How Spirituality Helps New Entrepreneurs

Some people consider worldly success, such as success in entrepreneurship, to be incompatible with spirituality.  “It’s a dog eats dog world.” they’d say, “If you want to succeed, you do whatever (dirty things) you must do. Then you dress up and go to church on Sundays.  If you want to embrace spirituality full time, stay in the convent, or at least stay in the clean low-paying job.”

I disagree.  In this article, I want to show you how spirituality can help new entrepreneurs in two major challenges they face in starting their own business.

For the purpose of this article, I am defining spirituality as our awareness of higher purpose and power.  That invisible something that transcends us as individuals.  I am not affiliated with any organized religions.

Spirituality offers sustainable motivation

I find it quite dangerous that so many people want to become their own boss because they hate their current jobs.  They want to escape from what they hate, be it the boring job itself or the demanding boss or the work environment.  I don’t say this is no good for moral reasons.  If you don’t like something or someone, then it is so, it’s not good or bad.  I find it dangerous because the escape mentality doesn’t offer any sustainable motivations.

You see, it’s actually so easy to escape.  If you have been tied to your job for many years, and you have been brainwashed in years of education prior to employment, you may find this hard to believe, but it really is so easy.  Too easy, in fact.  You step out, and the escape is done.  Then you are left with no real motivation to build your business other than financial need.

When you start your business to live your purpose and share your love, on the other hand, you have clear and sustainable motivation.  You know what you want to do, and you have the sense of direction where you are heading.  Your vision and love motivate you and help you endure the down times that most entrepreneurs have to go through.

Spirituality helps improve the quality of service

Let’s say the guy who escaped the job he loathed finds a nice business idea and figures out how to start his business.  So he is an entrepreneur now.  His motivation is to make money (and maybe become famous along the way.)

Of course, making money is essential in entrepreneurship.  If you don’t make enough money, you go out of business, and you are not an entrepreneur any more.  The catch is, when you focus only on making money, on what you can get, you become absent in the core of your business, that is, your products and services.

In contrast, when you start your business because you love what you have to offer and you want to delight your customers with your products and services, you naturally pay attention to how you can improve your service even more.  You give great value to your customers, they appreciate the value they receive from your business, and the money flows back to you as a result.  The customers even bring in their loved ones to you because they love what you have to offer.

Marketing becomes tremendously easy when this flow is established.  Even if you are shy, talking about your service becomes enjoyable because you love what you offer.  Your confidence is communicated, and people will pick up your passion.

How it worked with me

I know firsthand how spirituality can help entrepreneurship.  I didn’t particularly hate my corporate job.  In fact, I liked it because it offered me opportunities to work with many people in and outside of the company.  And it paid pretty well.  I would not have left there if I didn’t believe I could help more people live better lives.  The sense of service has encouraged me and sustained me through the early struggles as new entrepreneur.

And I love thinking about how I can make my service even better, more interesting, and more available to my existing and potential clients.  In fact, large chunk of my time goes into that part of business development, which is also the study of personal and spiritual development, and I know I am investing my time well.

Starting a new business is a leap of faith.  It is a jump into the unknown.  Once the initial excitement and the feeling of freedom subside, you are left with all kinds of challenges from making sales to recording them in the book and doing the actual work.  It is so easy to be caught up with the superficial problems and get discouraged.  This is why so many new entrepreneurs quit before they succeed.   I really don’t think I can go through all these day in and day out without my spirituality, without the power that transcends my ego.  My gratitude goes to the god of my understanding.

Posted in: Happiness, Money and Finance, Philosophy