| REAL Corporate Heros? |
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I hasn't happened happened at..., well I was going to name a big company, but I won't. We read a lot today about corporate heros with their stretch limos, billion dollar incomes and philanthropy without great self-sacrifice. Now, I do admire them for their diligence and tenacity in a dog-eat-dog world. But, they are not the great heros of the world. I would really like to know if there are any TRUE heros out there, like a corporate boss who became poor so that his employees would live a better life. Are there such people? I hope there are.
Every now and then we read about those who have dropped out of the world of glamor to go paint pictures or retired to live in a cabin in the woods, but that is not heroic either. That is just as selfish as the folks who pay minimum wages at ... so they can live in castles.
Perhaps you believe that I am being unreasonable. Perhaps that is only something that weirdos like missionaries and Mother Theresa types do. Perhaps this is just a pipe dream or a Communist plot to dream that some corporate big wigs could do the same, continue to run their companies for the benefit of others and live a life of self-sacrificial poverty. Rather than graze on each and every employee like a cow does on grass, they are genuinely there to enrich each and every employee's family. I believe that it is just what Jesus did and I would really love to know if there are any people out there in the global community who are doing what Jesus did -- making themselves poor so that others might become rich. 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. |
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| February 21, 2008 |
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| There are some - a few - not many. |
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| February 22, 2008 |
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I'm sure there are. I heard of a Christian guy who sold his company and gave millions away to his most faithful, long time former employees. Most of us think that we "deserve" the big incomes and I even have a Pentecostal friend who think that tithing makes him "deserve" more than his employees, and besides, he says, "they wouldn't know what to do" with a bigger income.
I am a little saddened by articles which tell the stories of wealthy Christians who may have developed a large donut or chicken chain, and the dearth of articles telling of Christians who developed a large business which provides an income for thousands of families, and yet the owner lives a self-sacrificial life, rather than one of self-indulgence. |
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| February 23, 2008 |
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| The one I'm most familiar with is Dave Thomas of Wendy's. Dave was adopted. After Wendy's began to take off, he donated much of his personal funds to adoption services and advertising to help find homes for children. He was quite a guy. (btw: my wife's brother went to school with the real "Wendy") |
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| February 25, 2008 |
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| That would be the kind of thing I am talking about. What kind of personal and financial sacrifices did such a person make for his employees, or did they just receive a little while their tithe-paying entrepreneur boss lived a life of self-indulgent luxury? |
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| November 09, 2009 |
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[star!] | Far more common are the stories of folks who went from rags to riches and became greedy jerks. Paul didn't write that money is a root of all kinds of evil for nuthin. :-) |
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| November 09, 2009 |
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who do you think is more blessed - the one who depends on his riches for happiness or the one who has little and so he is forced to depend on the Lord for his provision/s. isn't there a proverb that says the rich man is cursed. Well i know HE said blessed are the poor. I say the rich man is a fool because he rests on his riches thinking they make him a great man. What will these rich people do when the dollar is so worthless it buys NOTHING! |
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| November 09, 2009 |
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| Mike and Love, great comments! Thanks! |
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