Self Motivation II: A new way to give yourself a kick in the pants

April 26, 2009 at 5:53 am (Baha'i, Entrepreneur, Mother, Verdanta, business, life balance, livelihood)

You’d think that working for yourself would make you extra motivated to get to work.  Turns out, that’s by  no means a given!

Recently, my business partner (aka, my husband) and I had a discussion wherein we discussed the amount of time I was putting into Verdanta.  Specifically, he was questioning how serious I was.  I assured him that I was VERY serious, but admitted that I was having difficulty prioritizing my time.  Part of the problem was, I still identified myself as a “stay-at-home mom.”  The very term implies lots of leisure time, so how could I say no to friends who wanted to meet me for coffee, or talk on the phone, or have me attend just one short meeting? 

After our little chat, I decided it was time to start thinking of myself, calling myself, and acting like a working woman.  It was a lot harder than I would have thought. 

Then a couple weeks ago, my husband was working on the taxes.  It was the first time he’s had to deal with a small business tax return, so it was extra painful this year.  Afterwards, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if there was a minimum number of hours you had to put into a business to call it a business.  Just to be sure, he suggested I start keeping a work log. 

I started to write down each day the different activities I worked on, and the amount of time I spend doing them.  Then I calculated a daily as well as a weekly average.  I’ve been keeping the log for a little over two weeks now, and I’m averaging over 30 hours per week!  That’s pretty darn respectable, considering my full time job as Mom still comes first.  It turns out, for a compulsive list maker like myself, if I have a choice between watching TV,  and reading a book about web design, I’m going to choose the activity that I can write down in my log.  There’s no doubt that I put in an extra 10 hours each week just by choosing log-worthy activities over pure leisure. 

This was just what I needed to kick my butt into gear!

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Slowing Life Down: Learning to Appreciate the Tortoise

September 4, 2008 at 8:01 pm (Baha'i, Career, Entrepreneur, Faith, Reading, Religion, Work, business, livelihood, work as worship)

You’ve heard the story of the tortoise and the hare?  In the past, I’ve always been the hare.  I’d get excited about something I’d read, and dive in.  The smell of burning rubber hung in the air as I hurled myself into a furious, frantic frenzy of activity.  The problem was, as soon as my momentum petered out, I had nothing left.  I’d quit with nothing to show for it. 

Eventually, a wise man (my husband) pointed out that it’s never as easy as the books say, and if I wanted to pursue something new, great, but I had to do my homework.  I had to ask hard questions of lots of people, including myself.  That is when I began to learn the wisdom of the tortoise.

The tortoise plods along, with patience and persistence, passing each milestone in turn, without rushing, without panicking, without stopping.  When the idea first came to me to start this business, I was at a complete loss.  I had never started a business or worked anywhere except corporate America.  I was the anti-entrepreneur.  And there were a lot of new skills I needed, skills I had never even contemplated acquiring.  It was very intimidating.  I had no reason to believe I could do it.  I only knew I had a very strong feeling that it needed to be done, and that I ought to try to do it. 

So I did. 

I started to do research on the Internet.  I started checking books out from the library.  I began talking to people.  I began (shudder) networking.  When I started, I knew nothing about anything,  but I kept on reading and talking and listening.  Slowly, ploddingly, I have learned many many new things.  I have also found many wonderful (human) resources along the way.  (My thanks to all of you – you are a gift and a treasure to me!)

One resource I found available to anyone in the United States is an organization called SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives).  It is a volunteer agency within the Small Business Administration.  They offer free counseling services to anyone wanting to start a business.  They have given me a much needed reality check, helped me write a business plan, and given me a lot of encouragement along the way.  Writing a business plan is not for the feint of heart!  It’s a long, drawn out process requiring much patience, and if you’re wise, much help. 

Throughout this journey, I have learned the importance of not rushing things.  If it’s a good idea today, it will be a good idea tomorrow.  If it is God’s Will that I do this thing, then it will happen.  All I have to do is keep moving forward, keep exerting effort, keep identifying the next thing that could/should be done, and doing it.  If I get stalled on one front, then I start chipping away at a different front.  All things happen in God’s time, not ours, so we must patiently wait for Him to bring to us that which we need.  And we must be detached enough to recognize it when it appears. 

(Of course, if it is not God’s Will that I do this thing, then I don’t want to do it anyway, and I trust that He will block the way forward, pushing me in a different direction.)

Life in general is so much more pleasant as a tortoise.  I’m more relaxed and forgiving with everyone, particularly my children.  The truth is, patience comes more easily when you realize there is no need to rush. 

If nothing else comes of this venture, I am grateful for what I have already gained from it.  Thank goodness I’ve discovered the joys of being a tortoise!

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The new business model – Baha’i style

August 31, 2008 at 6:34 am (Baha'i, Career, Entrepreneur, Faith, Humanity, Mystery, Work, business, life balance, livelihood, work as worship)
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Oh, if only it were that easy!   :-)

In my last blog, I explored the idea of service to the Faith within the structure of a for-profit business.  I tentatively concluded that yes, this was an acceptable thing.  But that’s not the end of it, is it?  Obviously, many traditional ”old world” business practices would be inappropriate in an enterprise that endeavours to spread the word about Baha’u'llah. 

What would be appropriate?  Now that is an interesting puzzle indeed!

I have actually been working on a business plan for Verdanta, and in it I was asked to describe the corporate culture.  What would it be like to work there?  So this isn’t just a pie out of the clear blue sky question.  I really want to know, what makes a Baha’i business different?

