101 | Philosophy for Life – The Framework for Living a Rich Life

Patrick: [00:00:00] Here’s the key question for today. Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you building this business? Your career in accumulating wealth? Welcome back to another episode of the Vital Wealth Podcast. I’m your host, Patrick Lonergan. This is episode 1 0 1, and I thought that number felt fitting because in a way, this episode is class thinking about how college classes are titled this is Philosophy for Life 1 0 1.
Not in the classroom sense, but in the sense that what we’re going to talk about today is foundational to why we’re building our businesses and how we go about that. Back to that key question for today. Why are you building this business? I wanna give you a few seconds to answer that question.
If you need more time, please hit pause and, and really contemplate that. This framework that we’re going to talk [00:01:00] about is what I believe every entrepreneur, every leader, and honestly every person needs if they want to live an optimize life. For years, my team and I have helped entrepreneurs minimize taxes, master wealth, and focus on that optimized life.
We help clients build financial systems through the entrepreneur private office. That creates freedom, financial freedom, freedom from the stress of the complexity that comes from building a business and wealth and freedom from having to be the one that figures it all out. Early on in my entrepreneurial journey, I realized something, money alone doesn’t build an optimized life.
What does money do for you on its own? Nothing. It needs to be exchanged to have any benefit to us. We’ve had a front row seat to clients’ lives. We’ve also been in on our own journey. We found out firsthand and get to witness where an optimized life comes from. We have seen the dead ends that don’t lead to any fulfillment, and we’ve seen the little things that have made a huge difference.
So in today’s episode, I want to share [00:02:00] all of this in detail. I’ve never pulled all this together in one place before. A philosophy for life that gives context and meaning to everything we teach financially. It’s built around five letters. And those letters spell reach, R-E-A-C-H. So the R’S for relationship.
Ease for experiences, A for advancement and growth, CS for contribution, and HS for health, and that’s not just physical health, but emotional and spiritual health as well. Together these five principles form a blueprint for an optimized life. One where success isn’t a trade off between business and joy or impact and rest.
Because life isn’t an or situation, it’s an and scenario. You can have a thriving business and a great marriage. You can create wealth and live with a purpose. You can grow your influence and stay grounded. Today we’re going to walk through what that really looks like, not as theory, but as a way of life rooted in wisdom, stewardship, and truth.
This is the class no one ever taught us in school, [00:03:00] the one about how to live well. So welcome to episode 1 0 1, philosophy or Life 1 0 1. Let’s talk about what it really means to pursue the most valuable things in life. All of this will be within your reach before we dive in, each part of reach. I want to take a minute to talk through about how these areas overlap because this isn’t a five step checklist or a set of boxes to mark off.
It’s about an ecosystem where everything we talk about affects everything else. Your relationships shape your experiences. Your experiences influence your growth. Your growth expands your capacity for contribution and your health, physical, emotional, and spiritual. It fuels all of it. You can’t isolate one and expect the others to thrive.
If you’re not emotionally healthy, your relationships will suffer if your marriage or family is fractured, it affects your focus and decision making in business. If you’re no neglecting your physical health, you don’t have the energy to lead or give your best, and if your spiritual life is out of alignment, everything else eventually unravels because you’ll [00:04:00] find out maybe when it’s too late that you are worshiping at the wrong altar.
These areas are deeply connected, like the body. When you get sick or injured, it isn’t just affecting the one part, the whole body suffers. When all five areas are healthy and nourished, the entire system flourishes. That’s why this conversation isn’t about balance, it’s about harmony and integration.
We’re not trying to give equal time to everything. We’re trying to live with the right amount of each of these areas. There will be seasons where one area will command more of your time and energy than others, but we need to keep a focus on each area and make sure it’s cared for. And here’s the beauty of it.
When you start to strengthen one area, it spills over into others. Getting intentional about your relationships can renew your emotional health. Practicing contribution can make you, uh, have gratitude and grow in your faith. Caring for your physical body can sharpen your focus at work and your presence at home.
That’s the optimized lives, not a perfectly balanced life, but an integrated one. So as we [00:05:00] walk through, reach the R, the A, the C and the H, don’t think of these as separate lessons. Think of them as an interconnected web with each strand supporting one another. Your life, your purpose, your calling, and it all starts with the first pillar relationships.
So the R’S for relationships before anything else. Investing in relationships is not optional. It’s foundational. Business without trust and strong relationships is brittle. And this isn’t just about business, it’s about every relationship, your marriage, your children, your friends, your team. If you win in the marketplace, but losing your home you haven’t won.
Relationships are the soil out of which everything else grows. Neglect them or worse, abuse them for your own self-interest and your life will eventually feel hollow no matter how successful your business is. Let’s take a look in an example of a leader that did an incredible job of building relationships and making an impact on his people.
Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines. Uh, there’s a few fun examples when Steven’s [00:06:00] Aviation challenged Southwest Airlines over its use of the slogan, just plain smart. Herb Kelleher didn’t drag it into a legal fight. Instead, he challenged their CEO to settle it in an arm wrestling match called Malice. In Dallas, he turned what could have been a dry, bitter dispute into a fun relational event.
Employees cheered, customers laughed, and both companies ended up looking good. The moment reflected his philosophy. Business could be serious and fun, competitive and relational all at the same time. Another story about Herb On Boss’s day, 16,000 Southwest employees pooled money to buy a full page ad in USA today, thanking him not for his financial acumen or vision, but for loading bags on Thanksgiving, singing at holiday parties, remembering people’s names and being a friend.
Imagine that employees paying outta their own pocket to thank their boss publicly. Uh, and then the, the final story is just Herb was known for elevating others. Colleen Barrett started as his secretary and eventually rose to become president of Southwest. He believed in [00:07:00] relationships, trust, and empowering people, and it built a culture of loyalty, joy, and consistent profitability.
Southwest Airlines was one of the only airlines to consistently generate a profit over a number of decades. So here’s the lesson. Herb shows us that when you put people first, results follow relationships aren’t just soft skills. They’re critical to drive performance and culture. There are a couple of scriptures that highlight the relationships thrive on humility and sacrifice.
In John 1513, there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, uh, just a servant heart. And Philippians two, three, do nothing from selfish ambition or concede, but in humility, count others more significant than yourself. Business leaders often think power and control are what makes companies great, but scripture points to love, humility, and valuing others.
And we saw this in how her Herb Kelleher lived it out. It’s also important to point out that loving your people isn’t a business strategy. It’ll get you great outcomes, but you shouldn’t love your [00:08:00] people because it’s good for business. It’s just a great way to live a full life. Now, we might have residual benefit from taking great care of people by also having a great business, but, uh, uh, that shouldn’t be our sole focus.
So let’s look at the other side of the coin. Travis Kanick, the co-founder and former CEO of Uber. Uh, in 2017, there was a, a video that went viral of, uh, Travis arguing with an Uber driver. The driver was frustrated that falling fares were hurting his livelihood. Instead of listening, kanick snapped. Some people don’t like taking responsibility for their own stuff.
They blame everything in their life on someone else. The video struck a nerve. Here was the CEO of Uber worth. Billions berating one of the very drivers. His company depended on the backlash, was immediate under knick. Uber was plagued by accusations of a toxic culture, sexual harassment complaints. We’re ignored employees pushed to exhaustion, an aggressive win at all cost environment.
Eventually the [00:09:00] board pressured him to resign, citing the damage the culture was doing to the company’s future. So here’s the lesson. You can build a fast growing company without valuing relationships, but it won’t Last. Knicks story shows the cost of neglecting humility and respect. He created a broken culture, lost trust, and ultimately he was removed from the job and the leadership.
