Leadership: The 14 Success Principles of JobSample

Introduction.

The story of Job is the story of a successful entrepreneur unlike any other in the Bible. But it is also a story of loss and suffering such as you never want to endure.

In summary, the story goes like this: Job was building his business, extending his leadership, and being greatly rewarded for his efforts. Then, one day, God allows Satan to test Job and in the space of a single day, Job loses all his children, his businesses, and his wealth.

Despite his loss, Job maintains his integrity, rejecting advice from his wife and friends to blame God. Job’s reaction to his disaster reveals his true character – check this out and compare it to how you might react to such loss:

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”  – Job 1:20-21

A reaction to a disaster often reveals the weaknesses in a person’s true character – but in this case, God has only good things to say, and still boasts about Job as a man after his own heart:

There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.  – Job 2:3

You probably know that Job stays the track throughout his hardship and that God restores Job’s family and business fortunes after his trials have passed:

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.  – Job 42:10

But what you probably don’t know is that Job reveals the key business and leadership principles he lived by right in the middle of the book, Job chapter 31. There, Job lays out fourteen key business and leadership principles before his friends and before God, challenging them to find any fault with how he conducted himself.

In this set of readings, we uncover each of Job’s principles for business and leadership and compare these to the other teachings of the Bible for application to your business and leadership today.

Job gained God’s favor by following these fourteen principles – can we challenge you to do the same?

Reflection / Application   

1. Do you have a list of guiding business and leadership principles?  Write down your top principles for comparison to Job’s list over the next fourteen readings.   
2. Things went really bad for Job, and yet he praised God. Are you able to do the same when things don’t go so well for you?