Love Letter to the Marketplace

After spending any length of time in the realm of spirituality, you’ll notice that all arrows point in the same direction, which is of course service. The relationship between service and business is an interesting one because business is concerned with the creation of value that people will pay for. There is a great overlap between this and fulfillment, spiritual growth, development of our souls. Naturally those who become masters of spirituality will make the decision to lead the kinds of lives that benefit other people. The life of a successful business person has many of the same characteristics.

For a long time, especially in Eastern traditions spirituality has been kept separate from the important concept of business. This does not have to be the case, and in fact that precedent is changing very quickly. In these modern times it is understood, it is more available, it is easier than ever before to merge the two and be a successful spiritual business person. The idea of business people doing shady things in closed-door penthouse meetings is dying quickly, the most successful business people in the future are those who are transparently good. Those whose brand name of service - in both realms - is obvious.

The place where this service is given is the marketplace. The marketplace has such enormous value because in this increasingly decentralized theoretical place, people show us what they want. People vote with their actions and their wallets. For those spiritual business people who crave giving value we need look no farther than the way people reward different kinds of options. Listening to what people want is beautiful. Seeing what people choose is beautiful. If we can rely on anything, we can rely on the idea that people will naturally move in the direction of the things they feel will be most of service to them. When we provide those things, we don't need to sell a product anymore. We can barely keep the product on the figurative shelves, we can barely keep our code able to provide for the influx of people. Focusing on the quality and types of service we provide means we generate the best outcome for those who give us their trust.

The overlap between business and spirit is increasing. The hunger of the marketplace for authentic goodness has never been stronger. What a wonderful opportunity. Being alive in this time is a wonderful opportunity. Thank you marketplace.