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Marriage, Faith and Entrepreneurship

“It has to be more than just a business that you are setting up. Otherwise, everything will be off. Your pursuit will be for money, or recognition, or to address some other type of insecurity. Deal with your insecurities; otherwise they will rule you and the business’s success will encourage your fears.”

That’s the advice I would give to anyone what who aspires to be a business owner. I have come to believe that entrepreneurship is merely a tool to attain another greater, nobler goal. It cannot be the end but must be the means to the end. I have seen people lose their wives as their business succeeded because they never felt important in life, and their business made them feel special for the first time. In the end, I do not believe it’s worth it. My faith and moral compass dictate to me that even with the wealth and the recognition, men still have a responsibility from God to love their wives. If your wife divorces you, how can you love her? If she leaves you, then at best you are in love with your friend; but no longer your wife. And for those not married the same dilemma can occur if you have family or friends. Success of one thing should not come at the expense of another-at least not if it is more important.

As a married man I formed His Echo Grp. My wife is the co-CEO, and we have a business partner who serves as our CFO We focus on finding stories of the underprivileged and echoing them through the arts with the intent of comparing them what we believe to be the greatest story of all—the Gospel according to the Bible. In other words, we find good stories of people fighting through adversity and compare them to the story of Jesus fighting through adversity to save mankind. To do this, we conduct many interviews with people about their lives. For instance, our first client was in a severe car accident as a high school senior that jeopardized his opportunity to become a college basketball star. The young man fully recovered in strength and with our video and documentary of his story, regained a full scholarship to college playing the sport he loved. I would like to think His Echo Grp played a significant role in the underdog getting a second chance at the scouting table. Currently, we are following a story with a girl from Atlanta who, although homeless for several years, ultimately the valedictorian of her high school class. She intends to begin her freshman year at Spelman College next fall. Our company intends to promote her story with the hope of raising money for a book and computer scholarship for her. These are the stories we are interested in promoting. Not because they are the most lucrative; but because they fit into the mission of the business.

We have made and edited several videos but have moved slower in our production because both my wife and I agreed before we formed the business that our marriage came first! We valued the marriage over the business, and therefore see it as a tool to advance our marriages’ quality of life. This means there have been several contracts we have had to turn down because it would have not assisted our original goal.  It has been a challenging and slow process, but we stand firm in believing that the goal of the business should transcend profit; although that is needed to stay afloat. The business should be the means to an end and not the end itself. For us it is a means to assist our marriage. What’s yours?
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Marcus Lewis is the co-CEO of His Echo Grp., LLC. Along with his wife, Jasmine Lewis, and business partner, Bisi Ngwolo, CFO, the three formed the business with the purpose of serving under-resourced individuals by way of the arts. The three use media production to promote stories that would otherwise go unnoticed by the masses for the purpose of giving them exposure. For additional information on Marcus and His Echo Grp, email them at M.Lew@Hisechogrp.net.