Feature Story
The Unexpected Relationship of Discipleship and Entrepreneurship with CEO Jordan Wright
On Friday, Sept. 27, the campus community gathered in the Knight Arena to hear from Jordan Wright, CEO and co-founder of the fintech company Atomic, as he spoke on the challenges of entrepreneurship and the power, support, and similarities of the gospel in starting businesses.
“The lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur have been helpful in my discipleship and vice versa,” said Wright. “Entrepreneurship is this way you see the inkling of a possibility, and then you dig in, and you dig deeper, and you work harder, and it begins to come to life. I find that faith and entrepreneurship share that commonality. When you work hard at something, it also tends to get better over time. It’s the same way with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Reflecting on the early years of starting his first business and trying to make it successful, Wright pointed out the constant highs and lows in the journey, and how his testimony helped him to adapt, learn, and grow with each challenge.
“Going from everyone wanting to work with you, to suddenly no one, then back to everyone coming to your door, it’s pretty heady stuff to experience something like that,” said Wright. “If I had stayed focused on always wanting to make sure that people approved of me in the world, it would have been easy for me to lose myself when things got a lot harder. But because of a core foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it helped me not lose myself in those moments.”
“In entrepreneurship, as well as discipleship, feeling discouraged doesn’t come from a lack of ability rather than lack of courage,” Wright continued.
Using a personal experience, Wright shared how the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ saved his friendship with his best friend and business partner, after a business disagreement.
“When I think about the lessons entrepreneurship teaches me, this is one where my discipleship dramatically changed the outcome for me in my business and personal relationships,” said Wright. “I realized that [my friend] Scott and I needed repentance and forgiveness, and so I wrote him a letter and I asked him to forgive me. The next day he came over and we spent some time together.”
“I hope that you remember that business is always personal, and that forgiveness and repentance are not just divine mandates for between us and God,” continued Wright. “They change the relationships with people around us.”
At one point in his career, Wright decided to sell his most recent business and work for another company. After realizing that it didn’t fit with what he wanted in life, he found himself worrying about his next steps when his son provided a timely reminder.
“I was having a little bit of an identity crisis trying to figure out what I might do when my young son came home from school with a project he’d done that day,” said Wright. “It was a paper cut in the shape of an apple with the words ‘I am a-peeling because,’ and he filled the rest out with ‘I’m a child of God.’ It reminded me that my value is not in how much money I raise, or whether I’m a founder of a company. My value is in being a child of God, as it is with you.”
The event opened with a song excerpt from the theatre program’s musical revue, “Love, Broadway,” which was performed on Sept. 27–28, and closed with the campus community singing “Love One Another.”