The Diamond Cutter: Buddhist Sucess ModelWritten by Janet Ilacqua
Geshe Michael Roach is a Princeton graduate and a Buddhist monk. After graduation, he spent seven years studying wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism. At suggestion of his teacher, he joined a fledgling diamond business in New York to test his ideals in real life. He stayed with business as a member of core management team for seventeen years. The company grew from a start-up with two owners and two employees to $100 million in sales and five hundred employees in offices around world. The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life tells story of how Geshe Michael Roach built diamond division of this company, using principles culled from ancient Tibetan Buddhism as driving force behind his decision making. Drawing on lessons he learned in diamond business and years in Buddhist monasteries, Roach shows how taking care of others is ultimate path to taking care of oneself, even--especially--in business. As he puts it, you have to engage in "mental gardening," which means doing certain practical things that will form new habits that will create an ideal reality for you. If this sounds a little outrageous, his very precise instructions are down to earth and address numerous specific issues common to business/management world. Through this practice, you will become a considerate, generous, introspective, creative person of immense integrity, and that will be key to your wealth... ASome of many insights in The Diamond Cutter are as follows: A business should be successful; it should make money. There is no conflict between spirituality and success in business. Successful business people have resources to do more good in world than those people without same resources do. In addition, very people who are attracted to business are same people who have strength to grasp and carry out deeper practices of spirit.
| | Silicon Valley: a parableWritten by Janet K. Ilacqua
We have all heard about “Silicon Valley” miracle. Not long ago, Silicon Valley found itself at centre of world, a job- and money-making machine fueled by popularity of Internet and technological innovation. Those days are a distant memory now. Now, Center of World has become a technological Rust Belt. The streets, once throbbing with energy, are empty and quiet. Empty new buildings stand like bleached mausoleums in sun with big, indiscreet "AVAILABLE" signs slapped on them. A full 20% of valley’s jobs have been lost since March 2001 and hi-tech jobs continued to be lost as companies downsize or outsource jobs to Asia. No one in Valley can figure what to do to bring back golden era. However, most people not local to area are unaware of previous history of this area. The past 200 years have been tragic one of genocide, environmental destruction, greed, trickery, and exploitation. In 1776, at time of their first contact with Spanish explorers originally who were looking for gold, Santa Clara Valley was an untouched Eden with maybe 10,000 Ohlone Indians. By 1830, peaceful, basket-weaving peoples who had been living there for over 10,000 years had completely disappeared, killed off by epidemics and mission system. In 1848, land, originally part of Mexico, became part of United States. Americans, many of whom were failed gold-seekers from mother lode, started to pour in and acquired Mexican cattle ranches, often through force and trickery. The rich alluvial soil—some of best in world-- proved ideal for orchards. The Valley during spring was a canopy of white blossoms—“The Valley of Heart’s Delight.” An orchard of another type grew around seeds planted by William Hewlett, David Packard, Fred Terman, and other researchers at Stanford University. Today, Hewlett-Packard is one of world's largest producers of computers and electronic measuring devices and equipment. The names of branches of tree are familiar: Stanford Industrial Park, Varian, Apple Computers, Intel, Yahoo, CISCO, Netscape, etc. Creativity leads to innovation, and innovation leads to prosperity. Prosperity attracts restless, bright, often unscrupulous people, with often troubled and unhappy pasts, from all parts of world. The old-time farmers sell their farms off for a king’s ransom and move. The orchards were bulldozed to make room for subdivisions and industrial parks.
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