Any Christians here?

[MJ DeMarco]

 

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[DeletedUser394]

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that nobody is taking sides (well except one guy on the first page, but he was mostly ignored lol). The same kind of discussion could be had under a question of 'Is it possible to be a successful entrepreneur in a country with xyz style of government/social programs', etc without actually devolving into madness.

Usually with these kinds of threads, there's an attack against another group in the thread starter and then everyone goes nuts.

It also speaks to the character of the people here.

Also good job to OP for doing it right.

 

[jon.a]

So now I'm wondering if the OP has received any PM's from like minded people too bond with?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Funny that as soon as I mention that it's nice not to see a debate, someone comes in and tries to spark a debate, a position, and a theory.

The question is "Are Christians here?" -- NOT, can you put X,Y, or Z before God? Is Fastlane apart of GOD? God? Jesus? Mohammed? Nope, not apart of the question.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

 

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[CPisHere]

Christian here.

I know A LOT of Christian business owners, including ones that do millions of dollars a year in revenue. However, I don't personally know any truly Fastlane Christian Entrepreneurs, but then again I don't personally know any fastlane entrepreneurs at all.

I see some potential issues with being a Christian fastlane entrepreneur, but I have not had any problems reconciling these. It's all about priorities, and I absolutely believe that we can glorify God in our financial success. However, your mentality as a Christian shouldn't be the same as *these heathens* like MJ (I kid, I kid).

If you want a fastlane business in order to own a Lambo & get laid, that's probably not in line with your Christian values.
If you want a fastlane business to spend more time with your family, and financially bless those around you in need - what a wonderful vehicle a fastlane business is for that!

It's true that who you surround yourself with is who you become, so I make sure I surround myself with ambition people, and Christians, and family that loves me regardless of those factors, and physically fit people, etc etc. Not every person around you has to be exactly who you want to be. You take what you can from each of them.

 

[Mattie]

Really labels divide people and limit us from growing and developing and accomplishing things. I believe there is a time and place for everything, but some how I don't think a business forum, unless it's directly a Christian Entrepreneur forum is really relevant. Just like when I went to college I had an atheist teacher teaching me social psychology, statistics, and other stuff who was best friends with my professor that was a Christian Minister.

They listened to each other's point of view, joked about each other in classes, and we just learned the subjects. Some people put an emphasis on the label atheist or christian. Their personal beliefs was irrelevant to how they taught Social classes or psychology classes. Totally different subject. Those that needed the labels quit the class, where the rest of us wanted to get the class done and graduate. Whatever your focused on limits your progress and delays learning. We just paid attention to what we were learning to graduate.

 

[Vigilante]

Really labels divide people and limit us from growing and developing and accomplishing things. I believe there is a time and place for everything, but some how I don't think a business forum, unless it's directly a Christian Entrepreneur forum is really relevant. Just like when I went to college I had an atheist teacher teaching me social psychology, statistics, and other stuff who was best friends with my professor that was a Christian Minister.

They listened to each other's point of view, joked about each other in classes, and we just learned the subjects. Some people put an emphasis on the label atheist or christian. Their personal beliefs was irrelevant to how they taught Social classes or psychology classes. Totally different subject. Those that needed the labels quit the class, where the rest of us wanted to get the class done and graduate. Whatever your focused on limits your progress and delays learning. We just paid attention to what we were learning to graduate.

Something I learned from Stephen Key this week is reps. You have to get the reps in in order to hit home runs. Very few people step up to the plate and hit home runs.

This resonated with your point about learning what you need to graduate. You can gain a graduate level education here on the forum. I think one of the reasons people stay so long here is for the free education, and for the most part it is drama free. And... the reason it is drama free is because in part of the lack of drama regarding politics and religion. Almost everyone here has an opinion on those divisive issues one way or another. But what sets us apart is here... those differences... matter zero. In fact, they matter so little that if you wear them on your sleeve, you don't fit. Here. Because that is not why this place exists.

Plenty of places on the internet (hello, Facebook?) to get into debates over religion. Only one place I know of where a free MBA in business can be obtained, and that's here on the forum. And as long as MJ is around, it's not going to be degraded by becoming like every other forum on the internet.

This thread has been an interesting experiment, and for the most part, the regulars have held fast to the forum rules. This thread has been very... Fast Lane.

 

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[Visionquest]

I am christian and it is my belief in god that has allowed me to pursue all that I can be in life with my knowing that this is all temporary and I should do what I want while I'm here. Great quote I have heard many times. "I have been poor and I have been rich. I like being rich a whole lot more." The fact of the matter is if you are rich it opens up a whole world of exploring philanthropy and giving that you cannot access when your poor. You can help more people you can help the church. You stand on your feet and give. You produce. you are a leader and people respect your stand and follow your path which includes christianity. If you want to help the most people possible be rich and christian. If people say wanting to be rich is selfish or not christian I say. Wanting to stay poor and in need of resources from others is less christian. Why do you need to have wealth redistributed to you to live. I say make wealth and distribute as you see fit to everyone you want if you choose. Just my thoughts

 

[jon.a]

I hope that we all recognize that "Christian" could easily be replaced with any religions name within this conversation.

 

[seamles]

Thanks for the great discussion and kind respect to everyone. The forum is truly great.

