The Pursuit of Money (as a Catholic)
Plus! How This Catholic Founder Spent His Money After a 9-Figure Exit
Prayer Request: Before we start, we ask that you please say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, who passed into eternal life early this morning. Requiescant in Pace +
Let us not be sad today, as it’s also Easter Week, and we know that death is not sad to us as Christians, because more awaits us.
He is Risen! ☀️
It’s hard to believe that it’s already Easter-tide. Feels like Lent just started yesterday. In case you missed it, check out last week’s issue that includes 5 ways for you to observe Easter Week as a Catholic Founder.
This is the second issue of The Saintly CEO. A free weekly newsletter from Catholic Founders helping Catholic CEOs learn how to run their business like a saint and discover others doing the same.
In Today’s Email:
CF Role Model: What This Catholic Entrepreneur Did After a 9-Figure Exit
+6 more Catholic entrepreneurs (Heavenly Hustlers)
How Catholics Should Approach The Pursuit of Money
Miscellaneous Resources
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Heavenly Hustlers
When I speak with Catholic entrepreneurs, one of the most common challenges they have is finding others like them. We’re trying to help solve that.
In this section, we highlight other Catholic entrepreneurs/business owners (Heavenly Hustlers), what they’re doing, and their LinkedIn profiles so you can expand your network of like-minded individuals.
CF Role Model:
✈️ Jack Scholz is someone you won’t find on LinkedIn or anywhere in the news. He started his business with $300 in the 70s and sold it for 9 figures. All before the internet really exploded (circa 2000).
After this sale, he spent a huge portion of his fortune renovating a Church that was slotted for demolition.
How do I know Jack? I worked alongside Jack in the sumer of 2017 tending the gardens of St. Mary’s Oratory in Wausau, WI (the church I grew up attending). He was retired at this point. Living humbly in a small house next to St. Mary’s, the Church he spent millions transforming into a high gothic architecture church.
His story, along with his mentorship, transformed my life. One day I hope to tell it in more detail. However, here is one lesson from his life for us to imitate.
While building his business, he treated his employees well. He made sure they were taken care of, however he could. Proof that he did this well is evident by how they reacted to relocating the facility from California to Reno, Nevada.
When they made this tough decision because of rising taxes and difficulty doing business in CA, every single family accepted the opportunity to be relocated to Reno. They all trusted Jack’s leadership and treatment of them. He helped all of them move.
Fundamentally, this is the virtue of generosity in action. How he used his financial success is another example of this. All Catholic entrepreneurs should strive to have this generosity in how we operate our businesses.
Other Heavenly Hustlers:
🪙 Tarek Saab is the President & Co-Founder of Texas Precious Metals, one of the largest precious metals dealers in the US. He recently launched a podcast called Y’all Street — of particular interest for Texas listeners.
💰 Zaz Floreani is a partner at the VC fund FirstMile Ventures. If you’re raising money, she might be worth connecting with (they focus on CO and TX-based founders).
🌻 Michael Lyons is the founder of [Y] Impact Ventures. He also founded Global Petals. And he’s on the board of the Lumen Institute.
☕ Matthew Hayes is the Founder and CEO of Bridging Tables, an organization helping connect farmers directly with buyers to get them paid fair prices for their goods. This will lead to improving the wages of their workers.
😇 Theresa Ambat is building Saint Sprites. Retro video game merch of Catholic Saints(Perhaps the coolest niche business you’ve ever heard of).
📝 Thomas White is building Battle Media, a ghostwriting and communications consultancy. Check out his Substack, White Noise.
🙋♂️ Nominate a Heavenly Hustler (including yourself) - It takes 1 min.
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The Pursuit of Money (as a Catholic)
TLDR: Instead of pursuing money for its own sake, pursue money as a means to fund your evangelization work and promotion of God’s kingdom.
Since starting Catholic Founders almost a year ago, I’ve been seeking clarity on one big question.
How should Catholic Entrepreneurs approach the pursuit of financial success?
We’re discussing that today. The topic is more theoretical than tactical, but it’s fundamental to operate as a Catholic Founder. Plus, last week we shared 5 tactics to observe Easter Week.
