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OPEN TO REINVENTION: The simplicity of spirit in a seemingly complex world  

Last updated: March 27th, 2019

Recently, I spoke with a man who is a successful business consultant, one who turns around unhealthy businesses. He told me how he steers companies to find new capital, acquire suitable talent, enhance profit margins, size up competitors, and on and on until my eyes glazed over. Apparently, he does well and travels widely, but it occurred to me how easy it is to get lost in details and lose sight of the larger picture.

To me, basic spiritual principles should underpin any venture, including business. The simple truths we share may come as great revelations to others, even those with vast knowledge and power. In a mentally oriented world, the soundness and common sense of spirit is often overlooked, or at least not consciously recognized. While I’m not suggesting anyone ignore details, the world seems unduly complicated. It’s simpler and easier to live, and run a business, than most think.

Let me be specific. My wife Joyce and I live near the town of Windsor, Colorado. For a long time it was a one-business community. Kodak had a large facility that employed hundreds of people. Over the years, other businesses settled here, including one that makes wind turbines as an alternative energy source. This more diverse economic base saved the community as Kodak Corporation took a nosedive.

I know people who worked at the facility, including engineers and executives. The Windsor plant made film for cameras and X-ray equipment. When computers came along and the digital world emerged, workers with a bit of foresight pleaded with corporate heads to get in the game. They were told not to worry, that film and Kodak cameras would always be around. As digital cameras improved and Kodak remained on the sidelines, these workers became concerned about their jobs and retirement pensions—with good reason! They could not understand why their superiors refused to change with the times.

As you know, consumers moved away from film and film cameras. After all, film is expensive and bulky. Digital images are cheap, instantaneous and photos can be edited on a home computer. Finally, Kodak decided to try their hand at digital cameras and printers but were years behind the curve. After a while, they gave up on these endeavours. The facility in Windsor was sold and operations shut down. Kodak has gone into bankruptcy and my friends tell me that unless they come up with some startling innovation, they may go the way of dinosaurs, into extinction.

By contrast, we were at a college alumni gathering recently in Denver at the home of Peter Coors. His wife and many of their family members went to the same college I did, back east. We arrived early and Peter told us about his illustrious family. They started brewing beer in Colorado in the 1800s. Then, they faced a crisis, as most businesses do sooner or later, which was when Prohibition began in 1917; all alcoholic products were banned for about seventeen years. Most distilleries went under, never to be heard from again. It was the age of bootleggers and speakeasies.

The Coors family was agile enough to morph the business into something else. They had mountains of malt to make beer and developed malted milk products used by candy companies; they also created a non-alcoholic beer called “near beer.” They adapted machinery to make ceramic plates and other items, a business that years later turned out capacitors and transistors, as well as precision parts for manufacturing. Thus they kept people employed through Prohibition and the family business alive. When Prohibition lifted, they re-started the beer business while continuing the new endeavours. Now they are the third-largest beer producer in the country and merged with Molson Beer in Canada.

These are real life examples of business decisions, one that showed adaptation to changing circumstances and one that did not. Life is like that, always changing, which makes this world eternally interesting and keeps us on our toes. Many business consultants and advisors, after much analysis, proudly come up with specific, or “concrete,” plans. General Eisenhower said that when the battle begins you can throw out all those carefully made plans, but he also acknowledged that the planning was essential. In other words, consider your options and challenges, know the terrain, while keeping in mind that the landscape constantly changes and may include factors not anticipated. Set the heaven, but be ready to change course in the blink of an eye, alert to what is happening in the moment and willing to let go of preconceived ideas, trusting that you will have what is needed when the time comes.

This is true for individuals as well as any configuration of people. A business is a collection of people working towards a common goal. It can be small and intimate, or huge and impersonal, like a government with its many agencies. To take it a step further we could say that all humanity is one large planetary corporation—a collection of people with a common goal—and the Lord, however you want to define that, is the CEO. Each of us has a part of play in the success of the venture, which is, in turn, part of a much larger business: the cosmic whole. The loss of any part lessens the effectiveness and completeness of the whole, whether it’s a mom-and-pop business or the galaxy.

To be successful you have to reinvent yourself each day and appraise the factors that come to focus now. We’re not who we were five years ago, or last year, or last week. We change, and the world changes around us. What used to work may not work now, a lesson Kodak should have heeded. It’s necessary to keep moving. If you stand pat, you become stale and those on the move will pass you by. Substance no longer useful or pertinent ends up in the compost heap.

To live a successful life or run a good business requires clear communication. We’re designed to interact with people in a variety of settings, from marriage and family, to friends, jobs and even the cashier at the coffee shop. It’s said that human beings once communicated in a multidimensional way not available now, conveying spiritual essences with great clarity. The external language we now use only touches the surface, but it’s what is available to us. It takes focus and practice to find the right words to express thoughts and feelings; there’s also an art to listen deeply to what others are saying, to hear beyond the words. Spirit guides us in speaking and listening, and helps us discern what is appropriate to the audience.

All too often people do not say what they mean and do not hear what is really being said. Misinterpretation leads to mishaps of various sorts, which can be humorous or tragic—and devastating in business. As you know, I worked for some years as a doctor. Whatever deficiencies I may have had, I did learn to listen to my patients. I wanted to know their expectations and concerns, so that I did not impose some treatment against their wishes. Often I came up with several alternatives or options, giving patients choices. I was there to serve, not dictate a course of action; in that way, we arrived at a mutual decision, as partners, combining my expertise and their preferences.

