The final title is Biblical Business: 7 Unbreakable Laws of Leadership.

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The title changed, but the foundation of the book did not.

From the very beginning, this has been a book about building and leading businesses according to Biblical principles. The Dispensable CEO came from one of those principles: that a CEO is a steward.

Scripture teaches that everything belongs to God. Our time, our talents, our resources, and yes, our businesses. We are entrusted to lead faithfully for a season, not to build companies that revolve around us or become dependent on our presence. A healthy business should continue creating value, developing people, and fulfilling its purpose long after its founder steps away.

That’s what it means to become a dispensable CEO.

As I finished writing, I realized something.

The Dispensable CEO wasn’t the message. It was for more than just the CEO.

The manuscript was teaching what it looks like to build a business when Scripture shapes every part of how you lead. How you make decisions. How you steward money. How you develop people. How you think about growth. How you define success. How you view your role as a leader.

In other words, it was always about Biblical Business.

The world has taught us to treat “Biblical” and “business” as separate ideas. One belongs on Sunday. The other belongs on Monday morning.

I don’t believe that’s true.

I believe business is one of the greatest stewardship opportunities God gives us. Every hiring decision, every customer interaction, every financial decision, every difficult conversation, and every strategic choice is an opportunity to reflect His character.

That’s why this isn’t a devotional for business owners (though we’ll talk about that).

It isn’t a collection of leadership stories (though I’ll share a few).

And it isn’t another business book built around personality or hustle (we’ve read enough of those).

It’s a practical system for building a profitable, healthy company with Biblical principles shaping how you lead, make decisions, manage money, develop people, grow, and steward what God has entrusted to you.

Each of the Seven Laws is paired with practical implementation tools because conviction without execution rarely changes a business.

My prayer is that this book equips leaders to build businesses that honor God, serve people well, and outlive them.

To everyone who has already preordered the book, thank you.

Many of you trusted me enough to buy it before there was a cover, before there was a final title, and before the manuscript was complete. Your support has been an incredible encouragement throughout this process.

The title has changed.

The mission never did.

For His glory alone,

Adam

The most dangerous person in your business is not the person who disagrees with you.

It is the person who agrees with you when they know you are wrong.

In 1 Kings 12, we read about Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. He becomes king, and the people come to him asking him to lighten their burden. They say, in essence, “Your father made this heavy on us. If you lighten the burden, we will serve you.”

So Rehoboam looks for advice.

First, he goes to the men who stood before his father. These are the older men, the wise men, the men who had served under Solomon and had seen leadership up close. In 1 Kings 12:6, Rehoboam asks them, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”

And they tell him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”

That was the counsel. Treat people kindly. Serve them. Speak good words to them. Lead in a way that actually lowers the burden instead of making it heavier.

But Rehoboam abandoned the counsel the old men gave him.

He then went to the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. They did not stand before Solomon. They stood before Rehoboam. They responded to what they knew, and what they knew was him. His ego wanted to hear what they were about to tell him.

They said, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

When I read that, I think about the modern-day equivalent of a yes man or a yes woman. If you are in business and you are surrounding yourself with people who only tell you what you want to hear, those are extremely dangerous people.

The reason they are dangerous is because they value money over truth. You can call it self-preservation, but at the end of the day, they are going to tell you whatever you want to hear because they are worried about their own pocketbook.

They will not give you the truth because the truth might cost them something.

And that is not loyalty. That is fear. That is self-protection. That is someone keeping their seat at the table while letting you walk into a bad decision.

What you need around you is wise counsel. Wise counsel does not mean someone is always disagreeing with you. It does not mean someone is cynical or combative or trying to prove they are smarter than you. Wise counsel speaks the truth in love. Wise counsel is willing to say what needs to be said, even when it would be easier to stay quiet.

But the leader still has a responsibility. You have to receive the counsel. You have to do something with it. Rehoboam received wise counsel first. He just abandoned it. That is the warning. The wisdom was available to him, but he went looking for the answer his pride already wanted.

That happens in business all the time. A leader says he wants advice, but what he really wants is agreement. He says he wants feedback, but what he really wants is confirmation. And if you reward people for agreeing with you, eventually that is all they will do.

Who you take advice from matters. The person you want around you is not the person who agrees with everything you say. It is the person who is willing to tell you the truth in love. When you find somebody like that, bring that person along with you. Do not punish them for being honest. Do not make truth unsafe. Do not treat disagreement like disloyalty.

A person like that can protect your business for years. And if you do not have someone like that inside your business, then get someone outside of it. Get an advisor. Get someone who can look at your business objectively and tell you when you are wrong.

Because wise counsel is not optional in leadership. If God has entrusted you with people, resources, influence, or a business, then you need voices around you who care more about truth than access.

Rehoboam had wise counsel available to him, but he chose the voices that fed his pride. The result was not just a bad decision. It was a divided kingdom.

That should sober every believer in business.

Do not build a company where people are afraid to tell the truth. Do not confuse agreement with loyalty. And do not mistake flattery for counsel.

You do not need more people protecting your ego.

You need people helping you steward what God has trusted you with.

