The Successful Business Man
Internalizing the fundamental principle of emuna that one's livelihood is predetermined and exclusively from Hashem, enables a person to conduct his or her business affairs with confidence, a clear mind, and a healthy outlook.
A fundamental principle in emuna that underlies commerce, negotiations, trading, finance, or any other exchange of funds or goods that constitutes one’s effort to earn money is that a person’s livelihood is predetermined from Rosh Hashanah.
The practical manifestation of emuna is one’s level of trust in Hashem. Trust includes the awareness that Hashem sustains all His creations, and that He does His job dependably. Therefore, those who trust Hashem aren’t worried where their next meal is coming from; they know that He who has fed them in the past will continue to do so in the future. They also know that their livelihood doesn’t depend on their craftiness or on their cunning – it depends on Hashem only.
No one can detract from the income that Hashem designates for a person. The Talmud states emphatically (Tractate Yoma 38b) that one human is incapable of touching a fellow human’s intended portion. Equipped with this basic fact, a person need not worry nor fear anyone or anything.
Trust in Hashem – internalizing the fundamental principle of emuna that one’s livelihood is predetermined and exclusively from Hashem – enables a person to conduct his or her business affairs with confidence, a clear mind, and a healthy outlook. Stress, anxiety, and worry fall by the wayside. With trust in Hashem, a person goes through life with inner peace, avoiding the pitfalls of crazy wheeling, dealing, and chasing money at the expense of their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Sound exaggerated? Here’s what futile chases after money do to a person:
* Emotional Damages – worry, anger, stress, and anxiety that also result in depression and severe changes of mood;
* Physical Damages – the above emotional strains increase chances of heart disease, digestion disorders, strokes, and cardiovascular problems, Heaven forbid. Also, they are springboards for substance use and addiction, namely, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.
* Spiritual Damages – money chasers forget the Torah’s Laws, and often resort to dishonesty, fraud, thievery, and other transgressions, all of which severely blemish a person’s soul.
With trust in Hashem, a person doesn’t think about money all day long. Peace of mind is only two words away – Hashem provides.
Business is one continuous test of faith. Business people are tested every single second: If they believe that their livelihood comes from Hashem, then they’re calm and composed, conducting their affairs on an honest basis. If they believe otherwise, that their income depends on their own efforts and aptitude, then they’re most likely working much too hard and wasting energy looking for all types of ploys – legal or otherwise – to make money.
One’s entire life depends on emuna that Hashem provides for every creation. Emuna creates a clear, clean, and shining spiritual pipe that abundance flows through, directly from Heaven to a person’s bank account or dinner table. Drinking from the pipe of emuna is like drinking from a silver goblet. Without emuna, one drinks from the spiritual equivalent of a sewer pipe, where one’s income is contaminated with negative emotions, bad health, and damage to the soul.
Decide which option in life you’d prefer, because basically, there are only two:
First, you can believe that Hashem predetermines your income, and that every last cent designated for you will reach you at an exact time and in its entirety, if not from one source, then from a different source, if not today, then tomorrow. As a result, you are calm and composed, and avoid the troubles of illegal and dishonest business procedures.Or second, you don’t believe in Hashem or in His ability to support you, and you bang your head against the wall trying to make a living, angry and irritable most of the time because life is a living death. You sink into debt, you’re confused, and you can’t think clearly with the tensions and stress that weigh you down. Oftentimes, you catch yourself cutting the corners of honesty and wholesome business practices in trying to make an additional buck.
Remember! A person receives his or her Heavenly stipend to the cent. By cheating, lying, or dealing dishonestly, a person won’t earn a cent more.
Here’s an example: Joe and Harry are both store owners; each is destined to earn one hundred thousand dollars this year. Joe earns his money honestly and in good faith, and therefore enjoys it. Harry wants a lot more money than what Hashem gives him, so he wheels, deals, lies, and steals, bringing in a gross income of an additional fifteen thousand dollars. Harry will now suffer sicknesses, accidents, home damage, income tax investigations, law suits, and any number of other aggravations. As a result, he’ll lose the fifteen thousand that wasn’t destined for him, and he won’t enjoy the hundred thousand that was destined for him, since he’ll be busy running to doctors, lawyers, repairmen, and the like.
To be continued…
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