How can we 'be and do business' in way which generates more love, unity and wholeness for our planet, in our local and global marketplace?

[Lisa Danza]

As a business owner-operator, my business plan includes a long term legacy and bestowal for the planet and humanity through training and education. My choice is to remain aligned with divine plan and purpose, with my heart even if I don't quite know where that may lead. My day to day decisions can be motivated by love or fear, there is often a much easier path that I cannot 'feel' in the heart but a knowing which I can feel yet does not seem like a most logical or easy choice.
'being and doing business' in way which generates more, love, harmony and wholeness, for me has been to take the road less travelled, the least logical or pre-planned choice.
Each step, when motivated by love and wisdom has given a gift of new insight, a new way, a new practice, a new possibility that my mind could not have conceived based on what it has learned from the past.

I'm so looking forward to hearing from others who feel just as passionate about making a positive difference through business.

Much love always,
Lisa

[Peace Portal]

Here's our plan to combine business with charity and Interfaith while also serving the needs of the world!
Attached as a file is the business summary.

The holistic design is intended to produce an Information Age commerce system that will result in greater wealth and freedom for everyone, even those living in emerging countries, while also responding to ever-growing pressures on our natural environment.

Project Peace Portal Enterprise Introductory Summary

[Yvette Dubel]

I have had an invitation to develop one of my installations for an event venue in California. Prior to building the piece for the event we will work out the logistics planning via online collaboration tools and conference calls.

I think experience in installation art and/or theatrical production is helpful.

If you know how to build - so that what we create leaves the land as it was before we arrived then you might be the one to help us. In addition to knowing how we can cost effectively build the piece, it needs to be fairly easy to disassemble. If you know about renewable energy and tech integration then I'd really love to hear from you.

About the work:

This piece combines performance art happenings, social responsibility and event marketing. Contact me for details.

Because at the heart of Cultural Fusion is the quest to create or contribute to creating a culture of peace I am interested in including text and historical information from UNESCO's Culture of Peace project as a component in the piece.

Up until now history has emphasized commemorating wars and battles - essentially shaping cultures based on internalizing national/tribal histories of conflict.. This piece will present information of real value in the context of the work, and then make that available in a more usable way for the audience. (Note to Brooks: this is where I hope you can help)

In this series- the process has brought me to the understanding that peace in the world will come by achieving peace within. Documenting and sharing the history and present of peace is a vital part of this process. While UNESCO has definitely led the way, the program remains largely obscure in the minds/hearts of most. The practical value and application of peace building needs to be presented in the context of relevancy to business and economics - as part of community renewal/development. Art, properly conceived, can provide the bridges between them.

I propose the use of art - not in a one off sort of way - but the mulitlateral context that Cultural Fusion is pioneering with "Art as Philosophy" to deliver art with purpose. Each piece is conceived to integrate the various elements shown in the diagram below, but activating them depends on SoulFood:Ingredients made available through collaborations and sponsorships.

Here's some info about the artwork at this link

[Ron Tocknell]

Long ago I worked as a quality control technician in a well known soft drinks factory. I was there for three years and I spoke with CEO on only three occasions... on each occasion, we wished each other Happy Christmas (although neither of us particularly meant it). By contrast: I also worked for a short time in a small factory making GRP products. There, the owner (I'm not sure if he would have known what CEO meant) had personally trained every employee in the skills they required. Mondays were non-production days on which (as he would put it) "nothing that gathers dust" was made. This was the day that employees discussed the problems they had encountered the week before and put forward any ideas they'd had over the weekend. There were no financial incentives to put forward ideas and they weren't necessary. Everyone regarded the business as our business.

I was there only to fill in time until I could take up another post elsewhere in a field which was closer to where my heart beats. However, when it was time to leave, I was very reluctant to go.

It seems size really does matter. A small company runs on a much more intimate level than is possible with a large company. The hierarchies are more blurred and staff feel considerably more valued than I've found with large companies where there is invariably a strong element of Us & Them culture.

When I left the GRP factory, it was to work with physically handicapped adults for Social Services. The whole essence of the work was caring. Yet Social Services is a huge public sector organisation so, despite the objective being care, staff were under-valued, clients were under-served and everyone felt disempowered.

Then Social Services decided to change from the role of service providers to that of service purchasers. Small, privately run care homes began to emerge and Social Services assessed needs and referred clients to the appropriate private care facilities. Not wanting to be an assessor, I moved into the private sector. Here, I was back in the 'family' atmosphere of a small business.

After about four years of this, however, it was becoming apparent that there is money to be made in providing vital services. Individual care homes became swallowed up into large companies that owned care homes in various parts of the country. Although the appearance of a small care home remained, the atmosphere had changed. Again, staff were under-valued, residents under-served and the Us & Them culture was back.

Any views on the optimum size of a business or organisation?

[Steve H]

Good subject here, thanks for posting this.

Businesses need to be run by people that remember they are people, their family is people and we all live on the same planet. Everything depends on everything else. Money by itself is nothing, we need a much wider vision.

I believe a lot of it is making sure we all share and teach and live where caring is important and that will help us get to the point where people don't grow (if that is growing) towards a life that is only focused on money and control. That is shallow and sad and there's no reason for that. We can and will make this a better world if people speak up and live from the heart.

Peace to All,

  Steve

[Lorenzo Abbiati]

Hi Lisa i wish to share with you this flower, they are not my words but sound so apropos to this topic

"A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it.

 

He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns? Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom... it died.

 

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.

 

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

 

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.

 

This is one of the characteristic of love... to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul. Help others to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show them the "rose" within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over."

[Steve H]

I like that, it's a good way of looking at life, thanks for sharing!

Speaking of roses, I took this picture just a couple days ago...

Let us all do everything we can to spread beauty, the ability to notice beauty, awareness, Peace and Love.

Peace to All,

Steve

Lorenzo Abbiati said:

Hi Lisa i wish to share with you this flower, they are not my words but sound so apropos to this topic

"A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it.

 

He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns? Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom... it died.

 

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.

 

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

 

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.

 

This is one of the characteristic of love... to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul. Help others to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show them the "rose" within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over."

[Lorenzo Abbiati]

business begins when our survival is already granted

speculation begins when our need of accumulating money overcomes our interest in business.

speculation destroys, business can build.

wise men says love begins after sex desire satisfied......

if after sex there's no more love it means expectation overcomes love....like as if gentle ways are utilized to drink at the fountain and to satisfy visceral needs......

but love is more,  business is more.

what is progress business instead?

the yeld of a business must be considered under different lights: create return on investement yes...but develop society as well create education, keep the environment clean, donate (charity).

your business becomes blessed when you develop something in your mind, a model a scheme wich simplifies all walks of life people's existance.......for example a discovery

 

and then what's bejond business? something out of the scheme of an immediate return.

avoid to keep people tied to a mission, allow them to work multidisciplinary for example to break rutine set auditings to involve into your working activity disadvantaged people......

take the time to listen.....

not wrongly business is winning if satisfies customer's needs not only owner's needs.

this is the golden business. what else? we are all into a pyramid: talk with people up, help people down, collaborate and bring reciprocal healing to your peers.   it's democratic and create an alliance as well!

A few rules for golden business:

you already have what you need

do what you are inspired to do.

it's not wrong: donate to weak , but follow the principle that people at your same level of the pyramid are more likely to receive from you.