Six lifehacks for growing business in a crisis - or on the path to an economy of happiness

7% of business readers who invest 12 minutes in a detailed reading of this article will survive the current “crisis” without any problems and close their business only if they themselves want it.

Today, when in Russian society one can see nervous moods because of the economy, politics, and just like that, “because of everything”, the eternal Russian crisis question - “what to do” has become acute again. Pessimists have already built a plan for a painless loss of their own business, followed by a shameful flight worthy of a downshifting in any country (any, just not to look any longer). Optimists squeeze their lips and stubbornly repeat something like “everything will be fine”, “break through”, “and haven’t seen it”, but the plan of action from their words is somehow not visible.

Is it time to try to understand the current state of affairs? Maybe it will be more efficient than to plan something at once or just to stay idle?

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Is it time for us to understand that the current situation provides a unique opportunity?



What is the opportunity?



The current situation offers the whole of our society the opportunity to move to an economy of happiness.



What happiness?



Let's see.





Understanding the true nature of things as a way to a happy life



The economy of happiness is a concept at the heart of which is not the constant maximization of profits, but the minimization of one’s suffering, the measurement and increase of satisfaction and happiness of each person and each subject of the market.



As it is easy to guess, this concept has taken a lot from the wisdom of the East and leads to thoughts on sacred Buddhist texts. Nevertheless, Western thinkers made a significant contribution to the development of these ideas. The book of one of them, Ernst Schumacher “Small is beautiful”, warmly recommend to anyone who is interested in how to ensure the viability of business in any conditions and lay the foundation for prosperity for a couple of hundred years.



This is evidenced by the concept of "Buddhist economy". The main position of this economic concept is as follows:

The economy should be aimed at freeing people from suffering and contradictions, at finding happiness that does not require constant consumption, and this is possible through the knowledge of the world in its true nature.

The term “Buddhist economy” itself does not mean “economics for Buddhists” or “economics for countries with Buddhism” or even “economics for buddhas”, but only “economics using the concepts of the philosophical system of Buddhism”. Since one of the central concepts in Buddhism for a person is gaining sukha ( sukha ) - happiness, then in Russian it is quite appropriate to talk about the “ economy of happiness ”.



Man has always strived and will always strive to find true happiness and free himself from suffering. Relief from suffering is possible only by knowing things in their true nature.



The true nature of things is constant variability. The hardening of the organism in one state is death, but even it is not the end point, but is only a brief intermediate stage before passing to a new state.

Binding to the "false ego" of both man and the whole company is the path to dukkha , pain, suffering, contradictions. Interestingly, the concept of dukha , has already been studied in detail by Western scientists and, thus, has been confirmed in official science.

The path of deliverance from suffering and the attainment of happiness is the famous “Eightfold Path” in the Buddha Dhamma. The main thing in the life of a person to whom the ideas of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature are close is to develop wisdom called panna.



What is happening in the economy now?



Let's return to the subject of this article. What is happening in the economy now? Distract from the troublesome press. Let us make an attempt to understand what is happening in its true nature.



Economically speaking, our and other countries are at the stage of a downward development of the economic cycle. The economy is shrinking.



In fact, this is an incomplete and incorrect representation.



Cosmologically, thinking planetaryly, now we are at a certain stage of rotation of the wheel of life, i-jing wheel, if you like it more.



Eastern wisdom teaches us: a crisis always, surely, necessarily flourishes, and a crisis is needed to give rise to flourishing. The current situation will also be followed by growth that you need to prepare for.

Every responsible company in Russia is obliged to use today as a basis for its future prosperity.

Every responsible Russian businessman must change his mind and beliefs in order for his company to survive and show growth in the future.

By changing their approaches to work in accordance with changes in time, any Russian company is able not only to lose nothing in the current period, but also to build a basis for future growth.



Space suit imposed values



Today’s Russian business, as well as business in many other countries of the world, is prevented from getting rid of the inevitable painful sensations of its own static self-image of itself as a company, the most false ego, which both Eastern sages and Western psychologists often compare with the spacesuit.



Our ego tells us: if you are a decent person, you must have a decent job, a good car, a happy family, a bank account, an interesting hobby. The truth is that the ego always separates us from reality-as-it-is. Yes, yes, just like that - it does not connect, but separates from reality. Our consciousness can be clouded, our body is tired and sleep our mind, even our sense organs can fail at every step. All this together works as a more or less spoiled phone, a transmitting device with a lot of interference.



A completely similar situation is observed today in the business world. If you are a decent company, then you must have an account in a decent bank with expensive services, an office is respectable in the city center, employees are only on high salaries, the site is fashionable, from some up-and-down advertising agency, an audit from an auditing firm, a souvenir from Versace, and loans are the most expensive, at 75% per month!



The “ego of business” is even more bizarre and monstrous than the ego of one person, because in the “ego” of business there are projections of the ego of several ambitious people, budgets for the realization of ambitions are higher than at the whim of an individual, and therefore the damage to business is greater. Getting into the suit of imposed values, few businesses survive. Most of them drink all the juices of various firms that parasitize on false values. Remember? - the site, after all, should be exactly expensive, and the credit - like decent people at 75%. Perhaps, of all the businesses that die in the second year of life, about half die of suffocation in their suit of imposed business values.

