The pattern · Faith and purpose
Faith and purpose in business: what research says
A meta-analysis of 75 studies links religion and entrepreneurship, and purpose increases persistence. The research, who lived it and how to cultivate it.
Faith and purpose don't show up on a spreadsheet, but they show up in many stories of those who built something that lasted. Research confirms a relationship, small and real, between religiosity and entrepreneurship, and a clearer relationship between purpose and persistence. What these studies suggest is simple: those who work for something bigger than their own gain tend to hold out longer when the road gets hard.
What the research shows
In 2025, Erik Lehmann and Laurenz Weiße, of the University of Augsburg, in Germany, gathered 75 empirical studies and 306 effect sizes on religion and entrepreneurship. The conclusion: there is a positive but small correlation between the two, and it varies by religion, country and type of outcome measured (Lehmann and Weiße, 2025). In other words, faith doesn't manufacture entrepreneurs. But it isn't absent from their story either.
Purpose has a more visible effect. In 2008, psychologist Adam Grant studied firefighters and call center workers raising donations for a university. Those who wanted to help others and, at the same time, enjoyed their own work persisted more, made more calls and raised more money a month later (Grant, 2008). Purpose alone wasn't enough. Together with enjoying what you do, it became fuel.
Who lived it
Truett Cathy opened a small restaurant in 1946, in Georgia, with his brother. He had already worked at diners open 24 hours, seven days a week. Out of Christian conviction, he decided from the first day that the restaurant would close on Sundays, so that he and his employees would have a day of rest, of family and, for those who wished, of worship.
From that restaurant came Chick-fil-A, one of the largest restaurant chains in the United States. To this day, every location closes on Sundays, as the company itself explains (Chick-fil-A). Giving up an entire day of sales, every week, is a business decision that can only be understood through faith.
In Bairo's journey
At some point along the road, Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez was without money, without an apparent way out and without a single plan left in the drawer. He still had a flame of hope and faith.
At rock bottom, in a Christian congregation, he heard accounts and testimonies from ordinary people who had come through the impossible. Listening, he came to believe in the God of the impossible. Listening more, he came to trust the God of love. Faith, for him, took on a simple definition: trusting in something unseen.
From that faith also came a purpose. Bairo says there are no coincidences or accidents: there are purposes, dreams and execution. And he insists on one thing: for him, whoever trusts their God of creation is right, regardless of religious belief. It's his experience, told as he lived it; each person finds their own.
Purpose appears in the ventures he founded, such as Instituto CEASA, whose aim is to broaden access to food.
How to develop this trait
- Write why you do what you do. Not what you sell, but whom you want to help. One sentence is enough.
- Combine purpose and enjoyment. Grant's research shows purpose yields more when you also enjoy the work. Look for the part of your business you'd do for free.
- Define what you won't negotiate. Cathy closed on Sundays. What are your limits? Clear values prevent bad decisions under pressure.
- Cultivate your faith, whatever it is. Religion, spirituality or a set of values: what matters is having something to lean on on days when nothing makes sense.
- Listen to stories of those who came through. Testimonies, biographies, conversations with those who fell and got up strengthen hope.
- Don't use faith as a sales pitch. Faith is inner strength, not a marketing strategy.