“No, I’m not doing that.” This is a response I’ve heard hundreds of times in the more than twenty years I’ve been working with heart-centered business owners. 

They refuse to do things that are unethical, or otherwise don’t feel good. And these are hard-working folks. I’m not talking about someone who just wants everything easy (although, easy is nice when it comes!).

People are thirsty for a way to be in business, to bring their gifts and good intentions into the world without running themselves ragged, and without harming others with sleazy business practices.

Although it’s not paint-by-number, because nothing significant in life is, there are some basic principles that help good-hearted folks be successful in business without hurting anyone, including their own heart.

First: Healing is required.

Healing is not a fashionable word in business, but it needs to be. If there’s any area of human life that needs healing more than business, I don’t know what it is.

By healing, I mean something more than mindset or beliefs, although it includes that. As my teachers taught me, healing is melting the illusion of separation and coming into wholeness, individually and collectively.

This wholeness means we do things that support thriving, without harming others. Wholeness arises out of love. In this culture, love is often talked about as soft, nice,  and comforting. But the Sufis, those mystical servants of the heart, talk about the annihilating power of love.

Love, if it were unleashed with strength, wisdom and compassion, would annihilate the world of business as it is, turning it into something completely different. If love had its way, business could be part of a culture and society that lifts us up and serves us all.

When we are filled with the courage of love, and we no longer feel separate from the world, we are emboldened to take a stand for our values, to be persistent in finding a way that is effective without being harmful.

Second: Humility and a willingness to learn.

I don’t just mean learning business skills, although I also mean that. We’ve been taught so many myths about what business is and isn’t, and those need to be unlearned, so we can learn a much healthier way to be in relationship with business.

And yes, learning business skills, even, and especially, the uncomfortable ones. But it also requires persistence in finding ways to learn that are ethical, that are fundamentally good.

It often means slowing down, and not rushing forward at a breakneck pace. When you’re rushing, when you’re filled with urgency, that’s when it’s harder to listen to your heart. That’s when you miss the nuances and subtleties that point you away from big mistakes and toward a more successful path.

When you’re rushing, you can be pulled in by clever, manipulative marketing, and end up spending a LOT on business training… that is ultimately worthless, or just teaches the old, unethical ways of doing business.

Listening, slowing down, and having humility means traveling into the areas you are uncomfortable with, so you can learn new things. And it also means listening deeply to yourself that, when something feels “off,” it’s worth paying attention. That you don’t let someone else’s clever words talk you out of your own knowing.

Third: It takes work.

Everyone knows this, but the work can be surprising. It’s relatively easy to stay busy all the time. It’s harder to keep a big space in your schedule so you can think strategically about what you’re doing.

It’s relatively easy to do the things you’re comfortable with. It’s much harder to be willing to be new at something, and stumble, and fall, and get up again. Not in a way that creates harm.

A client of ours struggled to get new clients. We taught them how to handle the sales conversation in a sacred, heart-opening, ethical way. The first time they did they still felt really uncomfortable, and they messed up, and didn’t get the client. The second time, similar.

But then they started to get the hang of it. By the tenth conversation, they were feeling way more comfortable with the new way of being, and they started getting clients.

That took work. The work of showing up. The work of doing the healing on shame and despair. The work of being unwilling to rely on unethical ways of being that might have gotten financial results faster but left their heart feeling burnt.

Obviously, these are broad strokes.

There are so many details to creating a business that works. I’ve found that, in general, it takes two to four years to go from start-up into momentum and can sometimes take longer.

But it can be a joyful, fulfilling ride, with many successes along the way. Let go of what you think business is or “must” be, open your heart to healing and love, and allow yourself to take on the surprising work of being uncomfortable while learning. You can do it, thousands of others like you have. 

About Mark Silver: Since 1999, Mark Silver has worked with heart-centered entrepreneurs to help them realize that every act of business can be an act of love. One of the pioneers in integrating real spirituality with the nitty-gritty of small business, Mark founded Heart of Business, Inc in 2001. As a designated Master Teacher within his Sufi lineage, and a coach, teacher and spiritual healer, he has facilitated thousands of individual sessions with entrepreneurs and has led hundreds of classes, seminars, groups and retreats. His weekly writings and teachings are followed by thousands of people around the globe.

A fourth-generation entrepreneur, prior to Heart of Business, Mark ran a distribution business, turned around a struggling non-profit magazine, and worked as a paramedic in Oakland, CA. He is the author of 7 books, including his latest, Heart Centered Business: Healing from Toxic Business Culture so Your Small Business Can Thrive.