Another aspect of successful business, and living, is being open to new input. Some CEOs and corporate boards are disconnected from the mainstream and make decisions in a kind of self-imposed isolation. Kodak may be an example, as mentioned before. Spirit speaks to each of us in many ways. Be still and listen to messages from Life, through any source, including from employees or co-workers; do not limit the ways the invisible source of spirit would guide us.

A wise CEO, or leader of any sort, is not comforted by sycophants who only agree with him or her, but wants to hear different views. Incidentally, this is true in marriage. Men and women see the world differently, but when all input is taken into consideration and ego put aside, a better decision may be made. We complement each other and learn from one another. Together, we form a more complete picture.

A business must produce a product or service that fills a need for a customer base. When this happens it’s fulfilling and profitable for both sides. A business should be proud of what it produces or creates and a purchaser should be thankful to receive a quality product or service. This could be an apple pie or a faster computer. When the best is offered everybody wins.

competitionSome take the view that they must beat the competition at all costs, even if it means being confrontational. A writer on the subject, Steve Denning, says, “Instead of seeing business—and strategy and business education—as a matter of figuring out how to defeat one’s known rivals and protect oneself against competition through structural barriers, if a business is to survive it must aim to add value to customers through continuous innovation and finding new ways of delighting its customers.” I like that view of delighting one’s customers, of putting forth your best effort, rather than wasting energy tangling with competitors.

Erika Andersen, writing for Forbes Magazine, says that fighting the competition is a “zero-sum game where winners and losers battle each other for defined market share.” She adds that such an approach is, “completely tone-deaf to the human element; the fact that the more fully you can engage people’s hearts and minds in an enterprise and its success, the more likely you are to be able to create a powerfully successful organization. People and their passion don’t figure much in the competitive model of business.”

We would agree. Life has passion and intensity for creation. When we direct our energy into making something great we will be successful. Then we need not fear the actions of others. Human competition, where the other side becomes the enemy, is a mistranslation of the divine urge to be your best, to let the essences of spirit be fully revealed in the outer world. Our focus should be on creating, in getting the most from our abilities, not battling someone else. I suppose it could be called an inner competition to grow and learn. This is what leaders do. They do not look to either side, or behind; they look ahead.

Integrity is often just given lip service in business, although some do adhere to high standards, and we can be thankful for that. But too many are willing to cut corners or blur the truth. Dishonesty—whether from omission or commission—is so ingrained in human interactions that most people hardly notice the little lies and manipulations, in themselves or others. It goes far beyond politicians and car salesmen. Many rationalize by saying, “This is just business,” as if that is separate from the rest of one’s life; or it may be said that, “The end justifies the means.” In other words, to make a sale or get a bill passed, it does not matter how you get someone to sign on the dotted line, as long as they sign. Yet deceit has ramifications. It all follows the law of cause and effect; what is sown is eventually reaped. Dishonesty leaves one with an empty feeling and is a drain on one’s life force, like a dark hole. An ill spirit set in motion comes back to haunt ones like a ghost. Sooner or later you have to pay the piper, as some athletes are finding out years after cheating in their sport.

It’s wonderful to find someone honest and trustworthy and dependable. Such people—whether a plumber, co-worker or life partner—are more precious than rubies. They are the stuff that holds everything together and offers hope for the future of humankind. A humble person of great character is in tune with spirit and the cosmic whole, whether they realize it or not. With them we may sense Oneness and connectedness. We are not meant to be alone, but part of one body. So we may be thankful to find a kindred spirit.

If mental or emotional blather drown out the inner voice, it’s difficult to sense the tone of life, leaving a person adrift, without a sense of direction. This is why the mind takes over, with its inherent complexity, endless analysis and judgment, and inevitable blind spots. Life is simpler and more direct. Mental machinations obfuscate what may otherwise be readily apparent.

All creative interchange is ultimately an expression of love. One might use the word sexual, but that could give it a slant open to misinterpretation. There is radiant love and responsive love, the positive current of creation and the negative creative field that receives it, much as the sun in relation to the Earth. Joined in right spirit there is joy in union. From that union something new emerges, a burst of radiation. It’s fulfilling for all involved and sets the table for new creation.

These days what had been hidden is coming into the light, including leaked documents and suggestive emails. It may remind us that nothing is hidden from the Lord. There are no private areas where we can misbehave, then hide behind a false front, whether in the business world or Las Vegas. In the true state there are no hidden agendas or secret areas of consciousness. We walk in the light. Without a tangled web of lies, we can reveal our true Selves, without having to look over our shoulder. Deceit has no place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

No situation is so complex that spirit cannot find a simple way forward. Life is simple, yet profound. It only seems knotty to mentally oriented humanity. Even apparently mundane events have depth and colour most of us have been unaware of. Life knows what it is doing. It sees all the factors and helps us move forward. We can trust that, and take the next step with confidence, even if we do not understand where it will lead. Spirit is trustworthy. As we relax into that we can be assured that even the most confounding situations will resolve and work out in harmony with the creative process. Even optimism is warranted and a perpetual celebration of life, for all is indeed well.

[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]Laurence Krantz was born in New Rochelle, N.Y. and brought up in the Long Island region. Larry attended Cornell University, graduating in 1968, and two years later received an M.S. degree in the biological sciences from New York Medical College. Dr. Krantz operated a family medical practice in Loveland, Colorado, for many years and now lives near Windsor, Colorado. Additional writings by Dr. Krantz may be accessed at crown200@msn.com.

image 1: camera lens via Shutterstock; image 2: competition via Shutterstock