Work hard at your job, and you can make a living.
Work hard on yourself, and you can make a fortune. Jim Rohn

It would seem that there are many things to learn when you are learning about The Prosperous Life.

First, you would want to get born from above. No matter how much money you make or how high you climb in the corporate world or politics, if all you have to look forward to is 70 years and a hole in the ground; that is not much of a prosperous life.

If you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and if you believe that God raised him from the dead, then you truly already have a prosperous eternal life to look forward to.

While we are awaiting the return of our lord, there are many aspects to The Prosperous Life to learn about. This one aspect starts with a story.

I walked into a warehouse the other day that I am in occasionally and observed the people walking around and through. There were people from the office, dressed very nicely, passing through checking on orders, men who apparently had decided that the warehouse was their life’s work, and another man that was the warehouse manager.

The warehouse manager was dressed nicely as well, clean-shaven, nice work pants, shirt tucked in and smiling as he hurried about. The other people who probably were going to be ware-housemen for the rest of their lives dressed less thoughtfully. Their pants needed washing. Their shirts were not tucked in. Some needed to shave.

It was easy to tell which ones were heading up. The next stop would be counter sales and then outside sales which would all pay better than working in the warehouse.

A few years ago, I was with a man that was doing bathtub repairs for a living. He got a speck of paint on his jeans and it irritated him. He said, “Today was the last day for these jeans as they are threadbare, and I got paint on them. Darn!” He took pride in keeping his clothes clean from paint until they were worn out. It was like a self-imposed challenge to keep his clothes spotless.

On the other hand, I have seen many painters that are covered in paint wearing clothes that look like they have not been washed in a month. They wear those paint-covered clothes like a badge of honor. “I am a painter!!” constantly wiping their paint-covered hands on their pants.

How much work would it be to keep a towel on your belt to wipe your hands on and keep your clothes clean?

I have a paint store that I have bought supplies from for years. I have seen the owner many times in the back mixing paint with never a spot on his clothes. His wife buys his shirts from garage sales cheap, and when he gets paint on one, it goes in the trash. He is always neat. He cares about his appearance, and he will probably take care to get your order right.

In the work I do, I am constantly knocking on people’s doors during the daytime. Many times the husband is at work and when that young woman with two young ones in tow looks out the peephole, what do you think she would be more comfortable seeing? Someone dressed neatly, and clean-shaven or someone with grease and paint on their pants, holes in their shirt, and a three-day-old beard on their face?

A three-day beard on Friday night may be cool, but it is not cool when knocking on a young woman’s door, whose husband is gone, on Monday morning. It looks scraggily!

This is not just my thinking.  Some of the companies that I work for call the people after we have fixed the issue in their customer’s homes. They ask the client:

•    Were they on time?
•    Were they dressed nicely?
•    Were they clean-shaven?
•    Were you comfortable with them in your home?”

The reason is that I may be the only person associated with that company that the client has ever seen, and the company wants to be represented well.

How you dress says a lot about you. If you don’t pay much attention to how you dress, maybe you are not going to:

•    Pay much attention to your job,
•    Or to your speech,
•    Or to the important details of your companies clients,
•    Or their orders.

Sometimes people will try you out on a job or two to see what you are like —  how do you dress, do you show up on time, are you easy to work with, etc.  If they like what they see, you could step into a mega account.  You just never know where the next job will lead.  This is why establishing good work ethics, principles and habits will pay off in the long run.  

One painting company I was on a forum with on the internet said this: “When our guys come to work, they are expected to wear clean clothes and if they have not shaved, I tell them that there are razors and shaving cream in the restroom. They either shave or they go home.”

I have read about painters that run large shops, and sometimes they include paperhanging as part of their services.  One paint company owner said he had two good paperhangers.  One was a young guy that did absolutely superb work and an old man whose work was good but certainly not the quality of the younger man.  Now the young man was a sloppy dresser, kind of slovenly in appearance.  The older man dressed in traditional painter/paperhanger clothes — slacks, dress shoes, white shirt and tie.  When the painter came to work dressed like this, they would put on some overalls AFTER they had met the people of the home for the day and the owners had gone to work.  When the clients would call back to the shop to request more paper to be hung guess which paperhanger had the most requests?  The old man!! I have heard of this happening in several cases.  Sloppy personal habits make people uneasy.  The workers seem less trustworthy.  Sloppy appearance and work habits are irritating to some people and others are not quite sure they want to leave the person home alone or with their children.

How you dress, personal hygiene, etc. says a lot about how you think about your job and yourself and your ability. This may not be true for every person, but it is what goes through the minds of the people that have the ability to promote you or hire you.

You could learn to observe how the people above you in the company dress and copy their style. (Unless they are slobs!) You will move up faster. (It should go without saying, but sometimes needs to be said anyway, take a bath and use some deodorant!)

Some people seem to think that once they are hired for a job, it is theirs for life, and how they conduct themselves and how they dress is irrelevant. Your boss may never tell you what he thinks about how you take care of yourself, but, if you don’t pay attention to your outward appearance, don’t be surprised if you are passed up for promotions. Have some respect for yourself.

