Greed undermines a business

The LORD ends his Decalogue with a command against envious desire of another person’s possessions, material or immaterial. In my own words it would read: Do not enviously desire the name and legacy of another. Do not wish you had the relationships of another. Do not desire the employees of another or the business resources available to another. Anything that belongs to someone else; do not enviously desire it. The longing for what is someone else’s short-circuits both faith and love. Faith, because the desire for what God has given another shows doubt that God does not provide what you need. Love, because enviously desiring another person’s good things is incompatible with gladness at the good that comes to them and their families from what God has given them. The Lord concerns himself greatly with his people’s relationship with wealth and possessions, for these can become our security and what we put our faith in instead of God.

An entrepreneur must watch out for covetousness more readily than others. When the sources of funds seem in the entrepreneur’s control then obsession over finances and the “bottom line” can derail the entrepreneur. Instead of choosing what’s best for his customers and employees, a greedy entrepreneur will undermine the foundation of his business in attempts to speed up wealth-creation or protect his business from all risk.