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Founder to CEO: Joseph’s Journey
A Biblical Example of a Scaling Enterprise
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve introduced the topic of an entrepreneur’s transition from founder to CEO. I identified eight sub-roles that a leader must master as their startup begins to rapidly scale, but before jumping into each of those roles, I thought it would be helpful to give an example. The story of Joseph in the Bible gives us an example of a gifted young man who developed a capability, and when he gained significant backing, needed to significantly scale that capability rapidly. What can we learn from his story that is applicable to entrepreneurs today?
Joseph isn’t specifically identified as a businessman, but we do see him establishing a means by which he could serve others, conducting transactions that created value for those he served and financial gain from his work. I would describe his calling as one of stewardship and, for this unique moment in time, God had given him the special gift of interpreting dreams.
As far as we know from scripture, Joseph began his work of stewardship after being sold into slavery in Egypt as described in Genesis 39. This appears to have humbled him and likely contributed to the compassionate empathy he would demonstrate later in life. (As a reminder, God-honoring vision, compassionate empathy, and complete humility…
