Wednesday, June 29, 2005
JC the VC
Last night I was reading "Raising a Modern-Day Knight" page 90-91 on how one man (Bill) approached a stranger (Jim) with Jesus as the King:
Jim: "What do you do?"
Bill: [...] "I do a number of things but the most exciting thing I do is work for a King." [...]
Jim: "From the Middle East?"
Bill: "As a matter of fact, He is. He's very wealthy and very powerful." [...] "this King is quite mysterious." [...]
Jim: "What do you do for this king?"
Bill: "I guess you could say I'm freelance agent; I go wherever He sends me. This King also has a book that's a worldwide bestseller."
This morning it hit me: in today's terms, Jesus is the most powerful and wealthy venture capitalist (VC) in the world. He does own it all (Ps 24) but He also invested all that He had in His disciples: time, reputation, His death. And He commanded His disciples to invest and multiply (Mat 28:18-20). He also gave the promise of infinite ROI (return on investment) -- see Mat 6:19-21. No VC's can guarantee that!
He's also the most prolific author: Not only the Bible, but He's got many "ghost" writers working for Him. And the ghost writers aren't necessarily Christians. Some authors, like that donkey in Num 22:30, write for Him in spite of themselves.
He's also very mysterious: some may only know and use His name as a curse word, some are confused about Him because of their upbringing and/or their teaching. Many of those who profess to be Christians (I'm one of them) aren't always clear on who Jesus is because they were never properly discipled (converted and moved on).
UPDATE: here's some background on this posting. I'm in the process of looking for a new job as my current project winds down. Earlier this week, I've had a phone interview with a CEO of this small startup and he is a venture capitalist (VC) who decided to roll up his sleave and invest not only his money but his time as well. I've worked at other small companies with VC funding but not where the personal stakes (reputation and time, on top of the money already invested) are involved.
Jim: "What do you do?"
Bill: [...] "I do a number of things but the most exciting thing I do is work for a King." [...]
Jim: "From the Middle East?"
Bill: "As a matter of fact, He is. He's very wealthy and very powerful." [...] "this King is quite mysterious." [...]
Jim: "What do you do for this king?"
Bill: "I guess you could say I'm freelance agent; I go wherever He sends me. This King also has a book that's a worldwide bestseller."
This morning it hit me: in today's terms, Jesus is the most powerful and wealthy venture capitalist (VC) in the world. He does own it all (Ps 24) but He also invested all that He had in His disciples: time, reputation, His death. And He commanded His disciples to invest and multiply (Mat 28:18-20). He also gave the promise of infinite ROI (return on investment) -- see Mat 6:19-21. No VC's can guarantee that!
He's also the most prolific author: Not only the Bible, but He's got many "ghost" writers working for Him. And the ghost writers aren't necessarily Christians. Some authors, like that donkey in Num 22:30, write for Him in spite of themselves.
He's also very mysterious: some may only know and use His name as a curse word, some are confused about Him because of their upbringing and/or their teaching. Many of those who profess to be Christians (I'm one of them) aren't always clear on who Jesus is because they were never properly discipled (converted and moved on).
UPDATE: here's some background on this posting. I'm in the process of looking for a new job as my current project winds down. Earlier this week, I've had a phone interview with a CEO of this small startup and he is a venture capitalist (VC) who decided to roll up his sleave and invest not only his money but his time as well. I've worked at other small companies with VC funding but not where the personal stakes (reputation and time, on top of the money already invested) are involved.
