Starting a Business Strengthened My Testimony

Starting a business changed my testimony in a way I never saw coming.

In the beginning, I was actually worried that running a successful business would damage my testimony.

You hear so many stories of people who build successful businesses and then eventually lose their testimonies or fall away the Church that it’s almost starts to feel like cause and effect.

I was worried that my business would distract me from my faith.

But what I’ve found is that it’s strengthened my faith more than almost anything else I’ve done.


Moroni taught:

“Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen;

wherefore, dispute not because ye see not,

for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” (Ether 12:6)

For a long time, I thought that kind of faith was talking about “big” acts of faith like serving a mission. Accepting a calling. Trusting God through heartbreaking trials. Praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true.

But when I started building a business, I felt like I was living that verse every day. 

Imagine a younger Nate and me, sitting on the floor in front of my laptop on an August evening.

We’d spent the past 18 months building 650 wooden baby gyms together in my parents' garage.

I had just received the email I’d been waiting on pins and needles for. A quote from our manufacturer.

It was going to cost $14,000 to order 1,000 wooden baby gyms (which was the minimum order quantity

At the time, that was more than we’d even spent on a car

We didn’t have that much cash saved up. We would have to take out a loan

It had taken us 18 months to sell 650 baby gyms, and we were ordering 1,000??!! That’s more than we had sold in the lifetime of the business!

I was praying harder during those days than I’d prayed in years.

(Honestly, the last time I had prayed that hard was on my mission)

My prayers sounded like:

“Heavenly Father, is this what we should be doing right now

Are we crazy? Is it irresponsible to spend this much money?

OR

Is it irresponsible to keep burning ourselves into the ground, making products by hand and NOT making this investment?"

Well… 4 months later, we sold through that order of 1,000 baby gyms

and we were placing an order for 2,000.

Talk about receiving a witness after a trial of our faith.


One of my favorite teachings from Elder David A. Bednar is that faith has 3 elements.

1. Faith as the assurance of things hoped for that are true (looking to the future) 
2. Faith as the evidence of things not seen (looking back on what God has done in the past)
3. Faith as the principle of action in all intelligent beings (what we choose to do today).

He teaches that assurance, action, and evidence continually reinforce one another, spiraling upward like a coil.

“As we again turn and face forward toward an uncertain future, assurance leads to action and produces evidence, which further increases assurance. Our confidence waxes stronger, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little."

That perfectly describes what building a business has felt like for me.

I wish this were the narrative we heard more often.

Stories about how faithful saints put their hearts and souls into taking action for their businesses

And came out on the other side with stronger testimonies. Not weaker.

Think about it.

What other “thing” in life gives us so many low-risk faith experiments to run?

Where else can you plant a seed of faith and see the tangible, measurable, physical results in such a short period of time?

You’re probably not going to see the full results of your faith in Jesus Christ during this lifetime.

You’re probably not going to see the full results of raising your family in the gospel after just a few months.

But business often gives us repeated opportunities to exercise faith, act, watch what God does, and then do it all over again

It's become a classroom for my testimony.

I have dozens of stories about prayers God has answered for my business. 

Miracles I’ve witnessed.

Closeness and friendship I’ve gained with the Savior because of my business

Since you probably won’t hear many other people talking about business this way, that’s what I hope you take away from my Instagram content, emails, and podcast.

God is a really big fan of you building your business.

What would it change if you believed that and truly felt His full, unwavering support behind your efforts?