How to serve God and business simultaneously.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent out in a clearing-my-shelves book box.

Will save for my Christian Literature book box.

Releasing into the box today.

This looks pretty interesting; I will add it to my TBR pile.

There were many excellent points in this book, and I feel like I learned quite a bit even though my gut instinct always seemed to think, just a tiny bit, that Pollard's essays still put a bit more importance on the business than on God. But one of my struggles has always been to integrate my faith into my daily 'business' life, and Pollard's book definitely gave me some ideas and helped stimulate thought on subjects I never gave much thought to before.

One of the phrases repeated again and again is ServiceMaster's (the organization Pollard works for, or did when he wrote the book) mission statement: to honor God in all we do, to help people develop, to pursue excellence, and to grow profitably. I repeat this to myself several times a day while at work, to remind myself that profit comes last because I should be focusing on how best to serve my co-workers and customers, and not on money. Yet because I was hired to sell at my job, and I want to do my work to the best of my ability, I can never remove profitability from my personal work goals.

Random points taken from the book:
- Seeking to honor God is the end goal. Profit and business are a means goal. The end justifies the means. If, in our business lives, we are working to bring glory to God first and foremost, and our business practices reflect His standards and rules for living, then we are not serving two masters.

- God should not be considered separate from the "secular" life of business. He is to be the focus of life always. You can't have a religious life and a secular life; you only have one and it is when you try to separate them that you begin to serve "two masters" and ultimately, because no one can serve two masters, you fail to serve God.

- To manage is, essentially, to get right things done by the right people. However, one shouldn't forget that it is also a process to help employees grow. The people should always come first over the tasks they are doing.

- Leadership is about serving. Don't ask others to do what you wouldn't do yourself. The uppermost leaders of an organization should never lose touch with what they put their ground-level employees through. At Service Master, each executive in an office must put in one day a year (or was it once a month?) at the "front-line" cleaning or working at an entry-level position so that they can truly know the needs of both customers and employees.

- Compensation should represent fair distribution of company results. One of the best business stories I've ever heard was when a certain backpack/handbag maker (I want to say it was Timbuk2 but I'm not sure that's right. It was a San Francisco-based company, anyway.) had profits above and beyond their expectations, so when the company was sold a huge bonus was handed out to every employee. It wasn't just upper management. It wasn't just management. Everyone was included, because even the seamstresses who stitched the bags together or the sales associate who helped sell the bags were part of the company and helped make it successful. That company culture is rare, and any company that takes on that mantle is truly blessed.

- Interesting statement: Without God we cannot, without us God does not.

The book gave me a lot to think about. It wasn't always very interesting - I couldn't read more than one or two essays a day - but I think it was important because it planted new considerations into my mind that will help me grow as a Christian.

RELEASE NOTES:

sent to elizardbreath to help start her Christian Book Box :)

Received this today...thanks! Will start the box on it's journey after Thanksgiving!

Note: notice the date that I first had this book...funny! :)

RELEASE NOTES:

Releasing into my Christian Lit. Bookbox.

Hello again, little book!

--

This book will be enjoying a brief stay in San Jose, CA before continuing on its travels in the Christian Book Box!

Arrived in ElizardBreath's Christian Book Box (Link). We didn't choose to keep this one, so we put it back in the box. It's just waiting to be mailed as soon as we get the next person's address!

May 23, 2008: Sent in Elizardbreath's Christian-Themed BookBox (Link) to KSReader today via media mail ... Groan! Poor Mail carrier! Delivery COnfirmation # 0305 0830 0002 5734 5591

This came home in my Christian Lit. bookbox today.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taking to my Bible study on Friday to see if anyone would like to have it.

To the finder of this book:

This book is gift, no strings attached, from me to you. You may keep it forever, pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild to be found by someone else.

If you are new to BookCrossing, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join us...it's free! If you do, please consider using me, elizardbreath, as your referring member. You can even remain anonymous if you wish!

If you are in the Pendleton, Oregon area, I'd love for you to check out my Official BookCrossing Zone at Whitey's Carmel Corn on the corner of Main and Court streets. Upstairs, you'll find a whole shelf full of books that you can choose from for free---and even leave some of your own!

I hope you'll make a brief journal entry so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey.

Thanks, and Happy BookCrossing! :)