Entrepreneur Bishop TD Jakes

Small Business Blog 

Bishop TD Jakes was on the Breakfast Club power 105.1 radio show sharing his new book “Soar, Entrepreneurship & Guiding the Millennial's”. His philosophy on Entrepreneurship and his insights on success are very interesting.

 Bishop TD JAKES the Entrepreneur believes in the power of prayer, stating “if I’m on the roof, [in a storm] pray for me, but throw me a rope, a heavy rope then pray for me “, his point was faith without work is futile. Entrepreneurship is just that, lots of hard work, faith, and prayer.

Bishop TD JAKES the Entrepreneur pointed out the word “graduation is rooted in the word gradual, as in keeping your eye on the next step, with gradual measured growth, having respect for where you are, remembering that you have to respect where you are if you want to be where you dream to be, otherwise, you wont make it to where you are going.

 Bishop TD JAKES said “I am grateful for the time that proceeded the wealth I have now” his struggle included many different jobs and tasks, cook, chef, janitor, and other menial jobs to survive, his struggles including having his lights turned off. He believes if you don’t build it yourself you are not tough enough to run it yourself and that common sense goes a long way. The prime commodity is time, anyone can give you money, but nobody can give you back the time you spent or wasted, the “present moment” is the true value of what we own.

Over time Bishop TD JAKES learned to redefine his definition of happy, whether it was somebody or someplace that made him happy, he decided not to forget to take the time to do make himself happy. I found interesting his comments that you should build relationships with your competition, so you know what’s going on in your space and you never know when you might need to partner with a competitor or to sell your business to a competitor. He is right, building a relationship with your competition is a good strategy for many reasons.

The Bishop’s efforts today are to build economic empowerment, teaching others how to do business, building them from the ground up, he noted by the way that both his parents were Entrepreneurs.

He stated that you should endeavor to make a difference if you go into a small business and that you should know that success is cyclical, to be successful you have to be on top of your business.

 Bishop TD JAKES’s book title was a tip of the hat to the Wright Brothers, it was written sort of analogous to the Wright Brothers’ attempt to build an airplane in a bicycle shop. The Entrepreneur Bishop shared that his father died when he was sixteen, he was the youngest of his siblings, the pain of his father’s death was incredible to bear. His father’s life was a chaotic life, his dad had 52 employees, he brought a hustling attitude into all his multiple business environments. Just because you have a tent does not mean you should go into the tent business. However, according to the Entrepreneur Bishop, when your back is against the wall is when you fight the hardest.

 The Breakfast Club POWER 105.1 Hosts briefly discussed the pulpit pimps trying to make a business out of hustling the church, but he rationalized that there are bad businesses in every type of business. He chose the Wright Brothers as a comparison because they chose to do a thing that nobody else was doing at the time and it was very bold to even imagine being in the air as a mode of transportation.

 Like flying, people who build a small business take a leap of faith and work hard. What we now know as transportation was a dream of the Wright Brothers. He noted also that more women of color are taking the leap of faith and going into small business very fast but leaving very fast because there is nobody to mentor them, they need a coach, like the Wright Brothers you have to hit the right wind at the right time, they launched at Kitty Hawk because the wind was right there instead of Ohio where they were from.

Bishop TD JAKES shared with the Breakfast Club POWER 105.1 Hosts that you can’t just wait for the perfect opportunity or just the right time, like the Wright Brothers, you have to strike when the wind is right, you have to use what you have; the Wright Brothers had no equipment, no resources, but what is important is they used what they had.

 Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity or perfect conditions, you have to use what you’ve got. The Wright Brothers did not even have an education in the area that they needed in order to be successful, yet in spite of those variables they became successful, Bishop TD JAKES quoted John Maxwell as saying if you know how to do something you will always have a job, but if you know why they do it, they will always work for you , “people who go into a small business because they need money are more apt to go out of business than those that don’t, however people that go into to a small business to meet other people’s needs are much more successful, you dont have to talk me into something I have a need for, you don’t have to market as hard if there is a need”.

Bishop TD JAKES admonished the Breakfast Club POWER 105.1 audience to be purpose driven not profit driven, if you are purpose driven the profits will follow you , if you are profit driven you will always be hustling , he advised that before you go into a business that you should study everything you can about the small business you want to go into, buy every kind of magazine and book on the subject so you know what you are talking about .

Get yourself around the type of people that are doing what you want to do before you start the small business, he says that every small business a has a culture , those unspoken rules, don’t be afraid to get in at ground zero to get information, then put your team together, “ you can’t do it without the right team”.

Bishop TD JAKES insisted that to be really successful you should gather all the information and the right team, build a good team, don’t build a team that will compete with you, don’t build a team with people that do what you do, don’t build a team with people that can’t complete you, build a team with people that accessorize your limitations, you have to be good enough at what you do to know what you are not good at, most people are too egotistical to know what they are not good at so they don’t build the right team and they try to be the master of everything. 

The Bishop advised that you should come up with the concept, develop the concept, share it after you get your non-disclosure agreements then form your team and launch your dream, success is a process, he noted people tend to advertise their success but not their struggle, so millennials think it is easy. He shared that one of the worst mistakes an entrepreneur can make is to underestimate their opponent or competitor, and by the way, always know that investors will always ask how much you have invested in your own small business, you have to be fully invested yourself, faith without work is dead.

I enjoyed the Bishop’s take on asking God to do what you have to do; however, you should pray with one hand and work with the other hand. Faith without works is dead. Remember, Bishop Jakes says that graduation is rooted in the word gradual, and that people have to have respect for the future, without having an eye on the present or the past if you don’t have respect for where you are you won’t get to where you are going , gradual is to start small to finish big , common sense goes a long way to understanding the material you are exposed to , in the pursuit of your dreams deal with your reality as well. Remember that Bishop Jakes says, “don’t waste time because time is your most valuable possession, don’t take time for granted, it is easier to waste money than to waste time, you can’t get time back, but you can get money back”. He repeated one of his most interesting pearls of wisdom is “build a relationship with your competition, so you know what’s happening in your business, know your competition well, you may have to partner with them one day so don’t hate your competition”.

I typically did not see preachers as Entrepreneurs but after listening to the Entrepreneur Bishop TD Jakes I really see it differently. He shared his struggles with getting started having only seven church members for many years, and less than 100 members for over ten years before he really took off to become the successful small business man he is today with media, products, movies, and programs. 

Entrepreneurs like Bishop TD JAKES are creating the pathway for others to follow.

The Breakfast Club POWER 105.1 and Bishop TD JAKES

Darryl King

Small Business Blog