I always talk about what we do and why we do it. And so what we do is we design things in the hospitality area – buildings, amenities, so it could be a hotel, casinos, restaurants. At this point in my life, I can't separate the business from ministry. The intent with this business is that it is a ministry in every aspect.
My responsibility as a Christian, is to let others see Christ lived out through my life. Because a lot of people will never understand Christ and never see Christ if they don't see it through somebody first.
This business is a mission. What is your why? Why do you exist? Why do you do what you do? You must first look at business and work is worship and that there's no line between Sunday and Monday when it comes to living your faith.
I had a team member who called me 10:30 on Friday night and said, "Hey, John, I need to meet with you pretty soon." And I said, "What's up Joe?" And he said, "Well, John, I want what you have. I want what you have. And I don't understand where you get it." It's that when you're in meetings and things are going like crazy. It's that how do you stay where you are, you know? And the opportunity that morning to share with Joe what this is – that's our responsibility to live it out.
We do a thing called Why Training. When each team member comes on board, I sit on with them and talk about what those line items mean to me personally, where they came from, where they originated, what they mean should mean to the culture and what I'm asking them to do. I'm not asking them to believe in God. I'm asking them to live out What we say on the Why Card. On our walls there are a lot of notes and thank you notes that people have given us over the years, and we put them up there not for others to come and see, but as a reminder that this is what we get to do today.
Every business has a why. Our why is not to increase shareholder value. Our why has to make a difference and in the world and glorify God through that. So we need to do it every day.
My wife and I do our goals every year and we sat down one year and said, you know, we have a budget. We've lived on a budget ever since we met. A part of that budget is our dining out budget. So what could we do in this community when we eat out, you know, um, that would benefit those who serve. So we said, what if we did this? Let's tip 100% from now on. We keep the same budget. We go out half as much, but you know, when we started doing that and write a little note with it. And so we developed relationships through that and I thought, what a joy it is to give? How do we get the rest of our team to understand the joy of that?
Now our team members have credit cards and we were trying to get a little smarter about giving. And we said, if you see a need, we want you to go meet it. No questions asked. You don't have to explain. We want to know the story, and yet we want you to tell them why you're doing it. So if somebody is there and they need a tank of gas, that card is there for you to use for that. There is a joy you feel doing that. And to be able to tell these stories about transformed lives and the story about Joe, you know, and there's many others. It's worth it.
I desire to hear those words one day "well done." Not just almost well done, but "well done good and faithful servant." So it's worth it.
