When Success Breaks You and God Rebuilds You: Lessons from Terry Looper

In this powerful conversation, entrepreneur and author Terry Looper shares the story behind building a business that generated over six billion dollars in revenue—all while working a 40-hour week. But this isn’t merely a business success story. It’s a narrative of brokenness, surrender, and redefining what truly matters when achievement outpaces alignment with God.

Terry’s journey challenges the conventional definitions of success that so many leaders chase. Rather than idolizing busyness or numbers, his testimony invites us to wrestle with questions like:

• What happens when what you build becomes bigger than what you believe?
• How do faith and work intersect when success demands more than you can give?
• What does it look like to follow Christ when cultural achievement no longer satisfies? YouTube

When Success Breaks You

Early in his career, Terry chased growth with intensity and focus. Revenue milestones, market domination, and organizational expansion became markers of success. Yet, even as business accomplishments mounted, something deeper in his soul began to fracture.

He speaks candidly about hitting a breaking point—when success stopped being fulfilling and started being destructive. The very things he had worked so hard to build threatened his marriage, his peace, and his spiritual life.

This moment of brokenness was not a failure. It was an invitation. An invitation to stop leading from strength alone and start living from dependence on God.

Redefining Work and Rest

One of the striking takeaways from Terry’s story is how he reconciled high achievement with healthy rhythms. Running a business that generated billions didn’t come at the cost of every waking hour. Instead, he found ways to steward his time—and his soul—without sacrificing his relationships or well-being.

His example reframes work not as toil to be minimized or idolized, but as stewardship to be wisely embraced. A 40-hour workweek wasn’t an arbitrary goal—it was a commitment to disciplined priorities and sustainable leadership.

Faith at the Center

For Terry, the pathway back from burnout and imbalance was spiritual before it was practical. He emphasizes that real change begins with honesty: admitting that your way isn’t working, and inviting God to remodel your life from the inside out.

This means:

• Trusting God with the results of your work
• Holding success and career with open hands
• Building rhythms around presence, not just productivity

A Conversation Worth Listening To

This episode isn’t just for business leaders—it’s for anyone who has ever felt the tension between ambition and peace, achievement and satisfaction, performance and identity.

Whether you’re leading a team, growing a company, or steering your own vocation, Terry’s story is a reminder that God can redeem even the highest peaks of success and make them gateways to deeper purpose.