What is Faith?
The word “faith” has many meanings to many people. Some think it to be that which is a faith in some deity and some think it faith in people. I think faith is that which manifests itself within you. Do people feel or “have” faith when things are going good or do they only have faith when things are troubled? It is human tendency to be blind when the views are amazing as Post said, but it is also human nature to look outside for faith when things are bad.
Faith is something that I think I have had since a very early age. Growing up a devout catholic, I had the faith of the church engrained in me early on. Mass on Sunday, CCD as a good catholic boy and participating in all the events of the church. I was one of the lucky ones in my hometown as I was not molested as a alter boy like so many others in our church. I never really understood faith in “something” though. I just could never wrap my arms around having to kneel and be in one place on one day to achieve that which should be inside you.
I have always had faith in “me”. The person I am and the things that happen to me. I know that things will always work out the way they are supposed to. They may not work out the way I would like at times, but they do work out. I recall when my first love, Kitty, and I broke up. I desperately tried to get her back for two years. It was a very tough period that saw me going to places that were quite dark. It worked out though as I ended up with a wife and three amazing boys. I recall talking to Kitty just after I was married and her asking if we could give it another try. I considered it, but stuck with my wife and the commitment I made. I had faith in that decision and I will never regret it.
Faith in others is harder I think. I now have only one person in my life that I have known less than five years. Everyone else has seen me through a lot of trials and tribulations and they know who the real me is. Removing so many people who were just fair weather people was necessary as they don’t really know you and thus don’t understand how you interact with the world at times. On the opposite end are people who know me really well. They know “me”. One such person called me yesterday. He is a partner at a VC firm that I have known for a long time. He invested in two of my companies including the latest.
As an entrepreneur, there are always people nipping at your heals. There are people that are straight up jealous of what they think you have accomplished or there are people who are jealous of your life. Every now and then though, there are people just completely jealous of the life you have and want to try and destroy it because they will never live it either with you or on their own.
I recall in my second company, we had someone trying to do that to my CFO. He had someone who would send emails to our investors telling them all sorts of stories about the guy. The CFO was salt of the earth and our investors had faith in him and in my decision to disregard the emails. I knew it bothered him and he questioned if he would be fired, but I was not about to impact the entire company, employees and their families off of what someone I never met made up, especially given they had never accomplished anything.
Back to my VC friend. He calls me yesterday and says he received a negative email about a member of my company’s management team. I won’t say which one, but what made me think about faith was that he said to me, “Paul, I know you. I have been through think and thin with you and know what you are made of so I have faith in you and your team”.
He knows me and has faith in me. He also told me that he tracked the IP of where the email form came from and gave me the longitude and latitude of it so we can refer it out to counsel. You see, we are used to this type of passive aggressive shit from losers who simply are either looking to disrupt others lives or live their own lives that are devoid of any meaning. It happens from time to time to us. It was refreshing to hear him speak so adamantly about how he feels about the company, me and my team. He has faith in us and it shows time and time again.
Faith in yourself is where it starts though. If you have no faith in yourself, no one will ever have faith in you. I have a massive amount of faith in myself and as I said, it all started a very young age. From walking home at night for seven miles because my mom was too drunk to remember to pick me up at age 12 to dealing with the responsibility of many employees and their families, I always know I will make it work and make it happen. It is what drives me. It may not work to a success, but it will work to open the next door or window. Faith in yourself does that and I am overflowing with it.
But what is faith? Where does it come from? How do you foster it and how do you keep it? I can only speak for me, but I think it comes from doing. Doing things on your own that surprise you. It is easy to simply feel sorry for yourself and ask for help from people or do nothing and blame the world, but that is not how I grew up. Everything I have, I created myself. No one has ever given me anything except their faith in knowing that what I said I can do, I did.
Faith in yourself, in this world, at this time, is so important. My fellow executives, employees, kids and people who are close to me have faith in me and know I will never stop making things happen the way they are supposed to. Especially when things change and they feel “wrong”, faith is so important because there is a reason things happen. There is a reason people do what they do and there is a reason they impact you in the way they do. Doubt is a good quality to have, but when you reach back farther and use faith to beat the shit out of doubt, you actually start a process of achievement. It holistically changes how you view the world much like just smiling makes you actually feel less depressed.
No matter how hard life gets or how easy life is, faith in knowing that I will keep making things happen is what keeps me going. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I heard, “I am proud of you”, but I say it to myself daily. It is the one thing that enables me to constantly look for the positive in life and know that things will happen for a reason. Things will work out. Things will get even better, especially when I think things are pretty fucking great as they are. I am feeling that exact feeling at this moment. I am a very lucky man and have a very cool life, but I have faith that the few things that are not great, will come around. They will improve.
“What is faith?” It is an interesting question I ask myself almost as much as “What is love?” I do know that the only people around me now have known me for years and have faith in my ability to continue to make their lives better. Continue to live a good life and offer whatever I can to improve those around me.
Life is simply what you make it. You can be someone who is always experiencing trouble, angry at the world blaming everyone for all things that go wrong, failings or hardship in business or in love. OR, you can be someone who is successful, in a loving relationship and someone who is making other lives better, understanding that when things do go wrong, it is never just someone else’s fault.
If you have “faith” in yourself, the second option is the only option.
Thanks for reading!

