So Pat, thanks for being here with me today.
Hey, always a pleasure to be with you, Felipe.
All right, so I want to start by asking you about faith and work integration because a lot of people, they're really scared to integrate their faith and work. They don't know how to and they feel scared even to get fired or to be accused of like evangelizing. And you've worked in some of the biggest companies, biggest roles, and you've always seemed to find a way to integrate faith and work. What's your advice for people in that place, that tension, and even how to live out their faith in the workplace?
Yeah. And maybe, you know, the first comment is when you're in the workplace, your job is to do a great job. You know, the highest form of worship, right? And I mean that, you know, in the godly, spiritual sense, is to be a great employee. God wants excellence. And if you're an excellent employee, right, in the workplace, you can do a lot of other things. But if you're not an excellent employee, hey, everything, you know, becomes jeopardous, right? You know, so the first act of worship is do a great job. Be excellent because God is excellent. He expects excellence.
You know, the second would be is do it. Now, of course, that sounds very trite, you know, but there are things I do today, you know, that I couldn't have imagined doing when I started my workplace ministry journey, right? And part of that is getting comfortable with just those little steps that you might start taking in the workplace. And you know, it could just be, you know, I won't profane in the workplace, and you just, you know, just a minor thing like that. Or, hey, I'm going to show my Bible. I have one guy who came back to me years ahead of time, 'Wow, you had a Bible in your office and it was just sitting there on the desk, right?' Never talked about it, so like that, but it just made an impression. And just find those little things. And then once you do a little thing, okay, next one might be a little bit bigger and then a little bit bigger as you get over time, as you get a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more confident.
So take like little steps.
Yeah. You know, it's not like you're, you know, like Billy Graham in the marketplace just because you listened to this sermon or heard this video right now. Just take little steps of faith that just say, I'm just going to start to be visible about the most important thing in my life, my faith.
That's good. Okay. So, part of what I know about you is you've been a part of creating like awesome products we all benefit from, like little things like Wi-Fi, USB, you know, that kind of stuff. But I also know you're known to be more about people than products. And in fact, in your workplace, I've heard you talk about this a lot. You considered a lot of the people that you work with your church at times, like, 'This is my people.' Talk a little bit about that. Let's get practical, like what is the way to view the place that you work as your place of mission and even like some practical ways to influence in light of that?
Yeah. Well, I always say, you know, in every opportunity that I have, every meeting, right, that I now have, and I wasn't this way when I began my career, you know, I was a manic, right? For the work. But I made a flip of myself, you know, about a decade into my professional career. Always start on the personal. Felipe, how you doing? How was your weekend? How are the kids? You know, right? Just, you know, lightest thing, right, to start every meeting.
Yeah, get to know the person before...
Absolutely right. You know, oh, right, you have a sick kid, what's their name, right? And may I pray for them, right? And to me, you just always start on those personal levels, right, and it just changes the conversation, right? And you have an hour meeting on something, you know, a minute or two on the personal side changes the dynamic of the next 58 minutes of work. Right? Now, I want to say, just start on the personal, just in the most comfortable way that is, you know, non-threatening to people, right? Just starting in a way that just says I care about you more than the project.
You have an example of this, by the way? It's like using the very simple, you know, 'Can I pray for you?' What's happened with that?
Well, I've done it, you know, thousands of times over the years. I've done it to atheists, agnostics, and, you know, people of other faith traditions. Nobody has ever said, 'No.' Right? You know, to me, it's just like amazing, right? 'No, you may not pray for me.' Right? And in fact, just last week, you know, I'm having dinner with this guy and his daughter is having some, you know, pretty difficult to diagnose medical situations. Had to drop out of school for a quarter, you know, a tough situation for them. And I said, 'May I pray for her?' And he's just like, 'You know, I don't believe that, Pat.' I says, 'I'm not asking you to believe. I'm just asking, may I intercede for your daughter, right? Bring her before my God, right?' He's, you know, it was like this most uncomfortable moment. And he's like, 'Okay.' Right? We finished the dinner. He says, 'So this week when I pray and fast, I'm going to be praying for your daughter.' And then he says again, he says, 'You know, I don't believe that, Pat.' I says, 'I'm not asking you to believe. I just want to be involved in the most important thing in your life right now, and that's your daughter's health.'
And hey, he knows I believe. He knows I care about him and his daughter. And he knows that I'm going to be checking up on how she's doing, right? And all of a sudden, the work relationship is entirely new and different because, yeah, we're going to get stuff done. You know, we're going to get USB done. We're going to get Wi-Fi done. We're going to ship the microprocessor. We're going to, you know, get it done. You know, trust me, we're going to get our work done. But he knows that I'm on a journey on his most important things of life as well.
Wow. Okay. Let me flip it to talk a little bit about what you mentioned in terms of work ethic because I think a lot of people of faith, they want to share their faith, but they haven't earned the right to speak into somebody else because their work ethic stinks. Talk a little bit about moral authority. Like how do you earn the right to speak into someone's life when you're in the workplace? What role does that play even in the integration of your faith?
