Live Your Vocation
What's Love Got To Do With It?
Most people consider love to be a personal or a private matter certainly not a word that belongs in the rough and tumble world of business. Yet, businesses are essentially groups of people and love is at the foundation of all productive human interaction. A business cannot act or decide anything without a human person giving it life and direction.
Without love at the center of business there is no teamwork, no leadership,no commitment to serving the customer, no company culture. This isn’t of course the kind of love our culture has been raised to think of as love, this is different. This love is called agape.
Agape is an act of the will, not of the heart. It’s the love Jesus Christ advocated that a person should have for all people – even enemies or the competition! Mature humans always act out of this kind of love. We are human, we can have a wide range of different feelings toward different people but we can love them, as Christ would, (agape love) all equally and fully. Christ demands that we develop and continually work on a gracious demeanor, and an intentional, active interest in the welfare of everyone. Who should we love this way? Christ said to love your neighbor and he meant everyone per this familiar passage:
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan. and asked the scholar of the law which of the three people, in his opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise."
Back Here On Earth. Staying Up All Night.
Many business owners / leaders are dealing with insomnia producing issues like meeting payroll, workload, balancing work time with family time, translating long term strategy into day to day action, maintaining consistent positive cash flow, keeping the sales pipeline full, finding and keeping good employees, health insurance & benefits to name a few. It’s a tough world out there even for the big companies. According to the Deloitte Center for the Edge, only 13.4% of the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 were still on the list 56 years later in 2011.
So, as nice as this whole vocation of business sounds, when you’re up to your eyeballs in alligators it’s hard to see the bigger picture. It’s time to drain the swap.
Attollo – Bridging the Gap Between Business and Faith
Business:
I believe business owners can advance justice and peace in the world, the mission of Catholic social teaching. Michael Novak said, in an address at the Catholic University of America, that in fact, business is the main hope for the world’s poor.
This hope cannot be realized unless a spark can be ignited (or re-ignited) within each Catholic business leader to change themselves, in business and in faith for the better. Attollo challenges them to be more, to become more for themselves, their families, their communities and ultimately the world.
Attollo helps its members to develop and use their gifts, gifts that were given to them by God, so they can make an extraordinary place for themselves and others on this earth and in the hereafter. The Attollo program will help business leaders to see and believe in their amazing potential, and to help them see what they may not see on their own. Attollo helps business leaders learn how to build exceptional businesses that are operated within the framework of Catholic social teaching
Faith:
“For Catholics, every new beginning must start with a return to Jesus Christ, the Gospel and the church. The heart of renewal is pretty straightforward:
- Do we really believe that Jesus Christ is our savior?
- Do we really believe the Gospels are the World of God?
- Do we really believe that the Catholic Church is the true mother church that Christ himself founded, and that she teaches in his name?
Many of us who call ourselves “Catholic” live as if we’d never really thought about any of these questions. In fact, by our actions, many of us witness a kind of practical atheism: paying lip service to God, but living as if he didn’t exist. Renewal starts from the inside out and requires faithful, well-informed, committed Catholic laypeople.” – Render Unto Caesar by Charles J. Chaput
"A genuinely Catholic life should feed the soul as well as the mind, should offer a vision of men and women, made whole by the love of God, the knowledge of creation and the reality of things unseen; should enable us to see the beauty of the world in light of eternity; and should help us recapture the nobility of the human story and the dignity of the human person."
Live Your Vocation!
So, what is meant by vocation? A vocation, as opposed to career, is a calling or destiny we have in this life and hereafter. The vocation of the ordinary person is to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in our work on earth and directing that work to God’s will. Father John Courtney Murray once said that “only when our mind dwells in heaven can we hope to fulfill our vocation on earth”. It all starts with lifting our hearts up to God without reservation and letting him (trusting him) to begin to work through us.
Are you saying that business is a vocation - a calling from God?
A vocation is a calling from God. In fact, every one of us have three vocations; Universal, Primary and Secondary. Our Universal calling is to know, love and serve God in this life so we will know, love and serve God in the next. We have one of four different primary vocational paths; ordained priesthood, consecrated religious life, married life, and single life living out in the community. Lastly, our secondary vocation is what we do on Earth while living out our Universal and Secondary vocations. So our work on earth to make a living, to earn our daily bread, is a vocation.
How should I live my vocation in business?
By being a virtuous leader and staying focused on what’s really important in life by memorizing and repeating Genesis 3:19. That we are just passing through this world and that we must, as business leaders, live and remain in the world in the service of others for their progress and joy in the faith and to conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ. (Phil 1:24-27). Recognizing that our final home and our real citizenship cannot be found on this earth in this life. Once we know and love Jesus Christ and commit our lives (including our work lives and business) to him and start acting on what we claim to believe, we will easily see that everything else is empty.
The secondary vocation (as a business leader) must align with and support the living out of both the primary vocation and universal vocations.
How can I start to live my vocation as a business leader?
Start by being authentic. An authentic Christian life is rooted in prayer. Prayer is the first step to developing a closer relationship with God. If a business leader doesn’t have this relationship or desire one, then the concept of business as a vocation will remain a foreign and strange concept. Catholic social teaching as well has no meaning outside of our Christ centered faith.
What are some practical challenges trying to live out my vocation as a business leader?
There are two main challenges facing the business leader; developing both a healthy organization and a healthy relationship with Christ. Many business leaders are working hard just to survive and grow their business. A stable growing business is needed to create a receptive environment for the application of Catholic social doctrine. The other challenge is developing a deeper relationship with Christ so that business leaders can see, understand and properly apply Catholic social teaching in their organization.
What role do the virtues play in the business?
The virtues play a lead role in the vocation of business. Leadership is character and character is formed by living the virtues of prudence, courage, self-control, justice, magnanimity and humility. Christ expects as to carry one “passport” in life although many of us carry many; one for the week-end, one for work, one for guys or girls night out, one we use when we’re on vacation. Yet, we are called to act virtuously always and everywhere no matter the situation or location. An interview with Alexandre Havard on the importance of and the worldwide need for Virtuous Leadership.
"The greatest failure in leadership is for the leader to be afraid to speak and act as a leader."
The Three Vocations We All Have! By Fr. Mike Schmitz
Focus On The Important
“Nothing is more practical than finding God,
than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love,
stay in love,
and it will decide everything.”
Fr. Pedro Arrupe S.J.
© Attollo 2021 All rights reserved