“For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” James 3:16 Lesson by Gary Shotton #000448

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Envy And Strife

By Gary Shotton

This text is in Extreme Rough draft and will be edited in the near future.

Hello my name is Gary Shotton, and I’m here as a part of inspiring better business, and today we’re going to talk about envy and strife. Well, I hired a fella in my church, way back years ago I needed a truck to be paid. And this person wanted a part payment upfront, and I paid him, about half of the cost of them buying the paint and getting the paint job done on my truck. And you know what, I couldn’t get them out, even to get started, they took the money I gave them to paint my truck, and went on a vacation. Oh was I upset. Number two, I had a fellow Christian that presented themselves as the skilled and had a company to put heating and air conditioning units in offices and homes, and I had an office, it was at my warehouse but inside the office in the dead of summer. It was hot, you had to have air conditioning, you could not stand it being that hot. And here I walk out to where my air conditioning unit is, and there’s just a ton of water, like you took a bucket, and you just poured water all over the floor, you had to mop it up, it was a lot of water, and I call these, this company and I asked him to come out and look at that and give me a quote, what would it take to fix it. And they said well there’s no way to fix it, you’re going to have to buy a brand new one and we can supply that brand new one, it’s just $10,500 Well guess what, I really didn’t have $10,500 laying around, with nothing else to do with it. And, and I said, Oh, man, and I proceeded on that path and we kind of worked towards that, and I think they even delivered the unit out, but they didn’t install it. And I said, Wow, I need to take another look. And sure enough I looked in there and I got inquired and made a little research and yeah the air conditioning work we did cool, it just that there was lots of water condensing out of the bottom of it when you take humid, water, air, and coolant, there’s lots of water come out, and I was able to fix the problem for $100 or less. Oh wow, I wasn’t happy with that, that that company and I let them know about it. I also was working along with my shop and with my wife and we needed a lot of help, we needed help in the office, we had a lot of workers, but I was working from dawn to dark and into the night, and there was a couple of church. Oh, they were a nice couple and they had management experience they’ve worked in different fields not in my field, and I asked them what they consider working for me, and they set out to be perfect, they had a kind of a job that wasn’t meeting their needs and I paid them good and they came on board, and as about a couple of years later that they decided they wanted to do something different. Well, the problem was they took my checks in the bottom of the pile of the checks and they took about seven checks out and made fake invoices and made the payment to them, they took money out of my account because they went down to the bank, they had the power to sign the checks. They cashed the checks. Now they have $15,000 of my money in their pocket and they pay part of my workers to take them and move them to another state. These are examples of things that can happen in any business anywhere, all over the world, These things happen, and you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with this or you’re going to try to throw wanna throw in the towel and just say, Hey, this is not worth it. You see, this is a big deal and we’re not we’re not afraid to talk about the bigger issues of business and how do you solve them. Well, how do you handle this, how do you get the ability to to go through and get these things fixed. Well, communications, is probably one of the most important things that you have to come into in business, especially when you’re dealing with family, friends, church members, and you can’t deviate from your standard good business principles, just because I go to church with them are because they’re my neighbor. You don’t have to be rude about it, but you follow the same procedures, no matter who, and there could be just a little bit of give a course, you can give him a ride home or something simple, but, but, on the major business things don’t deviate from good solid business that’s where you get in trouble. James chapter three verse 16 says, For where there is, in the end, and strive, there is confusion, and every evil work. It’s kind of like when there’s these things, envy starts coming up, usually around money. And there’s strife, usually around communications, then you’re opening the door for confusion leads to inefficiencies confusion leads to a lot of things you don’t want to walk around, confused, and then it ends up with evil work. Well, evil it opens a door for evil forces to come in and just tear your company apart. It’s kind of like, I have live in a house and I try not to leave the door open when I’m gone, because there could be a wild animal come snooping into my house and when I get home, while I left the door open for that animal to get inside my house and cause destruction. Don’t leave the door open, by having nvn Strike, you have to deal with it. I mentioned early about earlier about communications are you making it clear, if you’re the company, then it’s your responsibility to pull out a small contract or a memo of understanding or something on a piece of paper and say, Hey, here’s what we’re agreeing to do and here’s what you’re going to pay me, and here’s when you’re going to pay me, and this is how you’re going to pay me, and are we in agreement. To that end, even if you want have each other sign it, that’s the right way to do it. That’s what you should do with every customer that way you’ve eliminated that confusion. And again, confusion over money is a big, big issue. A lot of times you’ll be pressed to do something that you’re really not comfortable doing. Oh the wedding is tomorrow, and I forgot my other cake maker, didn’t, didn’t, wasn’t able to make the cake. Now I need the cake right away. Can you get it done kidding. Well, go ahead. Yeah, what are you how are you going to pay me. Are you going to pay me now. Are you going to pay me, at least half now. So you slow down just a little bit, knowing the facts about that other person’s important. You see, you have it have the ability to ask around and find out are they in the habit of not paying their bills, are they in the habit of causing confusion, are they in the habit of causing strife, if they’re doing that for others, they’re going to bring it to you. Start small. That’s one of the things that keep we come, keep coming with, start small and grow step by step, don’t, don’t start with a new customer with this huge endeavor, that’s 1000s and 1000s of dollars. And yet, if you can get any way to this department supply a small amount of service and see how your relationships going have a policy of paying 50% At the time of order. In other words that cake or that dress or, or, you know if it’s something that you’re going to eat a meal, of course, they’re going to eat the meal, and then you’re going to pay you and out the door they go well, you’re probably not going to go bankrupt because one person didn’t pay for one meal, But if that happens then you pretty well know that that person shouldn’t come back and expect another free meal, but when it’s a bigger item, you should say Hey My policy is to ask for you to pay. I’m going to buy the materials I’m going to put effort in that I made 50% of that project, pay now, and the remainder, either when you pick that up, that’s the right way to do it. Let them bank with somebody else in here including the community Savings Bank. And then, then you’re, you made it clear, some people, you’ll probably have to distance yourself from, they just will not be a customer, and whether there’s the right to fire a customer, then you don’t tell them that you just you just work and so that you don’t, you don’t have time for them, or you don’t. Or you, you can be honest with them and tell them why, but try not to stir up a difficulty to do the business that’s what it rolls down to Romans 1218 says they’ve made FFB possible, as much as lath in you live peaceably with all mankind. Wow, that says it. If it be possible. There are some people, it’s not possible to live peaceably with, and you don’t want them as your inner core and your key customers as much as lie within you that’s your responsibility to live peaceably with all men go talk with him. You’d be the one to pick up the phone and say hey, you’re supposed to pay me today, I I’m not here to be hard on that. But as I expecting that money, I’ve got to have a plan now, so that today you pay me, or tomorrow, you pay me, but I’m not just gonna forget about. I’m not gonna let it grind inside of me. I need to talk about. First Timothy six six says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. Can you be content with the at the end of the day, that you’ve done everything to live peaceably with people, and that’s about all you can do, can your head hit the pillow and you can know wow, I went to sleep without a hard grudge against somebody and again, that’s when I talked on another one if you have a hard grudge against somebody, you probably need to call him the next morning and talk about it. That’s the spirit of God leading you. Well I hope these help. I hope that they’re, they’re something you can deal with I cannot cover everything that can happen in a business that there’s going to be strife and envy. Let the Holy Spirit help you and views, good business. Thanks for being a part of inspiring better business.