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Business Is Love
Plain principles for an ambiguous world
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Business New Haven
10/20/1997
By: David Morris
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Business is love of self, family, community, nation and the world. Business is a means by which individuals are able to express that love.
Think for a moment of the time and energy that went into our development as human beings. Everyone that has had children is well acquainted with the effort it requires to be a parent. We all tend to forget, at different times in our lives, all those whose influences have molded us into the persons we have become today.
All these people, known and unknown, who have given you and me our gifts expect repayment. Each of us is expected to create a business environment that reflects and gives back the love that has been given to all of us. As we succeed as human beings, then, our entire business life will reflect this love.
All of us must ask ourselves some difficult questions. Do those who drive the buses reflect love to their customers who ride each day? Do the people who work in stores generate love to those with whom they come in contact? Do educators show love for their students? Do medical doctors show love for their patients? The list is endless.
Business is love, and may be expressed through the gifts of compassion, sacrifice and diplomacy.
• Compassion. Value others. Show compassion for others. Put yourself in the position of the other person. Would you want to do business with yourself?
• Sacrifice. Sacrifice for others. The path of success is shown to those who sacrifice for others. Without those who sacrificed for you, would you be as successful as you are today? The question for us to ask each day in business is, How can this business benefit others?
• Diplomacy. Communicate with others in a genteel and polite manner. There have been those in the world who have tried to make business a science, war, machine or a means of personal selfishness. Consider another alternative. Business is a means by which we may help others succeed. The true warrior sacrifices for others. Competition between and among businesses is the daily challenge of compassion, sacrifice and diplomacy. These three timeless principles are manifested in all the actions that we take.
A business is rarely an instant success. The Japanese Samurai consider that all is possible in 15 years. The secret of business is to begin where you are now and not where you want to be. To paraphrase the philosopher Sun Tzu 2,500 years ago: Know yourself and know the other.
Once this tenet is understood, combine and expand on your compassion, sacrifice and diplomacy. This is accomplished by uniting your present forms of the business. Business growth and change occurs only when we develop as humans. A business is not products and services. A business is us.
There are others who will be successful with different world views. Enjoy their success and incorporate their good ideas into your own business-is-love world view.
Products and services have been created in the past because they were thought to add value to the perceived desires of groups. The products and services we sell are, at best, inconsequential. Each of us must begin by applying what we know, and combining that knowledge with what we do not know.
We cannot create and prosper in business when we attempt to live someone else's life. All that we know can never be transferred directly to others. This requires a rethinking of our understanding of self by focusing on learning from all others. When the other is valued, the other will value and teach us. Our own self-learning is enhanced and valued by others when we demonstrate compassion, sacrifice and diplomacy.
Business is love. We owe a debt that must be repaid to the last generation and vouchsafed to the next generation. Learn from others and they will learn from you. Value others and they will value you. Buy from others and they will buy from you. Teach the next generation how to do the same through the example of your own life and actions. BNH
David Morris, Ph.D., is professor of marketing at the University of New Haven in West Haven.
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