My Business On Purpose

Last week NFL players Miles Garret and Mason Rudolph were locked in a nasty tussle that left one with a bruised head and ego, and the other with an indefinite suspension without pay (his contract is said to be worth roughly $34mm over four years).

Last week Ambassador William Taylor (acting Ambassador to the Ukraine) read prepared testimony giving insight into questionable practices from high ranking members of the United States government.  While the testimony was thoroughly prepared it spawned a news cycle reaction that was swift, biased and opinionated. 

I’ll never forget watching a cable news network anchor standing outside of the United States Supreme Court after a judgement was written as to the opinion of the court regarding the infamous “hanging chad” ordeal in the election results of the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore on December 13th, 2000.  

The on-site reporter was literally trying to interpret the written Supreme Court decision while on air.  No preparation. No moments of sobriety...just get it out and be the first to arrive.

We are obsessed with being first.  

Yours truly has been known to anticipate the ticket agent who picks up the handheld microphone just prior to welcoming “Group 9” to board creating a mob-rush to the gate door in preparation for boarding so we can grab the coveted overhead space.

In sports we are losing our joy for the game in favor of coming in first.  It used to be that we would sell out stadiums even when a team had a .500 season.  Now, if one college team loses even just one game, they are “out”.

I went back and looked at the U of S. Carolina Gamecock football team I played for from 1994 through 1997 and found we were a combined record of 22 wins, 22 losses, and 1 tie (against LSU in 1995). I am not under the illusion that fans were not unsatisfied.  Our attendance was still pretty incredible through those years.

Just this weekend , Baylor University after having a monumental run being undefeated through nine college football games (an incredible feat in itself) lost in the last minute to Oklahoma and the college football powers TROUNCED them bumping them down in the rankings.   

Why are we obsessed with first?

We assume that first equals easy, recognized, and having the satisfaction of “having arrived”.

We really believe that “first” is going to fix things.  Once we hit “first”, we’ll get the respect, we’ll get the credibility.

It is all empty.  

Of course there are comforts that come with first.  Possibly big pay days, awards, recognition. If you sat with everyone who has ever come in first, you will probably find a theme.  

The “before coming first” was a lot more meaningful than the “after coming first”.  

Many men and women who have successfully sold their businesses (aka coming in first), felt more significance while leading their business than they did upon selling their business with the contracted payout.  

How can we appreciate life without having to have the constant need to come in first?

First, pause.

Start asking yourself realistically, what is the purpose?  Pause, remove yourself from the emotion of the moment and and ask that question.  Currently that same University of South Carolina football team, with different coaches and team members of course, are sitting at a record of 4 wins and 7 losses.  

 

They have been calling for the head coach (Will Muschamp) to be fired for weeks.  But what if we paused.  

 

What if we thought, “who else is out there?”  “What would that do to recruiting?” “Is Coach Muschamp doing a bad job?”  

Turns out, last year the University of South Carolina had the highest graduation success rate in college football behind four Ivy Leagues schools and Northwestern University.  Not first, but pretty impressive.

When we pause, we can think with greater clarity as to the full scope of information.

 

Second, pause before each transition.

 

The current research and literature sings in unison, multi-tasking is a lie.  Time blocking is clearly a better way. Multi-tasking does not work both in research and in my own experience.

 

Of course time blocking does not make us feel like we are coming in first, multi-tasking does.  As the day goes on today, I am committed to pausing and at least taking a deep breath before transitioning into the next action or opportunity on my Monday checklist (yes, I do have a Monday checklist.)

 

Third, realize that being first comes with responsibility and burden...not just opportunity.

 

A friend of mine is a professional musician and sometimes I think he has the life, it seems like he came in first.  Until I realize that he wakes up in a different city multiple days of the week sometimes forgetting where he is because the crowds all look the same.  

 

Then realizing that even amidst all of the lauding of fans, he has zero flexibility in his schedule.  A road manager guides his every time slot.

