The right mindset for a small business owner

I recently finished a powerful book written by Rabbi Daniel Lapin called Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money.  Lapin is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who has spent many years studying the qualities that have made Jewish people excel in business, and he has written this book to make these principles available to everyone regardless of their faith tradition.  As a Christian minister I found his insights into some of the Old Testament texts illuminating, and as a business person I found his application of those texts inspiring. 

Thanks to recent events business owners and successful people have often been painted as greedy, dishonest people who cheat and lie to rob poor people of their possessions.  Watch almost any program on television, any movie that depicts business owners, or watch the national news and see how many times business people are portrayed in that light.  The idea of an honorable wealthy business person is foreign to most people's thinking.  This false mindset of business people has even made some successful people feel guilty for their success.

Lapin writes that every dollar that is earned is a "certificate of appreciation" from one's customers.  This is true whether one works on a factory assembly line, owns a small mom-and-pop business on main street in a small town, or is a CEO of a large multi-national organization.  Everyone who earns a living has a customer, and the money that is earned is the result of satisfying that customer.  Lapin writes, "If you did not rob or steal from anyone to obtain that dollar, if you neither defrauded anyone nor persuaded your government to seize it from a fellow citizen and give it to you, then you could only have obtained that dollar in one other way - you must have pleased someone else."  There is nothing shameful about that nor is there any reason to feel guilty because you have become successful.

This is the mindset we need to instill in people, not the negative ones that attempt to demean business leaders and other wealthy individuals.  You need to understand this blog is not written by a wealthy person.  I am the typical middle-class American who has worked hard all his life to join the middle class, but I appreciate wealthy businesspeople.  No poor person ever gave me a job that allowed me to provide for my family.   When we seek gifts for charities and other worthwhile endeavors do we ask the poor or the wealthy for those funds?  Studies find that the wealthy give vast sums of money to charities, their churches, and other worthwhile needs.  Business owners give to their communities, to their churches, to other endeavors.  They provide employment that allows people to earn an honest living and support their families.  They provide goods and services that people need.  Lapin assures us there is dignity in business for all these reasons and more.

The book provides 10 commandments for making money, but it is not a "get rich quick" book.  It explores centuries of the Jewish mindset regarding money and business based upon teachings from the Bible and the "Oral Torah."  Lapin writes, "Deep within traditional Jewish culture lies the conviction that the only real way to achieve wealth is to attend diligently to the needs of others and to conduct oneself in an honorable and trustworthy fashion."  The 10 commandments found in the book help flesh out aspects of that conviction.

I appreciated the book and recommend it for several reasons.  One, it reminds the reader that honest businesspeople should be honored and respected for their contributions to our society.  Secondly, it gives interesting insights into Jewish beliefs and customs, and, thirdly, it presents some foundational concepts that one needs to believe in if he or she is to enjoy financial success.

Indecision will cripple your business

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Every day leaders are confronted with a variety of decisions they have to make.  Hopefully, your employees have been trained and are empowered to make many of the decisions that need to be made, but there will be those decisions that only you as the owner or manager can make.  The most successful leaders will not postpone making those decisions.  A study conducted by the Harvard Business School once asked "What are the top characteristics of high achievers?"  The persons being asked gave a wide variety of answers, but the top response was the ability to act quickly.  They recognized that leaders who can make quick decisions and act on those decisions were going to be the most successful in their fields.  Those who procrastinate in making the tough decisions would enjoy much less success.

This does not mean that these quick decisions were always the correct ones.  Sometimes these decisions were not the best that could have been made, and occasionally they were completely wrong.  But, the decisions led to actions, and if the actions didn't produce the desired results then new decisions could be made.  In either case, the best solution would be discovered more quickly through not putting off making a tough decision.

These decisions were also not made without input.  Leaders know to acquire as much information as possible before making an important decision, but not to delay that decision until they have every iota of information that might impact the decision.  Leaders never have all the information they need, but they often can't wait until that information is available before making a decision.  If new information becomes available later that would lead to a different decision then the initial decision can be altered.  I once sat in on a meeting when a question was raised about a decision that had been made by a board two years earlier.  One person in the room reminded everyone in the room of the earlier decision when another person responded that decisions can be changed when new information became available.  Few decisions should be written in stone.  Especially in the times in which we now live, decisions made two years earlier should not be seen as Gospel.  They may have been the right decision at the time, but as new information becomes available or things change, then those decisions need to be examined and changed if needed.

When leaders refuse to make necessary decisions they create doubt in the minds of their team members.  These team members wonder who is running the organization and what will happen if their leaders become incapable of making important decisions.  There is a great scene in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films when, near the end of the movie, two pirate ships go on either side of a British ship and begin firing.  Throughout the movie the commander of the British ship was arrogant in his leadership, but as these pirate ships made a maneuver he never expected he suddenly became frozen and incapable of responding.  The subordinate officer kept demanding an order which never came until the subordinate office assumed control and ordered the men to abandon ship.  The pirate ships kept firing on the British ship as the commander slowly walked across his ship until it finally blew up and sank taking the commander with it.

In business we will always have pirates firing at us.  People will do things we never expected.  New challenges will continually confront us.  Some of these challenges will offer opportunities for our businesses to grow; others will threaten to sink us if we do not react quickly.  In either case, decisions will have to be made, and you as the leader will be responsible for making them.