Andreas Widmer, former Swiss Guard for Saint John Paul II and Director of the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship, is interviewed by Catholic entrepreneur and colleague Luke Burgis about his personal story of vocation in business and, now, as a teacher. Andreas and Luke co-teach a course called “The Vocation of Business” at The Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
“God never created anything that wasn’t profitable.”
In this podcast, they touch on everything from “Business Nihilism” to the role of marriage in the vocation of business and the question of whether or not there is something “broken” with free markets (or perhaps, instead, something broken in our understanding of the important role that living out personal vocations has in a free society).
Andreas goes into depth about his first startup experience in the early 1990’s Internet world and how he cut his teeth as a young immigrant to the blow up of his company Dragon Systems after selling out to fraudulent buyers. Most importantly, he explains how that experience began to open his eyes to a deeper understanding of the meaning of work itself. And more:
• The theology of creation and how it can help us understand the role of the entrepreneur and worker
• The false distinction between “for-profit” and “non-profit” entities (including the difference in language between the United States and Europe)
• Why teaching attitude is just as important as teaching skills or knowledge
• The importance of understanding the memes that we use, or the self-talk that can either lead to self-destructive behavior or success
• And a personal story about Pope Saint John Paul II
What started out as a 20 minute interview turned into almost 40…but the conversation was so good that we couldn’t cut any of it out.
