Buddha CEO - Howard M. Cox (best book recommendations TXT) 📗

is a way by which they may be ended is only useful if you know how to do it.

Fortunately, Buddha did not leave this process to chance and provided a specific system that has been being used for 2500 years to reduce suffering in the world.

Perfect Thought
Perfect Word &
Perfect Deed

Perfect thought is about the paradigms that frame your world. If your paradigms are imperfect, you will not be successful in reaching enlightenment. An example is the previous step where we talked about the “stuff happens” people vs. the “stuff happens for a reason”. Unless you hold the thought that “stuff happens for a reason”, you will not successful in removing all suffering from your world.

This is the reason the successful people, families and organizations have mission, vision and value statements. It makes sure tat everyone is focused on and thinking about the same things and hopefully the right things.

Perfect word is all about communication. In Buddha’s time, word was the only way to communicate. Today, perfect word means using all communication tools currently available to make sure that everyone is engaging in perfect thought and perfect action. Perfect word is an essential leadership tool. The following is a quick list of basic communication tools:

• Email
• Voice mail
• Podcasts
• Intranets
• Internet
• Memos
• Individual face to face verbal and body language
• Conference calls
• Video conferences
• Group meetings

Perfect deed refers to our actions. These are the choices we make with each present moment of our lives. We literally create our future by the choices we make in each of our present moments. We can create a future of enlightenment or a future of suffering through the cumulative effect of these decisions.

Buddha taught this about our actions and deeds:

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

The power of the system comes though the synergistic and interdependent nature of the three distinct components; perfect thought, perfect word and perfect deed.

You, your family and your work organizations must be mentally focused on the same things and the right things to remove suffering and create happiness. In order to get everyone on the same page and going in the same direction, you will need perfect communication. If you have engaged in perfect thought and communicated these thoughts effectively, you then need perfect execution or actions to create individual and organizational enlightenment or perfect happiness, the removal of all frustrations or sufferings.

Like Minds

I am not the only voice calling out in the wilderness for the pursuit of happiness at work nor is it just a modern 21st century notion.

Forbes

The below was first printed in Forbes magazine on September 15, 1917 and was reprinted in their Flashbacks section in 2007.

The Pursuit of Happiness:

Business was originated to produce happiness, not pile up millions. Too many so-called “successful” men are making business an end and aim in itself. They regard the multiplying of their millions and the extension of their works as the be-all and end-all of life. Such men are sometimes happy in a feverish, hustling sort way, much as a fly placed in a tube of oxygen is furiously happy until its life burns out. But they have no time for the tranquil, finer, deeper joys of living. They are so obsessed with the material that they cannot enjoy the immaterial, the intangible, the ideal, the spiritual – quiet thought, self communion, reflection, poise, inward happiness, domestic felicity What profiteth it a man to gain uncounted riches if he thereby sacrifices his better self, his nobler qualities of manhood? Mere getting is not living.


George Carlin

The paradox of our time in history is that we have
taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider
freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more,
but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have
bigger houses and smaller families, more
conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees
but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment,
more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but
less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too
recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get
too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read
too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our
values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate
too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years. We've
been all the way to the moon and back, but have
trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've
done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We
write more, but learn less. We plan more, but
accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to
wait. We build more computers to hold more
information, to produce more copies than ever, but
we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow
digestion, big men and small character, steep
profits and shallow relationships. These are the
days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier
houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick
trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one
night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do
everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a
time when there is much in the showroom window and
nothing in the stockroom.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones,
because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to
you in awe, because that little person soon will
grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you,
because that is the only treasure you can give with
your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and
your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and
an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep
inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for
someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time
to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we
take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Dr. Paddi Lund

Dr. Lund’s book “Building The Happiness-Centered Business” is a masterpiece of wisdom and simplicity. His book is a very quick, easy and enjoyable read and it makes a compelling case for re-evaluating our business practices at their very core.

There are several big thoughts in the book but my favorite is the concept that we all too often get caught up in a cycle of believing we can buy happiness with unhappiness. His point is we spend 40 or more hours a week settling for working somewhere that does not make us happy to earn a paycheck with which we attempt to purchase happiness in the form of houses, cars, vacations, etc.

This is a foolish and futile endeavor to say the least and contributes significantly to the results mentioned in the George Carlin quote. Paddi suggests turning this model upside down and striving to create happiness at work. If you succeed in that effort, then you can leverage the results of that happiness on happiness at home and in the world itself.

Therefore, as an employee, you should seriously reconsider employment that does not fundamentally make you happy. As an employer, you can significantly differentiate your business from all others and win the war for talent by focusing on manufacturing happiness as opposed to products and services.

There are two more big thoughts in his book. One is that business systems are the key to simplifying business and making the consistent creation of happiness possible. Without business systems, you are left with chaos.

This reminds me of one of Brian Mann’s favorite quotes:

Procedure is what separates us from the evil forces of chaos.

Buzz Lightyear

Secondly, he discovered that most of the unhappiness in his business was not related to the amount of money that they made or the pace of the work, but it was largely determined by the way they treated each other.

He put all of these concepts together to create a “Courtesy System” of 8 performance standards to create happiness at work. For example, performance standard number 1 is to speak very politely using a person’s name and to say “please” and “thank you” at a minimum.

The remainder of the courtesy system is just as basic, simple and filled with common sense. The reason it works is that common sense is not very common and must be indoctrinated within your business culture.

You may be wondering how something so small as a rigorously enforced courtesy system could create such a huge difference in organizational results. The answer is contained in “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell.

The answer is the criminology concept of “the broken windows theory”. This concept was also highlighted in Rudy Giuliani’s “Leadership” book.

The metaphor of the broken window is that it is much more likely for a normally law abiding citizen or even the criminally inclined to throw a rock through a window if there is already one broken window. It is about the power of context.

The examples given in Gladwell’s and Giuliana’s books for the proof of the theory is how New York City was able to transform itself from the most crime infested big city in America to the safest within the decade of the 90’s. They fought their murder and other violent crime rate with prosecuting public urination and graffiti.


The County of Bhutan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.

The term was coined by Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972. It signaled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Like many worthy moral goals it is somewhat easier to state than to define, nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans to the country.

While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

One of the Dalai Lama’s most famous books is “The Art of Happiness” which he wrote with Howard Cutler, M.D. The tag line for the book is “A Handbook for Living” and it truly is one. The book is a