The Heart and Soul of Business is actually NOT Profit

Buyer beware!
     Business is business.
          It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.
               Bull markets, bear markets, loan sharks, sell high, buy low.
                       And money don't grow on trees!

Henry Ford once said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”  So, what is business supposed to be about if not to make money?  That is, what is the heart and soul of business?  Believe it or not, it is NOT making money!

A real business is in business to offer a service, to fill a need, to support and enhance the lives of people.  The profit that comes from providing such service is the reward, so long as it is proportionally reasonable.  Has the American business community lost sight of this basic economic truth?

There have always been loan sharks, robber barons, cheats, liars, and thieves, always will be.  But that is not Main Street America.  Business in Main Street America has always been about providing a service, making a living, not a killing.

A businessperson that says, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” while looking for his/her next victim is not doing real business.  If all a businessperson does is come up with a solution, and then manufactures a need for that solution, no real business is being accomplished.  There are a lot of fraudulent and manufactured schemes in the world of finance, having the sole purpose of taking people’s money away from them.  It’s called scamming, not business.

If the so called bottom line—money, profit, net gain—is all that a businessperson has in mind, his heart is hardened and his soul is dead.  Pity the one who does any business with such a one as he or she.  But a business person who offers a product or service that people truly need and want, and does so with a genuine interest in his/her client’s best interest in mind.  Happy and blessed are provider and buyer; for both have done well and will go home satisfied, knowing that they have served and have been served.

As Charles Dickens said long ago, humanity is our business.  Wake up America!  Let’s go back to the basics regarding the purpose of business.  It’s not about naked profit, winner takes all.  It’s about life.  Remember the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life?  The movie reminds us that the banker should be there to help couples save, invest, and to grow their families and homes.  And in, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s transformation reminds us that money is not for selfish, greedy and miserly hoarding, but for investing in human lives, in their needs as well as in their visions and dreams, to make a better world not only for one’s self, but for one’s community, neighbors and friends.

That’s the ideal America, and that’s the ideal business-mindset.  Profit is secondary.  The primary goal of business, any business, should be to provide a service and fill a genuine need in a context of fair-trade and just exchange, to produce opportunity for better, healthier, and more wholesome living—so that all may grow and prosper in the areas that money cannot buy—family life, relationship building, child rearing, and inner growth—mind, heart, and spiritual development.

If you are a business person, keep in mind the following simple truths.

1. Money is neutral, neither good nor bad.  However, money IS powerful and easily corrupts, and the love of money is truly the root of much evil that is done in this world.  Do not let the love of money corrupt your heart.

2. You can’t take it with you.  He who dies with the most toys… still dies!  Naked you came into the world and naked you shall leave the world.  Jesus said what good is it if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?

There is no bribing God.  Having all the money in the world will be no protection against Judgment Day.  (Do you really think there will be no Judgment on your life?)