and he wants us to keep records. That’s just one simple thing. He talked about taxes. And at one point he had a miracle and asked him, kind of put him on the spot, should we pay Caesar or not. And he said go out and catch a fish, and they’ve got this fish in the mouth of the fish was a certain coin it was valuable coin, because there was enough money to pay the taxes as I understand it, of him and those people in the group, it must have been an expensive coin. But then he says given to Caesar what Caesar’s, and unto God what’s God, that’s a business lesson. If you want success you want to learn the laws and you want to supply to government fair taxes and then what is to God in tithes and offerings. I’m not making a major subject I’m just giving examples of this.

If you have a business mind, and you’ll continue to sow, more and more it’s like you’re adding layers of information. It’s like, you’ll never end.  Like you’ll continually think and you’re always learning. I’m not obsessed with it I’m not like, to the point that I hinder my relationship with my wife or my children, but they know I’m thinking business a lot of times. I just remodeled my house. Why would I do that? Well, I didn’t remodel what was already there. There was a lot of space in the attic. And I rearranged, just a few things in the attic and on a business reason I’m adding an extreme amount of value to my house for very little money. That’s a business mind. I’m thinking business when I think of buying a car. I just helped somebody buy a car. We’ve helped them in this process, and they bought a very fuel-efficient car. Well, that’s a business decision. I mean I can’t honestly stop thinking. It isn’t as such as like I don’t think about other things, but I think in an orderly manner, this says what’s the best way to do this? What’s the most efficient way to do this? Where’s the systems involved? In many of my day-to-day activities?

And so, I encourage you, especially those that want to take a little beyond just a lifestyle business and a necessity to have a business to start thinking like a businessperson. Get close to, hang around. If you know somebody and they’re allowing you to; that’s one of the best things you can do. Let me hang around with them for a few days. Don’t be an annoyance. Maybe work for them for free for a few days and then don’t bother them because that’s going to be difficult but think like they think. Absorb, not the way they walk, the way they talk but the way they think. That’s what you’ve got to do. And to be successful so, we’re really working with changing the way you think. And there’s an unending way to do that. And not everyone’s going to think the same. I’m not saying that, but I am saying that the business intellect, the business mind, if you can think good solid business, God ordain biblical business that has not changed for since time began, you’re going to be on the right path. Well, I hope you’ve gained something from inspiring better business thanks for being a part of this.