An article on “how to” in business would be remiss if it did not take into context the recent impacting and transforming events that are taking place in the United States. In discussing the path a lightworker traverses in business, what are the implication, the impacts, the ramifications?

First lets look at the historical context from our position as lightworkers for it is precipitous of how things might have been had "our business model” been in place so many years ago (as it will be in the future). 

The lightworkers business model is one that balances energies across the spectrum of all aspects of the system, i.e., the people serving and being served, the material resources (earth or human products), and the profitability.  It also prioritizes these in a manner somewhat more aligned with the model we currently have of a not-for-profit, in that a lightworker business places the mission of being of service first, before profits.  The key difference between a not-for-profit, is that a lightwork enterprise more enthusiastically embraces the abundance energy of being compensated easily and deservedly for the work it performs. 

That is, a lightworker business is designed from the start to enjoy the rewards of earning profits and is not required to “return those profits into the organization” as a not-for-profit does.  It is a reality in the not-for-profit designation that those involved typically do not feel it is appropriate for them to receive compensation on the same scale as that of a current day for profit enterprise.  That same feeling would be a misplaced energy for a lightworker in business.

A lightworker enterprise enjoys profits just as the for profit brethren, yet due to its foundational structural differences, it would not embrace the excessive profits-as-the-primary-goal that the brethren hold as the essence of the business raison d’etra.

And this is really at the heart of our current U.S. (and global market) if we look at the wider perspective of how the energy of money and service interact.  In many respects it is simply a question of looking at things from a different perspective…is the glass half empty, or is it half full?  I feel there is nobility in the call of being a business leader and am optimistic that the energy can be balanced.

In America, the founding fathers did put forth a vision for a country designed not only for survival but to ensure it would thrive as well.  As nobleman and the country’s merchant aristocracy, they knew the value of profitability, yet they knew also the dangers of profiteering, for it was the excess profiting without a fair energy of exchange of the King of mother England that rang the clarion call.  (Does the call have an echo today within our own shores?)

In the course of their daily commercial dealings, those members of the founding fathers may have disagreed on the functions of government and how the structures would be set up…but they also shared fundamental “not questioned” assumptions on the accepted range of “gentlemanly conduct” of the business activities engaged in.  As a result they did not go out of their way to consciously detail and lay out those assumptions for the subsequent generations. 

Simply put, it seems to me at least, that while a free market economic structure was deemed best, what American mega large enterprises (and a good portion using their global reach) “did” in terms of a departure from that “constitutionally undocumented” code of gentlemanly behavior, was not foreseen nor even anticipated.   I believe, while our American founders knew that naves and rogues existed amongst their class, it was certainly not the norm.  Keep in mind I am not referring to today’s business elite as naves and rogues, but that from a 250 year’s past nobleman’s perspective, their intentions and subsequent actions may have been deemed as such in many respects.

For one, to the best of my knowledge, they did not employ built-in-obsolescence into the goods they produced. One of the unwritten codes was that of an honest creation produced with honest labor.  How could this one aspect have changed the destinies of our American manufacturing enterprises had they not slipped from a commitment to that perspective? 

For another, they received compensation when they had a satisfied customer “for life”. The merchant nobleman of that day did not engage in deceptive product imagery that placed style above substance for temporary gain.  It was a matter of accepted practice that substance mattered.  An originator or even purveyor of goods was not only being compensated for the literal movement of goods (the barter or monetary exchange), he was being compensated for bringing his good name into the transaction.  A man’s word was of primary importance, and the goods he offered or consigned were simply an extension of that word.  It was a foundational assumption of integrity that was implied within the exchange, and that was what a man’s word was all about.  Honesty of the good or service across all aspects of the exchange: the creation, the offering, the stewardship, the monetary exchange, the durability or quality, and the assertion that one would “know where to find me” in the event of any unforeseen delivery or quality issues with the goods or services. 

How would this aspect reflect upon our current day pharmaceuticals and Wall Street brokers?  Would a well accepted nobleman in 1780 running a hypothetical pharmaceutical manufacturer company tell his constituents that they had a disease just so he could sell them the remedy?  Nay, that was the role of the often disparaged “snake-oil peddler”, a person who was not assumed to be a leader or influencer of the society at that time.  Would a broker of that day feel he is justified in being highly compensated when his client “loses his shirt” or would he feel his stewardship of the money implied a return on the investment due to his skills and abilities?

These were fundamental underpinnings of conduct for a person of leadership when this country was founded, and implicit in its founding.  This originating energy is very similar to the role a lightworker performs in business today as a reemergence of those energies and then some.  There is a broader and much more important role of stewardship involved, a conscious and consistent focus on integrity toward the whole “chain of delivery” to create, deliver and earn a living that does not unduly elevate the “earn” component out of proportion from any other part but to pay equal attention to the cost, quality, service, manufacture, sustainability and profitability. 

Most strikingly different in a lightworker business is what The Group laid out as a profound yet simple structural change that will indeed evolutionize business: place humanity first, profits second.  I believe this is what was practiced by the founding fathers as a matter of course that did not need to be articulated.

As our counterparts beyond the veil would say, “You have been around a long time human, do you not think you once held yourself to this level of conduct commercially?  You did, and it is indeed a glass half full, in fact, it is a glass already full - of you.  Fear not what you can remember to accomplish again if you place your urgent attention there.”

Overall, coming into any endeavor with these kinds of “lightwork” energies serves to create a foundation that is sustainable form the minutia to the grand.  A “focus on the fundamentals” of this type of conduct means it is just “as easy” to run and maintain a lightwork business as it is any other, and in many respects, it becomes much easier, even effortless, because many of the issues we have in current day to day dealings simply disappear given this type of foundation.

Had this been the model that “ruled the day” for the past three or four decades, I believe we would not have to undergo the same dire degree of “re-balancing of energies” that is now taking place.  I recently had a chance to see President Jimmy Carter’s “Crisis of Confidence” speech to the American public in the final month’s of his presidency.  There was a President of great wisdom and light.  (See: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_crisis.html.)

So as a lightworker facing an uncertain foray into this market, be confident.  Stay true to what and who you are and the lightworker “fundamentals” will carry you through surpassing all you can imagine.  Money is simply energy, allow it to move freely out of your business (and life) in support of your growth (and joy) over the long term, flow that is out to others in business, and it will create an energy that circulates.  If you are being cautious and pulling back, that is what you will collectively begin to create for others, and the flow will be stifled.

It is of course, always your choice.  Perhaps there is no “global crisis” unless we fear that we no longer have the power over how we choose to react, and how chose to co-create.

Be well.  Be in Light Work. 

Email comments and responses to bizlight@mikehayden.net.

P.S.  for those of you interested in starting a “new business” model in the world that supports lightworkers in sharing their light, check out this event that is physically going to be within New Jersey on Nov. 21st, 2008 - so you can all participate in a co-creation of something very cool and very powerful.  See: http://www.quaternityinstitute.com/upcoming-events.html.