 

A friend of mine has a cousin who is a  NASCAR driver and is still young in his thirties.  My friend got us passess and access to spend the afternoon with his cousin leading up to a famous race that evening.  This driver is a multi-millionaire with major access. He spent his entire afternoon, and most of each week out of eleven months each year beholden to sponsors and crew chiefs.  His time is not his own even though he came in first.

 

It almost seemed as if he was bound by his freedom.  There are about 43 drivers on the planet that have the access he has.  He came in first, and yet he’s walking away from full time racing this year.

 

As you grow and as your business grows, make sure to pause, breath deep, find places of respite, and spend time learning how to navigate your new responsibilities, burden, and opportunity of coming in first.  Not the first of winning, but the first of having the opportunity to play the game.

 

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

My very first job in High School was working for my neighbors who owned Country Boy's Home & Garden Center in Greenville, SC.

My office space was an outdoor nursery filled with plants, herbs, shrubs, pine needles and produce. Allen and Lucy were generous to provide me with more responsibility than a 15 year old kid should have had. It was a great training ground.

From there my office spaces consisted of a cubicle, a car, an airplane, and now a secluded space overlooking a beautiful lowcountry view.

Even with seclusion, distraction is just a click away. Owners and key leaders must have incredible discipline to resist distraction and to set space where distraction is a minimum.

Enter the "owners space".

While working with a non-governmental organization I spent time with a number of stakeholders of the organization. One such stakeholder was a much older man who was a land developer and philanthropist in North Texas. In the 2000's, his office still carried the interior design touches of an office outfitted in the late 1960's. Not much had changed; mustard yellow kitchen appliances, retro toilets, shag carpet, and brown panel walls. It was gross and touching.

What struck me was the desktop computer in his office that was never powered on. On one occasion I walked into his office and asked to pull up and article, he spun around in his chair and called for his assistant to come power up his computer. He had no desire to even learn the simple power button. Just another distraction.

This owner was focused and locked in on developing land and giving away money.

Your workspace is important. We are constantly encouraging owners and their key leaders to paint the walls of their space with heads-up-displays of mission, values, process, and workflow.

Recently, during one of our Architect coaching calls (Architecture Firm Freedom Formula with myself and Enoch Sears), one of the firm owners shared this picture with us...

This is the owner's space. Notice a Master Process Roadmap (the large printed image), an updated Org Chart (the smaller printed image), printed process, books, notebooks, and no computer.

Obviously we are not saying you do not need technology, you do, but it needs to be harnessed in boundaries.

The owner's space should be setup like the dashboard of a cockpit with all of the necessary instruments to fly your business. What are those?

First, every business owner should have their vision story, mission statement, and unique core values printed out, posted and reviewed continually. These are the ultimate leveling tools to help you the owner determine if you are on course with the correct heading.

I write about how to develop a vision story, mission statement, and unique core values in full detail in my book Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.

Write them, print them, post them, and implement over and over.

Second, every business owner should have copies of a current Org Chart, Weekly Schedule, and Master Process Roadmap (all processes that exist in the business...see the larger printed image in the picture above) printed out and posted on the wall.

Also, owners should consider using our Business On Purpose Implementation Dashboard. It is a brief snapshot of what you should be thinking through daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semesterly, and annually as a business owner.

Finally, every business owner should have completed and printed their updated 12 Week Plan. Brian Moran has written a powerful book, 12 Week Year: Get More Done In 12 Weeks Than Others Do In 12 Months.

We have sent hundreds of these books to people over the past couple of years. We even run an entire event based on these principles every 12 weeks so our local and virtual business owners and their teams are on the same page with their 12 week plans.

Your space should be set apart, special, unique, and should facilitate your highest and deepest level of work.

If technology or those trophies from 10th grade are distracting you, move them somewhere else and setup your office on purpose. The owner's space should be an intentional place to think, to lead, to vision, to innovate, to build, to design, and a place that empowers you to say "yes" to the right things and "no" to the wrong things.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters. Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

My very first job in High School was working for my neighbors who owned Country Boy’s Home & Garden Center in Greenville, SC.

