5 lessons for business from Gautam Buddha

Buddha Purnima is celebrated as the birth of Gautam buddha. He was born a prince but he became a god. There is a lot of things that all of humanity can learn from him, but today we are going to focus on his teaching which can help you and your business grow. 

Define the GOAL.

The whole concept of Buddhism is based on the end goal. We all should be aware of the end goal before we jump into something. If you start something without the goal then all of your time, energy, and resources will be wasted without giving any result. In Buddhism, the end goal is to get rid of all the disturbance around us and also from within ourselves. This will help us to clearly see the full potential of mind and body. This is called achieving “enlightenment.” 

In the same, you should know what is you want to achieve from your business. This could be anything from solving a problem, making a profit, or helping society. You just have to know what your goal is, with the help of this knowledge you can easily create a road map to achieve your goal. Having a roadmap also means that you can your resources more effectively which you already have and get the most out of them. 

Cause and Effect.

Once we are clear with the goal we move on to the next step which is to start taking action which would help us in achieving the goal which we have identified in step 1. In Buddhism our goal is to achieve “enlightenment.” to do this we take some actions and these actions are the “cause” and the effect of these actions is the “effect” which is that we achieve the “enlightenment.” 

In the same way, we have to take action which would help you in achieving your goal. This is not it, we also have to find out what actions will help us achieve our goal we just can’t randomly take actions hoping that they work in our favor. To avoid such mistakes we use logical reasoning and reverse engineering to preciously create a sequence of actions that will lead us to our goal. Now keep in mind that this is not a one-time thing, but an evergoing process to accommodate any external or internal factors that might affect the cause and effect relationship. 

Compassion.

This point can be understood in different ways, but we are going to be looking in a way that is perfect for business growth. As a business, you should have compassion for the other or your customers to get rid of their suffering or their problems. If you are capable of solving their problem or remove their suffering then you will be successful.

Each and every company which is successful has solved the problem of the user. Eg. Google they are solving the problem of lack of information in the world. 

You have to identify the problem and then focus on creating a solution for the problem. The problem which you are going to be solving with your product or service has to be a real problem which is faced by a huge number of people.

Your solution to the problem has to come in the “need” category and not in the want or desire category. Solving a problem faced by only a very small number of people will not be successful as the sale or your product or service will not be enough to run your business. 

Impermanence

In Buddhism, this means the lack of permanence in the world and thus the ever-lasting presence of the change. This concept was always present. However, in terms of business and the environment they exist in this concept has become even more important for businesses to understand if they want to be successful. We live in a world where change is permanent

There are new businesses popping up every second, giving the customers almost unlimited options to chose from. As a business, we have to constantly keep evolving with the ever-changing trends and new technologies being introduced in the world. If you do not change and cling to the old ways then you will be forgotten. The best example of this is two companies both were at the top of their industries but both of them did not evolve and died. 

The company is Blockbuster and the other is Kodak. Blockbuster did not think that people will stop renting and reselling their old videogames, and Kodak did not change to digital and soon the old film was obsolete and can not be used. This is the main reason why every business must evolve if they wish to be successful.

Respect your colleagues and your customers.

Buddhism is based around non-violence and the fact that everyone wants to be happy and respected. It is true that we have become a long way and we are not running around killing people for not following orders but there is still a lot of space for improvement. If we respect our colleagues and customers then it will form a connection between you and your employee and between your business and your customer. This sense of respect will keep you keep on going even if you are severely under pressure by circumstances that are out of your control. The more your employees and your customers trust your company the easy it will be to run a business. The end goal of this point to create a family.

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