It’s 8:30 pm and you’re still at the office. You know you need to get home but tomorrow is a big day. 

It’s 8:30 pm and you’re still at the office. You know you need to get home but tomorrow is a big day. A key client is expecting a large proposal and you’ve already pushed them back once. They’ll probably move on to another solution if you ask for more time and you really need this account because sales have been soft. To make maters more challenging, it’s your anniversary and needless to say, the wife isn’t thrilled that you had to cancel your dinner plans.

After all, it’s your 20th anniversary so it’s a big milestone. Caring for your wife and family can’t keep taking a back seat to the business. Queue the increased blood pressure. Any of this sound familiar? 

Every business owner has been in this position probably more often than we like. At times, it seems more normal to work late than to go home on time. In the back of our minds, we like to pretend we’ll get to some imaginary plateau where things will level out and then our schedule will get more manageable. Then I’ll take my boy fishing. Then I’ll schedule that weekend away with my wife. 

Man…can’t wait for that. Well guess what, that day will probably never come because the reality of business is that success creates more work, more complexity and more demands on your time. At least in my experience, Time doesn’t magically appear in your schedule as your business grows. So how do you juggle it? Do you have to choose between a healthy family and business success? I believe the answer to that is a resounding no and below we’ll unpack why. 

Building a Flourishing Company is Good and Right 

Just to be clear as we move ahead, a healthy, successful, thriving company is a blessing. We at Speiro are pro-business and pro-work. A solid work ethic is an important character atribute in life. Paul has strong words for the lazy person so we’re not promoting neglecting your business or being irresponsible about what God has given you to steward. We should work hard, unto the Lord, and go home tired and ready to do it again the next day. This article is not meant to be interpreted as an excuse to work less or throw in the towel every day at 4:59. Long hours and late nights are often what it takes to create something great. So hard work is good and necessary. Now that we’re clear on that let’s move on to look at how we balance all this out.

Hard Work Verses Obsession 

This point must be understood, and you have to get this. This is the truth you have to grasp, or you will struggle to discern whether you are working hard unto the Lord or whether you’ve put your business on a pedestal. You can work hard, and it can be good. Conversely you can work hard, and it be a sin. How can it be both? Because of the heart and because of priorities.

It’s 8:30 pm and you’re still at the office. You know you need to get home but tomorrow is a big day. 

It’s 8:30 pm and you’re still at the office. You know you need to get home but tomorrow is a big day. A key client is expecting a large proposal and you’ve already pushed them back once. They’ll probably move on to another solution if you ask for more time and you really need this account because sales have been soft. To make maters more challenging, it’s your anniversary and needless to say, the wife isn’t thrilled that you had to cancel your dinner plans.

Get this…hard work that is rooted in faith and a desire to advance the Kingdom will be much less likely to fall into the trap of neglecting your family because you’ve decided ahead of time that you’re not working for the almighty dollar, you’re working for the flourishing of the Kingdom which your family is part of. Being about the Kingdom goes hand in hand with being about family. That doesn’t mean there aren’t late nights, but you’ll have a distinct sense of conscience that tells you when enough is enough and when to simply give it to the Lord and go home and love on your kids. Hard work is good. Anxiety driven work is not. Hard work is good. Loving money is not. Hard work is good. Consistently ignoring your conscience about what is most important is not. You must get this straight in your mind or you’ll fool yourself into believing all your efforts are for the right reasons when its possible they aren’t.   

Seek First the Kingdom 

In my opinion this concept is the rudder that informs the rest of our decision-making paterns around how we prioritize our time. It’s the boulder that everything else must pivot around. It creates a bearing that we consistently use to check our headway and our trajectory. And the beauty is that it’s a very simple gauge. Mathew 6:33 is clear. No complicated formulas required here. Do one thing first, make it a priority and then focus on whatever is second in line. Pursue the Kingdom. That’s first. Pretty simple. And what’s great about this command is that God promises he’ll help us with all the other stuff if we get the order right. You say, what’s “the other stuff” that God will help with? The other stuff is your needs. The things God knows you need to have in this life. Its your business, your job, your finances, your food, your housing, your clothing and whatever else God has designed us to need while on this planet. God promises that if we prioritize Him first, that he’ll take care of us. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have looking out for me than God. He spoke this world into existence, so I feel prety good about his ability to provide for my needs in this life. 

So what does it mean to seek first His Kingdom? Primarily, it means we are to prioritize salvation for ourselves and others because it is of greater value than anything else we can pursue.