Is leadership position collapse. So let me ask you, are you pushing too hard? Are you neglecting the people? People who matter most? You can scale your business and keep your relationships intact. In fact, investing in relational capital helps you scale it, reduces turnover, builds loyalty, and ensures that your vision is carried forward with energy and trust.
Now, every relationship in our life flows out of one central one. I’m gonna argue our relationship with Jesus. It’s the relationship that gives every other one, meaning. Uh, I know some of you might. I think this sounds like nonsense and that’s okay. Uh, whether we believe it or not, the father, son, and spirit is the source of life and truth.
If you wanna [00:10:00] discuss in more detail or explore your faith with other entrepreneurs, uh, we do that on a weekly basis. We have a virtual Bible study via Zoom on Tuesdays at 11:00 AM central, uh, 11:30 AM central, excuse me, uh, where we explore and debate the foundation of truth. If you wanna join, email me atPatrick@vitalwealth.com and I’ll make sure you’re added to the calendar invite.
Now, when we’re walking closely with Jesus, when we’re aligned with his truth, surrender to his will and guided by his spirit, it changes how we live, how we love, and how we lead. The fruit of that relationship shows up everywhere. John, Jesus said in John 15, five, I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit apart from me, you can do nothing.
That means everything in life, our marriage, our parenting, our friendships, even our business grows out of that connection. So the starting point for strong relationships isn’t better communication techniques or conflict resolution strategies, it’s abiding in the Lord. We’ll go deeper into this, uh, later [00:11:00] in this section on spiritual health.
But it’s worth saying here, our relationship with Jesus is foundation of every other relationship we have now after our relationship with God. Our marriage, uh, is the most sacred relationship we’ll ever have on this side of heaven. It’s the person who sees all of us, the good, the bad, and seems to expose us, uh, to the areas that we need to grow the most.
And it’s the relationship God uses most powerfully to shape our character. Uh, the Bible calls husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. In Ephesians 5 25, that’s not romantic poetry. That’s a call to sacrificial love, to lead with service, to listen with humility, and to forgive freely. Um, now marriage is a mirror of the gospel.
It’s about covenant. It’s not all about me or her. It’s not. Convenience or happiness. Those things can be a byproduct, but they shouldn’t be the focus. And when we approach it that way, it becomes one of the greatest forces in our lives. My wife, Julie and I, we’ve lived this firsthand. There have been seasons [00:12:00] of joy and seasons of deep struggle.
Uh, we’ve learned that love isn’t only found in grand gestures, it’s built in daily decisions, choosing to stay, choosing to listen, choosing to fight for each other instead of against each other, choosing to do the little things that end up making a huge difference. That’s why we prioritize date nights, time and prayer together, and real conversations, not about logistics, but about our hearts feelings and our vision for the future.
Because we’ve seen what happens when we drift and we’ve experienced the restoration that comes when we put Christ back at the center. Uh, healthy marriage doesn’t just bless you. It blesses generations. It gives your kids a model of what love, faithfulness, and grace looks like in real life. Now, our children are our most sacred assignment.
I have three daughters. We’re not just raising kids, we’re raising future adults. Future leaders, future stewards of the world got entrusted to them. Proverbs 22, 6 says, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will [00:13:00] not depart from it. That means parenting isn’t about control. If we protect them from every slight little thing that could happen, they won’t be trained up in the way they should go.
It’s about modeling the kind of life we hope they’ll live. One marked by integrity, faith, resilience, and love. Uh, our kids learn far more from what we do than what we say. If we want them to be kind, they have to see kindness in us, in our everyday interactions, in our marriage, uh, if we want them to trust God, we have, they have to watch us trust God.
When we, uh, when things are uncertain, uh, in our home, we talk a lot about responsibility, resilience, and being responsible, able to respond. And we’re gonna talk more about this, uh, in some future sections. We need our children to respond wisely when life gets hard. We want our daughters to face challenges, not avoid them.
’cause real resilience is built through experience. And just like marriage, parenting starts with presence. Kids don’t need a perfect parent, they need a present one. Uh, the most [00:14:00] valuable gift we can give them isn’t stuff. It’s, it’s our time and ourselves. When we lead our parenting with love and consistency and faith, we give them something.
Money could never buy. Uh, it’s security. It’s an identity. It’s a living picture of, of what God’s heart looks like. These three relationships are the most important. If our relationships with our creator, spouse, and children are thriving, we’re building a solid relational foundation. If those relationships are neglected, nothing else will truly satisfy because success isn’t just what we build, it’s who we build it with and who we’re becoming in the process.
We’ve talked about marriage and family, but there’s another kind of relationship that we can’t ignore that’s friendships. God didn’t design us to do life alone. Women tend to be better at this than men. Just being honest. Uh, men, we we’re self-reliant. We don’t have those intimate relationships like ladies do.
Uh, I think we should change that. Um, but going back to the scriptures, before there was sin, before there was brokenness, there was one thing God [00:15:00] said wasn’t good. It’s not good for man to be alone in Genesis two 18. That truth goes deeper than marriage. It speaks to the human heart. We’re created for connection to know and to be known, to walk alongside others who bring out the best in us.
As entrepreneurs, this is especially important because the higher you climb in leadership, the easier it becomes to live in isolation surrounded by people, but still alone. As entrepreneurs, there are people around you that don’t understand what you go through. The pressures of business making, payroll, leading people, making hard decisions like hiring and firing, uh, most of the people in your community don’t get it and they can’t relate.
They just think you’re rich and everything is easy. Isolation is dangerous. When you don’t have trusted friends speaking truth into your life. Ambition can get ahead of character and pressure can become pride. Proverbs 27 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another, that sharpening process isn’t always comfort, comfortable, but it [00:16:00] is how we grow Real friends challenge us not to compete with us, but to complete us.
They tell us what we need to hear, not just what we want to hear. Proverbs 27, 6 says, wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. And that just means like it might hurt when we hear the truth from a friend, um, but they’re willing to say it. And, and true friendships are built on honesty, not flattery.
You know, our enemies are going to flatter us. It’s not just about accountability. It is joy, the book of. The book, the Good Life, which was written based on the findings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, found that, which is one of the longest studies ever done on happiness, found that the number one predictor of meaningful life isn’t money or success.
It’s close personal relationships. Friends literally make life longer and richer. Not having close friendships is worse for your health than smoking. It’s it’s shocking data to see. [00:17:00] So even Jesus modeled this. He didn’t walk alone. He had the 12. And even within that, three close friends, Peter, James, and John, he ate with them, prayed with them, shared laughter and sorrow with them.
And in John 1515, he said, I no longer call you servants. Instead, I have called you friends. That’s incredible. The son of God calling us friends. If Jesus needed friends, so do we. I think one of the healthiest things you can do as a leader is to have friendships where you don’t have to perform, where you can drop the title, stop managing outcomes, and just be a real human being.
Friends who will pray for you, call you out, celebrate your wins, and sit with you in the hard moments. Because the truth is, success is sweeter when you don’t stand on the mountain alone. And when life gets hard, then it absolutely will. Friends are often the hands God uses to lift us up again. So as you think about relationships, don’t just invest in your marriage and family.
Be intentional about friendship because the people who walk beside you will shape who you become. [00:18:00] No one reaches their potential alone. Now that we understand the value of our relationships and we are investing in those, life doesn’t stop throwing things at us. Experiences both good and bad are the next building block.
