It isn’t much of a stretch to consider that failure poses a threat to our identity as entrepreneurs. When we have poured time, talents, and treasures into a venture only to watch it crash, it’s understandable that we start questioning the validity of our claim to be “entrepreneurs.” On the other hand, entrepreneurs also faced identity threats in the face of extreme success, where they were tempted to view their entrepreneurial success—and therefore their entrepreneurial identity—as preeminent, tending dangerously toward pride.
Our findings revealed one crucially important component of these entrepreneurs’ faith that served as a counter-balance that stabilized their identity in the face of threats: a personal relationship with God (and identifying via that relationship). Recognizing their relational identity with God and choosing to identify with it was the difference for each of our interviewees. In short, a relational identity with God allowed entrepreneurs to mitigate how the highs and lows of entrepreneurship affected their identity.
Our respondents described two distinct phenomena that helped regulate entrepreneurial identity threats in the wake of success and failure: humbling and affirmation. Humbling refers to an entrepreneur’s conscious acceptance of his or her relational identity with God as the ultimate victory. Entrepreneurs explained that their process for remaining humble included a reframing of their definition of success to be about obedience rather than financial or reputational gain, attributing their success and opportunities to the Lord rather than themselves, and choosing to give God the glory for the outcome.
On the other end of the spectrum, enduring and recovering in the wake of entrepreneurial failure necessitated identity affirming. Entrepreneurs used their relationship with God to affirm their identity by redefining failure, acknowledging that sometimes the Lord had protected them from success (eg. “I would not have been able to handle [success], I wasn’t ready”), and by looking back and remembering the past provision of the Lord and His faithfulness to support and care for His children.
Both of these strategies serve to take the focus off of the entrepreneur and the outcomes of our work and to shine the light on the glory and love of the Father. But affirming and humbling are not “one and done” practices; entrepreneurs constantly evaluate and engage in both, as often as needed to navigate the chaos of entrepreneurship.
The truth is, our identity is secure, received rather than achieved and rooted in the work of a God who chose us and calls us His children, His masterpieces. And yet, the temptation to rely on our entrepreneurial—work-based—identity can be incredibly strong. We believe that understanding and relying on our relational identity with God can serve as a counterbalance or countervailing force for entrepreneurs to regulate their identity. Given that reality, we were interested in how Christian entrepreneurs of various fields understood and engaged their relational identity with God in the high highs and low lows of entrepreneurship. Relying on our identity as beloved children of God reminds us that regardless of our professional endeavors—or any other for that matter—our worth, value, and status are unchanging. Being adopted into God’s family invokes an identity that is received rather than achieved and therefore, is unconditional and unchanging. From this place, out of this permanent relational identity, we can press on toward the goal and run the race set before us, rooted in a love that we never have to earn but are blessed to walk in with great, humble confidence.