My office space was an outdoor nursery filled with plants, herbs, shrubs, pine needles and produce.  Allen and Lucy were generous to provide me with more responsibility than a 15 year old kid should have had.  It was a great training ground.

Too many owners see their businesses either as an irritation to endure or as a machine merely for profit-generation.

A business is so much more.

Business and commerce are incredible tools in the hands of thoughtful owners that can be leveraged as a powerful force for life transformation in the major areas of life-- faith, family, finances, friends, etc.

Ryan O'Shaugnessey's is a growing Project Manager at Premier Exteriors LLC. Ryan and his wife are an intentional young couple who have been working hard to set up into adulthood found themselves, as so many do, in debt that placed a constriction to the household.

Zack Howard, the head of Operations for Taylors Quality Landscape Supply likewise found himself swimming both in "big boy toys" and swimming equally in debt.

Culturally it has become the norm to look down the proverbial block and see what "The Joneses" have and make a subtle, often subconscious, and consequential decision thinking, "surely if they can afford that then I can too."

Credit lenders abound in both their availability and often their simplicity in extending what Dave Ramsey so comically and truthfully stated is money to "... buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like."

For some it is the "Joneses" mindset, for others it may be student loans. Regardless, owing other people money stinks and is well cautioned, "the borrower is slave to the lender", I'll add, no matter the purpose, the terms nor the interest.

Owing a debt is usually a weight.

Justin Harvey owns Premier Exteriors and Gerrick Taylor owns Taylors Quality Landscape Supply. Both owners separately saw an opportunity to leverage their business as a force for personal transformation and began to offer Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to their team members as a means for personal growth and development.

Gerrick partnered with Live Oak Christian Church who provided trained facilitators for the course.

After the entire 13 week course was complete for both Premier and Taylors team members, the results were almost unimaginable.

The O'Shaughnessy's systematically and courageously paid off $68,000 in 15 months! That is a weight of $151 every day for 450 days they got rid and whimsically whisked away to the beach to celebrate! This letter from Ryan and Amber is a tangible momento for Justin and proof that you can build a business on purpose.

For Zack, he single-handedly starting barreling down his debt to the point he paid off $50,000 during the course of the program. Gerrick as the owner provided the opportunity and the vision, Zack brought the hard work and implementation. Vision without implementation is hallucination.

To prove Zack's lack of hallucination he courageously stood in front of the entire Taylors team and shared, numbers and all, his journey and success. It led to eight other team members filling up another Financial Peace class so the momentum could continue.

Your business IS your mission. Your business can transform the lives of real people. As the owner, leverage your business for profit, leverage your business for connection, leverage your business for impact, and leverage your business for the transformation of lives!

Here are three ways to leverage your business for the transformation of your team and the people they influence.

First, write your business vision down on paper and share it with your team. Seriously. Don't just think, "oh, that's a neat idea!" Do it. Write it down. Share it openly.

Your business vision should have seven categories you write out: duration (18-36 months ideally), family and freedom, financial, product and/or service, team and employees, client type, and what your culture will be.

Once you have shared your vision invite your team to write a vision for their family or household. What do they want for their family, their faith, fitness, finances, and friendships?

Next, teach financial literacy in your business and provide opportunities for your team to work on their own financial stewardship. Talk about how a dollar that comes into the business does not remain as a whole dollar. Explain that every dollar gets fractionated out in payroll, taxes, cost of goods, etc.

Also, talk about the importance of personal financial stewardship both at work and at home. Bad stewardship should never determine compensation either way.

Finally, tie a team members work back to the community they serve and the purpose they have in their life. Of course this requires that team members know their purpose. Walk with them through a simple process of asking each person, "what motivates you?"

