What fascinates me about entrepreneurship
A couple years ago I discovered this show called Shark Tank and loved it immediately. I forgot about it ever since but just recently stumbled across a YouTube video that was a segment from the show. I decided to watch a couple of episodes and realized once again how much I enjoy the show.
If you haven’t heard of the show, thankfully the premise is simple. Entrepreneurs pitch their product or company out to 6 “sharks” who are business men and woman that are potentially interested in investing.
I really enjoy seeing people and their inventions, but on a different note, I enjoy seeing people make a deal. Their faces usually light up instantly and you can clearly see the face of someone who just had years of hard work pay off.
Thinking deeper about the show
When I thought about the show and the aspects that make me enjoy it, I thought also about the behind the scenes that the show doesn’t broadcast. As I said previously, these people pitching to the sharks have most likely been working for years or even day after day on their companies.
Occasionally, there will be someone who comes out and stutters or is even speechless because of the anxiety of being both in front of the sharks and also on a widely watched television show.
How does this relate to life as a Christian?
I think that this show is a good analogy for what life should look, or could look like for a Christian. I think there’s a view held by many Christians that once someone is a Christian their life will just look amazing and there wont be any problems (or at the least less problems) in their life.
Although I often wish it was that way, it just isn’t. Christians are like these entrepreneurs in many ways. Like these entrepreneurs that work behind the scenes for years until finally having the opportunity to make their pitch, Christians struggle with sin that comes in many different forms behind the scenes.
Is there hope?
For these people on the show, there is hope that they will be able to get one of the sharks to invest in their company.
For Christians, there is hope that God will help them rebuild relationships, fight sin, and live better and more fulfilled lives. The smiles and joy that comes from these people when they finally get what they’ve been working for is amazing to say the least.
I hope that we as Christians can have that same kind of joy when God helps us to better our lives in small and sometimes seemingly insignificant ways, but also in major ways.
Jackson Laninga is a student at Auckland University of Technology. He grew up in Arizona, but moved to New Zealand to study communications.