We're looking at ideas for business and this really is almost the most fun. Once  you start doing something, there's a lot of work, and trial, and error, and failure.  But in the realm of ideas, you can dream. And you can dream anything.  Because it doesn't cost anything, and you haven't failed. You can dream the  most outrageous dreams, and it's okay. Sometimes that's a good thing to do:  dream as outrageously as you can. So Ideas for Business Part 3, Dream Out  Loud i9s the title for this one. 

1. What ideas did you have for what you wanted to do when you were a kid?  Think back to when you were a kid. What did you want to be? A fireman? A  person who builds skyscrapers? 

Some people in our country, they have the dream of becoming the president of  the United States. I had a dream of being an astronaut. I grew up during that  time when we were going to the moon, and I wanted to be the first person that  went to Mars. That was my dream. I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was in  high school. I thought that would be a really cool thing to do. Okay, I didn't  become any of those things. I didn't get to Mars. I've been in a plane, but that's  about as far as it went. 

But if I think about that, what could I do that's related to my kid dream? Why did I want to go to Mars? I wanted to go to Mars because no one else had been to  Mars. I wanted to go where no one had gone before. I still want to do that. What  could I do that people haven't done? That's how I think about what business  could I do? Christian Leaders Institute is one of those things. It's something new. It's something different. It's something that goes beyond the ordinary. The  ordinary is to have schools and brick and mortar. And most schools cost money.  What a weird concept to actually offer education free. That's kind of going where people have not gone before. 

So what was your dream as a kid? Is there something related to that dream?  Get back to that dream. Maybe there's something that you could do. What could  you do, related to that? 

If you could do your life all over again, what would you like to try in terms of  making a living? I've often had this discussion with Henry. If we could live our  lives again, what would we do? I don't regret what I've done. I've enjoyed  everything that I've done. I've spent my whole life in the non-profit church world  one way or another. 

What would it have been like to be in the for-profit world? I sometimes wonder. I  think I may have liked to be a lawyer. I like to argue. I like logic. That would have been fun. I had an experience once in a courtroom. I wasn’t interested in going  in, but in the middle of it, I was really interested. It was kind of fun for me. I think  for myself, I would like to be an inventor. I love ideas. I like thinking about 

creating new things all the time. It would be cool to have a business where that's all you did. You sat around and you thought about things, then you had a group  of people try to make it happen. That would be really cool. 

Is there anything related to this idea that you could do? What could I do, related  to this? I'm sort of in that. I get to create courses. That's like inventing  something. When I'm done with one course, I can invent another one. I'm sort of doing that. What could you do? What is it that you would want to do if you could  do it all over again? But what is there that you could do sort of related to that? 

Who, of all the people you know, makes a good living doing something very  interesting? I think about people in my life that are making a good living doing  something very interesting. I have a good friend, Joe. Joe is from Missouri. He's  one of twelve children, grew up on a farm, didn't have very much. He went in the navy, didn't know what else to do, became a carpenter. Then he somehow got  into the assessment business where banks would have him assess a building  and look it over. Then he was asked one time to do that in Michigan - about 100  different properties in a month. So he drove all around Michigan doing this  assessment. They paid him a couple hundred dollars for each one. 

He fell in love with Michigan, so he moved here. He kept doing this assessing  thing, and he called banks. It was at the height of the foreclosure time here in  the United States. He got a bank to agree that he would go around and assess  foreclosed houses, and the bank would pay him $9.00 for each one. So he hired people to do the assessment. It was a very quick assessment. They came with a phone, they took a picture, they answered like four questions, and then they  went to the next one. He found this guy who could do software and people could do 100 of these in a day. They made $4 and he made $4. They did 100 of them,  and they made $400 a day, and he made $400. 

Well, he got the banks to give him 30,000 houses a month. 30,000 x 4 is  $120,000 a month is what he was making. Just from doing assessments, a  simple little thing. He just sort of fell into it. He goes to our church. He wears bib  overalls. Looking at him, you'd think he was the poorest guy in our church. He  just pursued the thing that he knew, doors opened and he just tried these things. That's kind of interesting. 

I know somebody who makes a living blowing glass. He makes beautiful glass  structures, and he spends all of his time making beautiful things. And he sells  them at a ridiculously high price to wealthy people who want to put these things  in their house. That's pretty interesting stuff. 

My third son, he makes a living making documentaries, and doing commercials,  and videotaping interesting things. He gets to go to the women's LPGA  tournament and do videotapes and interview people. He gets to interview really 

interesting people. He gets to go to businesses, and they have these big outings in foreign countries and he goes and he videotapes them. This is very  interesting stuff, and he gets paid to do it. Wow. 

Think about people you know that are doing really interesting things, that sound  fun and exciting, and they're actually making a living. Then is there any  opportunity for you to do something in this same field? Is there something  related to this that you could do, or something that would supplement them or  help them? 

Next question. If you were independently wealthy, you had no need for money  whatsoever, what would you enjoy doing? I sat and tried to think about this. I  think I would like to do art maybe. I like art. I do some painting. I like to do some  sculpture. I don't know anything about sculpture, but it looks interesting. Maybe  some pottery. I like art. I like inventing things. Is there something related to this  thought that I could do? I like art. I could do art. I could do paintings of people.  I've done my own family. I do unique ones, different than maybe other people  do. I could probably somehow do that. I don't know. 