Real transformation will not take place the first time you take advantage of any of these opportunities but instead evolves over time and repetition. Team meetings and intentional time calendaring serves as the invitation for solid repetition.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters. Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

Coaching business owners has allowed us some pretty exciting highs. Coaching also requires the thickening of a coach's skin. There are plenty of days where I show up to "practice" ready to coach and the response is a subtle eye roll from an owner, "Really? We're going to talk about this again?"

Most Tuesday nights throughout the school year we have a group of teenage emerging-men to our house for "Man Up Night". It's really a case study in teenage male interaction. Shiny squirrels, bazaar sounds, curious thoughts, unrealistic competition, and the world's newest game, plunger wars (don't ask).

One of these young emerging men walked into the house on a Tuesday and I asked him, "how was practice?" His response, "just like always...it sucked."

The truth of that statement is that it is hard. What gets missed in our bemoaning practice is when that young emerging-man shows up this Friday night to his live game, he will be overwhelmingly grateful and satisfied that he put in the hard work of repetitious, enduring, methodical practice.

As your coach, at least for this moment, I am inviting you into the methodical, repetitous, sometimes painful work of writing.

Writing down your vision. Writing down your mission. Writing down your unique core values.

Why write them and not just discuss them?

Michael Gerber said, "if you don't write it down you don't own it."

I am not sure who said this statement but it is true nonetheless, "if you do not write it down it does not exist."

My first book Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters only exists because I took the time to write it down. Obvious huh? Think through the inverse. If I do not write it down, the book does not exist.

We have written down tutorials, modules, documents, and templates, and now they all exist and bring enduring value for others. Just this year over 1,000 people have my book, my thoughts, my perspective in their hand. Just this year our tutorials and templates have been used thousands of times.

How? I wrote it down.

Author, psychologist, and educator Kelly McGonigal reinforces the intentional act of writing, in this case, your values. McGonigal writes, "It turns out that writing about your values is one of the most effective psychological interventions ever studied. In the short term, writing about personal values makes people feel more powerful, in control, proud, and strong. It also makes them feel more loving, connected, and empathetic toward others. It increases pain tolerance, enhances self-control, and reduces unhelpful rumination after a stressful experience.

In the long term, writing about values has been shown to boost GPAs, reduce doctor visits, improve mental health, and help with everything from weight loss to quitting smoking and reducing drinking. It helps people persevere in the face of discrimination and reduces self-handicapping. In many cases, these benefits are a result of a one-time mindset intervention. People who write about their values once, for ten minutes, show benefits months or even years later."

Why do we resist?

First, writing feels so "9th-grade-English". We wrote in 9th grade because we were forced to write. Many of us found no joy or purpose in the writing other than simply to write. There was no "Friday night game" that rewarded the joy of writing, to the detriment of this great skill.

I walked into my son's room as he was pounding away at a keyboard the other night working on a short essay. As I write and speak this out now I am thinking, "we need to have a Friday night game experience for his collection of writings." The old adage is true, "what gets rewarded gets done."

Second, we resist writing because writing feels so beneath us. We are smart people, we don't need to write it down! We think, "I'm a grown adult, I'll leave the writing to the 9th graders." I get it, but we are wrong when we think this. Writing, documenting, capturing, recording is one of the most thoughtful, human, empowering tools you have in your toolbelt.

When you write and capture a process, a value, a vision, a mission, an idea, that written statement transforms into a powerful motivator and invitation that forces the rest of us to either run towards what you have written (in agreement), or run away from what you have written (in disagreement).

If you want me to know where you stand, write it down, otherwise it is just hot air.

You need to hire someone? Write the role down.

You need to bring on a partner? Write it down.

You need to have a tough conversation? First, write it down.

You need to praise someone? Write it down.

Finally, we resist writing because it is hard. To spend time writing this right now means that I have elected to not sleep, text, email, or eat ice cream (although I'm still in debate). Writing this means that I have chosen to forego the easy work of responding to fires and instead invest in the hard work of writing it down, so now it exists allowing you to think through how you bring things into existence.