They shape us, refine us, and become the stories we tell. That’s where we’re headed next. So the E in reach is for experiences. Life is not made up of balance sheets or profit margins. It’s made up of experiences, the good ones and the bad ones, both shape us. Both refine us. As entrepreneurs, it’s tempting to only count the wins as meaningful.
The big contracts, uh, the eight or nine figure exit the dream deal. But scripture reminds us that even the trials, the experiences we’d never choose, have purpose. In James one, two through four, it says, considerate pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, let your perseverance [00:19:00] finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The Bible doesn’t say to enjoy the pain, but it does say to count it as joy, because something good is happening to us. Even our hardest experiences are shaping us into the people we were meant to be. Next, let’s look at positive examples. So I, I see Howard Schwartz, excuse me, Howard Schultz of Starbucks.
He grew up in poverty and watched his father lose his job with no benefits. That painful childhood experience planted a conviction in him. If he ever built a company, he would treat employees with dignity. That’s why Starbucks offers health and care and stock options and a number of other benefits, even to part-time baristas.
A negative life experience became the foundation for a positive com company culture. Romans five, three through four says, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Schultz’s story is a [00:20:00] modern picture of this truth, pain producing character and character producing hope.
Now let’s look at the opposite side of that coin. Uh, I can think of a friend of mine who sold his business for a very healthy amount of money. By every external measure, it was a success. He’d have enough money to never have to work again. Uh, but on the day of closing, he broke down after they signed all the paperwork he was, he was.
Literally on the bed crying. And his wife was like, what’s wrong? And the only thing he could say is, it wasn’t worth it. And she was like, what do you mean? And he said, it just wasn’t worth it. And he, he eventually composed himself and he said, all the years of missing kids’ games being absent for his wife, pushing away, friendships all sacrificed on the altar of business success.
The money couldn’t buy back the lost time. What looked like a good experience on paper, what the world would say was, was a fantastic outcome, uh, [00:21:00] became deeply painful in, in reality. ’cause it, it was like, man, the money was not worth missing my children’s formative years. Uh, this is why experiences matter, because what we trade our time for becomes the story of our lives.
Now, one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is believing that if they take time for hobbies, play or rest, their business will suffer. The interesting thing is the opposite is true. Warren Buffett spends eight hours a week playing Bridge. Bill Gates takes whole weeks just to read. Herb Kelleher turned fun into a company strategy and far from hurting performance.
These experiences fueled their success. Alex paying in his book rest shows this, that rest is not wasted time. It’s part of work. Winston Churchill napped every day during World War ii, calling it The Secret to Living Two Days in one. Charles Dickens took 10 mile walks every afternoon, uh, after riding Andre Punk re [00:22:00] one of the greatest mathematicians often had breakthroughs, not at his desk, but while resting or walking.
This may sound funny. I do the same thing. Building Lego. It gives my subconscious mind opportunities to work on projects I’ve been thinking about that it doesn’t get to do when I’m actively working on, uh, my work, sitting at my desk. The lesson, the best ideas don’t always come while working. Sometimes they come on the trail in the shower with your kids in a hobby you love or in quiet time.
So Ecclesiastes three 13 says that each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil. This is the gift of God, John 10 10 I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. And one Timothy six 17, God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. These verses remind us that joy, rest, and delight in life are not guilty pleasures, they’re gifts from God, experiences with your spouse, your children, your friends.
[00:23:00] These are the wealth of life. They don’t compete with your business. They actually enrich it. So let me ask you, what are the experiences that have shaped you? Was it a market crash, a failed deal, an IRS audit or a season of burnout? Was it a vacation with your family seasons of growth in your business that were almost unbelievable?
A hobby that refueled your spirit, or a friendship that carried you through the storm? Both the good and the bad are part of your story. Both are shaping you. The danger is when we ignore them or when we chase the wrong experiences and sacrifice the right ones. Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to mean choosing between business success and life’s richest experiences.
You can have both. In fact, you must. Strong relationships are one of life’s greatest blessings, but they don’t just happen, but sometimes growth has to come first. God often uses seasons of stretching, refining, and personal development to make us into the [00:24:00] kind of people who can sustain healthy relationships, because the truth is we can’t pour into others from an empty cup.
If we want to love, well lead well and serve well. We have to grow spiritually, emotionally, and practically. That’s why advancement. This is the next step in this framework. Not advancement for pride or prestige, but the kind of growth that starts with alignment, aligning who you are with, who God called us to be.
Because when we grow in the right way, everything around us starts to grow to. So the A in reach is for advancement in growth. Every entrepreneur I have ever met wants to advance forward, to grow. We want to advance our business, our impact, our income, our influence. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Growth is good and godly desire, but the question is growth towards what? Because growth without direction becomes drift. Drift can look productive while it’s actually pulling us off course. If our growth isn’t rooted in alignment with our values, it ends up worshiping the wrong things, more clients, more deals, [00:25:00] more recognition, more zeroes on a balance sheet, and that’s a treadmill that never stops.
I’m a part of a coaching program called Strategic Coach. Uh, Dan Sullivan designed it and he talks about the difference between the gap and the game. When we focus on the gap, it’s like chasing the horizon. It’s the point that I’m not at, and that gap will always be there and we will never get there. And it’s an unfulfilling pursuit when we stop and recognize the gain.
If we look back and we see all the progress that we’ve made, and we keep our focus on the growth we’ve experienced and leaning into the process of getting better every day, it leads us to a more fulfilling life. When our growth is rightly ordered, everything else begins to fall into place. Spiritual alignment sets our priorities.
It helps us grow in the right order. First as disciples, then as spouses, then as parents, and finally as leaders, because if we grow in business, but neglect our faith or family, we’ll find ourselves succeeding in all the wrong [00:26:00] ways. Jesus said it plainly in Matthew 1626, what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
So as we talk about advancement and growth, I want to shift how you think about it. This isn’t about scaling faster, it’s about maturing deeper. It’s not about achieving more, it’s about aligning more. When we get that right, the growth that follows isn’t fragile, it’s fruitful, it lasts. And as these experiences shape us in joy and in hardship, they push us towards growth.
Growth in our business, growth in our personal lives, and growth in the people. Um, we’re around. One of my favorite examples of growth grounded in purpose is Horse Schultz, the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain. He built an entire culture on the belief that excellence is an gift service, and that treating people with dignity was the highest form of leadership.
Schultz started his career in the hotel industry as a 14-year-old [00:27:00] busboy and a small German Inn From the beginning. He believed every role, no matter how humble, carried dignity when performed with excellence. You don’t get to excellence with without advancing. Horta eventually rose to co-found the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, and under his leadership, the brand became synonymous with service quality and consistency.
But what made Schultz leadership distinct wasn’t just operational excellence, it was philosophical clarity. He taught that true excellence flows from purpose. His mantra became, we are ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen. That wasn’t about elitism, it was about respect. Schultz believed that how you treat people internally determines how they treat customers externally.
He gave every employee from housekeepers to front desk attendants the authority to spend up to $2,000 per guest to make a situation, right? No manager approval needed because he trusted his people. He said, empowerment without purpose is chaos, but purpose without empowerment [00:28:00] is just a slogan That trust created ownership.
Employees stopped seeing themselves as workers and started seeing themselves as stewards of an experience. Schultz’s approach transformed more than a company. It transformed people. Many employees said working under his leadership taught them how to live, not just how to work. Horst frequently linked his philosophy of excellence to his faith.
