How Suffering Shapes Entrepreneurial Success

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Living Influence with Bill Thrall and Scott Boyd

Episode: How Suffering Shapes Entrepreneurial Success
Date: February 19, 2026
Hosts: Bill Thrall & Scott Boyd

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the critical role that suffering plays in both personal spiritual growth and entrepreneurial success. Bill Thrall and Scott Boyd discuss how embracing suffering as part of God’s maturing process allows individuals, particularly leaders and entrepreneurs, to risk, trust, and ultimately influence others more profoundly. The conversation weaves in stories from their own lives, scriptural insights, and a challenge to shift how we view obedience, blessing, and leadership influence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reality and Necessity of Suffering in Growth

• 10 Years to Overnight Success
  Scott shares his common saying to young entrepreneurs: “Anybody can be an overnight success. All it takes is 10 years.” (00:24)
  This launches the discussion: success often appears sudden, but is built on years of unseen suffering and effort.

• Suffering as Maturation
  Bill: “It’s part of God’s process of maturing us.” (01:10)
  Suffering isn’t an obstacle or a punishment but a fundamental process God uses to grow, shape, and prepare individuals for greater influence.

2. Obedience: Blessing vs. Purpose

• Distinguishing Blessing from Purpose
  Bill: “The assumption that many people are taught is that our obedience leads to blessing, and therefore those who are really blessed must be really obedient. That’s not a true biblical statement. What obedience does is obedience leads us to purpose.” (05:08)
  The idea is challenged that prosperity or blessing is a direct sign of obedience. Instead, obedience may lead us into difficulty, risk, and suffering for deeper purpose.

• Risk as an Expression of Trust
  Trusting God with who we are and acting on His truth is what maturing looks like for the "humble": “The humble are those who trust God with who they really are.” (01:34)

3. Types of Suffering: Universal and Christian

• Common to All vs. Christian-Specific Suffering
  Bill: “There is a suffering that is unique to the Christian...the place where God puts those he trusts with truth to honor him and they suffer in the process. Suffering is actually used by God to enhance their maturing.” (04:05)

• Personal Example of Suffering for Faith
  Scott: “I remember when God wanted me to stay at the church I was at. Right. And trust him with my career, and it prompted me to be unemployed for nine months.” (04:46)
  This is an example of risking material security for obedience.

4. Mature Leadership and Taking Risks for Others

• The Gus Story: Taking Risks for Others Bill shares a personal story about Gus, his wife’s father:

  “At seven years old, Gus was the first person that I knew loved me.” (09:13)
  Gus filled in for Bill’s absent father, providing for the family even at personal cost.

  • This story illustrates the mature leader: one who intentionally takes risks for the benefit of others, shaping their future.

• Questioning Our Own Influence Bill challenges listeners:

  “Who is taking risks for your benefit? How do you honor them? Who am I taking risks for the benefit of?” (08:26)

• Leaders as Persons, Not Just Positions Bill: “Mature leaders know the most significant influence of their life is going to come through their person.” (12:47)
  Scott reflects on managing people and resisting the urge to “pull the boss card,” aiming instead for authentic personal engagement (13:26).

5. Trusting God with the Future

• Letting Go of Control Bill: “Because when we trust God with our future, we are making a profound statement: I am no longer in control of my tomorrows.” (10:46)

  • This echoes the challenge of entrepreneurial risk and the spiritual risk of faith.

• Hearing and Obeying God Scott: “We believe God speaks to people, and he speaks to me. And am I willing to trust what I hear?” (11:37)

6. Influence, Community, and Purpose

• Moving Beyond Individualism Bill: “The mature: It's God and us.” (17:16)
  The ultimate vision is not a solitary spiritual journey, but one lived in deep relationship and risk with others.

