5th Step to Heaven on Earth: Forbearance

Business is warfare. To be an entrepreneur, you must learn the Art of War. Sunzi’s Art of War says that all warfare is based on “deception.” For example, when you are weak, you must pretend to be strong so that the enemy might think you are strong and surrender without a fight. When you are strong, you must pretend to be weak so that your enemy will be underprepared, so you can easily win.

Without deception, warfare will be like a dog fight. Even if you win, you will suffer casualties. So, deception is a lesser evil in warfare to reduce collateral damage. Today, I have heard most MBA students around the world have to study Sunzi’s Art of War because business is warfare—a game of deception.

Every deception erodes our integrity and puts weight on our conscience, consciously or unconsciously. As a result, some people prefer to stay away from the holy ground, consciously or unconsciously. Simon Peter was a businessman, and when he discovered Jesus’ divinity, he asked him to go away.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).

We know Peter was always authentic. He never hid his feelings from the moment he appeared in the Bible to the time he was crucified upsidedown. Would it be nice if there was no God? Then we can do what we want and don’t have to worry about exposing our skeletons in the closet.

We all want to live with a clean conscience and deal with everyone with integrity. We all want to do what is right, but we suffer guilt and shame when we miss the mark. Entrepreneurs are warriors who shoot more, so they miss more. Therefore they suffer more guilt.