God’s significant mission for business: Will you heed the call?
By Steve Lentini
What if you saw God tomorrow or this afternoon at lunch and you received a mission, a specific charge, would you heed the call? I say God to define the Life Force, Goddess, Universe, Mohammad, Christ, Buddha, Abraham, it does not matter what you call it… it runs through every living thing and every atom and cell that animates the Universe. What if that which animates all life called you to change everything you now assume to be true about your mission?
Business has had a special purpose all through history. It is a calling by God. It was merchants who have helped societies weakest by creating new ways for earning a living, inventing new products and services, and donating a piece of profits. We have another mission; Integrity, compassion, fair treatment of our workers, and this mission as passed down throughout the ages; teaching and modeling the good citizenship passed on by generations of prophets.
What have the prophets said about business?
Buddha:
This excerpt is by Chokdee Rutirasiri, the founder of Story & Structure, a design firm.
“At the heart of Buddhist traditions and teachings lies the Eightfold Path. It has eight elements: Right View, Right Intention, Right Action, Right Speech, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. I consider it to be a nonlinear guide to areas of exploration and practice that can lead to a greater understanding of the world around you. By nonlinear, I mean that you don’t have to master one of the elements before taking on another. For instance, Right Mindfulness and Right Intention go into all parts of the path; they intertwine and intersect to create a clearer picture of reality and how to flourish within it.
These teachings have guided me not only in my spiritual life but in my professional life as well, as a Buddhist in the business world. I have applied three of the eight tenets to my dealings with customers and employees and the management of my human-centered design firm. These three are Right Intention, Right Action, and Right Mindfulness. I believe they can help all of us face the challenges and choices we encounter in the corporate world. Understood and used correctly, they provide valuable tools to help us navigate the path to business enlightenment.
Right Intention: When I first explain to people what my company does, they always ask, what exactly is “human-centered design”? I answer that we listen to people’s business problems and then try to come up with solutions that they can easily and intuitively implement, but also, we incorporate the Right Intention teaching in our core company values, and it is reflected in the solutions we develop. For example, if I look inside myself and see that greed is a factor in a solution we are developing, I eliminate it immediately. Greed only leads to suffering, and suffering is something that Buddhists vehemently reject. I always focus on ensuring that my intentions in business are pure and centered on helping my clients achieve only the best for their business, because in the end that is the best for both of us.
Today In: Leadership
Right Action: After intentions come actions. You must evaluate how your actions help or harm. The more wholesome your intentions are, the more sincere your actions will be. I always aim my work at being skillful, helpful, and best directed to improving the client’s return on investment. A client’s suffering is my suffering, so I make sure to prevent it as much as possible. To practice improving your actions, you need to develop an awareness of ethics and then use good judgment to ensure that your actions will not bring harm or suffering to your client (and your business).
Right Mindfulness: Mindfulness is easily summarized as paying attention. That sounds easy enough, but in today’s fast-paced, meetings-scheduled-months-in-advance world, staying present in the moment is very hard. In business, you need to focus on what’s happening now, not the future. Granted, you need to invest thought in foreseeable problems, upcoming major presentations, and the like, but that should not prevent you from taking time to really go over what you can accomplish today. Now. Tomorrow will come, but you will never get yesterday back. Make sure you use every moment to its fullest and invest your time wisely.” Chokdee Rutirasiri
Mohammed – The Perfect Entrepreneur.*
Prophet Mohammed, venerated by billions of Muslims all over the world, was more than just the Prophet of Islam, as he directed people to stick to ethical standards in all facets of life including business transactions, trading, and entrepreneurship. These ethical values are clearly laid down in the Quran, the Holy Book of Muslims, and in the traditions of Prophet Muhammad recorded and compiled by some of his closest companions in the form of a book known as the ‘Hadiths’. Without going much into the details, we have tried to touch upon the essence of these teachings from the sayings of the Prophet so that any aspiring startup entrepreneur could appreciate and integrate those as part of his/her learning process towards the development of entrepreneurship skills.
- “When a sale is held, say, “There’s no cheating.”(Book: Al-Bukhari).
- “Be careful of excessive oaths in a sale. Though it finds markets, it reduces abundance.” (Book: Muslim).
- “The sale is complete when the two parties involved depart with mutual consent.” (Book: Al-Bukhari).
- “When people cheat in weight and measures, their provision is cut off from them” (Book: Al-Muwatta). “You (Business people) have been entrusted with affairs over which some nations before you were destroyed” (Book: Al-Tirmidhi).
- “Whoever monopolizes is a sinner”(Book: Abu Dawud).
- Furthermore, the Prophet says that in the case of free enterprise, the price of the commodities shouldn’t be fixed save there is a situational crisis or utmost necessity
- The Prophet prohibited hoarding merchandise so as to increase the prices in the market. He also forbade the transaction of prohibited items in Islam, such as alcohol, drugs, and intoxicants.
- Islam imposes limits on possession, ownership, and consumption. Its law of inheritance diffuse accrued personal holdings.
- Both the Quran and the Hadith denounce the display of one’s resourcefulness through an extravagant lifestyle.
*Adapted from www.bythestartups.com
A few things Christ said
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:16
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Jesus Christ, Matthew 22:36-40
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”
Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:12
Think about these quotes and what they say can all be applied to conducting business.
Your business is a calling from God.
“I have a belief that entrepreneurship and business is not something that we just pursue in this life, but it’s a calling…”
Russell Brunson
Take five minutes out of your day and watch this video from Russell about his impact when he realized his business is his calling.
https://www.facebook.com/439305759518485/videos/4081649518513309
Think about that for a moment. How many people do you impact with your business? It’s not only those you employ, it includes everyone they impact. Family, friends, customers, businesses they shop at, everyone they buy from.
It’s hundreds to thousands of people you impact besides the impact you model in your business.
What is the message you send to those you employ about giving, doing good in their community, about integrity, etc? What behaviors do you model? What does your company do actively to make this world a better place?
Make your business your calling from God by this simple thought; Leave everyone and everything a little better than you find them, in every moment. Leave behind all small-minded, limited thinking. Expand into limitless, Infinite thinking and model God, the Life Force, by taking to heart some of the ideas here from the sages and Prophets.
The days of greedy businesses serving only selfish needs or aiming only for monetary goals are coming to an end as evidenced by the increasing number of those with missions that serve others as well as the business itself.
We live in a miracle, called a Universe and as Einstein once said;
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people; first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Only a life lived for others is worth living.”
–Albert Einstein
You can do the same in your business by remembering his last line “Only a life lived for others is worth living”
Thanks for indulging me, I am grateful. Now go do good.
Steve
