It would be unfair to say success came easy for Dale Dawson. On the contrary, the Texas native worked hard all his life to achieve it. But the pursuit so energized Dale it just didn't feel like hard work. His work ethic and business acumen banked his success as head of Investment Banking at Stephens, Inc., an investment firm in Little Rock, and as the major stockholder and CEO of TruckPro, the nation's largest distributor of truck and trailer parts, which he eventually sold to AutoZone.
But when Dale hit his 50s, the thrill was gone. He had accomplished most everything he had set his sites on. As he surveyed his life, Dale realized that on one level he had indeed written a book on success, but he knew in his heart that God could read the vacuum between the lines. "I had lost the sense of passion that had propelled me my entire life. In 1998 I realized I was beginning a spiritual journey; that I needed to let God define what success was because my definition probably wasn't how Jesus would define it."
But what the entrepreneur could not comprehend during those early days of his halftime journey, when he felt so dispassionate and lost, was that God had been using Dale's success path to pave a road to significance. And no stone was wasted.
Dale confesses that he didn't crack the doors of a church for nigh on 20 years. Certainly he and his wife, Judi, possessed core relationships with Christ, but career success was their focus. It wasn't until they had their first child that the couple reconnected with the church.
"At first we were attending church because of our daughter," Dale admits, "but then we were going because of us."
What began with Bible study and fellowship later expanded to leadership roles in both their church and their children's parochial school, including a multi-million dollar school expansion program Dale helped spearhead.
But it was the example of Martha Vetter, a 40-year-old single woman in love with sharing the gospel with children, that guided Dale to true faith and action. Martha had taught the Bible to Dale's daughter for years. But in 2001, when she told Dale and Judi she was moving to Rwanda to serve as headmistress of Sonrise, a boarding school for orphans of the 1994 war and genocide, the couple tried to talk her out of it. Martha, however, stood her ground on the Scripture passage that had guided her life, I John 3:16-18:
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth."
Martha extended her spiritual influence in 2003 by introducing Dale to Bishop John Rucyahana, a native of Rwanda and the headmaster of Sonrise. In the life of Bishop John, Dale again saw the living example of 1 John 3:16 in action. "This is a guy who speaks six languages, was educated in the United States and, in his 50s, was called to a destroyed country to build something. I was incredibly inspired. Bishop John has the skill sets to accomplish lots of things, but he serves the poor. He is professional. He is committed to excellence. He is passionate. All the abilities of a great CEO' and yet he is working for goals that I had never worked for. I was horribly humbled."
After meeting Bishop John, Dale began to passionately seek how Jesus defines success.
"I knew it wasn't by building businesses or by accumulating personal wealth; it was by serving and loving others. I hadn't made a lot of time for that outside my family. During the spring of 2003 I was convicted that the energy, the effort, and the activities I had placed in business could equally be placed in a work that was defined as successful by Jesus."
Dale jumpstarted that endeavor by using his venture capital skills to raise money to expand Sonrise through the 12th grade, also tapping into the experience gleaned from raising money to expand his daughter's school. With the expansion project well in place, Bishop John again challenged Dale to direct his business skills for the kingdom.
"He told me 'what Rwanda really needs is economic development, the ability to put people to work.' And that is certainly my area of expertise." In January of this year, Dale connected with Opportunity International, the largest Christian-based micro-enterprise development organization in the world. "They go to the poorest of the poor and organize people into small groups. Then they meet weekly for Bible study, fellowship, and business training. After a few weeks, the organization loans them $50 to $100 to start their own businesses. They have 16 weeks to repay the loans, and each week they come back for meetings and bring their payments. If someone can't pay, the rest of the group must ban together to make the payment."
What thrills Dale about
Opportunity International is the personal transformation of the poor using entrepreneurship.
"My father was a milkman in West Texas. When he was seven he used to get up at 4:00 a.m. to follow behind a horse-drawn cart and sell fruit door to door. He inspired me to be a businessman and to understand the personal transformation, the pride, and the sense of responsibility of raising yourself out of poverty by working hard and having your own business."
Next month Dale will travel to Rwanda to lay the groundwork there for a new Opportunity International venture and to visit Sonrise, which is now considered the top academic school in that region.
What surprises Dale the most about finding his halftime niche?
"This takes all that I've ever done and creates a seamless transfer of skills sets to help poor people become entrepreneurs. All my past has prepared me for this."
The thrill is indeed back in Dale Dawson's life.
"The passion I have is tremendous, and it's energizing to learn something new at this stage of life. But what is even more exciting is that this is God's venture, not mine. I'm doing something for eternity. And I don't have to worry about the result, what anyone else thinks, or even what I think. It's an enormous relief to be doing what I was created to do and to let God define success."