Friday 5 February 2010

Review of “Doing Business by the Good Book” by David L. Steward

Reaction to “Doing Business by the Good Book” by David L. Steward

Written by a self-made African-American entrepreneur, who obviously holds deep convictions about how his faith impacts his life in the business world, this book claims to provide “52 lessons on success straight from the Bible.” David Steward’s life is a “rags to riches” story. Born into a poor family on the wrong side of the tracks, through hard work and faith, he built a billion dollar Technology Company. The stories he relates from his own life and the history of the company demonstrate his business nous and personal integrity.

Although separated into 52 chapters, there is a lot of repetition throughout the book. The same themes are revisited over and over again. Especially prevalent are encouragements to be confident of God’s promised blessing for you personally; the importance of serving others; to recruit others based on “internals” rather than skills; and to value your (and your company’s) reputation as an ambassador for God. These themes are often considered counter-cultural in our contemporary business world although, as Steward says, “only a small percentage of business leaders were actually guilty” of self-interest and corruption during the public scandals of 2002 . These same themes are promoted by many other well-known writers on leadership in the business world .

My strongest reaction to the book was as a result of his use (or should I say abuse) of Scripture. For a book that was supposed to draw its principles from the Bible, Steward consistently tried to make Scripture allude to the wisdom he was espousing, some of which was biblical and some of which was ungodly. Clearly he is familiar with lots of Scripture, but his understanding of it is woefully inadequate for the task he undertook. I was not just uncomfortable with his use of Scripture; I was deeply offended by it.

The worst abuse of Scripture appeared in his chapter entitled “Building Long-term Relationships” . He claimed that the parable of the sower “illustrates how relationships take time.” Not every relationship will yield results, says Steward, but in long-term relationships the yield is substantial and we are abundantly rewarded! Of course, this parable is actually about people’s heart response to the preaching of the kingdom. The abuse of this beautiful parable is a pet peeve of mine, but Steward takes its misinterpretation to a new level. He uses this parable to advocate the unbiblical practice of favoritism within the “old school network.” Such discrimination, based on the parent’s ability to afford elite education, is the very thing that Steward himself testifies to having overcome!

Another ridiculous abuse of Scripture occurs in the chapter entitled “Creativity and Innovation.” In describing how these two expressions complement each other, he quotes from Isa 41:6-7, where the prophet is describing the construction of an idol! Steward then says, “Here we are reminded that we must work together, praising and encouraging each other, so that the sum total of our efforts becomes greater than our individual efforts. ” Only if we want to be emulating those constructing idols!!!
Numerous other abuses and misuses of Scripture (almost every time the Bible is used!) could be cited. Suffice it to say, though, that this is the worst book on “biblical” principles for leadership or for doing business that I have read. I wish I could somehow recover the hours I wasted reading it. In fact, I found this book so offensive that, if I had the wherewithal, I would purchase every copy in existence and pulp it. My recommendation to David Steward would be to do that very thing in order to protect those with even less understanding of the Scriptures from being led astray by his example, and to rescue his reputation from the derision that such a publication must provoke.