• The Process of Maturing Bill outlines three broad phases of maturing:

  • Faith begins as me-centered
  • Matures to others-centered
  • Matures further into being Christ-centered

  “What if that was the process of maturing?” (17:36)

• Who You Journey With Matters “What you do next is never as important as who you do next with.” (16:27)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Suffering’s Place:

  "There's a suffering that's common to humanity, but there is a suffering that is unique to the Christian: the place where God puts those he trusts with truth to honor him, and they suffer in the process." - Bill (04:04)

• On True Leadership:

  “Mature leaders never, ever hide behind their position. Mature leaders know the most significant influence of their life is going to come through their person.” - Bill (12:47)

• On Trusting God:

  "Will it be okay to live my life not knowing my tomorrows?" - Scott (11:15)
  “Imagine being in relationships where with somebody else, you begin to trust God's purpose for your life.” - Bill (16:12)

• On Doing Life Together:

  “God and me—the mature, it’s God and us.” - Bill (17:16) “What you do next is never as important as who you do next with.” - Bill (16:27)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:24 – 01:10: The myth of overnight success; introduction to suffering as a component of growth
• 01:10 – 03:58: Suffering as part of God's maturing process; obeying truth vs. knowing truth
• 04:05 – 05:08: Two types of suffering: universal and uniquely Christian
• 05:08 – 07:26: Obedience leads to purpose (not always blessing); embracing risk for others
• 07:26 – 09:50: Bill’s story of Gus; influence of sacrificial figures
• 10:44 – 11:29: Trusting God with the future; letting go of control
• 12:47 – 13:52: The importance of personal influence vs. positional leadership
• 15:02 – 16:27: Bill and Scott’s unlikely podcast partnership; who you “do next” with
• 17:01 – 18:00: God’s maturing process—me, others, Christ-centeredness; legacy and world change

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Tone & Language

Genuine, reflective, and deeply personal. Both hosts use honest storytelling, rhetorical questions, and gentle humor to disarm listeners and invite them into a transformative view of leadership, suffering, and influence.

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Summary Takeaways

• Suffering is not an aberration to avoid, but a key component of spiritual and entrepreneurial maturity.
• Obedience to God is more about joining His purpose, often requiring risk and sacrifice, than securing personal blessing.
• Mature influence comes from embracing one’s vulnerability and story, and investing personally in others.
• The Christian journey is meant to be shared; “God and us” yields more fruit than “God and me.”
• Lasting impact, in life or leadership, is determined not by what you achieve, but by who you become and who you journey with through risk and suffering.

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, guys, I just want to tell you about something else that Bill Voldemort and I are working on. It's called Living Influence Leadership. It's for business leaders who also happen to be Christians. We think we've got some great stuff that can be amazing in your company, as it wasn't mine. Check us [e-mail] welcome to Living Influence. I'm Scott Boyd, your host, along with my friend and mentor, Bill Thrall. We've been talking about the process of maturing, and I meet with a lot of young business people, and they have questions. Have questions about, you know, entrepreneurship. And I. I have a couple of statements I make. I said, anybody can be an overnight success. All it takes is 10 years. And I. And we all laugh, but it's. It's actually more true than. Than not. I mean, you'll see somebody that all of a sudden becomes successful and. And you'll hear their story, and it's like, no, it starks way back here. And then the second thing I see is actually, you can have anything you want as long as you're willing to suffer for it. And so we're talking about the topic of suffering today.

[B]

Yeah, we are, because it's part of God's process of maturing us.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I want to just read part of that statement. It says, as the humble come under his influence and obey his truth, they experience an opportunity to risk.

[A]

To risk.

[B]

To risk. As the humble come under his influence and obey his truth, they experience an opportunity to risk. So let's just go through that. The humble who are the humble. We've said it many times. I don't mind repeating it. The humble are those who trust God and with who they really are. The humble come under God's influence, and they learn to obey his truth. One of the questions I ask a lot is, how would I ever know if I'm trusting truth? How would I ever know that? The answer is kind of simple. I would obey it. We've said a lot about this. I'll repeat it a little bit. The knowledge of this book does not require any obedience on my part. But truth does.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so there's an old song of the faith. Trust and obey. It's a truism. They're inseparable. Any biblical character, any hero of the Faith in Hebrews 11 or any Old Testament story or New Testament story, you'll find something is true. He addresses those who by faith trusted God, and then he gives an example of the obedience that they expressed in obedience in response to their trust. So that maturing is a process where the humble come under the influence of God and obey his truth, and that gives them an opportunity to risk. It's kind of like a weird way of saying it, but here's a truth. As I mature and I trust truth, God. This is an interesting way to say this. God is discovering someone he can trust with truth. As I mature and I trust truth and I act upon it, God is discovering someone he can trust with truth. And when he trusts us with truth, the direction of our life turns to make risks for the benefit of others. When we teach this subject in one Peter, chapters two and three, Peter does something, he makes a distinction between the suffering that is common to everybody. Everybody's suffering. There isn't anyone I've ever met who doesn't know somebody in their family or themselves that has tragically suffered from cancer.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like you.