The thing I’ve been wrestling with lately is that AI is enabling people to do more things than they’ve ever been able to do before.

I see it in myself. I see it in business owners. I see it in leaders.

Need an app? You can build one.

Need copy? You can write it.

Need a workflow? You can create it.

Need a dashboard? You can stand it up.

Need a website? You can launch one this afternoon.

And every day the list gets longer.

What strikes me is that we’ve become so focused on what we can do that we’ve stopped asking whether we should be the ones doing it.

For most of history, capability was a constraint. There were things you simply couldn’t do because you didn’t have the expertise. If you wanted a legal contract, you hired an attorney. If you wanted a complex system built, you found an engineer. If you wanted world-class copy, you found a great copywriter.

Today, AI has removed many of those barriers.

But it hasn’t removed the need for judgment.

In fact, I think judgment may be becoming more valuable.

What I see happening is that people start accumulating responsibilities under the guise of leverage. They build the app themselves. Then they manage the app. Then they write the copy. Then they manage the marketing. Then they build the automation. Then they manage the automation.

Eventually they’re carrying around dozens of jobs they were never uniquely gifted to perform.

Yes, they can do them.

But so what? Capability is becoming a commodity. The ability to produce something is no longer particularly rare.

The ability to discern whether it should be produced, who should produce it, and whether it is good enough to accomplish the mission; that’s still rare.

What makes this interesting from a biblical perspective is that God never designed us to possess every gift.

Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 is remarkably countercultural in an age of AI. The body functions because different people bring different gifts. The eye is not the hand. The hand is not the foot. The strength of the body comes from the diversity of gifts working together toward a common purpose.

In many ways, AI is tempting us toward the opposite conclusion. It whispers that because we can do more, we should need fewer people.

But what if the real opportunity is not to replace expertise, but to better understand where expertise matters?

What if the highest and best use of AI is not becoming average at twenty things, but becoming exceptional at the few things God uniquely equipped you to do?

I’ve found that the most effective leaders I know are not trying to do everything themselves. They are incredibly clear about where their judgment creates value and where someone else’s expertise is superior to their own.

The future will belong to people who can leverage capability without confusing it for wisdom.

Because AI is making capability cheap.

Judgment is still expensive.

I think a lot of people are exhausted because they’re chasing a version of success God never actually asked them to pursue.

We’ve been taught to think in outcomes.

Growth.
Recognition.
Influence.
Money.
Scale.
Being known.
Being “ahead.”

And slowly, without realizing it, success becomes the thing we serve.

Not openly, of course. Most people wouldn’t say that out loud.

But you can usually tell what someone worships by what controls their peace.

If things are growing, they feel secure.
If things slow down, they feel lost.
If they’re winning, they feel valuable.
If they’re overlooked, they feel invisible.

In business, it’s easy to start measuring your life through numbers and outcomes. You tell yourself you’re pursuing excellence, but underneath it, your identity becomes attached to performance.

And there’s a difference between excellence and identity.

Excellence is good.
We should work hard.
We should build well.
We should be disciplined.
We should care about quality.

But God never asked us to build our identity around success.

What He asks for is stewardship.

That changes everything. Stewardship is much quieter than ambition.

Stewardship asks:
What has God already placed in your hands?

Maybe it’s a business.
Maybe it’s a career.
Maybe it’s your marriage.
Your children.
Your health.
Your finances.
Your friendships.
Your time.
Your attention.

Whatever it is, you are a steward of it.

And I think many people spend their lives waiting to become faithful once they finally have more.

More money.
More opportunity.
More influence.
More certainty.

But faithfulness rarely begins later.

It usually reveals itself in the small things first.

How you show up when nobody notices.
How you handle responsibility before recognition arrives.
How you treat people who cannot advance you.
How you manage what already belongs to God.

Jesus talked often about this idea of being faithful with little.

I don’t think that principle only applies to money. I think it applies to almost everything.

The way you steward today matters.

Not because small things are insignificant, but because small things expose the heart.

And honestly, I think this is where peace starts to return to a person.

When you stop trying to carry the weight of success that was never fully yours to control.

You realize your responsibility is not to force success into existence.

Your responsibility is stewardship.

To be faithful.
To work wholeheartedly.
To manage wisely.
To stay obedient.
To remain grounded.
To keep your character intact while the world teaches people to sacrifice theirs for attention.

And then there’s this strange thing that often happens.

Over time, many people who focus deeply on stewardship end up becoming successful anyway.

Not always in the way the world defines it.
But often even there too.

Because good stewardship tends to produce fruit over long periods of time.

Not instantly.
Not always visibly.
But steadily.

That’s God’s math.

Fruit grows where faithfulness already exists.

But even if it didn’t, stewardship would still matter.

Because at the end of the day, success was never the assignment.

Faithfulness was.

Work is good.

Before the fall of man, Adam & Eve worked in the garden. Human beings were created to build, cultivate, create, and steward. Work was part of God’s design from the beginning.

But after sin entered the world, work changed.

In Genesis 3, God tells Adam that work would now come through toil and by the sweat of his brow. Work became difficult. Frustrating. Heavy.

That is the backdrop behind Proverbs 23:4:

“Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.”

