When preparing to lay the brick and mortar for a new business facility, the engineers and architects make sure the foundation is structurally secure. But when FONA International built its headquarters in Geneva, Illinois, founder Joe Slawek added a beautifully literal foundation: before the concrete was poured, employees placed Bibles beneath the floors of key offices, conference rooms, and factory lines.
In this episode of the Finding God at Work podcast, Chris Easley sits down with Joe Slawek, the founder of FONA, a 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and a Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame inductee. Drawing on decades of executive experience, Joe shares his wisdom across what he calls the “four quarters of life.”
Together, Chris and Joe unpack a taxonomy of the marketplace, identifying the five distinct types of entrepreneurs (Hobbyist, Lifestyle, Craftsman, Opportunist, and Specialist) to help you discover where you fit. Joe also shares the interior liberation he found by embracing his role as a “two-talent CEO” from Matthew 25, happily trading the frantic, comparison-driven pressures of Wall Street for local, compound faithfulness.
Under Joe’s stewardship, doubling those talents meant investing deeply in human flourishing. By requiring ongoing education for every single employee, FONA created a cyclical engine: growing people grew the customers, and the customers grew the enterprise. Now in his “fourth quarter,” Joe reflects on how this metric of multiplication extends beyond a corporate P&L statement into our callings as spouses, parents, and mentors.
Whether you are a young professional enduring the grind of your first 10,000 hours or an executive trying to build an organizational culture that lasts, this episode is a powerful reminder that when your career is built on the foundation of Scripture, daily labor becomes exactly what Joe calls it: love made visible.
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