The new April/May issue of Brotha Online Magazine is ready and available for your exploration. My contribution to this edition is entitled, The Marketplace of Healing (I also have a special accompanying video, click here). 

I have believed for a long time that entrepreneurship education could be used as a strategic empowerment tool to lift up those in poverty-stricken communities. I'm very excited to see social entrepreneurship strategies being used all over the world to elevate people and communities out of their financial and social distress. Unfortunately, I don't often see the same entrepreneurial energy and intentionality utilized here in the United States to help those who are challenged with the lack of access to capital, resources, and tools that can help create new avenues of economic opportunity. 

Entrepreneurship education is just as valid a poverty-smashing solution in urban communities in the U.S. as they are in slums in India or villages in Africa. Even more, when entrepreneurship education is paired with Biblical principles, you have the makings of people who are not just skilled as businesspeople, they also develop the morals and character to operate a business that's profitable and positively impacts others.

Here are three practical ways entrepreneurship education can elevate economically-challenged communities:

1. Sense of Ownership: Embedded within an entrepreneurial mindset is a sense of ownership. Entrepreneurs who operate businesses within a community usually have a heightened desire to take accountability for what happens in that community, because they know they need that community to succeed if their business is going to be sustainable.
   
2. Sense of Purpose: Without a revelation of their purpose and significance, people cast off restraint and run wild (Proverbs 29:18 NIV). When people have no sense of purpose, they lose hope and stop caring about themselves and the people around them. Entrepreneurship education helps ignite the purpose in people to pursue something greater than what they may see around them everyday. Entrepreneurship education is an incredible platform to transport people from where they are in life to their God-ordained destiny.
   
3. Creative Energy: People in poverty-stricken areas don't lack creativity, they are just using their creative abilities far below the purpose for which God created them. Entrepreneurship empowerment can help people use their ingenuity for much more than just basic survival or even criminal pursuits. Creative energy that wasn't being used previously or being used for the wrong things are now channeled in a positive, beneficial direction for themselves and others. 
   

We're on a mission to stimulate the creation of 1 million jobs. If you want to learn more about how we're using entrepreneurship education to elevate urban and rural communities, check out The (Un)Employment Alternative. We're raising money right now to bring entrepreneurship education to Cedartown, GA so we can create jobs, restore hope, and revitalize that community. We need your help. Please partner with us today!

In part 1 of Are You a Workforce Revolutionary?, I presented some out of the evidence in the marketplace that demonstrates the type of workforce revolution that is underway. This revolution may see far-fetched to some, but there are major cracks in the foundation of our economy that we have been putting band-aids on for a long time. Eventually those cracks will become a major breach in the dam.

One example of this is that corporations have been able to increase productivity while severely decreasing their number of employees. This is not a formula that is sustainable over the long-term, nor can it ignite a thriving economic recovery. Over time the increasing stress on our economic infrastructure is going to force several financial and business institutions to reevaluate how we view and approach the transitioning workforce. 

The key to this marketplace transition is a mindset transformation of the employer and employee. Here are a few brief examples of what I'm talking about:

• Employment will become a mutually beneficial contract to exchange value, not a one-sided, "take it or leave it" offer from a company. Current and potential employees will scrutinize employers as much if not more than companies investigate employees.
  
• "Hiring" will become a two-sided affair. Companies will hire employees to supply effort, knowledge, experience, talent, ideas, relationships, etc. Employees will "hire" companies to provide financial remuneration for their services, along with opportunities to develop their talents, knowledge, experience, ideas, relationships, etc. 
• Employees will more assertively exercise their power of choice of where they will work. Companies that fall short in the areas mentioned above will be the least desirable choice for the most qualified workers. Those choices seem much more limited when the economy is down and unemployment is high (but remember opportunity is in the eye of the beholder). However, this will not always be the reality in the marketplace, and people have long memories for how  companies have behaved toward the workforce during the hard times. 

As Sam Cooke's song says, A Change is Gonna Come, whether we believe it or not, whether we want it to or not. You can help lead it or get blindsided by it. Your choice.

What do you think? Is this far-fetched or closer than it appears? I look forward to your comments below.

In the past few days I have come across some very interesting articles online that got me thinking that a major workforce revolution is underway and most of us don't event realize it. In the past year we've seen the Arab Spring uprising in the Middle East and the Occupy Movement around the world take center stage of the protest headlines. But there is a quiet revolution that has been brewing for a long time. It's just that our economic troubles have managed to keep a lid on it. However, the pressure is building and the economy may not be strong enough to hold it down for much longer. Check out these headlines from just the past few days...

• More People Now Quit Than Get Fired
  
• More Workers Sue Employers for Overtime Pay
  
• Create More Happiness on Your Job By Having a Sense of Purpose
  

When I read these articles, one key theme that I discerned was purpose, or better yet the lack of purpose that is realized by a high number of employees in today's workforce. Through my own conversations, observations, and research, I have noticed an increasingly restless workforce. The lack of fulfillment is not driven by the lack of money. It's driven by not being connected to meaningful work that connects to their God-given purpose. People are looking for more than just a paycheck and are becoming more willing to take some risks to pursue different career paths, or even leave the workforce altogether and start their own ventures.

Unfortunately during this recession many employers have taken advantage of people and exploited them for their time, talents, ideas, and money. They forgot about the ancient, unbreakable, universal principle of "you reap what you sow." The reality is we don't have a clue of the ultimate impact on our overall society if the offending employers actually inherit the negativity they have been investing over the past few years.

This revolution won't look like the other revolutions I mentioned above or revolutions of old. People will protest with their work choices. Some will choose entrepreneurship over employment. Others will choose more meaning over more money. Many will choose a home office versus a corner office. Others will choose flexibility over (perceived) security.

I'm on a personal mission to help people find their purpose in life, so they can then the career that fits them right. If this sounds like you, contact me today. I work with individuals and corporations to provide strategies and tools that lead to more purposeful, passionate, and profitable work. This is the new normal.

Are you a restless workforce revolutionary? I look forward to hearing your thoughts about these trends in the comments section below.

Many Christians engage in business every day and don't realize the incredible opportunity they have to be a bright righteous light in the midst moral and ethical darkness. Others haven't accepted the Kingdom assignment God has given them in the marketplace, because they are too focused on just chasing dollars. Your success as a Christian entrepreneur will not be defined by your revenues. It will be defined by whether or not you complete the assignment God has given you.

I am passionate about equipping Christian entrepreneurs with a Kingdom perspective so they can thrive in the marketplace spiritually, professionally, and financially. When you understand where and why God has positioned you in the marketplace, you will be inspired and focused on seeking to accomplish your Kingdom assignment in business, knowing that God will provide everything that you need (Matthew 6:33). 

This Kingdom Business System Self-Study Course from Kingdom Business University will equip you with the mindset and skill sets to grow a B.I.G. - Bold, Innovative, God-Inspired - business that glorifies God and transforms lives, including yours! These powerful resources contain biblical teachings, practical tools, and business best practices to help position you and your business for accelerated spiritual and natural prosperity, including:
1) 5-Disc CD Set: Entrepreneurship: The (Un)Employment Alternative
2) Dream B.I.G. in 3D Life Purpose Workbook
3) Dream B.I.G. in 3D Kingdom Business Plan Workbook
4) Kingdom Business Best Practices Devotional

*Click on this store link to purchase your study course

It's time for you to achieve Kingdom success in your business far beyond what you can ask, think, or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Get the resources you need to elevate your business to a divine level!