Karmic Management 101: How Doing Good Will Do Wonders For Your Business

What can your startup learn from Je Tsongkhapa? How can teachings from the Bhagavad Gita boost your marketing strategy? How’s your company’s karma?

If you think this sounds like just a bunch of hippie mumbo-jumbo, you better think again. Karmic management, using the ancient Eastern principles of cause and effect, is taking off all over the world. The success stories and global interest aren’t for nothing. What goes around comes around. If you start helping others, everything you want will come right to you. Read on to learn how to plant the right seeds for your business and career to bring amazing results – while making the world around you a better place.

What is karma?

The Sanskrit word karma means “action.” The idea is that every action we do, even our thoughts, leaves an imprint on our mind. That means that everything we do now is creating the reality we’ll experience in the future. Those imprints form patterns, shape our personalities and even the world we live in. You can think of them like seeds that are planted in your mind and, sooner or later, will grow into a tree of the same type.

After all, we see the world only through our minds. What we expect is usually what we’ll find. If you learn to live consciously, putting awareness into your thoughts, speech and action, and working purposefully to help others, you’ll start seeing a more positive reality around you.

Why bad karma turns into bad business

Contrary to what the Donald Trumps of the world would have us believe, the path to real success is not paved with all the people you’ve stepped on and run over to get there.

It often seems like we can only succeed by exploiting others and trying to get as much as we can for ourselves. In the long run, however, this attitude can only bring ruin – in business as much as your spiritual life. The financial crisis in 2008 made this very clear. Abusive business practices are not sustainable or really productive.

Here are just a few problems that a bad karma business will face:

• Abuse your customers and they’ll ditch you as soon as an alternative comes along.
• Abuse your competition and they’ll strike back harder at you next time.
• Abuse your employees and you’ll lose the most talented prospects, leaving you with the people who can’t get work anywhere else.
• Abuse the law and you’ll get caught sooner or later.
• Abuse the environment and eventually the resources you need will be gone.

So you can see that it doesn’t pay to sow bad seeds. It’s a myth that profits come only at the expense of people. In the age of social media, it’s more true than ever.

In the digital world, giving is receiving

Traditional business models could make it seem like there was no benefit in giving to others, but in digital marketing, it’s very clear that giving is the best way to receive. It’s time to look beyond the old attitude of only putting effort into what only brings an equal, immediate reward.

When you post something useful on your blog, retweet or share someone else’s content, you might not see the reward right away. But sooner or later, these actions will come back to you. You’ll enjoy trust and goodwill from your followers, and a better position in your field.

Expressing appreciation is so easy on the internet, and it’s so rewarding in the long run. A simple like on Facebook or a short comment on a blog is almost no effort for you, but over time, bringing this touch of kindness is priceless. Your whole network will become more positive and engaged. What you put out there is what you’ll get in return. You’ll begin to magnetize positivity and appreciation towards yourself – and your company.

How to build your good karma

The basic rule of karmic management is, what you want for yourself, give to someone else. If you want more activity on your blog, promote other people’s blogs. If you want more connections, organize a networking event and help other people connect. If you want your campaign to succeed, give someone else a hand with theirs.

To get the most bang for your buck, do it systematically. Pick a goal that you want to see accomplished within the next six months or a year. Figure out what you would need to achieve this goal, find someone who wants something similar and gives them what you want to receive. Once a week, spend at least an hour working just to help this person.

Throughout the week, try to do something every day that helps them or someone in the same situation. Doing small, helpful things on a regular basis is much more effective than a big one-off act.

Principles of karmic management

Here are a few guidelines laid out by Geshe Michael Roach in Karmic Management, the follow-up to his groundbreaking 2000 book The Diamond Cutter. These are the principles that Roach – a Buddhist monk with no business experience – used to build a $100 million dollar business.

• Stop doing what doesn’t work. If it doesn’t help, why are you doing it? Instead of worrying whether or not something will bring the results you want, do something that you can count on to work.
• Find the cause of the cause. “If something doesn’t work every time you try it, then it doesn’t work.” It seems obvious, but in practice, we often take short-cuts in identifying causes for our successes and failures. You might think that sprucing up your landing page will bring more conversions, but it doesn’t always. That means there’s something else going on. If you go back far enough, you’ll find that your success can only come from helping others succeed in the past.
• Find your karmic business partners. You’re never working in isolation: your co-workers, customers, competitors and the world around you are all part of the game. Your interactions with them are shaping your world, so be wise and considerate with them.
• Be your best self. At the end of the day, you’re the only one responsible for your own success. You have to bring your best, highest self. Always work on improving. How can you be better, kinder, more helpful to others? How can you learn today? How can you be more aware and creative? Science is revealing more and more how meditation can give an edge to entrepreneurs and creative professionals, so it might be that the best thing you can do for your business is to sit down and watch your breath for a half-hour every day.
• Turn your problems into blessings. Any problem you have is a signal that there’s something you need to work on. It’s great that you got this message! It’s showing you where you should put your focus to make the biggest change. Now run out and do something about it.
• Re-invest your good karma. Once you’re enjoying the results, spread the blessings around. Share, support and give what you’ve gotten to your karmic business partners. That will keep you in an upward spiral. It’s all about making a change in your habits and basic thought patterns. Put awareness in everything you do. Bit by bit, change your attitude from looking for opportunities for yourself to looking for ways to help others.

To get started with karmic management, you can always download the app.

Conclusion

Life is not a zero-sum game. It never has been, and in our connected, Digital Age world, it’s finally becoming clear. Letting go of “me first” policies and putting others first is actually the best way to help yourself. A little attention to your karmic seeds and you’ll find your business blooming. You might just get a little happier too.