Lesson 5. Wisdom. Biblical foundational principles of financial well-being. Everyone who applies these principles will have financial provision for themselves and for serving others. This school was compiled by Dmitriy Leo, senior pastor of Father’s Blessing Church.
Wisdom helps us succeed.
Look at influential people. By talking with them, you can learn a great deal. One of the wisest and wealthiest people in history wrote something about wisdom.
Prov. 3:13–16: Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gains understanding, for gaining it is better than gaining silver, and its profit is greater than that of gold: it is more precious than jewels; [no evil can withstand it; it is well known to all who draw near to it,] and nothing you desire can compare with it. Long life is in its right hand; in its left hand are riches and honor; [truth comes from its mouth; it carries law and mercy on its tongue;]
Many people lack material well-being because they lack wisdom. At the same time, most of them work hard and work a lot, but their situation does not change. Once Solomon showed how wisdom can affect the outcome:
Eccl. 10:10: If the ax is dull and its blade is not sharpened, more strength is required, but wisdom brings success.
If you conduct business without wisdom, you will have to exert yourself, and such work will bring little benefit. However, wisdom makes any task easy and successful.
Most people will tell you that they lack money. Most businesspeople will tell you that they lack the finances needed to succeed in business. But according to the Bible, success requires wisdom, not finances. Stop looking for money—seek wisdom instead!
There are three ways to gain wisdom:
- Wisdom is gained through experience.
- Wisdom comes through learning.
- Wisdom comes as a gift from God.
This means that wisdom must be acquired through hard work and learning. Most importantly, we must ask God for wisdom.
James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach—and it will be given to him.
Examples
Some people start businesses that are doomed to fail even before they open. They rent a retail space of a certain size and fill it with goods that, even under ideal conditions, cannot cover the rent, let alone generate a profit.
Some farmers cultivate their small plots of land and plant crops that are inexpensive but require a great deal of time and effort. In the fall, they harvest their crops and rejoice that they saved $100 and grew something for themselves. Yes, that is good, but… If, on the same amount of land and with less time invested, your neighbor grew crops that earned him $1,000, he can easily buy what you grew for $100, while the remaining $900 will be his net profit.
Conclusion
Wisdom is one of the levers that can improve your financial situation.
Recommendations
- If your job has stopped being a blessing to you, change it. Don’t deceive yourself: your work should bring blessing.
- If you see no profit in your business, don’t call it a blessing. A business should generate profit.
- If you don’t like your job, change it. But if you like it, do it as well as you can. The time will come when your supervisors will notice you and give you a raise or promote you.
- If you lack wisdom, seek it from those who have it. There are always people who are ahead, and it is important to learn from them.
- Ask God for wisdom every day, before making any decisions or taking any action.
- Seek wisdom everywhere and in everything. Always keep learning and discovering new things. Instead of saying that you don’t know something, start learning what you don’t know.
- Become an attentive listener, and you will gain much wisdom!
Sayings of Wisdom
- People are not born wise; they become wise.
- Wisdom considers, then acts; foolishness acts without considering.
- Wrong knowledge is worse than ignorance.
- Working for pennies is not fate but a person’s choice.
- It is not the one who knows much who is wise, but the one who knows what is important.
- Fools throw money to the wind; the wise make money from the wind.
- Many complain about foolishness instead of seeking wisdom.
- A good business is one where you earn with your head, not your hands.
- Many say, “I can’t,” when in fact they simply don’t know.
- To become wise, you must not merely listen to the wise, but learn from them.
- Wisdom rewards a person, while foolishness ruins him.
Examples
How wisdom helped secure a profitable contract
A businessman was trying to secure an order to supply bread to one of the hotels. For four years, he visited the hotel director every week. He tried to attend every social gathering the director attended. He even rented rooms at the hotel and lived there, hoping to get his business deal. But it was all in vain. Then, after talking with wise people, the man realized that he needed to change his tactics—to find out what interested the hotel director and what he was most passionate about. Soon the businessman learned that the man was actively involved in the work of an international association of hotel owners. Wherever the association held its conventions, the director was sure to attend, even if it meant flying over mountains and crossing seas and deserts to get there.
So, when he met the director the next day, the businessman struck up a conversation with him about the association’s work. It was a bull’s-eye! For half an hour, the director spoke about his association in a voice trembling with excitement. Meanwhile, the businessman did not mention bread even once. Yet a few days later, a hotel employee called him and asked him to come with product samples and a price list. “I don’t know what you did to the old man,” he said, “but he doesn’t want to hear about anyone but you.” For four years, the businessman had been unsuccessfully shouting in the man’s ear that he wanted to receive an order from him, but once he acted with wisdom, everything happened very quickly.
The Suit, the Frustrated Businessman, and the Wise Manager
One day, a businessman bought a suit at a department store in a shopping center. Soon, however, the purchase disappointed him: the dye stained his shirt collar. Taking the suit, he went to the store and found the salesperson from whom he had bought it, then explained the problem. “We sell thousands of these suits,” the salesperson interrupted, “and this is the first complaint we’ve had ever.” In the midst of the dispute, a second salesperson approached. “All dark suits shed a little at first,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about it! It’s not a matter of the suit or the price; it’s simply the dye.”