[A]

Like me, yeah.

[B]

That's common.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

It's a suffering that's common to humanity. But there is a suffering that is unique to the Christian.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And a suffering that is unique to the Christian is the place where God puts those he trusts with truth to honor him and they suffer in the process. This is an interesting reality, that suffering is actually used by God to enhance their maturing. So we have like an adversity to suffering. Just, oh, no, I don't want to suffer. And so a couple times you have clearly said, you know, trusting God with my future, that could mean I might suffer. He may put me in some weird places. And in reality, that's true.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I remember when God wanted me to stay at the church I was at. Right. And trust him with my career, and it prompted me to be unemployed for nine months.

[B]

There's my reward.

[A]

Yeah. And there was a suffering in that.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

That I went through.

[B]

Yeah. You just triggered something that's really important for us to repeat. We want to make a distinction here, a critical one. The assumption that many people are taught is that our obedience leads to blessing, and therefore those who are really blessed must be really obedient. That's not a true biblical statement. What obedience does is obedience leads us to purpose. And the purposes of God are often to put the faithful into high risk places for the benefit of the gospel, for the benefit of others. And it's like, well, that doesn't feel. These are key words. That doesn't feel safe to me. Well, it's because it's not safe. It's not a place where we can be always comfortable. So as we think about this, they experience an opportunity to risk a process that God uses to mature them. So here's what he's in part saying to us. Am I letting God use me for his glory because I trust him with me? And if I'm letting God use me for his glory because I trust him with me, am I willing, as Jesus was, to take an incredible risk for the benefit of others? And so what does in my mind is it causes me to be remembering very quickly key individuals over the course of my life that have taken great risks for me. For instance, the first person that. That created an awareness in our family that Jesus was even real was my wife's father. She was a very little girl at that time. But he was a man who took great risks for the benefit of our family financially time wise. And my father was so jealous of him because of my father's sons loved him so much. It was he amazing, man.

[A]

Yeah. I hadn't heard about the jealousy, father. It was awful.

[B]

Oh, my father was so jealous of Gus because Gus was having such a profound influence on me and my next two oldest brothers. And my dad would fight him and argue with him and Gus would just show up. Our family was very poor and Gus would bring food to our family, to my mother to eat. Our father left us for months at a time and Gus was always faithful to take care of our needs. Wow, that was profound. I have that imagery set deeply in my heart.

[A]

Were you guys homeless in the middle of that? Did you have to leave a home and go somewhere else?

[B]

We were actually put in a home.

[A]

Put in a home?

[B]

Yeah, we were. It was tragic. I hated it.

[A]

You and your brothers and your sisters.

[B]

Yeah. Okay, the younger ones.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It was awful. But my point is, this was a man who was intentional in taking risks for our benefit. Who is taking risks for your benefit? How do you honor them? Who are you taking? Who am I taking risks for the benefit of? Who do I come alongside? One of the dynamics of mature leadership is the ability to come alongside someone to help them get. Get into the purposes of God for their life, even if they exceed yours. I was seven years old when I was put in that children's home. And Gus was amazing man, already at 7. But I did his funeral. Gus died in 1993 and I wrote down at preparation for his funeral. Just true statement. At seven years old, Gus was the first person that I knew loved me. At seven years old.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The first person, first person that I knew loved me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Somebody has to take a lot of risk for A little kid for that little kid to respect and love them that much. So I think about that in relationship to. To this dynamic. So am I willing to be, so to speak, a Gus for the benefit of others? He modeled it for me really, really well.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And there's been other individuals in my life, Scott, who have intentionally come alongside me to even protect me in circumstances for my benefit. And their reputations were at risk. My brother Al invited me to live with he and Ellen. They had almost nothing, and he paid me more money than he should have to entice me to work with him. But the risks that they took for me were amazing. The point I'm trying to make is that we don't want to be afraid of the purposes of God for our life. That's why we said in the third section of our maturing is, can I trust God with my future? And each time you responded and went, bill, that sounds like the scariest one.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Because when we trust God with our future, we are making a profound statement. I am no longer in control of my tomorrows. That's what I'm saying. Can I trust God with my tomorrows, realizing that I'm not in control.