Write your vision, write your mission, write your values, write your systems, write your process, write thank you notes, write your thoughts and then repeat them over and over and over and over so we can read them and RUN!

Put in the hard work of writing and watch the reality of what Kelly McGonigal wrote play out in real time, it will "show benefits months or even years later." How? Just start writing.

Oh yeah, I failed my 9th grade English class, so no excuses.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters. Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

The headline landed this past week that so many thought might be coming…

Since 2008 virtually every business owner has thought, "when will the next recession come and how bad will it be?"

Yours truly has wrestled with the same question during moments of emotional and mental weakness in my well-documented struggle with fear.

Recently though I have wondered, "could I approach a market dip with enthusiasm and expectation rather than doom and gloom?"

I believe so, here is what I mean.

The lowcountry of South Carolina, where our family lives, has been on the receiving end of active hurricanes each of the past three years. It is nice to believe that we can hurricane-proof our home. The reality though is that the best we can possibly work towards is a thoughtfully hurricane-reinforced home.

My neighbor Fred actually owns a small hurricane-shutter business allowing homes and businesses to provide reinforcement in nasty weather. But if that hurricane barrels in as a direct Category 5, not even Fred's storm panels will do much to assist in the event the entire house was blown from its foundation.

Even some well run businesses were knocked off of their foundations during the Great Recession. But in most cases, the businesses that were recession-reinforced were able to withstand.

Here are a few non-negotiables to reinforce your business so that if a market dip comes you can go into the storm with expectation and anticipation instead of doom and gloom. These are in no particular order.

First, your Vision story is even more important than cash.

Liquidity (accessible cash) is a delightful tool that we would all love to have in excess, but what is more crucial is vision.

In a market-storm debris usually gets thrown around and if your perspective is lost your course can get easily thrown off.

Ed Sheeran says in his song Lego House, "I think the braces are breaking…" In a storm braces have a chance to break and equilibrium thrown for a bit. While the storm is raging, and when the storm is complete it is both refreshing, comforting, and re-centering to know and have confidence in your heading. Ship captains and airplane pilots would surely agree.

The only way you can lead a team to run is to write the vision down (literally...write it down) and communicate it with incredible repetition.

Second, cash will offer buoyancy and give you options.

In a typical room full of business owners if I had everyone raise their hand who could make it through three months of business with no revenue...not many would be able to respond.

The hurricanes here in the lowcountry exposed some businesses to the reality that they could not even survive one week of zero revenue generation let alone a few months of market correction.

We recommend that businesses have an accessible reserve of three to six months of cash reserve to live on under the assumption that no new revenue was generated. This is not a move based on fear, but instead on wisdom.

A decision based on fear (or greed) is to have two years of cash built up (unless maybe you are a farmer:). Hoarding is not healthy either.

The likelihood of zero revenue is not very high in most industries. If you have cash, you have options.

One option is to float the entire business with no reduction of overhead, personnel, etc.

Another option is to thoughtfully trim the business expense in line with the new revenue. Obviously this is easier to do with a team of subcontractors verses a team of full time employees.

The most exciting option is to have cash available to purchase other businesses at a discount. Remember all of those hands in the room that would not go up? Many of those represent good products that are simply poorly managed and can be revived by your leadership. You may be able to purchase their business (assets, people, contracts, relationships, etc.) at a discount during a stormy market. You cannot do that though if you do not have cash.

The smoothest way to build cash that we have seen and exposed hundreds of business owners to is found in Mike Michalowicz' simple book Profit First. Read it and do it. No excuses.

Third, team meetings will ensure that the right things will be communicated in the right way.

Having endured the geographical displacement of a few hurricanes now has helped train us on the importance of predictable communication channels.

Obviously our family is together so we are able to communicate in real time and with frequency.

Our mayor did a great job of communicating certain times where she would communicate to displaced citizens using Facebook Live.

Our local Sheriff would also hold regularly scheduled updates accessible to anyone anywhere.