Death in the "suit of business values" looks banal just - squandered all the money, could not earn, borrowed, let the company around the world. One less firm.

An effective strategy of happiness for a person and for an organization is to free oneself from the buzz of imposed values, isolate benefit from reality for oneself and practice what is useful for oneself in order to find peace and well-being.



How to apply it in the economy of your company



We proceed to practice. To understand what aspects of the business we’ll be changing, we’ll give a curious comparison made by the Hungarian economist Laszlo Zolnai.



The Western economy is committed to ...

(i) profit maximization

(ii) the cultivation of desires

(iii) open markets

(iv) exploitation of the surrounding world

(v) ethics based on personal interest



The Buddhist economy is committed to ...

(I) minimize suffering

(Ii) simplify desires

(Iii) non-violence

(Iv) care for the environment

(V) generosity



So, in order to move from development that is dubious in its perspectives on the model of the Western economy to development on the model of the “economy of happiness,” you can start with five simple things.



1. Learn to see a solution in changes, not a problem



This will relieve stress with every change in the economic situation and teach you to find opportunities for income. The principle of genericity says:

The problem always contains a solution. Find the most painful in the current situation for you and turn it into advantage.

2. And measure consumption efficiency



Measure it in hours of satisfaction / benefit on the invested ruble.



Example:

Buying a car. You bought a car that cost you 750.000 rubles. You have used it for 3 years (about 1000 calendar days). From 1000 calendar days you really used it only for 600 days. On these 600 days, you used it for an average of 4 hours a day, of which 2 hours you usually had to stand in traffic jams, which means using a car without any benefit for yourself (not counting the winter months). Total: You have acquired 1,200 hours of use for 750,000 rubles, which corresponds to 0.0016 hours or about 0.01 minutes of use for one ruble of yours. One hour of use of your car without operating costs will cost you 625 rubles. Consider for yourself whether an hour is worth 625 rubles in an ordinary middle-class car, and this is also without operating costs.



Another example:

You purchased a bike. It cost you 20.000 rubles. You used it for 6 years in the warm season, that is, for five months (150 days) a year, for a total of 900 days. Less your laziness, you used it for 600 days. Every day you used the bike for 3 hours, traffic jams were not a problem for you. Total: You have acquired 1,800 hours of use for 20,000 rubles, that is, 0.09 hours or 5.5 minutes of use for one ruble of yours. One hour of benefit will cost you 11 rubles, while in this calculation we did not take into account the additional health benefits that you brought yourself, riding a bicycle for five years.

Simple solutions are often more effective than complex ones.

Simple desires, when they are fulfilled, in fact, bring exactly as much happiness as the most sophisticated ones.

3. Review the use of money in your company.



It is believed that production requires labor and capital.



However, the available resources from each person and each company are much more, and not all of them require capital.

At any time, we can invest our intellectual potential, physical strength, technology, various types of energy, and natural resources into our activities. Capital is only one of the resources, and definitely not the main one.

Highlight cost items or business processes that are most dependent on money.



Analyze in what ways and resources it is possible to equally replace the use of money or reduce the amount of money necessary for the qualitative functioning of this process.



Make organizational decisions.



Change your attitude to reality.



Change-in-Reality.

In your business and life, you don’t have to be a stupid tourist in a bustling foreign city that overpays for everything simply because they told him so.

4. Refuse conflict actions in business and life



Any effort expended on a conflict is an effort expended with a minimum of effectiveness, because in a conflict both sides are most often losers.



Therefore, budgets allocated to sinking competitors are wasted budgets, and efforts to impose unnecessary products are a waste of time.

Avoid participation in conflicts and minimize the time spent on them.

Turn competitors into colleagues and partners, find niches for you, agree on forms of coexistence.



5. Live by self-reliance.



It makes sense to give a case or a task for a contract, 1) when it will be cheaper for a contract and 2) when you are not able to do something well.



Therefore, invest in training - in what you do not know, and find contractors when it is cheaper.

From time immemorial, the families of our ancestors in Russia built their own houses, grew crops and sheathed themselves.

Especially this principle - to manage with what you can do yourself, concerns natural resources.

The purity and balance of nature is a non-renewable resource.

6. Strive to give the market, not to take from him



One can argue for a long time what led the iPhone to success, but the fact that Apple really strived to qualitatively change the experience of using a mobile phone will remain immutable. This is exactly what Apple managed above all, and it was this that brought the company deafening commercial success - and not even the talented presentation of Steve Jobs in 2006.

It was precisely the fact that Henry Ford created the first truly massive car available to many that made him rich and famous, and not in itself that he used a conveyor assembly.



These two examples are vivid examples of the intention to give to the market, and not to take something from it.

Only companies aimed at giving back become great and live for decades and centuries.

The current situation in Russia offers the whole of our society the opportunity to move to an economy of happiness.



To make this transition, you need to get rid of the imposed ideas about what your business needs, honestly calculate the usefulness of your consumption, rethink your resources and minimize the amount of effort and money you spend on conflicts.

And most importantly - you need to try your best to bring benefit to the market, because under this condition you are doomed to demand and success.

The wheel of life completes the next sector of its rotation, leading us through the next crisis.



The subsequent takeoff promises to be enchanting.