Does this mean that we should neglect the business that helps to sustain our lives? Definitely not. But for the vertically minded business owner, there should be a difference in attitude and priority.

If we are taking care of God’s business as a priority—seeking Him, living in obedience to Him, and sharing the good news of the Kingdom with others—then He will take care of our business as He promised—and if that’s the arrangement, where is worrying? Where is the anxiety that drives me to obsess over the outcome of my company and keeps me at the office late?

You’ll Never Regret Prioritizing Your family. But You Might Regret it if You Don’t 

There are a few people I know that have the gift of foresight. My brother is one of them. I’m not talking about having a good grasp of what’s coming down the road in a few years. I’m talking about the kind of foresight that shapes behavior 15, 20 even 30 years ahead of time. Real conviction to make changes now so that the future you want come to fruition. Foresight tells us if we neglect our family and our faith, bad things will probably happen. So why live like that won’t happen? Keep the important thing out front. In the end, none of us will wish we had stayed longer at the office. No one on their death bed wishes they’d have clocked just a few more hours at work. No one. Prioritizing our business over the Kingdom and over family shows poor foresight. But if you have good foresight, you will not look back and regret how you allocated your time between your family and your business.

Seek first His Kingdom and you will have no regrets. 

How Do We Stay on Course 

How do we change this pattern? We change it by changing the voices that are informing our decision making. If the voices you’re listening to are primarily your own, void of any helpful outside influence, you will consistently find yourself in a rut, repeating the same behaviors over and over. However, if you’re seeking wisdom, finding outside counsel and expanding your knowledge base you will be more informed and more apt to make wiser, more wholistic decisions that take into account your whole life picture. For instance, at Grace City Church (where I atend) we have an arm of our ministry called Stronger Men. At Stronger Men we are constantly being encouraged to be better men, better fathers, better providers, better husbands and taught that how we lead our homes matters. That’s huge! 

If the only voices that let into my life are all about money making strategies, self-help, marketing tactics, sales strategies and other business-oriented material then guess what I’ll be focused on…probably just my business right? On the other hand, if I’m balancing the voices in my life and making room for the Word, for godly, mature input and for content that encourages me in my faith, then I’m much less likely to fall into the rut of obsessing over my business and neglecting my family. Make time for wisdom. Make time for a balance of counsel that helps you keep the main thing the main thing. 

Level 5 Leaders Often go Home at 5:00 

One of my all-time favorite books on business is Good to Great by Jim Collins. The book takes a close look at what makes companies go from being just good companies to being great companies. In the book, the authors find an interesting pattern. In many of the companies that achieved greatness they see that a good number of the level 5 leaders (CEO’s) actually make a habit of going home at 5:00. They were disciplined in their time allocation and subsequently found time for their home life. This is counter to the image we have of highly successful CEO’s today. In fact, it’s considered a badge of honor to work 12 to 16 hours and barely have a life outside of their company. If you aren’t on your second divorce then you haven’t work hard enough. But does it really have to be that way? Clearly from Jim Collins’ research the answer is no.

If you're disciplined and prioritize you can navigate his tension between work and family. 

When you prioritize something that you want to see happen, that thing has a way of coming to fruition. And often, all the other stuff of life has a way of molding itself around that priority and we figure out how to get it all done. It’s amazing how this works. If your mindset is focused on ensuring you find time to put the Kingdom and your family first, you will also find that you are more efficient with your business responsibilities and figure out how to get them done in the time remaining. However, if you don’t put a placeholder in your schedule for these important things, you will find that time gets aways from you and you find yourself filling your day and your evenings with the same amount of work, only it gets stretched out because you’ve licensed yourself to work longer hours because you haven’t put brackets around your time. It’s the intentionality around our schedule and finding time for what we value that is the secret to not only doing the work you need to do but also finding time for family and the Kingdom. 

You Don’t Have to Choose

To answer our original question, you don’t have to choose between a healthy family and a successful business. You can absolutely have both if you are intentional, disciplined and place your faith in God for the outcome. You have to trust that being obedient to God’s command will ultimately be a better path than going your own way.

You don’t have to choose between a healthy family and a successful business.

Even though the business world is full of people who will sacrifice their family at the alter of success, it doesn’t mean you have to or even that it’s necessary in order to build something great. You can have both. The Lord says so. God is responsible for the outcome.

Our job is to our priorities straight, work hard and let Him do the rest. Give it a try.