If you do not have a regular method and frequency of communication (i.e. - agenda driven, leader led, regularly set team meetings), then a market-storm will further exacerbate the irregularity, frustration, and unpredictability of a communication-challenged culture. Don't wait for a market storm to communicate using team meetings, build that habit now.

If you have clarity of knowing where your business is going, cash to keep you afloat, and a reliable method of predictable communication then your braces are less-likely to break and Ed Sheeran will be a musical companion during an opportunity rather than a prophet of doom through a storm.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters. Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

"Wig", as most call him, sat in front of me over the simplicity of a Subway sandwich shop table and motioned his arm with a fist up and down saying thoughtfully and slowly, "it's about wisdom."

Wisdom.

Last week I was with a group of Cross Country athletes from our local High School and had them answer this question, "What is wisdom?"

Their answers were thoughtful and aware-- sincere and slow.

These student-athletes were genuinely thinking about the question. It was not a case of "let me just spit out an answer so this guy can move on and we can go do anything other than this!"

Wisdom forces us to slow down and listen closely.

Wisdom invites us to lean in and fine tune our ears to hear.

Wisdom speaks in truth, prudence, good judgement, plain-terms, knowledge, discernment, insight, strength, service, eagerness, right-ness, experience, longevity, instruction, joy, and life.

Business Owners are invited daily to walk away from Wisdom and instead to go down the wide, inviting, luxurious path of deception, feeling-above-truth, injustice, confusion, apathy, gossip, and near-term assumption. Of course it never feels or seems that way in the moment.

There are two reasons why Wisdom must be the primary value that hovers above all other published values in your business (and everywhere else).

First, Wisdom was around long before you were.

The personification of wisdom is well written and documented in the Jewish Proverbs.

"Rulers lead with my (Wisdom's) help…"

"I (Wisdom) have riches and honor, as well as enduring wealth and justice."

"My (Wisdom's) gifts are better than gold, even the purest gold, my wages better than sterling silver."

As you read through you begin to uncover the game-changing option you have in embracing Wisdom.

Those values and benefits are within Wisdom in part because of how long Wisdom has existed. "The Lord formed me (Wisdom) from the beginning, before he created anything else. I was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began. I was born before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled their waters…"

Working through a recent parenting challenge I reached out to a mentor who is older and more experienced than I am. He walked me through a similar challenge their family experienced which gave me loads of confidence and courage to walk through in our family.

The majority of insight you receive will likely be categorized as opinion, the minority of insight you receive is Wisdom.

He had been there before, and his challenge instilled bravery in me.

Wisdom has been there before, which is why the secret to wisdom is simply, "Go get wisdom!" (Prov 4:7)

Second, Wisdom's foundation is solid when everything else is flimsy.

All that time spent strategizing, marketing, thinking, and wondering can make our businesses feel like a house of cards.

Most businesses are built as a house of cards, fancy exteriors with very little substructure underneath. We see it all of the time and appreciate when a business owner takes time to become aware and admit it. Only then can transformation begin.

When we are fragile and in chaos we will do anything possible not to have our flimsiness exposed. Fingers crossed and arms clutched we hope that "everything will just work out." Or we believe the consequence of the "everything will just work out" mentality won't be as bad as the pain of putting in the work on the front end.

Wisdom says "put in the work while no one is looking and reap the reward on the back end." The opposite of wisdom is "everything will just work out."

Here are a few helpful ways to "go get wisdom".

1. Read the Jewish Proverbs, they are clear and pull no punches.
2. Proactively reach out to someone older than you and farther along than you in that thing you are chasing and ask lots of questions over a sandwich.
3. Read. Read. Read. (also listen to podcasts and audiobooks)
4. Ask for it. James the Jewish letter writer says, "If any of you lack wisdom, ask God who gives to all without judgement." (James 1:5)

Once you begin the long discipline of procuring wisdom you will then be able to deploy wisdom. Once you deploy wisdom be ready for counter punches which you will then combat with…

Wisdom.

Everything else moves, shifts, and fades out. Wisdom endures.