“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Gen 1:28

OK. The basic business model is laid out in four parts…

1. Be fruitful: Create a self-replicable product or service of high quality and value.
2. Multiply: Create the systems necessary to efficiently and effectively recreate that model in multiple markets.
3. Fill the earth: Develop effective and reliable methods of distributorship. This should involve symbiotic and mutualistic relationships.
4. Subdue it: Dominate your market. Control the sphere in which you do business. Lead. Set your vision to be the head and not the tail in the markets you are in.

Now, here’s the bonus lesson. It’s actually in three parts. After God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, He adds the idea of having dominion over three other areas. I do believe we are to take that text literally. However, I am also looking for an application to help me succeed in the first four steps.

Consider this… Have dominion over the fish. I believe fish which are in the deep places can be a picture of our deeper, lower nature which we are to have dominion over. This would include appetites of all kinds which are very real and must always be held in subjugation lest we throw our lives away or become ineffective due to poor health.

Consider well the words of Jacob on his death bed when he called his sons together to speak a blessing over them. When he came to Reuben, he said, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it: he went up to my couch.” Jacob had great hopes for his firstborn, but because of Reuben’s lack of control over his lower nature (Gen 35:22) he would never amount to anything. Selah.

Note to those in Southwest Florida: David G. Johnson is hosting an intimate gathering of marketplace warriors who want to successfully market their business. It will be this Saturday, September 27^th. I assure you, it will be well worth your time to attend. Click here for details…

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it:” Gen 1:28

Four things. Simple, yet profoundly important for succeeding
in business. Rule number one was to be fruitful. Create
something of excellence, worthy of duplication. Create
something others would want. The better you are at step one,
the more important step two becomes.

Step two is multiply. Don’t try to multiply the franchise,
the product, the service until it is first of all proven to
be fruitful as a stand alone. Once it is proven, you are
ready to multiply. The secret to multiplication is systems.
The better the system, the faster you can multiply. Go back
about 100 years ago when there were hundreds of car
manufacturers in America. They would work hard all day
crafting an original masterpiece of a car. The next day they
would do it all over again. They weren’t multiplying – they
were adding!

Along comes Henry what’s his name and he streamlined the
manufacturing process based on Adam Smith’s economic
philosophy outlined in The Wealth of Nations, where men
focused on one aspect of the production and left the rest to
others. The work was terribly mundane but the pay was the
best in the country and the Ford motor car became the best
selling automobile in the country.

If you have been fruitful with an idea and it is working for
you, it may be time to multiply. If it is, you will need to
set up systems for sales, marketing, accounting,
communication, etc that integrate with each other. If you
need a little help transitioning to the multiplication
phase, drop me a line. I am introducing a coaching program
in a few weeks aimed at helping people do just that and a
lot more.

Speaking of multiplying… last week in Austin, I met a couple
of kingdom minded internet entrepreneurs who are widely
respected for their accomplishments and their walk with God.
One of them, Matt Gillogly has been very successful in
coaching people and shared with me that he is having a three
day event for a small group of folks interested in learning
how to do what he does. I believe the attendance is limited
to about 25 because he will be recording this entire
program.

There will be no pitches for product or upsell to additional
services. Just three days of training on how to run a
successful coaching business. I plan to attend because I
want to know the best methods, systems and technologies
available to help me provide coaching to many of you
beginning in October. If you are a coach or considering that
as a career, you might want to check it out. Maybe I will
see you there. It’s October 2 – 4 in Charlotte, NC.