Speeches
VOLTAGE CEO: Doing the Right Thing Always Wins
Buena Vista, Va.—Eric Fowles, the founder and CEO of digital agency VOLTAGE, spoke at Southern Virginia University about how faith in God and doing the right thing helped him grow his company from a two-man shop in a basement to a multi-million-dollar, award-winning enterprise.
“Everyone posts their best life,” said Fowles. “But you never see the grit and the determination and sometimes the pitfalls of what got them to that point.”
“It’s all my faith and trust in God that’s got me through it and actually blessed me and led me down this path,” he continued.
According to Fowles, there were many years of struggle and failure precluding VOLTAGE’s founding. In these times of growth, he identified three principles that helped lead him to success: talk to God, listen to God, and walk with God.
“If you want to talk to [God], you pray to Him; if you want to listen to Him, read His words,” explained Fowles. “And walking with God is just doing what He asks—getting engaged with His work.”
To illustrate walking with God, Fowles shared an example of his calling in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve as scout master.
At the time, it was difficult to balance the time commitment required for scouting with the demands of starting a company and helping raise six children. Despite these many challenges and obstacles, Fowles explained that he decided to“dive into [his new calling] full-force.”
“It was one of the best things I’ve done,” said Fowles. “I can count a lot of the…big [VOLTAGE] accounts just from serving in my calling. So, you make God’s work your work and engage in what He wants you to do, and He’ll bless you with things that you will be surprised of.”
Another lesson Fowles learned was that “doing the right thing always wins.” When he left his previous venture to start VOLTAGE, a misunderstanding ended up costing his former employer. While Fowles was no longer responsible for resolving the issue, he felt it was the right thing to do to step up and help out financially.
“It pays to do the right thing in everything, especially in business,” said Fowles. “[My former employer] became such a great client, and two weeks in he gave us a big contract.”
“That’s what helped my company, and ever since, you can almost tie half of the big deals we’ve done to that one moment,” he added.
In closing, Fowles invited those in attendance to make following God a high priority in their lives.
“It’s awesome that you’re at this school,” said Fowles. “It supports your faith and your beliefs. Take advantage of that. Get involved in God’s work, because when you do that He blesses you so much…Whenever you lose your life, you find it (Matthew 10:39).”