Strategic Christian Business Philosophy Discussion

Date: August 19, 2025
Location: Trianon Coffee, Austin, TX
Participants: Gary Sheng, Mike Ajouz, Santiago Montoya
Type: First meeting facilitated by Santiago Montoya introduction
Duration: Extended conversation (approximately 4 hours)

Meeting Context

Santiago Montoya facilitated the introduction between Gary and Mike at Trianon Coffee, describing Gary to Mike as "really cool guy who is pretty dogged about some of the ways that the devil can get me." Both Gary and Mike discovered they came to Christ approximately four years ago (around 2021) after periods as hardcore atheists, creating immediate spiritual resonance and foundation for deep strategic discussion.

Major Themes Discussed

I. Parallel Faith Journeys & Spiritual Transformation

Gary's Path to Christianity:

• Kanye Sunday Service Catalyst: First spiritual experience through Kanye West's Sunday Service YouTube videos: "I felt God before I intellectually felt like I could accept God."
• Grandmother's Prophetic Moment: Chinese grandmother burst into tears on family FaceTime call saying "believe in God" in Chinese, providing crucial family validation.
• Celibate Christian Couple: Met couple living together without sex, sparking curiosity about faith strong enough to "resist natural urges."
• Institutional Disillusionment: Process of ruling out secular alternatives including crypto, Vatican politics, Alpha Schools dysfunction, and Chinese government educational initiatives.

Mike's Conversion Experience:

• Family Background: First generation American, Lebanese Muslim father, Japanese Buddhist mother, raised in intellectual atheist household.
• Financial Success Emptiness: After achieving wealth security, experienced profound moral drift through Wall Street nightlife culture and identity experimentation.
• James Chapter Confrontation: During daughter's church attendance, experienced 18-month spiritual wrestling with Book of James: "James was picking a fight with me... he would not leave me. I got obsessed with him."
• Truth-Seeker Foundation: Conversion built on pre-existing commitment to truth as "closest approximation to truth" and underlying idealistic loyalty.

II. Elite Corruption & System Dysfunction Analysis

Gary's Institutional Experiences:

• Vatican Politics: Attempted Catholic Church digital transformation project fell apart due to institutional focus on "money and power" rather than spiritual mission.
• Alpha Schools Critique: Detailed analysis of Joe Liemandt's organizational dysfunction, describing it as "one of the poorest run organizations I've ever seen."
• Chinese Government Delegation: Recent meeting with Chinese education officials revealed their primary concern was children attending American universities for status rather than actual learning.

Mike's Wall Street Revelations:

"I've seen very illegal activities at the highest level of refinements... it's heartbreaking, you know? Like, how many times people are heartbroken before you're like, and that's why the Christian idea is, like, I'm not of this world."

Epstein Network Awareness:

Mike: "I knew about the planes... There were a couple guys that still have planes that they haven't been talking about, that were definitely [connected]."

III. Truth vs. Power Framework

Mike's Strategic Insight:

"The old me used to think like an investigative journalist, here's the truth. The system is efficient. It'll reorganize once I show you... That is an assumption... It's not about the truth within the system. It's about leverage... If I hurt your power much, the system will move towards the truth."

Cultural Warfare Analysis:

Mike: "They started with tolerance to basically soften the immune system, and then they immediately went to acceptance and promotion as standards of culture. Which is amazing."

Historical Pattern Recognition:

• Discussion of Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois as case study in competing approaches to black advancement
• Analysis of systematic destruction of African American family formation post-1960s Great Society programs
• Karl Marx poetry archives revealing spiritual warfare dimensions of socialist ideology

IV. Christian Business Philosophy Development

Integration Requirement:

Mike: "Everything's integrated, you know, like... I really feel it's important to just be a one-to-one person... You can't cut it, but I was still figuring it out back then."

Truth-Based Operations:

Mike: "I tell my guys... I'm all about the truth. Don't lie to me. Whatever the truth is, we will do... And over time they believe it. And then they start saying the same thing."

Employee Stewardship Model:

Mike: "I know all of these people. I know every insecurity of each person. I know how they were treated in the past... It's so critical... I love to OPM [Other People's Money] because that's how I made money... But that's a flaw... It changes the way I behave."

Christian Capital Recycling:

Mike: "Building Christian first businesses that they're for profit, but they recycle all the capital back into the Christian economy... It brings the best in the world, but it's 100% belonging to a Christian."

V. Strategic Advice for Gary's Transition

Foundation Before Scale Priority:

Mike: "Structure your life so you can be truthful... Build a box so that when you stand on the box, it is your box. Now you get to press into the world and you can then expand your box."

Independence Requirement:

Mike: "Be independent. Find a way to just be fully independent. And then from that place, go do your work... You will never have the pressure of having to choose between the ground you're standing on and the thing your heart is telling you to do."

Quality Over Growth:

Mike: "We will do it right to begin with and we will accelerate quickly, but we won't accelerate fast. We will build slow and then accelerate, but we will always look at that newer quality because that's what it's all about."

Small Scale Validation:

Mike: "Think small... If you can win small in education, people pitch me all the time, I'm like I don't want big national education, I want you to change one school."

VI. Critique of Alpha Schools & Joe Liemandt

Gary's Assessment:

"Joe radicalized me into thinking in decades, not VC cycles. Because when you glorify leading indicators of test scores, what does that actually mean? What kind of people are we actually trying to develop? We don't even know how to talk about formation crisis because we're so blinded by our ignorance and greed."