[A]

Will it be okay to live my life not knowing my tomorrows?

[B]

Exactly. Imagine that. Yeah, imagine that, Scott. Just say that again.

[A]

Will it be okay?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Living my life not knowing my tomorrows.

[B]

Exactly. And trusting my God with my tomorrows,

[A]

trusting my God with today, you know? And what is it we believe? We. We believe in a God who speaks to us.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

Yes. We believe God speaks to people, and he speaks to me. And am I willing to trust what I hear?

[B]

Amen.

[A]

And what shows up, and it's different for every person. And act upon it and then. Yes. And act upon it intentionally. Right.

[B]

This whole year we've been talking foundational in grace. But the whole subject of influence, the whole subject of influence, the whole subject of what is the effect that others have on me? What is the effect that I have on others? That's a measure of maturity. I would love anyone listening who has any position in any organization or church. I would love you to just imagine, look over your shoulder and ask the question, am I willing to own the influence that I have on others? It's a somber for me question. As I've said to you, Scott, and we've said it a couple of times, I am an unbelievably careful person when it comes to other people choosing to trust me. Yeah, man, I'd love to be trusted. But there is A profound responsibility. Am I able to honor the reason you trust me? See, there are lots and lots of people in positions of authority who never even think about it. They let their position dictate the process. No, no. Mature leaders never, ever hide behind their position. Mature leaders know the most significant influence of their life is going to come through their person.

[A]

I have people that work for me, and surprisingly, they have struggles, they have issues. Oh, my gosh, it's so tempting to want to pull the boss card out.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Instead of pull pulling the Scott card out. Amen. Of let me. Let me share my person with them and let me. Let me be focused on their person for their benefit.

[B]

Well said, Scott. Well said, Scott. Yeah, that's so well said. And here's what we're trying to say now in our time and all these weeks on maturing, am I learning to trust my God with me? Am I learning to trust my God by living out of who he says I am? Am I willing and able to trust my God with his purposes for my life? Am I willing to be one who is obeying truth?

[A]

Am I willing to take risk?

[B]

Am I willing to take risks for the benefit of others? This is the way we are suggesting maturity feels like, sounds like. And becomes. And that model to us is the one that literally is transforming lives and transforming the influence of our lives. So we make the statement it is the obedient who are implementing the purposes of God. And this process, we believe, is God's process for our maturing.

[A]

Yeah. I, as an example, did not imagine a year ago that I would be doing a podcast.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

I mean, it wasn't on my radar.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

I wanted to help fund a podcast, but I thought other people were gonna be doing it. And then it turned out where you came and said, scott, I can't do this unless you do it with me. And it's like, all right. Yeah, here we go.

[B]

And we did it. And we're still doing it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you don't mind, Scott, I would just share this. A year and a half ago, you and I had a conversation where we, to the best of our ability, we talked about imagining your next. Yeah. Remember that?

[A]

I do. I do.

[B]

And we were both wise enough to not name it, but we knew something significant was on the horizon for you. And I totally agree. I could not have imagined all that we have experienced together this yet last year and a half. But I do want to say something that affects us and our audience. Imagine being in relationships where with somebody else, you begin to trust God's Purpose for your life.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Scott, I say to a lot of leaders who are in transition, what you do next is never as important as who you do next with. And so as we talk about this process of maturing, instead of saying, God, what do you want me to do? What if we learn to ask a different question? God, who do you want me to do life with?

[A]

Yeah. Who have you given me to do life?

[B]

Who have you given me to do life with? Who am I willing to trust to do life with?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because the model that we believe produces the most fruit is not the guy who has a singular relationship with God. It's God and me. The mature. It's God and us. It's God and us. So as we go through this time together, our goal was to say there's a process. We believe it has three broad phases. I come into my faith me centered. I mature in my faith. I become others centered. I further mature in my faith, and I become Christ centered. And I live obediently into the purposes of God. What if that was the process of maturing?

[A]

Yeah. And what if God actually has called us to change the world?

[B]

And by the way, that's our job.

[A]

It is our job.

[B]

It's our job.

[A]

Thanks for watching on Living Influence. Let's think about changing the world. Wouldn't that be amazing? Amen. Hope to see you next week. Thanks for listening to Living Influence. We appreciate you. Just a call to action. We would love it if you would share our podcast with one or two people this week. Thanks again.