The warning is not about effort. The warning is about where your trust is placed.

There is a kind of work that is driven by fear. A kind of striving where your identity and security become tied to money, achievement, or accumulation.

You start believing that if you can just make a certain amount of money, then you will finally be safe.

If you can just build enough wealth, then you will finally have peace.

But Scripture tells us that wealth cannot provide the security we are looking for.

Life can change very quickly.

I have personally experienced seasons where I thought I had security, and then it disappeared almost overnight. Markets shift. Businesses struggle. Circumstances change.

Money is not stable enough to carry the weight of your identity or your peace.

That is why Proverbs says to be discerning enough to desist.

You need discernment to recognize when healthy work has become relentless striving.

You need discernment to recognize when ambition has turned into dependence on wealth instead of dependence on God.

And if you feel trapped in that cycle right now, it is not too late to change direction.

Pause and pray.

Spend time with God.

Spend time with people who love Him and speak truth into your life.

Then make the pivot.

Away from the belief that money can save you.

Real peace comes from trusting God, not from reaching a number in your bank account.

AW

Biblical Business is about practically applying biblical wisdom to business, leadership, and career.

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. -Romans 8:5-6

There’s a war happening inside of every leader.

‍A tension between the desire to trust God, and the urge to grip tighter. A tug-of-war between the longing to do what’s right and the fear that if you don’t keep pushing, it’ll all fall apart. In Romans, Paul writes as someone who’d felt it.

“I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.”
“The evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

You feel it in the deal that’s hanging in the balance. The conversation you’re avoiding. The next big thing you’re trying to force. You start to believe peace will come on the other side of accomplishment. That when you finally close the sale, make the hire, or hit the number, you can finally breathe.

But what fills your thoughts – will shape your soul. Read that again...

What fills your thoughts – will shape your soul.

And the mind set on the flesh fills itself with forecasts and fears…with homes, trips, titles, promotions, worries about the market or what someone else is building.

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This is the silent danger of leadership.

It’s possible to look faithful from the outside, but be entirely self-reliant on the inside. You can pray at the dinner table but never in your office. You can appear calm and composed while your heart spins with anxiety, trying to play God in your own story.

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 7:24–25

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So what are some ways to set your mind on the Spirit?

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It means choosing a different pace before the rush begins.
It means reading Scripture every day because truth is what reorders the heart.
It means turning off the podcast or music in the car and sitting in silence, asking God to speak.
It means filling your home with prayer, your desk with reminders, your moments with surrender.

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Because God’s Word tells us the mind set on the Spirit leads somewhere beautiful:

‍life and peace.

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Not just eternal peace…it’s the kind of steady leadership the world desperately needs – and will be seen in your business. Grounded. Discerning. Unshaken.

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Start small.

One prayer. One verse. One redirect when your thoughts wander.

And over time, the Spirit will reshape not just your day but your desires.

Because life and peace aren’t found at the finish line of your next achievement. They’re found in the middle of your obedience. In the practice of setting your mind - again and again - on the One who leads with perfect wisdom, carries every burden, and never fails.

Set your mind on the Spirit and find life and peace.

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What do you mean you “have to take this”?
You don’t have to take anything.

There’s a text; you don’t have to reply.
There’s an email; you don’t have to open it.
Your phone is ringing; you don’t have to pick it up.

You’re creating the urgency.

You are in control of your life.
No one is forcing you to miss games or skip date nights.
You’re choosing that.

And if you’re telling yourself, “I’ll sacrifice this now so I can live later,”
you’re going to miss the whole thing.

You’re missing it now.

Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” - Proverbs 27:1 (ESV)

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“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Not in private.
Not quietly.
Out front.

This is a heart issue.

Because some of you will say. “I just want to demonstrate my faith, not talk about it.”

But if you’re honest…
is it conviction?

Or is it fear?

Fear of losing money.
Position.
Opportunity.
Growth.

Joshua made it clear: choose.

So here’s the encouragement: pray, get discernment, and do not be ashamed of the gospel.

He’s not ashamed of you.

He will grow your business.

Maybe not how you expect.
It might go left.
It might go right.
Up or down.

But if you’re with the Lord….that is your reward.

If you go hiring people because you're trying to grow - for growth that hasn't happened yet - you might be in a position where you have to fire people or where you have overextended yourself.

And it's the most devastating thing for the people involved, and for your business.

Hire when it hurts means you're going to go through the pain of doing everything yourself.

You're going to wear every hat.

You're going to do the job.

It's going to be difficult.

You're going to feel like you need more people.

When you get to the point of REALLY being in pain, then you hire somebody - and here’s why:

First, it's going to make it so that that person can be coached in a way where you understand exactly what they do, because you've gone through the pain of it, and you can really coach them well.

Second, it's going to teach you to empathize in a different way, which will make you a better leader. Because now when you hire that person, the empathy you have will be coming from a place of first principles perspective because you've done the job. And that is a huge unlock.

So don’t just hire willy-nilly to grow…

hire when it hurts….

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Ephesians 3:20-21

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

The right people speaking into what you’re building and how you’re leading.

Proverbs 11:14 has been on my mind.