The Mystical Entrepreneur and Why Successful People Fall


I recently sat down Chris DeLeenheer — family office leader, investor, former church planter and missionary, and author of The Quiet Drift: Why Successful People lose their Way and How to Find Your Way Back — for a conversation that moves from bow hunting and endurance racing straight into the deep end: identity, sonship, and what happens when a driven man realizes his work has quietly become his worth.

Chris traces his own story from planting a church, to a season in India, to building and selling companies (including a stint with Fuego, one of my all time favorite taco places) — all while wrestling with a truth that reshaped everything: "our work is simply an arena" for God's formation, not our identity. He calls it becoming a "mystical entrepreneur" — learning to check in with the Holy Spirit before every room, every deal, every sales call, rather than walking in on performance or proving.

The conversation turns personal and honest fast: Chris talks about the moment his wife Libby told him he was "following, not leading," what it cost him to hear that, and why he now believes vulnerability — not bulletproof confidence — is what his daughters actually need to see from their dad. He closes with why he's running the seven World Marathon Majors to raise a million dollars for clean water through World Vision, and why physical discipline has become inseparable from his spiritual formation.

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Be Strong,

Lantz Howard



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