Can a Buddhist be an Entrepreneur?
This question rose out of a personal exchange. After a strong start of a business career I got seriously interested in Buddhist Philosophy, meditation, and ways to train the mind. So I decided to spend last years studying, practicing meditation, and working for a Buddhist centre and monastery to see how all this wisdom can connect to everyday life. Now, after some years away, I feel I would like to bring together my business career and the wisdom that I tried to practiced over last years. I’m looking for a job, a challenge, a possibility to actively give to the world (and develop my skills and earn some money at the same time).
Therefore I have been fixing up my resume and asked an acquaintance I deeply respect for his opinion. He is a person who has been successful in technology entrepreneurship and is building an interesting new start-up now. Also a good human being. One of his comments was:
“Looking at the change to Buddhism and meditation the questions come to mind: “What happened there?” and “Does he really have the internal drive to get things done in the tough early start-up world?”
It got me thinking — do the paths of meditation and entrepreneurship support each other or are they contradictory? To answer this, I feel we need to take a step back and ask: Why? Why meditation? Why entrepreneurship? Why Buddhism? Why start-ups?
Why to become an entrepreneur? Why to put ones energy to creating a start-up? Some people get into the start-up world for the excitement, money, company or because they think that start-ups alone will solve all the problems in the world or that whatever start-up you make is the best thing in the world. There can be many many different reasons but from my point of view there is only one reason for true entrepreneurship: to change the world, to make this world a better place, to serve people, to add value.
Why study Buddhism? Why train your mind? Why practice meditation? Again there can be many reasons. Some people are born with it, some people like the colours, some want to run away from the tension of busy life and find a “lovely spa,” some like the people who often are so smily, some like the intellectual buzz, some the descriptions of esoteric experiences. Many reasons but yet again there seems to be only one true reason that matters: to change the world, to make this world a better place, to serve people, to add value.
Am I joking now? I am saying that active entrepreneurship and passive looking Buddhist meditation practice ideally have the same motivation? This is exactly what I have found, why I find them supporting each other, and why I am drawn to both of them.
To be able to be a successful entrepreneur one needs skills — in sales, engineering, marketing, and so on. But I guess any experienced person can say that perfection in any or even all of these skills alone will not enable success and ability to bring beneficial change to the world. Isn’t there a need to start with the wish to give and bring benefit to the world? To understand what it means to do good to the customers and employees and how to not do evil? To have the perseverance to continue through difficulties? To be able to be energised and take delight in doing things that are adding value? To have a concentrated mind that is also relaxed? Concentrated on what is important. Concentrated on doing what has to be done and not on dreams of the future or dreads of past. Most of all isn’t there a need to have a very clear and sharp mind, being able to make sharp decisions quickly?
Now what Buddhist Philosophy and the practice of meditation give, is the ability to train in all these skills. Yes, train. Deepen, Practice. To be more in control of ones mind. To be more honest with oneself. To understand the world and people around better. To change the mental habits that are not helpful. Bringing this together with the technical skills that people in the start-up world master seems to be a win-win situation.
Like one of my teachers once suggested. We need to both breathe in and breathe out. Breathing in is working on ones mind and breathing out is using this strength and balance to actively engage with work and situations in the world. So going back to my acquaintances comment “What went wrong?” One way to look at extended time to learn about and work with ones mind, is to see it like a “grad-school.” A very different kind of one. A time away to deepen the foundations of being able to work when needed.
Makes sense? Any comments are welcome.