He said, we are created to do work of meaning, work of value. Excellence isn’t about pride. It’s about honoring the creator through the creation. He built growth systems on biblical stewardship, not exploitation. He led with service, not superiority, and the result. Ritz Carlton became the first hotel company ever to win the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
Twice Schultz’s story reminds us, growth isn’t about scale or speed. It’s about elevating people through purpose. When leaders help others see the sacredness in their work, the entire organization grows, not just in profit, but in soul. Excellence [00:29:00] is never an accident. It’s the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execut.
That’s a quote by Hors Schultz starting this section on advancement and growth. We discussed that to advance. We need to know where we are going. We need to be focused on values and letting those direct us. I think it’s worth asking where do those values come from? Why do we instinctively know that honesty is better than deceit?
That generosity is better than greed, that protecting the innocent is better than exploiting them. Every culture throughout history has shared some version of these convictions. They might disagree on politics or power, but they agree on what goodness looks like, and that’s remarkable because you won’t find these kind of moral consistency anywhere else in nature.
In the animal kingdom. The strong take from the weak, the lion doesn’t feel guilty for eating the gazelle. The alpha doesn’t apologize for dominance. So if all we are is advanced animals, the product of chance and competition, [00:30:00] then morality makes no sense. Why should anyone feel compelled to do what’s right when it costs them something?
Why value, sacrifice, compassion, or humility? If survival and power is the ultimate goal, and yet, deep down we all know there is a right and a wrong, we feel it. We teach it to our children. We admire it in others and expect it from ourselves. That moral awareness, that internal compass that points to goodness is evidence of something greater than instinct.
It’s evidence of a moral law giver. CS Lewis, put it like this in mere Christianity. If there were no light in the universe, we should never know it was dark. In the same way we know what crooked is because we have some idea of what straight ought to be. Our desire for justice and our conscience for goodness are not evolutionary accidents.
They’re fingerprints of the creator God himself, written on our hearts. That’s why all true advancement begins with alignment. When our growth [00:31:00] lines up with the moral order, God established it produces life and flourishing. When we step outside of it, we might still grow, but it’s the kind of growth that chokes out what’s good, the growth that when we get to the end of our lives and wonder, what was it all for?
It has the potential to create a life of regret because we chase the wrong things. The foundation of all healthy growth in business and family and leadership starts with this truth. There is a right way to live. God’s moral law isn’t restrictive, it’s protective. It’s the guardrail that keeps freedom from becoming chaos and success from becoming destruction, and that’s why alignment with our values, our God-given values is where all advancement and growth begins.
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to believe that growth means adding more, more clients, more revenue, more recognition. We need to be careful that it isn’t our primary focus because we’ll eventually find out it is empty. That’s not to call. That’s not a call to abandon excellence or stop running great businesses.[00:32:00]
Exact opposite of that. It’s a call to die to the version of ourselves that believe success alone will create satisfaction. There’s research from a palliative care nurse named Bonnie Ware, who spent years interviewing people on their deathbeds. The most common regret she heard was, I’d wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me and close behind that were regrets about working too much and not being present for family.
And, and reading this book. Um, on her first point, people didn’t regret the mistakes they made. They regretted the things they didn’t do, the, the goals they didn’t pursue. So the truth is, giving your life to a business will always feel empty. If it’s misaligned with what’s true, what with what truly matters, we can gain the whole world and still lose our soul Again, that’s from Matthew 1626.
When we align our lives with Christ, when we wake up and take up our cross daily, everything else [00:33:00] begins to grow in the right order. That alignment shapes how we love our spouse, how we parent our children, and how we lead our business. It keeps us from worshiping at alters that never satisfy money, status, or control, and points us toward the life, the full life.
Jesus promised, he says, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. That’s John 10. 10. Don’t believe the thief, also thief is known as Satan. He’ll lie to you and say that a full life comes from these worldly things. Our, when our spiritual life is aligned, we become more patient, more compassionate, and more grounded.
We’re no longer chasing meaning and we’re living it. And from that foundation, growth naturally begins to overflow into every area of life. Growth is a spouse building a marriage worth fighting for. After spiritual alignment, the next place we grow is in our marriage. Because if we get this part [00:34:00] wrong, no amount of business success will make life feel right.
For many of us. As entrepreneurs, our spouses get what’s left over. We pour our best energy into the business, our team, our clients, and they can give our spouse the scraps. Not because we mean to, but because the demands of life and work slowly crowd out connection. It’s rarely intentional neglect that destroys a marriage.
It’s the slow drift missed meals, constant phone notifications, unspoken frustrations, nights spent next to each other, but worlds apart. John Mark Comer says The Ru in the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It’s a great book. You should read it. Uh, I had to read it twice. ’cause the first time I read it, I agreed with everything, but I didn’t know how to implement it in my life.
But John Mark Comer says in that book, if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. Busyness is one of the most effective tools the enemy uses to erode intimacy. Now, Julie and I, my wife, have lived this. We’ve had seasons where our marriage was unhealthy, not [00:35:00] because of one big mistake, but because of a thousand small ones that piled up and I’ll own those as leader of our, our marriage.
Um, like our physical health, marriage, health doesn’t collapse overnight happens slowly when we stop exercising the habits that keep us close. There was a season where we couldn’t stand each other. Uh, and in that moment we had a choice to walk away or to fight for our marriage. We chose to fight. That meant a reinvestment in our time doing counseling individually and together, reading books, taking marriage courses, and investing real effort.
But most importantly, it meant rebuilding rhythms, the kind of daily and weekly patterns that feed love. Love is a verb. It is an action. It is not a feeling. Don’t be deceived by that. For us, that looks like regular date nights. Time where phones go away and we’re tuned into each other. We’ll have weekly connection.
We sit in our sunroom for an hour and we talk. We start with a simple question, name three feelings you felt today. [00:36:00] I even use feelings, pillow as a reference because I just don’t have a lot of emotional depth. Uh, Brene Brown has a great book called Atlas of the Heart, and where she defines all of the emotions, and that was so good for me.
Uh, I still need my reference pillow. You can order it off. Amazon. Uh, it’s, it’s a fun thing. We have it. I have one in my office. We have one in the sunroom, have one in our bedroom I, I need it to refer to. So quarterly we have weekend getaways. Uh, those are good for us to just sort of refresh as a couple.
And annually we take week long trips, just the two of us. It takes two or three days. The thing we found is it takes two or three days to really relax, but when we do, the connection deepens again. We, we remember. We love each other, and it’s just time to, to reconnect and, and enjoy each other’s company again.
And then one other thing we do is we pray every night before we go to bed. Sometimes it’s as simple as, Lord, I pray for our marriage. You know that that’s when we’re not [00:37:00] getting along. And, uh, it happens from time to time. We’ve gotten much better at that. But, uh, you lean into that prayer and it’s, it’s just super, super powerful.
Um, those habits don’t happen overnight. They were born out of the realization that the drift was real. And that love takes structure, not just emotion. The Apostle Paul said, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. That’s Ephesians 5 25. That’s not a casual call.
That’s a daily surrender. And Christ died for the church laid down his life. It’s saying I will serve her even when I’m tired. I will choose patience when I want to withdraw. I will prioritize presence over productivity. One Corinthians 13 gives us the measure of what love looks like. And we’ve all heard this a million times at weddings, but when you stop and listen to these words, they’re really hard to do.
Love is patient. I’m often not patient. Love is kind. I’ve also not been [00:38:00] kind. It does not envy, does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not. Self-seeking is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. All things I’ve been guilty of. Those words aren’t poetic ideals. They’re blueprint for how love actually grows.
