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The word “entrepreneur” hadn’t come up in the conversation, but now Goines found himself thinking about his grandson, who wanted to be a successful entrepreneur. His grandson was only a few years younger than the young business consultant, and Goines got to wondering whether the consultant ever counseled young entrepreneurs. Might he be willing to talk with Goines’ grandson?
One conjecture followed another – and maybe the many churches they drove past in rural Virginia helped – until a rather odd entrepreneurial “opportunity” popped into Goines’ head.
Obviously, since there were so many churches, there might be – probably was? – a market for an alternative sort of church, one that would retain Jesus, but a repackaged, re-branded Jesus – a secular church, with a loving, caring, fully human Jesus, not a church in which you worshipped deities or tried to commune with the supernatural, but a place you could find help in dealing with personal life problems. And help others deal with theirs.
| Stony Creek Jesus Support Center |
Goines realized how little he actually knew about support groups, even how many sorts there were. The only support group he had ever attended was “group therapy,” to deal with a deep depression following a particularly high manic high.
The population of people in need of support was probably huge. It might be nearly 100% of the population, really, when it came right down to it. Loss and sadness, disappointment and longing were as common as sunburn. And everyone could benefit from helping others.
Existing churches (if the right “pastor” came along, or an entrepreneur to buy the old one out) might rebrand themselves that way – even evangelical churches, since needing to convince others was a common human trait. An entrepreneur of evangelical Jesus support centers could advertise their “revolutionary new way” of reaching out to others.
Might Goines’ grandson himself be interested is this particular entrepreneurial opportunity? Might the young business consultant be willing to pursue it with him, brainstorm, strategize?
Goines would expect no fee for the idea, would just want to be kept in the loop, be told how things were coming along, how his grandson was doing, whether the young consultant was prospering.
Hey, Goines wondered, could he himself have become a consultant to entrepreneurs?
Huh? He finally heard Mrs. Goines’ voice coming from beside him.
“You missed that turn-off.”
“You missed that turn-off.”
| Copyright © 2021 by Moristotle |
I think it fortuitous that today’s “ inspiring quote” in my email inbox should be this:
ReplyDeleteNo act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. — Aesop
Before he gained fame as a storyteller, Aesop was an enslaved worker in Greece in the sixth century BCE. After he was granted his freedom, legend has it the Greek fabulist traveled the land sharing narratives that would last through the ages, including “The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and “The Tortoise and the Hare.” This quote summarizes the moral of Aesop’s fable “The Lion and the Mouse.” In the tale, a lion catches a fast-talking mouse who insists that he might someday be useful to the lion. Laughing, the lion does him the kindness of sparing his life. Later, the mouse happens upon the lion shortly after the great beast has been caught in the net of a hunter. The mouse chews through the ropes of the net, setting the lion free and saving his life.