Use St. Joseph, not Steve Jobs as Your Role Model

Catholic Founders need role models too. Thankfully we have the best.

Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. Sam Walton. People that we, as entrepreneurs often look up to.

But we are not just any founders. We are Catholic Founders. Shouldn’t that mean our role models should be different from those of the world?

After all, we imitate the saints to help us model how to live our lives personally. Why would our businesses be any different?

But who should we imitate? Frankly, there are plenty of options. In our current time we are surrounded by people like Tom Monaghan, Mark Wahlberg, and the Hallow Founding Team.

If you prefer someone more ancient, there are plenty of saints who also founded enterprises.

But one should stand out to us above the rest.

St. Joseph.

The Feast of St. Joseph

As you’re probably aware, today is the feast of St. Joseph. The feast falls on this day because March 20th is the earliest possible day for Holy Thursday / Maundy Thursday to take place. The Church Fathers in their wisdom decided it was unlikely St. Joseph would have been alive and not acted to protect Jesus from his accusers. So therefore he must have passed away prior to that.

Of course it is likely to have taken place much earlier — probably before his public life began, but I always like to consider this fact. It assumes that St. Joseph was a man who would do whatever it takes to protect his family.

We Relate to St. Joseph

I’m sure many of us can relate to this, especially in an age where physical danger isn’t as common for many of us. So, instead, we turn to providing financially. We have a desire to create a better life for our families. In this way we’re imitators of St. Joseph.

But there are other ways we should imitate him, especially on the entrepreneurship front.

We know St. Joseph was a carpenter. It’s a good bet to assume he ran his own business. We do not know what annual sales numbers he hit. But we can safely say that he did everything he did with love and attention.

Just imagine him and Jesus working away. Pouring their hearts into the projects they had. Here and there, maybe Jesus decided to use his powers to lift a heavy object for his foster father.

I’m sure St. Joseph treated his customers with the utmost respect. Surely he’d also treat Jesus and any others under his employment with deep respect.

Whenever God spoke to St. Joseph, he obeyed. Imagine having a business and then having to uproot at once, in the middle of the night, to flee to Egypt. How many of us would have the space in our mind to hear God in the first place? Beyond that how many of us would do such a drastic thing on faith?

Perhaps most striking is his humility. I’m guessing he was one of the sharpest carpenters around but did he boast about his work? Probably not. Did he get his name put on buildings — unlikely. He did his duty to provide for his family. He did good work. He treated everyone he encountered with respect and love. And he stayed humble — he directed all the glory to God.

That’s something we should desire to imitate.

Understanding Why We Do This