So if you’re married and you’ve felt that drift, know this, you’re not alone and it’s not hopeless. It’s just time to rebuild the rhythms that create that closeness again. Because when we grow as spouses, when we make time, communicate deeply and choose love every day, we’re not just building a marriage, we’re building a foundation for every other part of life to flourish.
I can say 100%. I would not be an entrepreneur if it weren’t for the support of my wife and her encouragement. She’s the reason I dropped outta law school. She’s been the reason I pursued different career paths, different entrepreneurial adventures because, um, she’s been behind me encouraging me all along the way.
We are better together than I ever could be by myself. The next area of [00:39:00] growth, his growth is apparent. Raising responsible, resilient Christ modeled children. Once we prioritize alignment with God and the health of our marriage, the next natural area of growth is parenting. And it’s important to say this clearly, our children should never come before our marriage.
A strong marriage is the foundation of a strong family. If your relationship is fractured, our kids feel that instability long before we’ll see it. The best gift we can give our children isn’t more stuff. It’s parent who, parents who generally love each, genuinely love each other and model unity, forgiveness, and faith.
We have an epidemic in this country of single parent households and it’s terrible for our kids. All of the data sets, it’s terrible. Our calling his parents is not to raise comfortable kids. It’s to raise capable and Christ-like adults. Proverbs 22, 6 tells us, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he’s old, he will not depart from it.
That word train is active. It means we are to form our children, not simply protect him. [00:40:00] In Deuteronomy six, six through seven expands on this command. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts, impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
That’s not a once a week Sunday message. That’s a daily lifestyle of modeling and you need to be invested in the scriptures. Our kids are watching far more than they’re listening. They see how we treat people who can’t give us anything in return. They see how we talk to our spouse. They see what happens when the deal goes wrong, or the pressure mounts.
They learn what to worship by watching what we prioritize. Julie and I talk about raising our daughters to be responsible, able to respond. Life will hand them moments that test their courage, their integrity, and their faith. We can’t shield them from these moments. We don’t want to, but we can prepare them.
We teach them resilience by letting them face age appropriate challenges. [00:41:00] Sometimes that means watching them fail and holding back from rescuing them too quickly. Uh, my father instinct wants to help save them and make it easy, but I know that that struggle is good because resilience doesn’t grow in comfort.
It grows in struggle, supported by love and correction. And just like in business, we want to give them responsibility before reward. Stewardship is not about entitlement. It’s about entrusting them with small things now, so they’re capable of managing larger things later. Whether that’s helping around the house, managing a small budget, or contributing to family discussions, it all builds maturity.
In a world that constantly tells kids to chase comfort, self-expression, and instant gratification, our job is to form character, not just protect feelings. That means modeling what it looks like to follow Christ daily teaching. That obedience brings blessing even when it’s hard. Helping them practice communication and humility and conflict.
Reminding them that life is not [00:42:00] about avoiding struggle, but learning to persevere through it. With faith, there’s a vi video from Jocko Will, and it called Good, uh, look it up on YouTube. It’s fantastic. When things are sideways in our family, we say, good. It’s because we learn from that. We grow from that.
Our competition folds and we’re strong and we’ll, we’ll survive and it’ll be good. So our kids won’t become who we tell them to be. They’ll become who we are, and when they see parents aligned with God grounded in marriage and living out their faith with joy and resilience, they’ll have a roadmap for how to live.
Not just survive in this world. Now let’s look at growth As a business leader. Every entrepreneur wants their business to grow, but real sustainable growth isn’t one dimensional. It’s not just about bigger numbers or faster scaling. It’s about building a business that grows in strength and stability and value.
A business that works harder [00:43:00] for you, not the other way around. Over the years, I’ve seen four dimensions of growth that must rise together. If you want your business to thrive for the long haul, ignore one, and the others will eventually suffer. Let’s walk through them. It starts with revenue and profitability.
If you can’t generate revenue, you don’t have a business. If you do generate revenue but don’t have profit, you won’t have a business for long. We also need organizational capacity, which is our people and our systems. We need strategic maturity where we develop a strategy to grow the business beyond just us as the founder.
And then we need a strong culture, which is how the business behaves when it comes to decision making and morale. Let’s look at each of these in detail, starting with revenue and profitability. This is the engine of impact. Growth starts with understanding your numbers, but too many entrepreneurs fall in love with the top line revenue, and they forget that it’s the bottom line that actually measures health.
Top line growth might look impressive, but it can hide waste in efficiency or poor [00:44:00] discipline. Bottom line, profit is what creates freedom. It’s what allows you to invest in your people. Innovate and weather the unexpected profit isn’t greed, it’s stewardship. It’s doing a good job. It’s stewardship. It’s the proof that your systems work and it’s the fuel that keeps your business moving forward.
The goal isn’t to grow for growth’s sake. It’s to build margin with meaning, because when your business is profitable, it creates stability for your team and opportunity for you to give, build and lead from a a position of strength. Next organizational capacity, the power of people and systems. Your business can only grow as far as your people and processes will allow.
If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’ve already hit your ceiling. Building capacity means hiring well, empowering others, and creating systems that scale without you being the bottleneck. It’s about structure, not control. At some point, every entrepreneur has to make the shift from doing the work [00:45:00] to building the system that does the work.
When your organization runs on clear processes, accountability and trust, growth becomes scalable and sustainable. Your team becomes a multiplier. Next is strategic maturity. The shift from founder to architect. Every business hits a point where what got you here won’t get you there. We need a point of reinvention.
Complete reinvention. That hustle and intuition that built your company must evolve into strategy and vision. Strategic maturity is about stepping back to design the business, not just run it. It’s moving from founder to architect. The person who builds the blueprint, not just holds the hammer. That means thinking in systems and forecasts, planning for the future, and making decisions that create compound impact over time.
Mature businesses don’t just chase opportunity, they curate it. They know who they are, what they do best, and what to say no to, and that clarity becomes a competitive advantage. Finally, as [00:46:00] cultural growth, the heartbeat of longevity culture is what happens when you’re not in the room. It’s the invisible hand that guides behavior, decision making and morale.
You can have incredible stra strategy and solid margins, but if your culture is toxic, it’s only a matter of time before it all falls apart. We’ve seen this firsthand with people that we’ve done business with. They’re toxic leaders. They’re forced outta the company. Uh, surprising somebody that founded the business is pushed out.
Uh, but that’s what happens eventually. Healthy culture is built on trust, communication, accountability, and shared purpose. It’s people knowing why their work matters and feeling empowered to make it better. When culture grows, innovation flows, retention rises, ownership deepens. People stop working for you and start building with you.
That’s when growth becomes exponential, because it’s not dependent on one person’s energy or vision. Let’s put it all together. True advancement as a business leader is about balancing all [00:47:00] four dimensions, revenue, capacity, strategy, and culture in motion at the same time, you can’t scale effectively if profit is weak.
You can’t maintain profitability if systems break under pressure and you can’t lead strategically if your culture is crumbling behind you. It’s all connected, and that connection is what we explore in many of the episodes on this podcast. How real entrepreneurs master these dimensions in the real world.
At the end of the day, growth done right isn’t about ego, it’s about excellence. It’s not about chasing a certain size, it’s about building strength. Because when the foundation is right, your business becomes more than a company, becomes a platform for impact, freedom, and legacy. When we talk about advancement, it’s not just about growing a business.
It’s about growing in every area of life. When our faith deepens, our perspective changes. When our marriage strengthens, we lead with more patience and compassion. When we invest in our children, we’re reminded of what truly matters and when we grow as business leaders, when [00:48:00] profit system strategy and culture align, we start to experience something powerful, overflow.
