On Day 3 God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good. Let the earth bring forth vegetation, the plants yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”

Thus begins our model for an operating strategy. On Day 3, God introduces us to land, seas, vegetation and fruit trees. Four distinct things which all had a purpose in the making and timing of their appearance in the business God called Planet Earth. They speak to four very important business concepts:

1. Enter into Work
2. Invest K.A.S.H.
3. Harvest Short Term Opportunities
4. While Developing Long Term, Larger Opportunities

If you’re going to enter into work, you need to Plan Your Work:

“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Gen 2:15 Any farmer knows that before he works the land, he has to plan when to sow, what to sow, how much, etc. This plan goes into much detail. They say if you fail to plan, you plan to fail; yet planning is one thing most people think they are too busy for. A little bit of planning can save far more time and expense than it requires, but most of us prefer to fly by the seat of our pants. As a result, we get kicked in the rear end more than those who plan.

It’s a fact, that people spend more time planning their vacation than they do their retirement. How much sense does that make? Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. That was before we sinned. Planning is part of God’s strategy and should be one of ours. Plan your work.

So far, we have covered the first two days of creation and what they speak to the business person. Day 1: “Let there be light” speaks of the importance of vision. Day 2: “And God created the heavens” speaks to the important issue of determining guiding principles that you and your team will use to make decisions. Now we begin with Day 3: “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Remember what I said recently about reading all of the references on a topic to understand not only the obvious literal meaning, but also the usage of those literal things to explain concepts or eternal truths? Let’s start with “land,” which God made. We find that before God gave Adam a wife, He gave him a job. “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Gen 2:15)

One of the things land speaks of is work. Work is not part of the curse. It is a blessing and we will be doing it for eternity – and loving it! Jesus said, “My Father works still, and I work.” (John 5:17) In fact, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10 that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”  For our work to be fruitful and rewarding, we must first see it as a gift from God. Once we have that straight, we work as if directly employed by Him, because we are. (Eph 6:5)

The last of the 7 guiding principles we are going to examine from the “ways” of God found in Scripture is the one described by Habakkuk (3:6) as being “everlasting”. It immediately reminds me of that pink rabbit with the drum selling batteries. What does it mean to be everlasting? Well, that verse literally reads, “The ways of old are His”. What are the ways of old? They are the ancient paths that God ordained that are completely reliable and trustworthy. The wisdom on those paths, last; it does not change with time.

So how do we apply that to our business? Be consistent on things that matter. Yes, you will update your website and marketing pieces and products as technology and circumstances suggest, but be consistent on the eternal parts of what you deliver. These eternal things will continue with you through eternity, like excellence, kindness, generosity, truthfulness, etc.

In my town, there seem to be very few restaurants that deliver quality consistently. I don’t mind the menu changing, but I don’t want the standard to fluctuate wildly. One exception in our town is a place called Simons. It is a small, unobtrusive café that simply makes the best salads, soups, desserts and juice drinks on the planet. Did I mention the scones? If you want to eat lunch there, you’d better not go at lunch time unless you have time to spare; you will either end up eating on the sidewalk or in your car because the place is so popular. Adopt ways that are everlasting (consistent) and watch your customer base grow!

We are talking about applying mercy in the marketplace and specifically how we can make that a corporate value that we extend to our customers. Have you ever had a company extend a mercy to you that you didn’t deserve, but they helped you anyway? Maybe they got you out of a jam? What did that do to your sense of loyalty to that company? Can you see how it is a great value to choose as a corporate value?

Recently, a good customer of ours and a big fan of Selling Among Wolves told me that the cassette version of the Audio Coaching Program he had purchased years ago had inferior sound quality. He had never mentioned it before because he was happy with the content and now he didn’t even use a tape player. We had a 30 day return policy on any defective product and it had been several years. Imagine the surprise when a brand new set of CD’s arrived on his doorstop – no charge! Did we have to do that? Nope, but I’ll bet you Mark will continue to talk us up to all his professional colleagues for many more years to come.

Give your customers the benefit of the doubt. Give them what they don’t deserve. In other words, where possible, give them their money’s worth and then some! Extend mercy when you don’t have to and you will find mercy when you need it most. (Matt 5:7)