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Compete or converge?
Spiritual leaders are often asked about the place of spiritual practice in business. How can we maintain our competitive edge, if we also wish to develop our spiritual practice of loving kindness and compassion for others’ suffering? Surely these two human qualities sit uncomfortably together?
I explored this questions with the Dalai Lama when I met him in Christchurch in 2013. He said that when we are young, we have a clear awareness of basic values like trust and warm-heartedness, but in the competitive world in which we live we tend to neglect them as we grow up. His primary message was that we must develop inner values, rather than worry about material wealth.
In our world economy, many jobs are in danger of extinction according to future sleuths and culture critics. It’s true, the digital revolution is changing the workforce, and jobs are disappearing. But the digital revolution offers many opportunities for anyone looking for a new venture. Becoming a leading expert online is made possible and more easily accessible because the internet offers the infinite scope and technological leverage to engage in broad reaching social networks. But it also opens the door on opportunistic get-rich-quick schemes playing on fear and greed.
In my own coaching business, success eluded me while I remained focused primarily on the financial outcome. I was helping others, but I was still attached to the benefits coming my way. Once I started to create goals based solely on how I could benefit others, everything changed. Thinking of others’ success before my own was the turning point for me.
The new business paradigm versus the old
There are different ways of thinking about how Buddhist values, such as loving kindness and compassion, can play out in business interactions. They can certainly enhance ways of operating within an old business paradigm characterized by the one-way flow of information, and the withholding of knowledge from competitors. Here, while these timeless values may enhance relations between competitors, and between employers and employees, the old structures remain.
In all our major universities the old model of doing business is still being taught on hundreds of MBA programmes. Since childhood we have learned to compete, to take first and think about giving in return later. It takes courage to step out of the traditional business model. But pretty soon, we may all be forced to.
A new wave of understanding, is emerging about the very purpose of business itself. The new progressive model is about a two-way flow of information, and sharing knowledge with everyone, including one’s competitors. The new progressive model aligns with the ageless wisdom that all beings are interdependent, and looking out for number one is no longer relevant and also counterproductive.
As the foundation for engaging in business practice, the new blueprint, forged by the very nature of online social networks, has so many repercussion beyond the place of work, feeding out into the realm of personal relationships, and enriching people’s perceptions of themselves and their place in the world.
Conscious entrepreneurship
Conscious entrepreneurs are creating businesses that express their spiritual purpose and empower everyone involved, including their staff and customers. They have proven it’s possible to build successful online businesses on principles of self-actualization, valuing your customers’ wellbeing first, and adhering to other timeless Buddhist principles, such as the Six Perfections of generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration and wisdom.
Learning how to market with your heart, not with your bank balance in mind, shifting your wealth mindset, and creating educational products that reflect your higher purpose is possible by applying loving kindness to all. And understanding the interdependent nature of all human interactions, whether social or personal, creates a better foundation if you wish to create an enlightened business.
Created by a fusion of spiritual wisdom and conscious entrepreneurship, these new models allow and support others to reach their potential, while also allowing for growth and expansion of one’s own services and knowledge.
The Six Perfections & Transformational Leadership
The Six Perfections are one of the core teachings of the Buddha. They refer to six virtues that lead to enlightenment, if practiced conscientiously. Practicing the first three of the Six Perfections provides a framework, I believe, for transformational leadership in business.
1. Generosity
The first of the Six Perfections is generosity. This doesn’t simply mean giving time and gifts to others in the conventional sense. It means thinking about your customers’ wellbeing, health and financial success before your own profits, and this takes practice and courage. This shift can be the greatest hurdle in business because we are conditioned by our culture to believe that we only receive what we need if we actively take it. Another way is by allowing and trusting that it will come via the two-way flow of generosity and kindness.
2. Ethics
The second is ethics. In Buddhist practice, this encompasses compassion (being motivated to serve others regardless of their feeling towards you) and acting in accordance with the laws of karma. So, for example, treating your customers as you would wish to be treated yourself will help build trusting relationships and motivate your customers to return to you. This is particularly relevant when providing coaching and educational services via the internet. There is so much free information on the net, your customers will choose the expert they trust most.
3. Patience
Then there is patience. Patience is a valuable and rare quality in our get-rich-quick culture driven by the desire to be rewarded with pleasurable results with little effort. Building a solid online business is a long-term prospect, and if you get it right, it will serve you well into retirement age. Patience is the ability to listen in each moment to the melody of now, despite its inevitable hurdles and set-backs, without becoming disillusioned about the future goal.
Together, generosity, ethics and patience transport us from a place of attachment, to one of commitment. If we are attached to an outcome, we can easily be disheartened and give up at the first hurdle. With commitment, we can remain balanced and positive in the face of obstacles.
Developing the conscious awareness to act on these principles is what will lead to unimaginable success in an online business based firmly on the paradigm of giving, serving others and aiming to make the business of earning a living a more connected and compassionate enterprise.
Learning to incorporate these skills into your business practice will also enhance your ability to deal with challenges in relationships, in creative projects, and in your health and wellbeing. They are lifelong skills that will bring rewards far greater than the rewards of competing, controlling or attaching to outcomes.
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Source by Maari MaCormack