But contribution doesn’t begin after we’ve made it. It’s not a reward for success. It’s a way of seeing the world. It’s a mindset we can choose from day one because contribution isn’t limited to money. It’s how we use our time, our talent, and our relationships and resources to make an impact right where we are.
When we lead and live with a. Contributor’s heart. We build differently. We make decisions that prioritize people over pride, purpose over profit. And that posture of an open-handed generosity doesn’t just create better business, it creates better lives. So as we move into this next part of this framework, let’s talk about what it looks like to live with open hands, to make contribution, not a finish line, but a foundation for everything we do.
So now we’re on to see sees for contribution. The overflow of a Grateful heart. Contribution isn’t just about giving money, [00:49:00] it’s about living with open hands. It’s the recognition that everything we have from the breath in our lungs to the money in our bank account is a gift. Our time, talent and resources, our relationships, even the opportunities we’ve been given.
And because everything is a gift, everything becomes an opportunity to give back. Jesus said in Acts 2035, it is more blessed to give than to receive. One of my favorite examples of generosity baked into the foundation of a business. It comes from Alan Barnhart in Memphis, Tennessee. Long before his company was successful, Alan and his brother made two commitments.
They’d cap their personal income and they’d give the rest away. They didn’t do it after the money came in, they did it before. That’s what faith looks like in business. Alan Barnhart didn’t wait to become wealthy to start giving. He built generosity into his business plan before it made a dime. In the early 1980s, Alan and his brother Eric, took over a small struggling family business, Barnhart Crane in rigging in Memphis.
They were [00:50:00] young engineers, newly married with modest means in big dreams. But before they took their first paycheck, they made two radical commitments. They would cap their personal income, deciding in advance that what their family truly needed to live on, and then they would give the rest away. They didn’t set out to build an empire.
They set out to build impact. And here’s what’s remarkable. They made those commitments before the company grew. Alan has often said, we didn’t wait to give when we had more. We gave when we had little, because if we couldn’t trust God with a small company, why would we trust him with a big one? Over the years, God honored that faithfulness, Barnhart, crane and rigging grew into one of the largest heavy lift and transport companies in the world, handling projects for power plants, refineries, and major construction operations across the United States.
But the Barnharts didn’t change their plan when the money started flowing, they didn’t expand their lifestyle or upgrade their definition of enough. Instead, they went even [00:51:00] further. They transferred a hundred percent of the ownership of the company into a charitable trust. That means every dollar of profit every year goes to support kingdom work, ministries, missions, and humanitarian causes across the globe.
Alan describes his approach, not as philanthropy, but as stewardship. God owns this business. We’re simply managers of what he entrusted to us. He and his family continue to live modestly same home, same neighborhood, same lifestyle they had decades ago. Because for Alan, wealth is a tool, not a trophy. His story isn’t about a wealthy man deciding to give.
It’s about a man deciding how he would live before the wealth ever arrived. He teaches business leaders that generosity is not an event, it’s a system. It’s a way of life built into how you see success. And when people ask him why he did it, Ellen’s answer is simple. Jesus said It’s more blessed to give than receive.
We just found that to be true in every way. That wasn’t a command as much as it was an [00:52:00] invitation. Jesus was showing us a way of life that produces joy at its core. True generosity starts with gratitude. Gratitude reminds us that we didn’t build all of this on our own, our health, our ability to think clearly, our business instincts, our creativity.
These are gifts from. When we live from that awareness, giving stops being an obligation and becomes a privilege. That’s why I start every morning, journaling about what I’m thankful for. Not just the big things like family and work, but the small, specific blessings, beautiful sunrise, meaningful conversation, or even a challenge that forced me to depend more deeply on the Lord.
Gratitude trains the heart to see abundance everywhere. When we live from that perspective, contribution becomes the natural next step for me and Julie, that shows up in a few ways. First is the tithe, which is the first 10% of our income, giving back to God as an act of trust and the acknowledgement that it all belongs to him.
And we started giving when we were [00:53:00] absolutely broke at the lowest point in our lives, we decided, uh, I had tried everything I could do to solve our financial problems. And, um, uh, we just gave the last bit of money away and we were like, okay, Lord, we’re gonna, we’re gonna trust you in this. And it’s been incredible how he showed up.
That little act of faith has just strengthened our faith in this, this arena. Nex is personal generosity, finding ways to support people individually, um, most of the time anonymously, even when there is no tax deduction involved. Um, I feel like God’s economy is different than the world’s economy, and, uh, if I’m needing that tax deduction, uh, the Lord will figure it out for me.
Uh, finally, just having financial margin for different causes. Intentionally building our financial plans so we can say yes when God puts a need or opportunity in front of us. But generosity also goes far beyond money. That includes our time, uh, the hours we give away. This was really hard for me. Uh, there’s a [00:54:00] point where I had a, a rich young ruler moment, and that story is Jesus is talking to a rich, young ruler and, uh, the rich young ruler is telling Jesus how he’s followed all of the commands.
Uh, and Jesus says, great. Please give away all your possessions and come follow me. Give away all your possessions and come follow me. And the rich young ruler goes away sad. ’cause he, at the end of the day, even though he was doing everything, his heart was not for the Lord, it was for his possessions. And so I had that moment with my calendar, with my time.
Uh, we have a weekly, um, Bible study here at the office. It’s a men’s group. And, um, somebody made the comment that, uh, I’m happy that I can, I can call somebody in this group. I can call this group somebody and they will pick up the phone. And I was like, don’t call me during the day. Uh, and I was thinking about that from the context of like, I’m too busy for that.
Uh, I was worshiping at the altar of my, my calendar and all of the things that we have going on, and that was eyeopening for me. Uh, I was convicted in [00:55:00] that moment to, uh, make a decision like, uh, do I not believe that if I’m faithful in those moments, that the Lord will help me figure out my calendar and make things all fall into place?
And at the end of the day that that real life human being on the other end of that phone call that’s needing something, um, is probably more important than whatever business thing I have going on. So, uh, I also have a great team that can pick up the slack there. So, uh, I think that’s an important piece.
Time was, uh, almost a, a check thing, a money thing for me. It was easier for me to write a check than it was to give up my time. And so the Lord’s challenged me on that. Uh, also on, uh, mission trips, I was like, man, if I have time for missions trip, I’m going on vacation with my wife. I’m not taking a week off to go, uh, spend time, uh, serving someone.
And again, it was one of those things I was challenged on. It’s like, look, the Lord can help you do [00:56:00] more with 90% than you can a hundred percent of your money on your own. The same thing’s true with our time, missions, trips, Sabbath, all of those things. Uh, you will be blessed when you lean into those.
That’s personally something that I’ve, I’ve struggled with.
To wrap this up, the most valuable gift you can give someone at times is your undivided attention. For busy entrepreneurs, time is often our most expensive currency, but when we stop long enough to listen to mentor, to help someone grow, we’re giving something far more lasting than dollars. We’re giving our presence, and then there’s our talent.
Every skill you have, whether it’s leadership, communication, strategy, creativity, or craftsmanship, it’s all a tool and God blessed you with it, and God can use that tool to bless others. When you use your expertise to serve one else’s vision, to mentor a younger leader, or to strengthen your church or community, you’re multiplying your impact.
Peter wrote in one Peter four [00:57:00] 10, each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace. In its various forms, that verse reframes everything we think about success. Our time, talent, and treasure, were never meant to terminate on us. They’re meant to flow through us.
