How does exercising Christian principles play a part in running a successful business while operating within state and federal regulations?
Christian principles that include loving your neighbor, obeying God, forgiveness, loving your enemies, professing Jesus as the Lord and savior, tithing, and repentance can play a critical part in running a business under local and national regulations. First, the need to always love your neighbors and forgive people that wrong, you can conflict with some strategic business interests of maintaining a competitive edge over business rivals. A business often faces the need to understand and guard against competitive risks, including firms that can exploit legal loopholes on intellectual property rights as a strategy for replicating products or brands and out-competing their business rivals. One can always obey God by following the law and trusting Jesus Christ to intervene in exceptional situations, provide knowledge, and win difficult cases.
The effects of cutthroat business practices can be severe for businesses with nationwide operations. A business owner that practices forgiving their neighbors soon finds themselves needing a better understanding of the ramifications as they move from localized effects of cutthroat competition to the widespread impacts at the national level. Similarly, tithing returns from hundreds of business units still struggling to meet their tax obligations may appear like a financial burden. In all such cases, one can always repent for being preoccupied with worldly pursuits and believe in God to take over as we strive to live a courageous and principled life. It shows that Christian principles still apply in running a successful business, including when operating within state or federal regulations.
What are some of the unique strategic challenges that Christian universities face?
The first strategic challenge that Christian universities face is stiff competition from public and private universities. The government strongly supports public universities through public funding, and they often have a large student population that also pays fees. Furthermore, public universities and secular private are also top-rated. They have provided the favored option for most people to pursue public education and attract students of different religious backgrounds, which enriches the institutions’ talent base and reputation. Christian universities appeal to specific demography of students that believe in Christianity or tolerate the Christian faith.
How has the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic crisis impacted your life?
The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced my opportunities for leading a social life, which has made me feel some social disconnect in my home town and school. I had to cope with finding new indoor hobbies and learn to maintain virtual social connections. Overall, the pandemic has impacted my social life and taught me to be more engaged in my self-growth.
Has it altered your perspective on day-to-day life? Family/Friends? Religion? Business?
The pandemic has altered my perspective on day-to-day life by forcing me to reconsider how I view family. I realized that family is the most important social institution, and we need to invest more time in building connections at the family level. The pandemic has not affected my religion or business pursuits.
What will be the one thing you tell your grandchildren or future generations in 30+years?
The one thing that I will tell my grandchildren is that the usual social order that we see in our busy daily life can end in an unprecedented way. We should always have good relationships with our loved ones as the ultimate fallback.