What is your dream? What is the thing that you would love to do? It has nothing  to do with making money, but this is, we're only on this planet for 60, 70, 80  years. Why spend it doing all kinds of things you don't enjoy doing? God created you with gifts and abilities and the passion for things. Why not try at least - it  doesn't always work out - but why not try at least to somehow put your passion,  your interests, and your creativity and the things that you're good at, why not try  to line those up with what you're trying to do and how you're trying to make  money. Could it possibly work? 

What's your favorite hobby? Is there a way to make money related to this  hobby? Again, I mentioned pickleball as something I play quite a bit. I play three, four times a week. I play in tournaments. I could teach, I suppose. I know some  people who are doing that. I don't know if that's what I would like to do. I like  writing books. I like thoughts. I like organizing things. I could write a book on  pickleball. But I like Christianity more than I like pickleball. Maybe I could write a  pickleball/Christian book. I could teach people how to do pickleball, but in the  process, I use it as a metaphor for Christianity. That would be interesting for me  because it combines something I like doing with a passion that I have, I have a  passion for God and for his Kingdom. Boy, if I could combine those two together, then I'd have something, wouldn't I? 

For you, what is your hobby? What is your passion? Can those things go  together? I like golf too. How do I connect golf to the Kingdom? When you golf,  it's really interesting. A lot of times you go golfing and you end up with people  you never met before, and you are with them for four hours. They're a captured  audience. So I thought I should come up with a really cool golf tract, something 

that talks about golf, is funny, is humorous, is informative, but also gets people  to think. I want people to think. When I golf with a stranger, we just hit the ball  and by the third hole, one of the guys golfing will say, "So what do you do for a  living?" One guy says, "I'm a banker." The other guy says, "I'm a teacher." Then  it comes to me. I have to say, "I'm a pastor." And you can see their minds, "Uh  oh. Pastor. I just hit the ball in the last hole into the water and I forget what I  said. I hope I didn't swear." People are concerned. They don't know how to react to the pastor thing. Then life goes on, the holes go on, and you talk and they find out you're an ordinary person. I'd like to have a golf thing that I could give them,  something cool, something related to golf, but something that leaves them  thinking about what it is that I do and eternity. Golf can be a great metaphor for  all of that. 

Again, what is it that you do? What is your hobby? What is the thing that you're  excited about in terms of fun, and sport, and hobby? How can you relate  Christianity to it, and how could you make some kind of product? 

Next question. What does your family like doing? I think about my family. My  family's into music. My wife, incredible. All four of my boys, they're incredible  musicians, singers, all of that. We love, love, love, love music. Is there a  business that we could do together with music? I think we could. They're all  busy with other things, but I think if this is what we wanted to do, we could. We  could go into the music business together. 

What does your family like doing? Maybe it likes cooking. Maybe it doesn't  matter what it is, and you just need to find something that your family can do  together - a family business. 

I had a friend who bought a food truck and he'd go to these places. He had his  whole family working, and I would sometime help him at a fair. All of a sudden,  that supper rush hour, everyone's busy. It was a lot of fun. Is there something  that your family could do together? 

Final question. What are you good at? Just sit down with a piece of paper and  write down what you are you good at. I'm good at teaching, I think. I'm good at  writing. I'm good at thinking and coming up with ideas. Write down what you're  good at. Make a huge list. Don't be shy about it. 

What are you good at? Maybe you're good at organizing stuff. Maybe you're  good at keeping track of things. Maybe you're good at keeping on top of things.  These are things I'm not good at. I need people like that in my life. I'm good at  coming up with things and dreaming things, but I don't put anything away. Even  here today, I brought all my notes and my books and they're in a big, huge pile  over there on the floor. They're out of the camera. Wally, the cameraman here,  he had to push it all out of the scene. It's all over there, a big mess.

Maybe you're organized and people like me need people like you. People need  people to come in and organize their garage, their business, or whatever it might be. What are the things you're really good at? Just list them all down, and then  try to explore how you could use those things. Why do something you're not  very good at? The things that you are good at, the gifts that God has given you  is a clue that God has given you in terms of maybe a direction that you ought to  go. 

So I've tried to help you in these last three videos to try to expand your mind. I  just read this book that was very interesting. No, it was a TED talk. I listened to  this TED talk, and this guy said that mild procrastinators actually come up with  things more than people who are super organized and get right on the task and  

people that totally procrastinate. He said, mild procrastinators. He said the  reason why mild procrastinators do well is they don't right away get to the task.  The organized person right away gets to the task, gets it all figured out, gets it  all organized, and there's no room for change. 

The huge procrastinator procrastinates like crazy and then he has no time to do  anything, so he just does whatever and that's good enough. The mild  procrastinator, while he's procrastinating, he's thinking about it. He's letting the  things that happen in his life sort of influence what he might do. He's open to the possibilities. 

I guess my encouragement to you is, you've heard all this stuff, you've taken  some notes, you're taking some quizzes. Write things down on paper, write  down the ideas, write what you're good at, write all these down. Follow all the  things that we've been talking about, but then let it percolate for a while. Let  God's spirit interact with your spirit. Who knows what you might come up with?  Keep thinking, keep dreaming of the things that you might do. Thanks for paying attention again.



Last modified: Thursday, November 21, 2024, 9:45 AM