Would those who posted here like to start a skype or online meetup so we can continue to talk?
Let me know and I can get it organized. I found another FLF skype group I'm in has been helpful.

 

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[Mattie]

I hope that we all recognize that "Christian" could easily be replaced with any religions name within this conversation.

Think this is the illusion. We believe because someone has a certain label or group they are a certain way. Phil Zimbardo discussed the Lucifer Effect. We make someone the enemy, and he's got this photo of light and darkness and your perception. And also talks about the villain and the hero. It just depends on what way someone sees us through their perception, belief system, and projects their experience on to us. It was a very fascinating learning tool, to read his works, and the Standford Prison Experiments.

This is what gets me into trouble with people, because I go in different groups, and get along with them just fine. I shed a lot prejudice, discrimination, and became non-judgmental. Outside people just think that's the worst thing on earth. Such as living in the Netherlands and those people are so liberal instead of conservative back home. Personally, the way I've been treated in the Netherlands is far better than I have at home.

The illusion always comes in from ignorance, fear, and not knowing the truth. I've just accepted the fact I look beyond the labels and categories and learn from everyone, versus thinking they're terrible people. Even if I mention the word Entrepreneur. "Omg...why you hanging out with those kinds of people?"
It's a common response for me these days with any group, "Omg...Why you talking to those people?" They're different. They're strange! They're going to turn you into some scary monster, and you'll lose your teeth. Not really, but we have creative imaginations.

 

[RHL]

I hope that we all recognize that "Christian" could easily be replaced with any religions name within this conversation.

I see what you're getting at-Any religion can inspire, any religion can limit, any religion can lead to feelings of conflict between your faith and your life.

However as a Christian, I'm not sure that's universally true where problems finding other people of your faith in the fastlane are concerned.

Not all religions have core teachings that are derived or related to the philosophical school of Stoicism, like the early Christian movement was. Stoicism is a school of thought that valued freedom (as fastlaners do), but achieved it through radical self-denial rather than radical expansion of CENTS factors in business or life. Rather than exploding your control of the world around you to prevent being controlled, you pared down your locus of satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment to be entirely internal (Greek atheist stoics) or entirely beyond the physical world (Christian ascetics), and thus through sheer willpower you made yourself uncontrolable. Although any number of Jesus and his follower's teachings could illustrate this principle, I'll stick to the "no religious discussion theme" and use a secular example from another member of this philosophical movement:

Aristippus [A court attendee and beneficiary of the king]: "O, Diogenes, if you would only learn to flatter the king, you would not have to dine on lentils."

Diogenes [A radical stoic known for his self denial]: "O, Aristippus, if you would only learn to dine on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king."

Religions that are not rooted in stoicism (Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam, for example) may not have OP's specific problem, because they may have a vastly less tense relationship between businesses, wealth, and holiness than Christianity, just like not all cultures will view a child forsaking education for business to be as bad as some Asian cultures do, and thus people wanting to go Fastlane from those cultures may be in a uniquely unsupported position. This doesn't make Christianity or any other religion (or no religion) the proper way to go, but it does make this problem with relation to the fastlane different than, for example, certain kinds of Islam, where entering business might be seen positively, and as long as the Quranic charity quotas for a tithe from your net worth are met each year, becoming rich isn't considered an inherent moral problem, like it is in some strains of Christianity (being a conservative Mennonite, for example), where retaining any wealth for yourself beyond the bare essentials is seen to be potentially dangerous or sinful.

 

[Mattie]

Hmm...think that is the part of the problem. There are 41,000 Christian Sects in America. None of them seem to agree with each other and have their branch off of in different directions because of their disagreements. I'll use myself and Mr. J from back home. I was raised Catholic/Christian, and went to Social work at the time. He was Catholic that went Evangelism. What I didn't become aware of back than is when you say "I am a Christian." Well that can mean 41,000 different ways. Do you want to come to my church? I was about forgiveness, unconditional, mercy, and he was about judgment and sin. lol And I'm a woman. That always gets in me trouble whether I'm talking about religion or not. All we can do is hope we find like minded individuals and be happy to find them when we do.

Now you can learn about business from the Trappist Monks. I took a tour of their establishment here in the Netherlands. I suppose you can find any business model if you're really looking for it. I've just been enough debate forums in 2011 that I burned myself out discussing Religion with people. I got out of it what I needed too, and laughed more than anything because sometimes trolls and than the different characters just were passionate about their religion, and I had to have a sense of humor about it, because they're all serious and they're out to convince you why you need to conform to their stance.

I supposed in a sense they're good businessmen for advertising for their particular God. Really you can't convince anyone or change their position. And it goes on for days and days and even two years later if I went back to those forums the same people would be going around about it. I go back sometimes just say that, nothing new here. lol I could tell you some stories. I just say stick with the bible and your experience of God, because otherwise you just have a lot of opinions, biases, and debates.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

And with that said, I think we can close the thread. I think the question has been adequately answered.... YES, there are Christians here, and probably more than you think. And YES, there are Jewish folks, Muslims, and atheists as well. The thread is starting to go beyond the question.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I also want to add that I don't want the purpose of the thread to get buried... if you're looking to network along faith/religious lines, try posting a meetup in the meetup forum.