Happiness: Secular vs Catholic Perspective
The secular world of entrepreneurship glamorizes making money and showing off. It’s everywhere.
Most pursue money to hoping to find happiness. But even the more enlightened creators usually conclude that life is just about spending time with family and having cool experiences.
Sounds wholesome, but as Catholics, we know the purpose of life — To know love & serve God so that we may be with Him in Heaven one day.
This is the ultimate goal in the true sense. Meaning, there can only be one.
So, where does making money fit in?
Through reading The Passion during Holy Week, I feel I’ve found an answer.
In the Latin Rite, all four gospel accounts of the Passion are read during Holy Week. Each time, two characters stuck out to me.
Judas and Joseph of Arimathaea. Two people with drastically different stories. Both connected with money.
Let’s break it down.
The Anti-goal: Greed (Judas)
Prior to the Passion, we see Judas’ displeasure at the waste of pure nard that could be sold for 300 denari (a year's wages). He claimed it could be given to the poor. Thanks to the Gospel writers, we know Judas frequently skimmed money from the common fund (he was the steward). The money wasn’t really for the poor. Not long after, he betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
From this, we see Judas did not believe Jesus was the messiah. If he had, he would never have betrayed him.
I would speculate, his love of money and greed prevented him from recognizing Jesus’ true identity.
The Goal: Generosity (Joseph)
Let’s go to the end of The Passion to meet our other character, Joseph of Arimathea.
Joseph went to Pilate and obtained permission to take Jesus down from the cross. Then he provided the burial tomb, linen, and expensive gifts to accompany Jesus. We also learn he was a member of the Sanhedrin. Although he dissented from the others who wanted to kill Jesus. He was also described as wealthy.
But how wealthy?
Looking at what we have, it’s likely he was one of the richest men in the region. The hewn-out tomb, expensive burial gifts, ability to get an audience with Pontius Pilate, and the fact that he was a member of the Sanhedrin… all of these are evidence of great wealth.
Despite this wealth, he was also full of virtue, especially courage and generosity. He courageously made himself known as a disciple of Jesus only after His crucifixion, perhaps the most dangerous time to do so. He exemplified generosity in offering his family tomb to Jesus.
What a stark contrast to Judas. Joseph possessed much more than Judas, but he used his riches for the Church.
The Proper View of Money
This stands as proof that money is not inherently evil. It’s also perhaps the best example of how we should view money.
Money is simply a tool that can be used to benefit the spreading of the Gospel and serve the needs of the Church. In other words, money is not the goal. The ability to help the Church and bring souls to Christ is the goal. Money is a means we can use to fund these missions.
Our business and money should be in service of these two ends. Spreading the faith and providing for the needs of the Church.
Taking it a step further.
Once we recognize our purpose of life (to get to Heaven), and have figured out our purpose in life (marriage or religious life), we can then pursue our purpose in time (what we’re called to on earth, using the talents God gave us).
For entrepreneurs, this means using financial success to promote the faith in various ways.
We don’t do this so that we can make money. We do this because getting to heaven is the only thing that matters in life. For us and all those around us.
Remember, if we get greedy, we’ll lose it all.
Please share your thoughts (reply to this email or drop a comment)
Action Item: Assess your view of money. Are you greedy? Would you be willing to give it all up? Do you currently have a practice of generosity in your life?
God Bless & Happy Building
~Silas Mähner
Misc. Resources:
Community:
Prayer:
The Litany of Trust from the Sisters of Life — Great for Entrepreneurs
Investors:
Join CatholicAngels.co (Angel Investors network for Catholics)
Hiring:
Hire a Catholic Virtual Assistant through ParacleteVA (email us: dearcfpod@gmail.com)
If you’re running an executive search, reach out to me (Silas). I’ve been headhunting for 5+ years. Glad to use my skills to help Catholic-run businesses
Secular:
How did we do? Reply with 1 (Great 😄), 2 (Mid 🫤), or 3 (Needs Work ☹️)
Great read, lots to think about. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing! I have struggled with my view towards money as a Catholic business owner myself. I definitely want to grow more in generosity and not get caught up in the numbers. However, there is a very real sense in which money is needed in order to live. I can definitely say that while I love what I do as a Catholic business order, I struggle with realistically paying the bills. God bless!