Ever since I was a little boy,  I was about to say “lad” (must’ve been that movie I watched last night). I got off. OK, back to it.

Ever since I was younger, my dad had me reading Proverbs. And when you’re young, you don’t always think that stuff is sticking. But the Word of God is different. It goes deep. You might not realize it right away, but it’s planting seeds. You’re meditating on it day and night, and one day, that Word just shows up in your thinking, in your decisions, and in your grind.

One verse that came back to me recently was:

“Go to the ant, you lazy person. Watch what it does and be wise.” , roverbs 6:6 (ICB)

When I was a kid, I got the general idea. The ant works hard. Cool. But now as an entrepreneur, that simple principle hits way harder.

I remember leaving my job and realizing I didn’t know what to do with my time. I had been managed for so long, told what to do, when to do it, how to do it — that when it was finally just me? I was lost. No one was checking for me. No clock-in system. No deadlines. It was just me… and time.

I didn’t have a schedule. I had gotten so used to working 50 hours a week and building my business in the middle of the night that that became life for me. Now I had all the time in the world, but no structure.

If you’re an entrepreneur, I’m pretty sure you’ve experienced this. And if you haven’t yet , you will. That’s why it’s important to get ahead of it. Build a schedule. Set systems. Because self-discipline becomes your boss when no one else is managing you.

That’s why I love the ant. It’s the perfect example.

When you’re running your own business, there’s no supervisor walking by your desk. No manager following up on your assignments. You’re responsible for your own motion. You’ve got to get up and do the work , even when no one is watching. Especially when no one is watching.

The ant doesn’t need a boss to tell it when to move or how to plan. It just moves. It prepares in the summer for what’s coming in the winter. It knows the seasons will shift, so it doesn’t wait for permission to start.

God, in His wisdom, used something as small as an ant to teach us something massive. And Solomon, with all his wisdom, told us to study it,  not just look at it, but really observe it.

When you really do that, you start to realize:

• You need systems.

• You need discipline.

• You need structure.

• You need wisdom.

And you don’t need someone to hand it to you. You can build it. Just like the ant.

This is Part One of a four-part series. We’re going to look deeper into this ant and pull out every bit of wisdom we can. Because sometimes the biggest lessons come in the smallest packages.

See you in Part Two.

God bless the entrepreneur ®️