Rather than focusing on ownership it would be better to focus on stewardship to achieve a desirable finish in life. By Gary Shotton #000393

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Ownership Or Stewardship

By Gary Shotton

        Hello, my name is Gary Shotton, I’m right here in Washington DC. And I’m here in the where you can see is our Capitol and behind this is the Washington Monument. It’s a wonderful place, it’s exciting to see. And today I’m going to talk about the subject of ownership versus stewardship.

Now, if you’re around me for very long, you know that there’s a difference between ownership and being an employee. I’m not talking about that on this one, I’m not degrading anybody that’s an employee, I think employment is important. It’s a stepping stone for some people. And it’s a final calling for a lot of people. So never be disappointed. Never be discouraged. Because your quote, just employee, that’s not my mindset at all, you’re filling a very vital role for whoever you’re helping if you do that well in an honoring way. But on this discussion, I want to talk about the difference between ownership and stewardship.

You see in ownership, you have kind of a situation where, if you’re not careful, a pride will enter in and you say; you know!  I’m the owner of this, and this, and this, I have a friend that knows another friend that, oh, my goodness, they’re owner of 1000 acres of farmland in my home state, and they have ownership of like $10 million in one checking account, and they have another $10 million in another bank. And you know, that sounds pretty exciting, you know, but that’s, I’m not striving to be that kind of a person, I’m not striving to be the richest man in the world, I’m striving to be a very good steward, as an owner, you see, in some sense, I’m going to die sometime in the next 30 years, 20 years, I don’t know. And at that point, my ownership  is going to be either passed on, or it’s going to be divided, or it’s going to be given away, you know, that’s another subject, what are we going to do with this.

But in the sense of stewardship, I’ve been a steward of God’s money, all of the time that I have been alive. And the way I steward God’s money, is the way I’m entrusted with more of his money. Let’s give an example. If you have a small child, and you give them the responsibility of cleaning their room, they’re in a way, a steward of that responsibility of cleaning that room. And, you know, men have to be trained and encouraged. But at some point, if they can’t handle that element of responsibility, they haven’t been a good steward over that, then they may not be given the responsibilities. Let’s go up a few years, maybe a youngsters now in their teenage and they’re ready to drive. And they haven’t been a good steward. They haven’t taken care of the responsibility they’ve had at one age bracket. And so it’s kind of hard to turn over the keys when they haven’t been responsible for what they’ve already been given.

Stewardship is very important. Because in one sense, it to me, it’s even more important to recognize that I’m a steward that I’m an owner, when I think I’m taking care of other people’s finances other people’s money. In this case, I personally view my life on this or that I’m stewarding being a steward of God’s money. And I feel very responsible for that. Now, that doesn’t mean that I can’t have fun. That doesn’t mean I can’t come on this trip. That doesn’t mean that things are difficult.

You know, I’m standing here in  a beautiful spot with a beautiful background. Washington monument is behind me. And but I’ve spent my money wisely getting here. I spent my money wisely in the place I stayed in the way I spent, my money has been wisely spent, and that becomes a habit. That’s a really good habit each person needs to develop into and be competent at. So if you look at it that way, stewardship actually is a higher Calling that ownership and there’s no such thing is as an owner that in some sense has it hasn’t been successful through stewardship. Now, we sometimes see a second generation maybe grandpa passed on the business to their children and their children were then passed on the business to the grandchildren.A lot of times those people are not good stewards they didn’t handle that money, like originally intended. Well, I want to ask you, are you being a good steward of what you’ve been entrusted with?

Now, let me emphasize the importance of that. Because as you’re a good steward, it’s a matter of law is a matter of effect, it’s a matter of the principles of this earth that you will be entrusted with more automatically. Now, if you just take the logical steps, so base your life on stewardship, not on ownership. And as a steward, be responsible for what you’ve been entrusted with.

Well, thank you for being a part of IBB talks and inspiring better business. Thank you for the blessing you are to be here as a part of this journey that I’m on, I’m endeavoring to be a steward of the responsibilities I have in producing and presenting this material to help others own and operate businesses.

Thank you for being a part of this.