As entrepreneurs, our income can grow and with that comes the temptation for our lifestyle to expand right along with it. That’s not always wrong, but it can quietly shift our focus. The danger is when material comfort starts to dull. Spiritual dependence. Paul wrote in Philippians four, 11 through 12, I have learned to be content.
Whatever the circumstance, I know that it what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. That’s the real test of contribution, contentment. When I, when we can say, God, I’m grateful for what I have and I trust you with what I give, we step out [00:58:00] of the endless pursuit of more and into the peace of enough.
Contribution also shows up in how we invest in people, our teammates, our clients, our communities. Sometimes the most meaningful gift isn’t financial at all. It’s time, it’s encouragement, it’s mentorship or presence. Jesus modeled this perfectly. He didn’t just teach from a distance. He walked with his disciples, ate meals with them, laughed with them, and wept with him.
Uh, he gave his time, his presence, his attention. This was really demonstrated well for me. You can read the scriptures and you see this, but uh, there’s a series called The Chosen. I highly recommend it. It gives you a fresh perspective on a Jesus’ nature and his disciples, and bring some context that maybe you wouldn’t pick up from the words.
Highly recommend it. So that’s what people remember. They remember your presence. You may not always have more money to give, but you can always give your time and your talent. And in God’s economy, [00:59:00] it’s just as valuable. So let’s think about the open-handed life in every form. Giving is a mirror of love.
It’s how we live out the command. Love your neighbor as yourself. We’re giving something to be able to do that. So if you ever want to know where your heart really is, look at your hands. Are they clenched tightly around what you have? Are they open to what God wants to do through you? Matthew six, one through four.
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Now, the open-handed life is the abundant life. When you. [01:00:00] Proclaim you put on social media, the check that you gave to charity, you’re getting your reward.
I would argue don’t. It’s okay. It’s okay to be anonymous. It doesn’t need to be a marketing exercise. Generosity isn’t a line item, or again, a marketing strategy. It’s a key to living a great life. It’s the proof that our identity isn’t in what we own. It helps make sure our worship isn’t on material things or our schedule.
When we give our time, our talent, and our treasure with joy and gratitude, our lives become a living picture of the fact that literally everything we have is a gift, and we have the opportunity to use those gifts well
when we live with open hands. When generosity becomes a way of life, something amazing happens. We start to experience joy, purpose, and fulfillment. That success alone could never produce, but if we’re not careful, even the most generous heart can run dry. Because here’s the truth, you can’t pour out of what you [01:01:00] haven’t filled.
Contribution requires energy, focus, and emotional strength, and all of that flows from one source. Our health. Your health, your physical, emotional, and spiritual is what makes long-term impact possible. If your body breaks down, your energy fades. If your emotions spiral, your relationship strain, and if your spirit grows weary, even your purpose can start to feel hollow.
That’s why the final piece of this framework is so important. Health isn’t selfish, it’s stewardship. It’s taking care of the vessel God has given you so you can keep showing up strong for your family, your team, and your calling. Let’s talk about what it looks like to build health in every area of life, body, mind, and spirit, and why it’s the foundation that holds everything else together.
So health is the final piece of this reach framework. It’s the H, but it’s really what sustains all of the others. Without health, everything else eventually breaks down. Our relationships, our ability to enjoy experiences, our [01:02:00] capacity to grow, even our willingness to give and health doesn’t apply. Health doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s another form of stewardship. We have three areas of our, our, our health, our physical health, our emotional health, and our spiritual health. Let’s start with our physical health. We’re gonna talk about Mark Cuban for a second. Uh, mark Cuban is known as a fast talking billionaire investor. What most people miss is how disciplined he is about his physical health.
Long before Shark Tank, when Cuban was just another entrepreneur trying to make payroll, he made a simple rule, take care of your body so you can keep showing up. He still lives by it Today, he lifts weights or does cardio every single day, not to look good, but because he believes fitness is a competitive advantage.
He said the most important thing in life, your health, because once you lose that, you can’t buy it back. Even during the early years of his startups when he was sleeping on the floor of his office. He carved out time to move. He knew that energy, stamina, and focus were multipliers, and that neglecting his health would eventually [01:03:00] cost him clarity and opportunity.
Mark’s approach isn’t about extremes. It’s about consistency and systems. He focuses on showing up daily, eating intentionally, and prioritizing sleep even when the business world tells him to burn the candle at both ends and it’s working. Cuban’s known for out hustling people half his age, not because he is superhuman, but because he is a steward of his physical energy in society.
And this is true for entrepreneurs. We often view health as optional. Something that will fix later but later rarely comes in one Corinthians six, 19 through 20. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? You are. You are not your own. You were bought at a price. When you take care of your body, you’re honoring the one who gave it to you and equipping yourself to serve longer, think clearer and love better.
We’ve each been given one body, and scripture reminds us in one Corinthians six, nine through 20 that our bodies are temples of the [01:04:00] Holy Spirit, not possessions, but trusts. When we take care of them, we honor the one who created us. For me, physical health is all about small, consistent habits that lead to uncommon results over time.
For me, I I wake up every morning awfully early. Uh, usually 4:30 AM I start my day with a CrossFit workout. I focus my nutrition on simple, repeatable meals, eating roughly my body weight and protein each day in the form of grams. Um, so grams of protein equal to my, my body weight and pounds, and avoiding processed foods as much as possible.
So we, we try to make wise decisions at the grocery store because we know if the junk food isn’t in the house, it doesn’t get eaten. My rule of thumb is simple. If it has a nutrition label, it probably isn’t good for you. This is a systems-based approach. I don’t focus on the scale or aesthetics. Focus on rhythms that will naturally produce strength, energy, and endurance.
The interesting thing is the scale on the aesthetics become a natural byproduct. When we move, our bodies eat well and rest intentionally, the [01:05:00] byproduct is incredible. More energy for our calling, more clarity and our thinking and more longevity to love and serve the people around us. We’re not just chasing fitness.
We’re honoring God through stewardship of our bodies. Now, let’s look at our emotional health. Emotional health is often overlooked foundation of a full life. We spend so much time thinking about what to build out there, the business, the brand, the legacy that we forget. The most important project we’ll ever manage is what’s happening in our mind and in our heart.
When our emotional health breaks down, everything else follows. We lose clarity. We react instead of respond. And for entrepreneurs, burnout doesn’t usually come from a single moment. It comes from slowly neglecting our mental health. It’s the accumulation of unprocessed, stressed, unmet expectations, and a pace that doesn’t leave room to breathe.
It’s showing up for everyone else while quietly running on empty yourself. The irony is burnout often disguises itself as productivity. From the outside, things [01:06:00] might look great, growth opportunity movement, but inside there’s numbness, exhaustion, or quiet loss of joy. Emotional health is what keeps your fire from becoming a furnace that consumes you.
I’ve seen this play out. I’ve seen owners have mental breakdowns and be put out of the game for a while. I’ve seen a mentor of mine succumb to the inner narrative that his life didn’t matter. He died by suicide. If you’re in that place, I encourage you to do the hard thing and get the help you need.
People care about you. You’re beautifully and wonderfully made. Find a therapist, find a friend, a family member, someone to walk through this process with you. You can do it. I believe in you. It’s not weakness to reach out. It is strength. It shows that I’ve got the humility and I understand I need help. I have coaches in almost every area of my life that I think is important.
That is also true for my mental health. We shouldn’t wait till we’re in crisis mode. I go to therapy weekly to make sure I’m mentally sharp and I’m [01:07:00] dealing with issues before they get to crisis. You can’t be fully present when you’re emotionally fragmented or chronically depleted. That’s why we have to build rhythms that restore us, not just recharge us for more work, rest, reflection, prayer.