Scale vs. Quality Tension:

Gary: "Do you think that he still wants to do 1200 schools in the next year? It's completely disgusting."

Mike: "That's what I'm saying. We're taught to aspire to big... There's nothing wrong with big, but it has to be good. The problem is why are we driving for big when we're doing for market power, financing, exits."

VII. Cultural Influence Strategy

Business as Ministry Platform:

Mike: "Business is the new religion. So if we apply [Christian principles]... we can flip that around... You can use all the tools the devil [uses], we just have to make them [good]."

Christian Competitive Mandate:

Mike: "Christianity is competing with paganism. That's it... It needs to get competitive. I feel like we've completely left the game, abdicated the field."

Demonstration Over Preaching:

Mike: "What they need to see is Christian good, and that will inspire them, and then they'll be curious... In business, you could be successful or a great new Christian... That is powerful."

VIII. Spiritual Warfare & Evil Recognition

Distinguishing Lost vs. Evil:

Gary: "The majority of people are just lost... But if you know you're sinning and you actively keep sinning maliciously, He'll treat you very differently than if you're just kind of like not there, developed yet."

Mike: "Some people are truly taken by evil. Like it possesses them... In my old days I used to go to strip clubs and I was objectifying people too... You don't see a soul... What you are in that moment is just possessed by whatever."

Hip-Hop Cultural Warfare Analysis:

Gary: "Hip-hop culture is... I say this when I was being bullied... ironically NWA was like what kept me like fired up to not kill myself, but I realized as you get closer to the capital you start seeing the world where this frequency that they propagated around the world and then they alchemized in the K-pop."

IX. Parenting & Spiritual Formation

Fatherhood as God-Understanding:

Mike: "Having kids cracked open my heart in a very weird way... Before I was Christian I would hear about the parable of the prodigal son, I can't believe that. As a father I totally understand that... It's exactly how I feel about my kids."

Marriage & Partnership Counsel:

Mike: "Find someone's dark hand, it's grounded... Having kids cracked open my heart... Christianity opened up in magical ways when people understood the love that a father has for his child."

X. Future Collaboration & Strategic Direction

Documentary Potential:

Gary: "One of my friends the other day was like, I had a vision of you doing some kind of documentary that exposes something. I was like, well, that's pretty much in my nature because I'm just like tired of everything."

Mike: "The documentary thing though, just for what it's worth, the key is how to pick distribution. Because creating an awesome documentary and have it mean something are two different things."

Platform Development:

Mike: "Your nature, your intelligence, and the fact that you have strong wills means that you need a solid foundation... Be independent, find a way to just be fully independent, and then from that place go do your work."

Key Strategic Insights

1. Truth vs. Power Dynamic

The conversation established fundamental framework that systems operate on leverage rather than truth, requiring strategic power accumulation before truth-telling becomes effective.

2. Christian Business Competition

Both participants agreed Christianity must compete aggressively with paganism through superior business execution rather than passive retreat to church buildings.

3. Foundation Before Scale

Mike's repeated emphasis on building autonomous platform before attempting large-scale change, learning from his experience with compromised partnerships.

4. Integration Requirement

Complete life integration necessary - cannot compartmentalize Christian values from business operations without spiritual and practical consequences.

5. Elite Corruption Reality

Firsthand witness accounts of systematic corruption at highest levels validate need for alternative Christian power structures rather than reform attempts.

Personal Revelations & Vulnerability

Gary's Current Struggles:

• Homeless situation after ending lease due to failed Dr. Lael Alexander partnership
• Wrestling with narrow path requirements and social isolation
• Processing disappointment from trusted mentor's character failures

Mike's Ongoing Challenges:

• Daily struggle with Christian walk not coming naturally to his temperament
• Tension between Christian passivity teachings and need for active resistance to evil
• Integration of competitive drive with Christian humility requirements

Strategic Outcomes

Immediate Recommendations for Gary:

1. Build Independent Revenue Platform: Establish autonomous financial foundation before pursuing large-scale cultural change
2. Avoid Compromised Partnerships: Don't build on foundation of unhealed people or corrupt institutions
3. Start Small, Execute Righteously: Focus on quality and integrity at unit level before scaling
4. Document Battle Space: Map out cultural warfare landscape and identify strategic weaknesses

Long-term Collaboration Potential:

• Christian Business Development: Joint exploration of profitable enterprises serving kingdom purposes
• Documentary Projects: Truth-telling media with proper distribution strategy
• Cultural Influence Network: Building alternative Christian power structures through business success

Closing Dynamic

The conversation concluded with mutual recognition of divine appointment in their meeting, with Mike offering continued mentorship and strategic counsel. Both participants demonstrated sophisticated integration of spiritual discernment with practical business strategy, establishing foundation for ongoing collaboration in Christian cultural influence work.

Mike's Final Encouragement:

"Your energies will start to change potentially... You have a very broad set of values... Think about where you can make all of those work together... Build your life in a way where you can faithfully serve God."

Gary's Response:

"Everything you said resonates. And it's stuff that I've been working out in my head. I appreciate the kind of nuancing... The key principle that the world doesn't operate on truth... I'm going to spend some time just thinking about that."

Follow-up Commitments

• Mike to send book recommendations on cultural transformation and spiritual warfare
• Gary to map out strategic principles and battle space analysis
• Continued dialogue planned within couple weeks
• Potential collaboration on Christian business ventures and documentary projects