The aim of any religion in the world has been to make good humans out of us. To bring happiness in our lives to walk on the path of righteousness.
The definition of righteous has changed from time to time, but the essence has remained the same. Don't harm human being. Earlier, the essence used to be that don't harm human beings because i said so. Now the essence is don't harm human beings because it will cause you harm.
To achieve this objective all major religions in the world have relied on stories. Stories that told of a hero or god's struggle, and how they remained righteous and overcame the struggle. The reasons for following and reading scriptures has been to understand what is good behaviour by examples as well as remember these people who walked the right path.
In our present world, the scriptures have lost value, but the human behaviour has remained the same. We still have the stories, we call them case studies.
We still follow lives, they are autobiographies. We still follow stories which tell us how to be good and successful. We think we are doing it to achieve more in life. But in the end, the principles of true success still remain the same.
People who are successful know it inside them, that there are some things that you simply cannot do without repercussions . Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you are religious you will use terms like "karma".
Check out the life of any fortune 500 CEO. You can't drink to excess, you can't commit crime, you have to watch what you say, you have to be fair to people. All of these are the same values that any religion teaches us. The reasoning has changed.
To be successful, you have to be kind, thoughtful, considerate and polite. These values and behaviours are what oils the wheels of society. If you learn them, you are considered team player, and you grow and you succeed.
No religion explicitly forbids killing. There have been soldiers whose livelihood was to kill. But the reason behind the killing needed to be virtuous. We have had holy wars, and crusades all sanctified.
But all religions have considered it as an extreme solution. And when you have taken this path as the first option, there have been penalties.
Similarly in business, the tools of deceit, manipulations and frank underwoodian principles are deemed acceptable, but not as the first choice. Because any successful person out there will tell you, if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. If you live by deceit and manipulation, they will get you ahead, but only in the short run. Remember 2008 financial crisis.
You can think whatever you want. All religions punish you on your actions and not thoughts, and if you have had to change your actions, because of a company policy, or your greed, or your realisation or ambition, its all the same. Action matters, not the reason .
Of course the available business literature doesn't give you these learnings in biblical language. All career focused books, and businesses looking at long term vision use similar language to explain it.
We use terms like skills development, communication, transparency and equality. We talk of equal opportunity, Corporate social responsibility and other things, which in my opinion is the new way of saying what's good and what's not good.
Be it a secular or a religious environment, we as people have taken a long time to realise that there are some truths that have to be held in high esteem to ensure survival. We have tried all other solutions to eliminate differences including wars and genocides, and the only solution that has come back and worked is the solution of acceptance.
Accepting people as they are and working on ensuring a fair and equal system. In business and In governance.
In My opinion, all successful people have had this in common along with many other things . All of them really old learnings, but with new branding. No actually strike that, the same learning minus the branding.
Thats all religion is. Following a path. Not the name by which you call it. The path still leaves, the name , may be not.
So look at your corporate behaviour again, with this new light. Do you think there is some truth to it?
The definition of righteous has changed from time to time, but the essence has remained the same. Don't harm human being. Earlier, the essence used to be that don't harm human beings because i said so. Now the essence is don't harm human beings because it will cause you harm.
To achieve this objective all major religions in the world have relied on stories. Stories that told of a hero or god's struggle, and how they remained righteous and overcame the struggle. The reasons for following and reading scriptures has been to understand what is good behaviour by examples as well as remember these people who walked the right path.
In our present world, the scriptures have lost value, but the human behaviour has remained the same. We still have the stories, we call them case studies.
We still follow lives, they are autobiographies. We still follow stories which tell us how to be good and successful. We think we are doing it to achieve more in life. But in the end, the principles of true success still remain the same.
People who are successful know it inside them, that there are some things that you simply cannot do without repercussions . Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you are religious you will use terms like "karma".
Check out the life of any fortune 500 CEO. You can't drink to excess, you can't commit crime, you have to watch what you say, you have to be fair to people. All of these are the same values that any religion teaches us. The reasoning has changed.
To be successful, you have to be kind, thoughtful, considerate and polite. These values and behaviours are what oils the wheels of society. If you learn them, you are considered team player, and you grow and you succeed.
No religion explicitly forbids killing. There have been soldiers whose livelihood was to kill. But the reason behind the killing needed to be virtuous. We have had holy wars, and crusades all sanctified.
But all religions have considered it as an extreme solution. And when you have taken this path as the first option, there have been penalties.
Similarly in business, the tools of deceit, manipulations and frank underwoodian principles are deemed acceptable, but not as the first choice. Because any successful person out there will tell you, if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. If you live by deceit and manipulation, they will get you ahead, but only in the short run. Remember 2008 financial crisis.
You can think whatever you want. All religions punish you on your actions and not thoughts, and if you have had to change your actions, because of a company policy, or your greed, or your realisation or ambition, its all the same. Action matters, not the reason .
Of course the available business literature doesn't give you these learnings in biblical language. All career focused books, and businesses looking at long term vision use similar language to explain it.
We use terms like skills development, communication, transparency and equality. We talk of equal opportunity, Corporate social responsibility and other things, which in my opinion is the new way of saying what's good and what's not good.
Be it a secular or a religious environment, we as people have taken a long time to realise that there are some truths that have to be held in high esteem to ensure survival. We have tried all other solutions to eliminate differences including wars and genocides, and the only solution that has come back and worked is the solution of acceptance.
Accepting people as they are and working on ensuring a fair and equal system. In business and In governance.
In My opinion, all successful people have had this in common along with many other things . All of them really old learnings, but with new branding. No actually strike that, the same learning minus the branding.
Thats all religion is. Following a path. Not the name by which you call it. The path still leaves, the name , may be not.
So look at your corporate behaviour again, with this new light. Do you think there is some truth to it?
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