Profit Has Support ~ Goodwill

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Siri Singh Sahib ~ Yogi Bhajan Lecture Excerpts from Success and the Spirit Chapter 13

Success in Business

“The basic subject today is “Interlog of the interest—human, monetary, and personal.” The subject is extremely boring and everybody hates to deal with it. It’s so hate-worthy that we put many names on it and size up its potential in many ways. But without this, no business can sustain itself—none.

The difference between a business and a government is that when a government goofs, they can pass a revised budget. The first budget they call an interim budget. The revised is called a supplementary budget. First the main budget is passed, and then they create a supplementary budget. When a government passes a supplementary budget it means it has goofed on the interlog. The interest interlog was not considered. Whoever made the budget is just a creep. Now, what is there to do? The government has to come through. There are two ways for a government to do this: 1) print money—which leads to inflation or 2) tighten the money—and then industries collapse. Instead, the government comes out with a supplementary budget.

It may surprise you that in all democracies, you will find a supplementary budget, but in domestic life, this is not possible. As a business, it is possible in the sense that you can ask a bank for more money and a longer credit line. But a bank will not be nice to you if you do not have a tremendous amount of collateral and a wonderful record. So it’s a very thin line.

What is this all about? Where do we goof? What are the slips and the pits? How we can cover ourselves? That’s the subject that I want to go into with you.

We are the center of the business. The center of the business is not the office. It’s not administration. It’s not management. It’s not the billboard outside. It’s not the secretary inside. It’s not the reception room. It’s not the person, his suit, his coat or his brooch. It is in the head.

The center of the business is that somewhere he is a C and there is a B and then we build a lot of paraphernalia around it. We proceed and start building something small. Then it becomes big—so big that it takes over. And it can go on and on and on and on.

One business takes over another business, which takes over another business. Every business has to have a strategy. Every strategy has to have a projection. It is like a romantic relationship, but it is extremely boring because in romance you have another person to play with. In business, you have to have another business to play with.

Once I said to somebody, “You are a multi-multi-millionaire. You have so many businesses that you can’t even list them. Why do you want more businesses?”

He said, “Just for the more of it.”

If you don’t have that attitude, “I want more. I want more. I want more of the more,” then you can’t handle it. Life will become painful, and you will be absolutely small.

Remember, in the business world, that the little fish is always eaten by the big fish. They always say the little fish is a meal for the big fish. Don’t take it wrong. Ultimately in this ocean of business, the only thing that survives is not the business. It is you. The business is your projection. The business is your reflection. The business is your identity and the business is an institution to which you can do two things. In an institution you can either live off the institution or you can live out of it.

You can be lazy. You can delay. You can think wrong. Your projections can fail. That is why in business they say, “Watch ‘I’.”

What does it mean to “Watch ‘I’?” Write the interlog. L-O-G. It is the daily log of your business. They call it rokad.

You must understand—the first business center of the world was India and they have a language called Landey. You don’t have to lift a pen writing the entire business sequence. One kind of line means one million dollars. Another kind of line means minus a million dollars. A little twist in it means nothing. A little twist the other way means everything. It’s a complete language. But in that language you do not lift your pen—you continue and the language is called Landey.

If you look at Landey the writing looks like snail lines. You can’t understand what it is all this about. But it’s a business record. It’s a journal of the business. In the western world, we call it a daily journal. In the original language, it’s called rokad.

Every day, you write and hold yourself accountable to the business, like a daily diary. What did I do today? What are my fears? What are my threats? What are my projections? What are my goals? What are my achievements? What do I want to achieve? What have I achieved?

You are afraid to do that because you are afraid to be exposed. But why are you afraid to be exposed, but not afraid to be dumped? You have a choice between the two.

In the daily journal, this is what you have to watch out for. Every day you must know your investments. Every day, in those investments, you must know your current expenses. Every day you must know your projected expenses. And every day you must know your Reserve Power to Meet Expenses. RPME. We always say, “rip me.” Because once this reserve power doesn’t meet the expenses, you have bad news.

In the business world you can give lip service; you can be appreciated; you can be talked to; you can romance; you are beautiful. But when it comes to RPME, it’s a matter of weeks, days or months. Your boat is on the rocks and this figure must tell you where you stand.