Two things spring immediately to mind: the first is operating the business based on the writings of Baha’u'llah and Abdu’l-Baha.  The second is the spiritual consequences of doing it wrong.  I guess the place to start is exploring what they have to say that’s relevant to the situation. 

Well, Baha’u'llah told us that ”Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues,” so that’s probably a good place to start.  A Baha’i business must be impeccably honest.  Dealing honestly with suppliers, customers and employees, paying bills on time, and following through on commitments all fall within that maxim.  But so do not fudging numbers, not lying by omission, and not taking questionable “gray area” tax deductions. 

Abdu’l-Baha has said that “With education [the inner reality of man] can achieve all excellence; devoid of education it will stay on, at the lowest point of imperfection,” so constant and continuous education must be built into the structure of a Baha’i business.  Everyone in the organization should be allowed – and encouraged – to learn about new things, to gain new skills, and develop latent talents.  Personally, I can say that starting a business is a completely new thing for me, and I learn so much every day that my head hurts from all the neural pathway construction!

Baha’u'llah has also stated that “Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship.”  I don’t know about anyone else, but if the work I do is equivalent to worship, then I’m going to make darn sure I’m working to the absolute utmost of my ability.  Which means excellence and perfection must be the norm, not only for the members of the organization, but also for all products produced by them. 

And since unity is the central principle of the Baha’i Faith, unity must also be a primary goal within the organization.  Most companies today have no clue what that might look like, let alone harbor any realistic expectations of achieving it.  But if you can’t think it, you can’t achieve it.  Fortunately, “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth.” And where unity is the expectation, it can be accomplished.   

Of course, backbiting would have no place within a healthy Baha’i business, because “backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.” The company culture should be shaped such that everyone knows backbiting is unacceptable. 

I could go on and on, but what I notice in writing this is that a Baha’i business must strive for the same spiritual perfections that individual Baha’is strive for. 

Hmmm.  One last quote comes to mind, and that is ”Bring thyself to account each day, ere thou art summoned to a reckoning.”  It seems that I must not only bring myself to account each day, I must also bring to account the dealings of my business, for they ultimately reflect back on me and my spiritual progress. 

Wow.  How different would the world be today if all our leaders felt that way?

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Exploring for-profit service: Does profit negate the service?

August 30, 2008 at 6:00 am (Baha'i, Career, Faith, Humanity, Mystery, Prayer, Religion, Service, Work, livelihood, perception, work as worship)
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Inside my head

I’m struggling with a conundrum: does “service” necessarily imply “without compensation?”  Must all service rendered to the Baha’i Faith be for free, or can one serve the Faith and earn a living from that service?   I believe there exists in our community a perception that service to the Faith should be offered up voluntarily, without compensation.  I admit to feeling that way myself.  But then I had the idea for this venture, and suddenly I was no longer sure that the matter was so black and white.  Here is why: there are some things which are simply too big for one person (or even a group of people)  to undertake solely on a volunteer basis.  Which means that if the job that needs to be done costs too much in the way of time, money or effort, it simply won’t get done.  I’ve spoken with several people who think that what I propose to do is very important to the Baha’i community.  Many before me have felt the same way.  They tried but failed.  (I’ve spoken to five people myself.)  I’m guessing that the reason they failed is because they wanted to do it “as a service to the community,” aka “for free.”  But those people had jobs and lives which didn’t leave them with enough time/money/energy to see the project through to the end. 

I’m very fortunate because at the moment, I have all these resources and a supportive (non-Baha’i) husband who is willing to let me give it a go.  However, if things don’t work out, I will eventually have to go find a paying job, which will doom my efforts as well. 

I really want to see this venture succeed.  Not for my sake, but for the sake of all the people who could potentially hear the name of Baha’u'llah through it.  But that can only happen if Verdanta can pay for itself, with a little left over to contribute to the support of my family.  Knowing all this, I am at peace running this business as a for-profit business. 

Enter: “others” 

I recently received an email from a colleague whose comment I thought meant he felt service to the Faith should be offered up for free.  (I apologize if I’m misrepresenting his feelings on this; I may be projecting my own confliction onto him).  The issue is, should this perception prove prevalent, it could cripple Verdanta  before it even gets off the ground.

Baha’u'llah tells us to strive to ”render service to the world of humanity.”   He also tells us that earning a livelihood “is a duty which, in this most great Revelation, hath been prescribed unto every one, and is accounted in the sight of God as a goodly deed.” 

Abdu’l-Baha told us to “Trust in God and engage in your work and practice economy; the confirmations of God shall descend and you will be enabled to pay off your debts. Be ye occupied always with the mention of Bahá’u'lláh and seek ye no other hope and desire save Him.” (Baha’i World Faith, p. 375)

So earning a living is a goodly deed, and the mission of my proposed occupation is to “be always occupied with the mention of Baha’u'llah.”  Often we think of these things as separate and distinct, but why?  What would Baha’u'llah say about a job that earns money AND serves the Faith?  I’d like to think He would be happy about it. 

The other aspect of service is wanting to serve as many people as possible.  If I do this on a volunteer basis, I will be limited in the number people I will ultimately serve.  Why?  Because I will have to go out and find a paying job, thereby leaving me much less time (and even less energy) to tackle something as ambitious as what I am proposing. 

Service: free or fee?

The culture I live in – America – loves to think of everything in terms of either/or.  But the heart and soul of the Baha’i Faith is based on “both/and.”  Is science right or religion?  They both are.  Jesus or Muhammad?  Both.  So can I serve the Baha’i community and earn a living?   I believe I can, but ultimately, it is up to Baha’u'llah. I lay all my affairs in His capable hands, and I pray that He only let me succeed if He deems this venture good and worthy.

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