The therapy and play aren’t luxuries. They’re leadership essentials. They remind us that our worth isn’t our output. Jesus modeled this for us even at the height of his ministry. When crowds pressed in from every side, he withdrew to quiet places to pray. He knew that sustained output requires consistent input.
If the Son of God needed rest and solitude, so do we. When we neglect emotional health, we end up running hard but hollow. When we prioritize it, we discover peace, perspective, and renewed purpose. Emotional health gives a space to feel deeply, think clearly, and love fully, and that’s what makes a full life.
So if you find yourself running on fumes, hear this, you’re not weak, you’re human, and God didn’t design you to burn out. [01:08:00] He designed you to bear fruit. At last, let’s look at a leader that cultivated emotional health in his business. Ed Kamal. Uh, I read Ed Kamal’s book Creativity Inc. Ed is the co-founder of Pixar and former president of Walt Disney Animation, which might be one of the most emotionally intelligent leaders in business history.
His entire leadership philosophy was built around one big idea. Fear kills creativity. Early in Pixar’s journey, he realized that no amount of talent or technology could thrive in an atmosphere of fear. People had to feel safe enough to speak up, to share bad ideas, to admit mistakes, and to be wrong in public.
That principle became Pixar’s superpower. It allowed emotional honesty to drive creative excellence, and that environment failure wasn’t final. It was feedback. Pixar’s Pixar’s culture became a reflection of something deeply biblical. Speak the truth in love. From Ephesians four 15, they created space for truth telling wrapped in grace.
Ed’s emotional health [01:09:00] practice wasn’t therapy jargon. It was leadership rooted in humility. He modeled calm, curiosity, and composure. He didn’t demand perfection. He invited growth. He would often say it’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for people to take them.
That’s emotional health and leadership. Creating a culture where people can fail without fear and flourish without pretending we can do the same in our families and our teams. Emotional health starts with presence, listening, and empathy. For me, that begins with taking every thought captive. Second Corinthians 10, five lays that out beautifully.
Our emotions follow our focus. When we dwell on fear or frustration are peace erodes. Paul wrote in Philippians four, four through eight. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all [01:10:00] understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
That’s not denial of how we are feeling. It is discipline. Rejoicing isn’t pretending everything’s fine. It’s choosing to remember who holds the outcome. There are practical ways to cultivate our emotional health. I like to lean into movement and nutrition. Our body’s chemistry directly affects your emotions.
Reflection and journaling are another one that I, I really value. Every morning. I take time to notice what I’m grateful for. Even the small things, perspective and prayer, reminding myself that most challenges in my life are small in relationship to the big picture. I also know how the story ends. I’ve read the book and that I can trust the Lord to see me through.
These practices just help anchor me, and that brings us to the deepest layer of health, our spiritual health. I’m going to argue that this is the foundation of it all. This entire framework, [01:11:00] R-E-A-C-H reach is built on biblical truth. Every piece works on a practical level because it’s rooted in how God designed us to live.
But there’s a peace, purpose, and a fulfillment that only comes when you know Jesus personally. Romans five, one says, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the peace the world can’t give when we surrender our lives to him. When we believe that Jesus is Lord and that his way is better, something shifts our striving, slows down our heart, finds rest the chaos quiets the chaos doesn’t necessarily go away, just doesn’t rule our lives like it used to.
Following. Jesus isn’t about adding religion to your schedule. It’s about relationship with the creator of the universe. The reach framework is roadmap for an optimized life, but Jesus is the destination. He’s the one who gives us meaning to our relationships, our purpose, to our experiences, direction to our growth, joy, [01:12:00] to our contribution and peace inside of us.
So wherever you are today, whether you’re crushing it in business, but feeling empty inside, or you’re thriving at home, but longing for deeper spiritual connection, I invite you to pause and ask, am I truly aligned? Because the life you’re looking for, the joy, the peace, the fulfillment doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from surrender. It comes from knowing him. That’s where health, real lasting internal health begins. So let’s look at David Green. David Green is the founder of Hobby Lobby. He’s built one of the most successful unapologetically faith-driven businesses in America. What makes his story powerful isn’t the scale of his giving, it’s the way he lived it out.
From day one in 1970, Dave started Hobby lobbying his garage with a $600 loan. He wasn’t a wealthy man. He was a craftsman trying to support his family, but he and his wife Barbara, made an early decision they would honor God with everything they built. They tithed from the very first sale they [01:13:00] prayed over hiring decision.
They treated employees with dignity and respect. Long before values driven business was a trend. As the business grew, those spiritual rhythms didn’t change. They deepened. The company closes on Sundays, a cost to the decision in retail, ’cause David believes obedience is more important than opportunity.
Hobby Lobby gives away half its profits to global missions, humanitarian work, and Bible distribution. And like Alan Barnhart, David eventually transferred ownership of the company to a trust that future profits will always serve kingdom purposes. But here’s what’s most revealing. David doesn’t view this as extraordinary.
He sees it as a normal Christian living. He said, this is God’s business. I just run it for him. His spiritual health is marked by simplicity and surrender. He reads Scripture daily, prays with his leadership team and refuses to separate faith from work. That kind of wholeness where business and belief for integrated is what spiritual health looks like in [01:14:00] real life.
We can build billion dollar enterprises and still keep Jesus at the center. Spiritual health isn’t about adding religion to your business. It’s about surrendering ownership to God. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Proverbs 16, three. When you see your company as God’s property, your decisions get clearer.
Your heart gets lighter, and your purpose becomes eternal. As we wrap up this episode, I want to leave you with a reminder. The world around us is constantly preaching a different gospel, one that says you’ll be happy when. When you build the bigger business, when you drive the faster car, when you buy the prettier house or post the better story on Instagram.
But the truth is all of that is empty. Like Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, it’s meaningless. Like chasing after the wind. Solomon was the richest man to ever live. The world tells us to pursue things that are always just outside of our reach. But the abundant life, the life that’s truly full isn’t found out there somewhere.
It’s [01:15:00] found right here in the things that last, in relationships that are deep and genuine, and experiences that shape us, both good and the hard ones in advancement. That’s anchored to purpose, not ego and contribution that flows from gratitude, not guilt, and in health, physical, emotional, and spiritual that allows you to show up strong for the people we love.
That’s the life worth building. That’s the life worth fighting for. ’cause when you live inside your reach, within your reach. Investing in what truly matters. You don’t just build wealth, you build wisdom and joy and legacy. So as you go this week, don’t chase what’s outside of your reach. Reach what’s for eternal reach.
Reach for what’s true, and live the kind of life that one day and you’ll look back on and say, that was full. That was worth it. This episode resonated with you. Share it with another entrepreneur who could benefit from it. You never know who might be trying to figure out what that next step is in their business that needs [01:16:00] to hear exactly this message.
And if you wanna join our weekly Bible study, send me an email atPatrick@vitalwealth.com. It’s every Tuesday at 11:30 AM Central. We’d love to have you there. And if you can’t make it every week, don’t worry about it. And remember, you’re a vital entrepreneur. You’re vital because you’re the backbone of our economy, creating opportunities, driving growth, and making an impact.
You’re vital to your family, creating abundance in every aspect of life, and you’re vital to me because you’re committed to growing your wealth, leading with purpose, and creating something truly great. Thank you for being a part of this incredible community of vital entrepreneurs. I appreciate you and I look forward to back having you back here next time on the Vital Wealth Podcast where we help entrepreneurs minimize their taxes, master wealth, and optimize their lives.