How Timothy Keller Changed My Mind About Success

There's a story told about Timothy Keller... about one of the many times he spoke to a reporter. After seeing all of his success, the reporter wanted to know if Keller moved to New York to plant a church because he knew he would be successful. "Is that why you moved here?" he asked. "Because you knew this was going to work?"

And Tim Keller responded in his naturally wise way: "I didn't come because I knew I was going to succeed. I didn't come because I knew I was going to fail. I came because I knew that because God had called me I would become something through it. And that through whatever happened God would use me to help others to do likewise."

Keller knew something that so many of us entrepreneurs fail to see: "success" or "failure" is not the headline of the story God is writing.

God is writing an identity story.

Not a financial story. Not a fame story. Not a legacy story. Maybe those things too... and maybe not. Maybe we'll encounter those things along our journey. But they aren't the title of this tale. 

And when God calls us into our work, whether that's the risky and exciting world of entrepreneurship or not, He's calling us into a journey that will shape our heart, build our character, and transform us into someone He needs us to be. All for His glory.

The entrepreneurial community at large is rife with voices telling us how to do things. There are plenty of gurus and successful business minds teaching us their fool-proof methods.

Names like Gary Vaynerchuck and Guy Kawasaki come to mind. And then there are mastermind groups, cohorts, clubs, memberships, master courses...

And all of their stories sound something like: "I was just like you. I had failed time and again. But then I learned this one amazing thing and it transformed my business. Now I make 6-figures a month and you too can learn how to be like me if you read my book, take my course, become a member..."

The truth is that entrepreneurs are obsessed with success.

 And when we aren't a success, we're just ashamed.

Outside voices (often family or friends who don't understand what we're doing) ring in our ears. Every time they ask how business is going we try to talk it up or say it's just a season, or with shame we're honest about how bad it is.

Or sometimes we're doing fine, but growth is nowhere in sight. And being honest about the plateau feels too vulnerable.

But what if failure was always the plan?

What if God called us into something that He knew would fail? And what if that was designed to shape us into people who were more prepared for the next season?

I've spent a long time de-coupling my ideas of success from financial stability, size of influence, and other secular measures of a job well done.

It has not been easy, and unfortunately, I'm not yet done.

The temptation to look at the size of my reach, the success of a marketing campaign, or the balance in my bank account is like a gravity that constantly wants to pull me back in.

But then I'm reminded that who I'm becoming is actually the story. What I do matters, too. But the what flows out of the who.

If we're going to love people well, stand strong against adversity, or any number of things He requires of us, our hearts must be constantly formed. And failure (by the standards of the world... that is) might just be part of His method for formation.