In this fluctuation, you can increase your credit line and feel comfortable. You can get investors. You can get partners. Or you can go on a rampage—merge, submerge, ask, don’t ask. If you read the Wall Street Journal, you will find this is an everyday affair. It was no different thousands of years ago, and it is not going to be any different thousands of years from now. This is the vital link of a working life and a business life.

Business has certain rules. You want to know them? Here is Ms. B. Ms. B has a lover and Ms. B has a villain.

The villain is a frustrated lover who wants it but can’t get it. The villain is never a good person. So Ms. B has a lover and a villain, and they have names. Mr. Profit and Mr. Loss.

These are the two polarities that are romancing, advancing, sending flowers, throwing arrows, throwing stones, creating goodwill and creating bad will all the time. It’s a constant process and it will never end as long as the business will live.

The problem with you is you do not want to play this romance. But Ms. B does. Her dating capacity is fixed. You can match it or you can’t match it. If you can’t match it you are out of business. If you can match it, you are in business. In and out is decided right there.

Now, profit has support. The first support is goodwill. The second is bank will. The third is consumer’s will. And the fourth is opportunity—chain stores, big accounts and all that rigmarole. That is why we do PR.

Her losses on the villain side are bad management, bad temper, bad judgment and bad PR. But the bottom line is good products over bad products. If it is a good product, you will survive even if the villain is all-in and you are not making sense. But if it’s a bad product, you don’t have a chance.

They say in real estate there are three things: location, location, location. In business, it is product, product, product. If the consumer needs the product and you have the right mind for it, the right opportunity for it, then you can sell it—your business can go on. But you have to watch your daily journal. The business cannot survive if you do not watch this. In your daily calculation there are certain do’s. Every day you should know what interest you are paying; what administrative cost you have added or deleted; what commissions and commitments you are making today to further the business; what are your projected expenses; whether you are spreading yourself too thin or you are solid.

The tragedy of business is that we only start thinking about these things when we are confronted with problems. That’s not the way to do it. Business has to be recorded daily; in your daily journal put all these points clearly before you.

Every day, you have to see income, projected income, the analysis report, matching goals, contacts, expansion and new territories. In business, if you do not entertain new territories, new thoughts and new blood, you may be successful but you will be out of the field. No business by itself can sustain itself. You are spiritual people, and I tell you even God couldn’t live in His own boredom. He had to expand. You have to get out, get new ideas, new territories, new contacts. You have to have something, one thing or another. The end is endless.

In business, just remember one line: The end is endless. Ant beyant hai

If you can maintain that psychological mentality and not mess around with small things, you have a perfect attitude for business. If you can’t, just consult.

The most dangerous thing in business, of which everybody is a victim, is the internal audit. Every government has an internal audit. Every good business has an internal audit. Every company has an internal audit. Planning cannot be based on your point of view, your bank support or your possibilities. It has to be based on the internal audit report.

The strength of a business is shown in the internal audit report. It cannot be imaginative. It cannot be subjective. It cannot be projective. The internal audit will tell you two and two.

And if you think in business you don’t need the goodwill of people, you don‘t need PR of the people; if you don’t want to send presents and receive presents, you don’t want to do all that—then you are out of business. Business is a continuous romance with the people you hate the most. Your human capacity is that you will romance the people you like the most. But in the business world you romance the people you hate the most. Send a present to somebody who is going to complain about you six months from now. That present can shut him up. It is called pre-confronting syndrome. Every client has it.

Watch your interests. Don’t watch your interests by a profit table. Don’t watch your interests in how you are expanding. It is called cataloging the interest logs, wherever your interests are. How are you serving? Serving clients, public relations, the future, friends, the bank, your wife, your children, your car.

A bad car can have a flat on your way somewhere and you can miss an appointment. Your wife can create a stir at lunch or at breakfast and then you will not have a good day even though you have a business meeting. Your child can goof up in school and create an emergency. Create a trauma. Create a drama. You can deliver the wrong present to the right person and right present to the wrong person. This is called human error. To avoid human error, you need an executive secretary—a male or a female—the choice of gender is yours.

In the business world, the worst thing is that the one person you do not want to listen to is the executive secretary. When the executive secretary speaks, a businessman thinks his mother is talking.

