February 10, 2026

Business by the Book

Genesis 39:2-3 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

It never ceases to amaze how petty people can be in business. The majority of managers, company owners, parents, preachers, and leaders from every walk of life unfortunately do more to hinder prosperity among their followers than they do to encourage their follower’s success. Potiphar was an officer, a captain of the guard, in Pharaoh’s army. As such he must have been a good judge of men and their talents. In the case of Joseph, Potiphar knew enough to let him prosper. As Joseph proved his worth, Potiphar gave him more and more responsibility until finally this slave was over all the personal business of this captain.

Consider most sales organizations, they limit the take home pay of their sales force by changing quotas, capping commissions, sliding scale commissions and numerous other mechanisms to control how much their sales people make. Why? Who knows! One thing is certain though; highly motivated sales representatives are an asset to any organization. Allow them to prosper individually and the overall company will prosper. Someone will say they may make too much money, perhaps even more than their manager. Ball players make more than their managers, what’s wrong with that? They are the ones bringing in business, if a professional sales representative makes 1% sales commission on $100,000 worth of sales that’s a $1,000 commission. If they sell $1,000,000 worth of the company’s products they would make $10,000 in commissions. Either way it only cost the company 1% of sales.

All great leaders have it within themselves for their followers to excel, prosper, and advance in life. Why cap their success? Why demotivate them? Why hinder their drive and ambition? Because they may make too much money? If they sell more, the company does better, or should. Let people prosper if they have the ability to prosper. However, to hinder prosperity is to hinder the entire organization.

There was once a business owner that hired a friend of mine to be in charge of marketing. On his first day of work the business owner took my friend on a tour of the manufacturing plant. After the tour the owner asked my friend “What do you think we make here?”  My friend replied by naming the instrument they manufactured. The owner said, “No, we make money?”  He went on to say “If you make money, we make money; the more you make, the more we make; so go make a bunch of money.” 

If you are a leader of people, help them to excel and reward them handsomely for it. In turn you will excel as a leader. Upon reading this, take your thoughts beyond just money, for prosperity is far more than a paycheck. It is satisfaction, advancement, recognition, and about as many other adjectives as there are followers who simply want to prosper according to their own value system.

Dr. William Howe