purpose

I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent and this is what I have devoted my life to. (Luciano Pavarotti 1935 - 2007)

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could spare them from all suffering?  No, it wouldn't.  They would not evolve as human beings and would remain shallow, identified with the external form of things.  Suffering drives you deeper.  The paradox is that suffering is caused by identification with form and erodes identification with form.  A lot of it is caused by the ego, although eventually suffering destroys the ego--but not until you suffer consciously.

Humanity is destined to go beyond suffering, but not in the way the ego thinks.  One of the ego's many erroneous assumptions, one of its many deluded thoughts is "I should not have to suffer."  Sometimes the thought gets transferred to someone close to you:  "My child should not have to suffer."  That thought itself lies at the root of suffering.  Suffeirng has a noble purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning up of the ego.  The man on the cross is an archetypal image.  He is every man and every woman.  As long as you resist suffering, it is a slow process because the resistance creates more ego to burn up.  When you accept suffering, however, there is an acceleration of that process which is brought about by the fct that you suffer consciously.  You can accept suffering for yourself, or you can accept it for someone else, such as your child or parent.  In the midst of conscious suffering there is already the transmutation.  The fire of suffering becomes the light of consciousness.

Once you know what you want and what is important for you to achieve, also define the values associated with it. What is important? That is something a lot of entrepreneurs pass by too quickly. For us, the things that were important were, No. 1, customer success. Nothing is more important to us than making sure every customer is successful in our service.

My ultimate dream is to manage a set of businesses that all are born out of a purpose bigger than their product. I believe that is what my particular journey is about. I am somewhat tired of going to meetings where spiritual people talk about how the world can be a better place but with very little evidence of any tangible outcome. Maybe I'm impatient, maybe I'm intolerant, but I like to see things change in front of me. I want to see physical manifestations of spiritual intent. My greatest sense of spirituality or connectedness is when I'm with people who come together for a cause much larger than themselves and do great work. In fact, I probably prefer action with only partially good intentions over intentions only partially acted upon. And the best way I know how to do that is to keep identifying, managing, supporting, and helping businesses that have a purpose bigger than their product. I believe wholeheartedly that a new form of capitalism is emerging. More stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders, and the larger community) want their businesses to think, to act, to feel, and to be connected with a larger context. That is spirituality in action. And that is what I am about.

If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.

In the power to change yourself is the power to change the world around you.

Always bear in mind, that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.