Sorrow mentioned in her last post of her fear of losing herself in the process of making a living instead of living her life. I understand her fear because one of the reasons I feel I’m not a business person is the image I have in my head. Business is something you do when you don’t care about others or care about the wellbeing of your environment. In business you do everything to be the best and make most money, no matter what. Sell your soul to the devil and gain power and wealth. Lose your life in the process of making a living.
In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to give up living to make a living. In an ideal world we would be able to make a living while living the best life we know. I guess I’m an idealist because I believe it should be and it is possible to make a living and live a worthy life at the same time… live a life with inner peace and strength, without selling your soul to the devil, and yet make a little more money than you actually need.
Recent research suggest that moderately happy people are more successful than happy people. If you are happy and content with what you have you wont change. If you have everything you wish for you will not pursue more, or anything different from what you have. When you are moderately happy you live a good life, but you still have something to work for, everything isn’t perfect.
Many people seem to think that getting more money than you will ever be able to spend during a life time is the ultimate happiness. Yet media suggest otherwise. Rich and successful people seem to have as many or even more problems than the average joe. It would be interesting to know if there have ever been any research made on the happiness level of the rich and famous. Is success really the way to a happy life, or is happiness found in the simple things? Should we try to get back to a life where happiness was a loaf of bread and a warm bed, or should we continue to work for unlimited wealth?
I know I want more than a loaf of bread and a warm bed to be happy. I don’t want to spend every moment of my day worrying about how to get my next meal or how to keep my children warm and safe during the night. I want to make enough money to be able to keep my children safe and to feed and cloth us all. I want to make enough money for me and my family to be moderately happy… happy enough for us to feel we have a good life, but not so happy we feel there is nothing else for us to achieve. I want to make that money by doing something I feel good about, something that makes me feel proud of what I do. I want to make money without selling my soul to the devil.
Green business and sustainable business is the word of the day. We need to do business without destroying our world. At the same time many big corporations outsource their production to the third world. Nokia is one example and there are others. Outsourcing might be a good thing for the third world. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.” Whoever said that was right. I already know how to fish, I should allow others to get a chance too. Unfortunately outsourcing is done because I know the value of my work and I know how to demand a clean environment. I have been able to feed myself long enough and I’ve gotten time and energy enough to think things over and to make sure I get a fair share of the wealth I’m contributing to.
I personally believe we need to give our business models a second thought. We need to rethink a lot of things. We need to rethink the value of money and decide what we are willing to do to make money. We need to make choices when we shop, and these choices will not be easy to do. I’m a single mother and I have to look for a bargain whenever I can find one. And yet I shouldn’t shop if the product I want to buy makes another persons life a hell somewhere in the world. I shouldn’t shop if the product destroys the earth, if it exploits children or take advantage of someone without their daily leaf of bread. When I look for a bargain, to make my hard earned money last as long as possible, I have to make a lot of hard choices and sometimes I’m just so tired I’m not able to make a choice at all. I just buy the product without a second thought.
I certainly understand the people wanting to get back to a simpler life without a lot of things, it’s easier in one way, harder in another. I also understand the people who choose not to get bothered, life is complicated enough for us to start worrying about some person in another part of the world. In this I have no answers, I just wish it would be easier to make the good choices…
Welcome back! Nice to see you again, hope you enjoy your visit.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:29 am
That was a neet article. Stating whare you are at and your feelings at the moment! I find allot of what I focus on multiplies. So I try to focus more on the positive. I listen to joel Olsteen on Sundays. He is such a positive person. One of the biggest church in the US. He and his wife are quite the people
February 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Thanks for the nice words. Focusing on the positive is a good strategy… makes it easier to make the difficult choices, without getting depressed over how little we really can change.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Susie~
What a thoughtful and insightful composition. It takes a great deal of will to look into yourself and see what it is that that you truly feel . I have always been outside the acceptable Norms on a lot of my personal Philosophies.
That doesn’t mean I do not feel the bite and sting of the culture, It means That I have a life I lead and try to be true to those ethics I have in my heart. I have been taken advantage of and been ridiculed. Some how however I have kept my faith and sustained.
The business world is full of both those with ethics and those with out. I have always found it incredibly odd that what people will do in he business world they would never consider in their personal world. Somehow these strange invisible lines have been drawn that make exclusions. have you ever seen this? or is this subjective strictly to the American culture?What ever causes the phenomena, it is why i think so many of us have a very dim view of the business world as a whole.
Thanks for the interesting and inner search!
February 19th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I’ve seen people do things in their business life they never would have in their personal life, but I haven’t seen that very often.
The Scandinavian culture, when it comes to business, is a little bit different than the American. In Scandinavia the laws and regulations protects the consumer more than it protects the corporation. We often see the big corporations as the big bad wolf and the consumer is the girl in the tale of the little red riding hood. In Finland the feelings for the corporate world is even more conflicted.
I visited the Soviet Union when I was 15 and saw people standing in a line for hours to get some bread and butter. And that was a country where everyone was supposedly equal. We worked hard to be able to be a part of the western economy, so we needed those big corporations and we needed small businesses too. There were people influenced by the communist ideals of a world where everyone is equal and no one should profit from people’s work, and they made their voices heard. It was, and still is, a balancing act between a healthy economy and the need to not let someone profit too much from other people’s hard work.
A strong economy should be built on good business ethics where people don’t make a distinction between their personal ethics and their business ethics.