The Spiritual Side of Business

Often ignored and definitely not taught at Harvard, spiritual aspects of business make or break success more than economics.  “Love of Money” can be considered the root of evil—definitely a spiritual idea.  Modern businesses use money.  Does that make them evil?  Nah.  Do some employees “love” money more than fellow workers?  Yup.  Does that make them evil?  Sometimes.  Can evil people succeed in business?  Perhaps all too often—depending on what one considers success.  Do nice guys have to finish last?  What’s an entrepreneur to do? What’s a Business Anyway? Whether or not incorporated, businesses begin life as legal persons.  Business personalities evolve from the personalities of the founders, explicit plans and inadvertent circumstances.  As businesses grow, new staff either shapes the personality or themselves.  Which occurs depends on many factors particularly the priority placed on maintaining a healthy workplace and how staff learns to conduct business.  The Big “T’s” & “C’s” Spiritual terms, i.e., “Team spirit,” ”competitive spirit,” “spirit of cooperation,” and “spirit de corps” permeate speech.  How can an idea so important to human communication be so casually ignored in business?  Beyond silly, it seems downright foolish.  Might current economic circumstances be addressed spiritually and lead to more efficient progress?  Who would dare suggest that to the collective leaders of the political world?  I guess I am it they have joined Biznik.  Not likely. Cases in Point NASA realized too late how a “toxic team” culture can lead to disaster and has invested substantially in insuring against recurrence.  When lives hang in the balance with billions of dollars at risk, a spiritually poor team becomes an enormous burden. Personal experience has witnessed accomplishment by individuals and teams far exceeding expectations partly because of a collective, positive spirit.  Unfortunately, opposite circumstances have led to disappoint and failure when success should have been forthcoming.  (Brief pause to let regret pass.) The Big “E” What is the “Entrepreneurial Spirit?”   Borrowing from Wikipedia, “An entrepreneurial mindset is described by a conglomerate of meta-physical dispositions, also known as entrepreneurial spirit, meant to cause the innovative and energetic practice to identify or create an opportunity and take action aimed at realizing it. The philosophical themes - existentialism, axiology, pragmatism, and ethics - are thereby understood to be strange attractors influencing the construction of the entity’s persona as well as the concrete practices of the entity…”  Are you kidding me? I doubt Biznikers will accept this definition—or would we?  Please feel free to elucidate in comments.  What is it that Entrepreneurs want? The Biznik Spirit Biznik offers a spiritually unique setting to conduct business.  It reflects the personalities of its founders and everyone who participates.  Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Dan and Laura understands why.  Dan and Laura could no doubt make more money doing something else and likely have.  Hats off to people who understand real success! Conclusion Make the spiritual side of your business a priority.  Build expectations for customers and staff following a few “golden rules.”  Be proactive when spiritually destructive events occur.  Positively engage individuals involved and provide appropriate correction. Look to build success culturally and economically.  Pay attention to all “bottom lines.” 2009-04-15T19:53:14Z

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the-spiritual-side-of-business

2009-04-17T07:24:57Z

2009-04-17T07:25:12Z

Often ignored and definitely not taught at Harvard, spiritual aspects of business make or break success more than economics. Do nice guys have to finish last? What’s an entrepreneur to do?

The Spiritual Side of Business

2009-04-17T07:25:26Z