By this point, the businessman had reached the boiling point: the first salesman had offended his sense of dignity, while the second had implied that he had bought an inferior product. The businessman was ready to throw the suit in their faces when the department manager unexpectedly approached. He knew his business. He completely changed the businessman’s mood, turning an angry man into a satisfied customer. How did he do it? Through three actions:
He listened to the customer’s story from beginning to end without saying a word. When the customer finished and the salesmen again began arguing that his complaint was unfounded, the manager took the customer’s side and convincingly contradicted them. He not only proved that the customer was right in saying that the suit stained his shirt, but also categorically denied that their store had ever sold low-quality goods. After that, he simply asked: “Please tell me, what should I do with your suit? I will do exactly that.” Just a few minutes earlier, the businessman had been ready to return the suit. But now he replied that he only wanted to know whether this was really a temporary problem and whether anything could be done about it. The department manager advised him to wear the suit for another week. “If it continues to stain your clothes, bring it back to us and we will exchange it,” he promised. “We are deeply sorry that we have caused you this inconvenience.” The businessman left the store satisfied. By the end of the week, the suit was completely fine, and his confidence in the store was fully restored.
The manager knew his business, and through wisdom completely changed the businessman’s mood, turning an angry man into a satisfied customer.
The Angry Customer and the Wise Manager
One morning, an angry customer was raging in the office of a wool company. He supposedly owed fifteen dollars, but denied it, while the office insisted that he was mistaken. After receiving numerous letters from the company’s credit department, he returned to the office and stormed into the manager’s office to announce that he would not only refuse to pay the bill, but would never order even a dollar’s worth of goods from the company again. The manager patiently listened to the customer, giving him an opportunity to finish speaking. When the customer finally cooled down and regained the ability to take anything in, the manager calmly said: “I want to thank you for coming and telling me about this.”
The Angry Customer and the Wise Manager
“You have done me a great favor, because if our department has caused you trouble, it may cause trouble for other good customers as well. And that would be truly unfortunate! Believe me, it is more important for me to hear all this from you than it is for you to tell me.” The customer was disappointed by this turn of events, because he had come to give them a piece of his mind, but instead of arguing with him, the manager thanked him. “We will certainly remove that unfortunate fifteen dollars from our records and forget about it,” the manager assured him, “because we fully realize that our accountants, who handle thousands of accounts, are more likely to make a mistake than a frugal man like you, who keeps track of only one account.” Expressing sincere regret that the customer no longer wanted to use their services, the manager took the liberty of recommending several other companies that supplied customers with woolen fabrics.
Some time passed, and this customer appeared at the office again to place a new order, larger than any he had made before. A little later, the customer reviewed his accounts and, discovering a misplaced fifteen-dollar bill, sent the wool company a check for that amount along with his apologies.
Wisdom Can Change the Quality of Boards
One morning, a businessman’s office phone rang. An extremely agitated voice on the other end reported: “The boards we delivered to the warehouse turned out to be of poor quality. The customer has stopped unloading and demands that we immediately remove the timber previously unloaded on their premises. After a railcar loaded with lumber had been one-quarter unloaded, their inspector declared that the quality of 55% of the products we delivered was below standard. Therefore, they refuse to accept it.”
The businessman immediately went to the warehouse yard. When he arrived, he found the procurement agent and quality inspector in a highly combative mood. The air was tense! They walked over to the railcar being unloaded, and the businessman asked them to continue unloading and sorting out the boards so he could see how it was done. As he continued observing, he occasionally asked the sorter why he had rejected a particular board, taking care not to suggest that he doubted the accuracy of his sorting. On the contrary, he emphasized that the sole purpose of his questions was to understand exactly what the customer needed so they could take it into account in the future. By asking questions in the friendliest possible tone, the businessman gradually got the sorter to soften, and relations between them began to thaw.
A cautious remark made by the businessman planted a thought in the sorter’s mind: what if some of the boards he had rejected actually met the grade of timber his company had ordered, while the requirements he was applying belonged to more expensive grades of wood?!
Gradually, the sorter completely changed his position and finally admitted that he had no experience sorting white pine. He began asking the businessman’s opinion about every board unloaded from the railcar. The businessman explained why each sample should be assigned to that grade, while adding that he did not want to impose the material on them. Finally, the sorter realized that all the boards he had rejected had been rejected unnecessarily, and that his company’s mistake was that it had not accurately determined what grade of timber it needed.
After the businessman left, the sorter went through the entire railcar again and ultimately accepted the whole shipment. Thus, the invoice for the delivered boards was paid in full.
How Wisdom Increased Production and Profit
One day, a businessman summoned the manager of a department that was failing to meet its production targets. “How is it,” the businessman asked, “that a capable person like you cannot get the department working properly?” “I don’t know,” the manager replied. “I have persuaded the workers, pushed them in every possible way, scolded and cursed them, and threatened them with dismissal. But nothing works; they cannot meet the target.” This happened at the end of the day, just before the night shift. “Give me a piece of chalk,” the businessman requested. Then he addressed the nearest worker: “How many heats did your shift produce today?” “Six.” Without saying a word, the businessman drew a large 6 on the floor with chalk and left. When the night-shift workers came to the department, they saw the “6” and asked what it meant. “The head boss was here today,” replied a day-shift worker. “He asked how many heats we had produced, and we said—6. He wrote it on the floor.”
The next morning, the businessman came to the department again. The night shift had replaced the “6” with a large “7.” When the day-shift workers arrived, they saw a large “7” on the floor. So the night shift considered itself better than the day shift?! Well then, we’ll show them who’s who! They enthusiastically got to work, and when they left that evening, they had left a huge “10” on the floor. Things improved, and soon this underperforming department was operating better than any other department at the plant.
Source: Father’s Blessing Church
Teacher: Dmitriy Leo
