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This month’s testimony is reprinted from Entrepreneurial Leaders: Reflections on Faith at Work (volume 1). The book was produced by the Centre for
Entrepreneurial Leaders (CEL), which is part of Trinity Western
University’s School of Business. For the past four years, CEL has
facilitated an ‘Entrepreneur Forum.’ The upcoming forum
will take place October 29 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, with speaker
Larry Farrell. The evening attracts hundreds of Christian business leaders.
 | Rudy Lowen, president of Palcor |
Rudy Loewen is president of
Palcor, a successful Abbotsford based company which specializes in
construction, development and property management. The company is
celebrating it’s 25th anniversary. An outspoken Christian, Loewen was
interviewed by Daniel Rodriguez and U-Wem Oei. Following are several
excerpts.
CEL: When did you start your first entrepreneurial venture, and
what was it?
Rudy Loewen: In 1971, I was
in my first year of college, studying building technology, when I started
my first venture. I built
two houses, together with my dad.
CEL: What motivated you to
become an entrepreneur?
RL: I don’t know if
there was something external that really motivated me. I think it’s a
drive from within. I think if you don’t have a burning desire in you,
then it’s not an easy life being an entrepreneur. You have to live
with the risks and the pressures of business. If you don’t have the
drive, I don’t know if there are external forces that can make you
want to do it.
CEL: What was your most triumphant moment? And your worst moment?
RL: The most important
moment came in our second year of business, when we were hired to build a
quite luxurious condominium project. This was a small, exclusive, 24-unit
project that was being developed by a prominent family. Everybody in town
knew who they were, and we were able to get a stamp of credibility by being
selected to take on this project.
I think we would have struggled harder and longer if
not for that project, which we successfully completed. It’s not by
far the largest project we had ever done, but it came at a very critical
moment.
My worst moment was probably when I realized in
the mid– 1990s that our business could not continue as it was –
and I didn’t deal with it immediately. I tried to struggle for a year
and a half, and didn’t deal with impending issues.
I realized at that point, that if I didn’t do
something immediately, that we were going to be in serious trouble. That
was very difficult. It is the closest I have come to saying, “I give
up. I’m not doing this anymore.” It was a good lesson. I
learned that you have to act decisively, when you know what’s right.
I didn’t, and it cost me big–time.
CEL: What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur? Could you
suggest the three most important lessons you have learned with respect to
starting and running a business?
RL: The first and [most]
important lesson is absolute perseverance. If you don’t have
perseverance, you are not going to make it.
Second: have a source of support in terms of wisdom and
guidance. You need to have people who you can seek advice from – not
necessarily people in your business or people that work for you, but people
who know you. I think that’s very critical, in order to avoid making
errors. There may be a perfect market opportunity that will put pressures
on you, which you are not able to bear.
So if you jump in, you may fail – not because the
market opportunity is not there, but because you can’t handle the
stress of seeing the project through to completion. There were some
experienced people, who were older than I was – who expressed concern
about what I was doing, and gave me advice. Their advice was very valuable.
Third: have a realistic plan. While I can’t say I
had one, a careful assessment of risk is important. There are people who
call themselves entrepreneurs, and what they really are is gamblers.
It’s important to be an entrepreneur and not a gambler, and not
delude yourself to where you’re headed.
CEL: How did you integrate your business expertise with your Christian
calling?
RL: I don’t really
see my gifts as separate entities. I think being a Christian is something
you are, and not something you do. The Bible says your fruit will show what
kind of tree you are. So I don’t really see my Christianity in my
work as something that’s separated in some way.
Continue article >>
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Do I use my work to benefit Christian non-profits?
Absolutely. We do a lot of work for non-profit organizations, such as Bible
schools, camps, schools and churches. We work at discounts when we work for
such organizations; we don’t charge them what we charge other people.
So, yes, I use my business to benefit non-profit groups and Christian
enterprises, and so on. But, I think that’s just a natural outcome of
my faith, rather than something I really have to think about too much.
CEL: How have you been involved in your church?
RL: I’ve had a lot of
involvement over the years in various church functions. I’ve spent
many years as a youth leader. I’ve been a Sunday school
superintendent, a Sunday school teacher, and a church moderator. I have
also been chairman of stewardship, on church boards, and I’ve chaired
building committees for churches. Some were more directly related to my
expertise, such as my building community experience.
I have found that, in the last few years, I’ve
been telling people that I will only work in the areas where my work
expertise fits in – because I feel that I am most gifted in those
areas, and I can work most effectively.
CEL: How could the church, in a general sense, support you as an
entrepreneur in pursuing your calling in business?
RL: I think that, in my
generation, the church has done a little bit better job of relating to
business people. But as close as I have been to church leadership for a
good part of my life, I still think that there is a divide. Presently,
pastors are focused on a care ministry for people – whereas
entrepreneurs are more driven to make money. That is not to say that
entrepreneurs don’t care about people, but my daily focus when I walk
in the door of my business is not how are you feeling, but rather what do I
need to get done today to accomplish my goals.
I don’t know if that divide will ever be bridged
entirely. While I care very deeply for the people that work for me, and I
love those people, I’m not a pastor to them. So I think that
entrepreneurs, at some level, feel a little bit uncomfortable in the church
environment – because of the way they’re made. They just
approach things differently.
If you sit in a church business meeting, you can always
distinguish an entrepreneur from a pastor, because of the way they approach
things. If you have, for example, a budget challenge, the two will approach
the budget challenge completely differently. Both approaches are legitimate
in their own sense, but it’s seldom that they would both come up with
the same plan to solve an issue. So in a way, it’s almost a healthy
dynamic – but at times, seems confrontational.
CEL: What have been the biggest challenges for you, as a Christian in
business?
RL: I think that probably
the biggest challenge is to maintain a God-honoring, personal code of
conduct. I think that, at the turn of the century, there has been a shift
that took place in business – where it’s much more based on
personal relationships than in the 1970s,1980s and 1990s. This is a strong
concept now.
We have a personal relationship with most of the people
we do business with. It’s not just business. We go to hockey games
with them, we travel with them, and we go fishing with them. It’s
just a thing that’s happened; I’m not sure how long it will
last. The more closely you engage with people, the more pressure they put
on you to conform to their lifestyle. This has interesting dynamics.
For more information on the Entrepreneur Forum, go to:
www.entrepreneurialleaders.com. This year, CEL allows ticket holders to
bring their pastor for free. Contact: michelle@eleaders.org.
October 2008
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