Everywhere we go we represent our Father and the company that sent us. This is simply another piece of The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches….   (The Living Bible)

(Excerpted from Braker’s Rules for Contractors. Available on Amazon)

Many years ago, I had been doing warranty work for a manufacturer on some units for a builder.   I repaired many of them, but I still did not do the builder’s construction repairs.  Finally, I got up the courage to go talk to the owner of this large company.  When I entered the room, he shook my hand, asked me to have a seat and said, “I wondered how long it was going to be before you came in.  Of course, you can have all our work.” I was amazed at how easy that was.  He was waiting for me.

Many times in running a business or contracting, you run into situations with people that are just uncomfortable or that can cause fear or great apprehension in you. I have learned over the years how to deal with some of these situations.  I took much of the learning from the Bible and used it in my work.

1.    Ask God to “give you mercy before the man.” This comes from a record in Genesis where Joseph’s brothers (loving brothers that they were) sold him off to some traveling merchants who took Joseph down into Egypt and sold him. Eventually, Joseph attained the position of second in command just under Pharaoh. It was in a great period of drought that under Joseph’s direction, Egypt had plenty to eat and some to sell. Joseph’s father, Jacob, already thinking that his one son was dead to him sent all but one of his sons into Egypt to buy food for their family. They did not recognize Joseph, but Joseph did recognize his brothers.  So Joseph gave them the food and sent them on their way, but he kept one of the brothers as a hostage until they would bring back his younger brother.  Sometime later, Jacob now missing two sons (he did not know that Joseph was “the man” in Egypt), needed more food and sent his sons back again to Egypt and said the following to them as they departed.

Genesis 43:13-14 Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man: And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.

I believe that this was Jacob’s prayer to God.  He asked God to show them mercy before the man.  You could ask for this mercy from God in many situations.  Here are a few:

1.    Getting a call from an irate customer
2.    Going in for an interview
3.    Getting stopped by the police

I saw a video the other day talking about how the police treat people.  If the policeman is having a good day and everything is lovely in his life, you may just get a warning.  But if his wife has just called and told him she is getting a divorce, you may get taken to the station for the same offense.  This is where asking God for mercy in front of the man is so important.  People are just people.  Their moods can differ from day today.  But God should know when you are going to be in a situation where you need some help.  So ask God to give you the right person for the interview or have the only person available to be the one that will give you what you need — jobs/contracts/ referrals etc., so you can slip right in.  Ask God to show you mercy before the man.

2.    Expect that God will bring you into favor with the people that can say “yes” to your business.  This idea comes from the record in Daniel.  Some of the children of Israel had been carried off as captives to the land of Babylon (present-day Iraq).  Some were to be educated in the ways of the Chaldeans so they could stand before the king as advisors.   The prince of the eunuchs was put in charge of these men.  (A eunuch is a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to guard the women’s living areas at an oriental court.) The eunuch really liked Daniel and the three other men as recorded here in Daniel.

Daniel 1:9 Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.

Many times you will find that the people that you contract with or work for really like you.  How God does this I don’t know but just be thankful.  And realize that you can ask God to find favor in the minds of the people you work with.  Or you could ask God to send clients that will be great to work for.

3.    Expect God to give you the “Right words (wisdom) at the right time to resolve the situation.”
This Idea comes from:

James 1:5-6 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

When I first started out hanging wallpaper as a young man, I would get calls at times after I was done and was paid for a job that the customer was unhappy about something they saw in my work.  Then I would have to go back to the job and deal with it.

So I would take a “B” Vitamin (supposed to help the brain function better) and ask God to give me the “right words at the right time to resolve the situation.”  Out of all the callbacks I had in 25 years, I only had to redo a couple of screw-ups.  Many times it was the fault of the paper or the wall or it could have been a multitude of different circumstances.  But they were unhappy, and we needed to resolve the situation.

I never asked God for me to come out on top, just for the situation to be resolved.  I was not trying to stick anyone with a bad job by praying.

I remember one night I got a call from an irate husband after he saw the job his wife had paid for already.  I prayed but was really nervous about going to talk to him.  When I walked in the door, he started in on me and was railing for about five minutes.  Finally, he began to calm down.  Up to that point, I never said a word.  Finally, he said, “I realize you probably could have done nothing about this; I just needed to get it off my chest.  Thanks for listening.” Then I left.  God put the thought in me, “Just be quiet!”

On another job, the builder called and said that the lady was in tears because she could see the seams in the wallpaper.  I told him he needed to get a manufacturer’s representative to look at the job because there was nothing wrong with it.  He said he knew it was a good job but the woman was crying anyway.  So I took a can of colored pencils and chalk I had and went to see her.  Now, this was a cream-colored paper with some trees on it that crossed at the seams.  But mostly the seams were just cream-colored with no pattern.  I had no idea what to do.  So I reached into the can of pencils and pulled out a charcoal pencil.  I thought, “Well, that won’t work on this background.” But then I thought, “Well, it is the first thing you pulled out. Just try it.” So I did, and as I ran the edge of the charcoal pencil up the cream-colored seam, the seam just disappeared.  To this day, I don’t know why that worked, but I do know that prayer is very helpful in resolving situations when you expect God to be involved.

Learning how to involve God by prayer and expectation in all your business is part of The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 2:7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous…

(Chapter 2 Braker’s Rules for Contractors.  Available on Amazon)