Photos by Tanielle Gilbert
When you choose a company to work for, make sure it’s one that aligns with your values, or you're dead in the water, said Flip Flippen, founder and chairman of the Flippen Group.
The same is true if you work for yourself.
“We’ve built our company so it’s very aligned with our mission and our values. … No organization will thrive if those two things aren’t perfectly aligned,” said Flippen. The educator training, corporate talent and team development company he leads with wife, Susan, was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year. Other recipients have included former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
“Ya’ll live in a bubble right now,” he continued, as he spoke to Grand Canyon University students in a packed Sunset Auditorium in one of two symposium sessions. “This is not the real world – it’s probably the closest I’ve ever seen a university get to it. But you step out right there, and you are going to confront things that violate your values, they’re going to challenge everything about you.”
It was just some of the advice the Flippens shared with students at the “Symposium for Faith and Corporate Philanthropy,” one of a slew of events planned for the Honors College-led Integrity Week, designed to strengthen students’ character, promote excellence and explore ethical innovation.
The symposium of successful Christian business leaders who spoke about how their faith guides their business practices, also featured Hobby Lobby President Steve Green, who spoke at Chapel, and his wife, Jackie, an author, in its first session. Other panelists were accredited Wealth Management Specialist Scott Pyle of Pyle Financial and Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle, whose first book, “Anticipating Heaven,” was published in January, in the second session.
Dave Donaldson, co-founder of the national CityServe organization, who moderated the symposium along with GCU President Brian Mueller, asked the Pyles and Flippens what “no charity without prosperity” means to them. It's a phrase Mueller often shares in his talks.
“We need prosperous people,” Mueller said. “The government can’t solve the problem of poverty, but the free market system can. … People need to get in the middle of it from a free market perspective and create opportunity.
“If somebody’s not prosperous, there’s no charity to give,” he said.
“Susan and I have been poor,” said Flip Flippen. “And we were seriously happy poor, so if you’re sitting here thinking I have to have wealth to be able to proser and to give, that is so not true.”
He spoke of wealth as more than financial riches.
He told students not to fall back on small thinking and, “Well, I don’t have much. You have all that you have. You have ALL that you have. You can do so much with that – things you never dreamed of. I believe God’s faithful to that. That is, if you are faithful in these small things, He will make you master over much and you will find yourself being able to do things you never dreamed.
“We never dreamed we’d get to do the stuff we do. It was being faithful in that small moment, and that’s where you guys are right now,” said Flippen, who built an outpatient clinic for at-risk youth in College Station, Texas, and whose first book, “The Flip Side: Break Free of the Behaviors That Hold You Back,” became a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. “So pour yourself out.”
Scott Pyle advised to also find wealth in relationships.
“Invest yourself in those you are in proximity with. Invest yourselves in those that you love and care for, and you will be rich in relationships. Sometimes your checkbook and your relational wealth are not even close.
“I have a good friend ... and he has a saying, ‘I’m getting comfortable being in rooms I don’t belong in,’” Pyle said. "I love that. It’s just a sense of humility that God will use you, but don’t just think money, think influence, relationships, loving one another, unity.”
Dr. Pamela Pyle added, “It’s first relationships, then prosperity. Prosperity IS needed for charity, but don’t seek prosperity just for prosperity’s sake. Do something with a charitable heart.”
She said when she and husband Scott had nothing, they gave charitably, not expecting anything to come out of it. “It was first relationships, then prosperity, and we never stopped giving.”
Scott added that they wouldn’t be where they are without relationships and it was through people, like Steve and Jackie Green, that they were challenged to go to Israel, which changed their lives, “and we’re on this stage today because of that relationship,” he said.
The speakers took time out to celebrate their time at GCU and new relationship with Mueller.
“We’ve been to Oxford, Cambridge. We’ve traveled all over the world. We’ve been to a bazillion campuses,” Flip Flippen said. "Not one time, Brian, in our career have we been to a place that’s captivated us like today has.”
Susan Flippen added, “We LOVE your kids. This is an amazing campus." She shared with students that it’s important for them to spend time with adults they admire, adults who “live with purpose and with passion,” like Mueller.
Find and embrace those mentors.
Dr. Pamela Pyle said she doesn’t know very many university presidents who have taken their universities to the public markets, like Mueller and other GCU leaders did, to save the university from near bankruptcy.
“You are being led by a visionary leader. I would go everywhere he is, listen to everything he’s ever said. It’s the principles of being a visionary. That has made your school exceptional. You get to go here and be under his leadership.”
Mueller said he never expected at 21 years old to be doing what he’s doing now at 73.
He advised students to pay close attention to the experiences God gives you because He’s leading you someplace. God works through you, even through people who don’t deserve what they get, “And I’m one of those people,” he said.
He also implored students to control the two things they can control every day: how hard they work and the people they work with.
Flip Flippen said he follows the second part of that equation closely. He said that if you want to work for his company, there is no contact information or way to get an interview.
“What happens is we see people that we think are extraordinary,” and someone in the company will reach out to them.
And in speaking about interviews, he said to know that you are interviewing every day; everything you do is an interview, so always be prepared.
Some other advice from the symposium's second session:
- From Flip Flippen: “The question is not how do you make more money, the question is how do you add more value? Believe me, value gets rewarded.”
- From Dr. Pamela Pyle: “You have gifts and you have talents, but there is something you were anointed to do, and so anticipate it. God is going to give you a clear answer of what you were anointed to do.”
- From Susan Pyle: “Like Steve (Green of Hobby Lobby) was saying, his dad came in on a Sunday and did extra work. An owner is going to give more.”
- From Susan Pyle: “God’s Word is God’s Word, and so anything that violates His Word (we don’t do). … That’s what we use in our decisions. It's the ultimate decision.”
- From Scott Pyle: “Act like an owner. Go in there and look out for that owner that gave you the opportunity and look for ways to improve with humility. … Look out for the clientele, look out for the staff, lead up, look for opportunities to add value beyond your role. Act like an owner and, one day, you will be.”
GCU Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected] or at 602-639-7901.
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