BUSINESS MAGNATE Sir Kyffin Simpson says he gives full credit to Almighty God for his success and yesterday he urged local entrepreneurs to do the same.
Speaking at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Sir Kyffin said he was neither a “genius” nor an “Oxford or a Cambridge graduate”.“Where I’ve got to and where I’ve come from has been the good Lord putting me in the right place at the right time with the right people, the right products . . .,” he said.
The founder of the Simpson Group of Companies and chairman of Simpson Oil Limited (SOL) told those gathered for the start of the Barbados National Entrepreneurship Summit that the Lord wants them to flourish, but stressed they have to put in the required work.“He [God] put you in that job you’re in and [you] need to work.
“He put Adam and Eve in the garden and He told them they would have to tend it. He didn’t tell them to sit there under the coconut tree and just catch the breeze when the day comes,” Sir Kyffin stated.
He alluded to “several hiccups and bureaucracies that are really starting to bog down our whole system” but made it clear he was not “pulling at any public servants or politicians because it’s a system that we’ve grown up with”.
Instead, he offered the following advice to entrepreneurs on how to deal with the trials of business ownership: “There is an almighty God above and he gave us . . . the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and our Redeemer and our Advocate.
“You’re going to need to lean on him from time to time. You’re going to get extended if you’re an entrepreneur. You’re going to be really out on a limb many times.
“Having signed away your wife and your mother and everything else that the bank could put their hands on, you’re going to have to have faith and it’s a lot easier to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ than in yourself,” he said. (NB)
