We just have to accept that the proliferation of charlatans masquerading as spiritual leaders has caused many to loathe any discussion with a tinge of spirituality, as a reference for receiving wisdom to ensure success in one’s professional and business lives.
“One swallow does not a summer make.” In world with millions doing well, being good world citizens and caring for others, we cannot taint the entire body of useful spiritual knowledge in business because of the abhorrent actions of a fast growing “rotten” sample.
Nevertheless, it sounds obvious but not entirely so, that it is impossible to be successful in anything without faith. You cannot pursue anything successfully if you do not believe such action will result in you achieving a favourable outcome. Whether the outcome ultimately becomes a success or failure is not the point, suffice it to say your actions are informed by your beliefs.
For now, it does not matter who you believe or believe in. What matters more is what you believe. Our plans, strategies and actions are premised on expectations of a good outcome. In fact, it is impossible to live without expectation of good outcome in the future. I wish many aspirant business owners could remember this fact always the next time they feel tempted to give up on their businesses. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 October 2018.
We experience pain differently and have different threshold for suffering. We cannot be critical of those opting to give up on their businesses when they experience hardships. Whatever the case may be, giving up is also a solution to troubles experienced by struggling business leaders. When one is deep in trouble, it is not often easy to extricate oneself from difficulties to look at issues holistically and objectively. It often helps having a trustworthy and experienced “sounding board” and person to hold you accountable in your decisions, but you must be willing to listen and take advice.
But I have also seen how even those who gave up on their businesses still struggled to pursue alternative careers or become employed. It then begs the question, which struggle is better between spending significant time looking for employment after giving up on one’s business, or spending time figuring out other ways one could overcome one’s business challenges? The decision is always personal.
I believe though, that although the decision is personal, there is always a soft voice telling the struggling business owner what decision to make. When pressure is loud, blackmailing, threatening and intimidating you, there is a soft voice, often loud enough usually early morning when one is deeply reflecting on one’s situation, subtly suggesting the better way out for you.
Unlike fear, pressure and threats, the subtle voice will not repeatedly remind you of the way out. This voice acts like that of the strict elder, often saying and giving the advice once, never repeating or regularly reminding you of it. It does not beg you to listen to it or heed its advice. In speaking to you once, it leaves a profound mark at the back of your mind, but it is only when you begin to rationalise the thought, questioning its authenticity and wondering if it is a good voice of advice, that the effectiveness of the voice begin to wane. Ultimately, it will become silent and heeding the fear and threats will become more reasonable in one’s mind.
Good advice is usually not loud or clear up front. You do not get to see the entire picture up front except the little you need to get going with, for that moment. And only when you begin to act shall you then see just enough for the next steps. The process repeats until you realise, one day, that you have achieved much with little resources. Others will react with disbelief when you share your experiences with them.
Often, it is easier to heed the voice of fear, threats and blackmail than the subtle one. It “feels good” pacifying the destabilising noise than encouraging the softer voice to dominate one’s thoughts.
The advice of the subtle voice seems to also have a deadline for compliance, failing which it would be late to reconsider it. Once you have ignored the subtle voice and chose to follow the path of the loudest voice of fear and blackmail, it does not necessarily mean once you have realised you are on the wrong path and turning back to the correct voice, that you will instantly succeed. Often, this would mean starting afresh, almost a few steps behind the point you were at had you heeded the voice then. This would indicate a loss of valuable time that may not be easily recovered.
Even if success is attained after turning back to the correct path, it may come with regrettably long-term damage and setbacks from one’s past diversion. It sometimes pays to listen to the subtle voice and not second-guess it. Rather increase your faith in following than doubting that voice by finding other ways to reason yourself out of following its advice.
When experiencing difficulties, there is usually something one can do to reduce the pressure. We often ignore doing those important things because they do not appear lucrative enough at first, or are mundane and below our “status” to do them. But it is in our humility and submission to doing those minor activities that we begin to grow and rebuild what was lost and missed all along.
Care should be taken about where we get our advice from and voices we listen to. We should know what is good for us and limit our exposure to voices that do not lead us to what is good for us. Better to sever ties with detractors than keeping relations merely to avoid loneliness. In fact, sometimes loneliness is good for us, as it enables us to reflect and rebuild our energy reserves without much disturbance.
On the question of what we believe in, why is it easy for us to heed the advice of philosophers, (auto)biographies and of people we believe can give us good advice, yet we dismiss ancient spiritual manuscripts from which we could derive some wisdom?
We can see, but not all can perceive. Perceiving is a special (divine) gift. This explains why some could see lucrative opportunities in obscure ideas we trivialised. That’s why it makes no sense to easily scoff at seeking business advice or wisdom from ancient spiritual manuscripts. What may be archaic and worthy of being discarded to one, may be gold to another.
I strongly believe there is something good in ancient scriptural manuscripts. By observing how some violently react against referring to them, one can be justified in believing there is an evil spirit dissuading us from seeing the good contained therein.
Perhaps our reluctance to refer to them is owing to abuses many savage emperors, colonisers and oppressors of all kinds, then and now, inflicted upon mankind using those writings. But why do some find it easy to dismiss the entire spiritual writings as though everything in it is abhorrent? Why are we not treating other referential writings the same way?
For instance, there are some abusing their scientific knowledge to inflict many ills upon society, yet we do not condemn all science and dissuade people from acquiring scientific knowledge. Yet with spiritual writings that may benefit us, we find it easy to dismiss all manuscripts because of abuses inflicted on others by those who twisted its message for selfish and deceitful gain.
Owing to many people’s readiness to reject the advice contained in spiritual manuscripts, I wonder if there isn’t some dark force hellbent on denying us profound truths contained in there which may encourage us to press on against hardships to develop and strengthen our character and guide us to the success we always seek.
We lose nothing in gaining knowledge or finding inspiration from sources and resources available to us. We lose everything in ignoring what is available and trying to do life alone when there have been many before us, many years ago, who experienced the same troubles we have, yet overcame them and shared their experiences for our benefit.
No man is an island should be more than a cliché to us. It pays to reevaluate beliefs to ensure we do not suffer simply because we are stubborn to consider other bodies of knowledge. The pain is bitter when we suffer without having explored other reasonable avenues before accepting failure and declaring defeat. Even when we fail, we would learn lessons we can graciously share with others and use to correct our ways when we try again.
Every person alive believes in something. Let your faith count and lead you to success you may not have envisioned.