There are two most tragic things in a business: individuality and authority. We all say in business, “I want to do the business.” Actually, the business wants to do you. You can never do a business if you want to do a business. If you let the business do you, you are in business. If you let the business do you, you will become a specialist. You will become an expert. You will become somebody. When you want to do business, it will be only you and nothing more.

One Colombian emerald was found and sold for nine thousand dollars. It was cut and set into a necklace. The necklace sold for eleven million dollars. There were only three people in that business. One had the eye to know it, the other had the eye to cut it, and the third one had the eye to jewel it. The customers were there.

Have you heard the story about a man who bought two stones? They happened to be sapphires. He rounded them up, and sold them for millions of dollars. This man thought he was the best. Somebody else took those sapphires and rounded it up better and brought the gem quality out of them. He sold them for six hundred percent more. In that one deal, a town was built.

You can sell a trainload of mung beans and rice or you can sell one diamond. The question is the commission.

Business is nothing but a polite, democratic hysteria. It’s an avalanche. It puts you out. Either you have to go under or you have to run. If you can run away with it, you make it. But there are certain practical aspects of business you must understand. Every business has an identity and it has to be served by a certain caliber. Not by your friendships. Not by your likes. Not by your dislikes.

Now watch yourself. Go inside and find out how many of you are willing to make friends in business when you know that those people are your sworn enemies. But business is business. You have to watch the interests of business over your own interests. Your personal interests, personal likes, personal habits, personal projection, personal dreams, personal relationships—all that is. Just remember, the business also has interests. The choice is: do you want to let the business win or do you want to win? If you want to win, the business will destroy you and itself. If you let the business win, you may get destroyed along the way, but the business will live. That’s the only choice. That’s why great businessmen die of a heart attack at a young age.

The daily diary, daily journal, writing the daily log of the interests of the business is essential. It is a very boring practice. It’s cumbersome. And the daily log of your business practices, called rokad, must match up with the internal audit. If it doesn’t, then within one week, a deadline has to be set to take out the bugs. Otherwise, you are dead. That is how sophisticated business problems are.

If you want to just build your individual ego and call it a business; if you want to just show off your individuality and call it a business; and if you just want to boast about something that you fell into through luck and call it a business; then you are out of business. You are “showbiz.” You can go on for a while, but you won’t last. Business is an everlasting process of life. It can go on with you. It can go on without you. Your importance in the business world is only whether you are with it or not.

I knew a businessman who used to do a commodity business. His range was sixty to seventy million dollars a day. If one day he lost seventy million dollars, the next day he would make sixty million dollars. If one day he made a hundred and seventy million dollars, he would feel lucky. Then, he could lag behind for three days. Every day it was back and forth.

He started goofing up because he had a desire to retire, but he couldn’t. He was a single man who never trained anybody, who never shared with anybody. All he had was himself and his secretary. When his business started crumbling, he took about two hundred and some friends with him. He started calling the bank, and the bank had such a good record with him for thirty or forty years, they were willing to extend him anything. When he phoned his friends and asked, they gave to him. And everything went down with it. It was the biggest earthquake that nobody saw coming—nobody knew. And those painful hearts are still bleeding. That can happen to anybody.

Therefore, please remember the interest of the business is based on one line. You can fail. The business can fail, but the system cannot fail. Make a system and just understand that this is a triangle. There are three points: there is you; there is the business profit and identity; and there is your projection—the future, your ego, call it anything. But in the center, there is the eye. It must keep on seeing all aspects.

Just remember to watch the interests of the business. Don’t read into the business. Read the words on the wall that the business is telling you. And don’t ever feel afraid to investigate what’s going on. Normally, when a business starts telling us it’s not good, we patch it up or cover it up. We don’t want it to be known because our ego is involved. Remember, a business has its own ego. It has nothing to do with you. It’s just providing you an opportunity.”


This lecture can be found in the book, Success and the Spirit, an Aquarian Path to Abundance. With over 40 prosperity meditations and 15 lectures from the Siri Singh Sahib, Success and the Spirit is the most comprehensive guide created for prosperity and successful, joyous living. Click here to learn more and purchase this one of a kind manual for abundance.

 

 


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