By Gregg Sanderson
The seven words of my title tell all you need to know about a “conscious” business relationship.
It’s an attitude that works, although admittedly it works best when everybody you deal with has it. As a database developer and independent consultant for (OMG!) more than 30 years, I’ve had the pleasure of conscious relationships with coworkers, “competitors,” and clients.
I’ve also had the displeasure of unconscious relationships with coworkers, competitors, and clients. Pleasure is better.
The hallmark of the former and the downfall of the latter in every case is unity—a sense of oneness which allows us to work better together in mutual support. The basis of failure is a sense of separation, and the false idea that one prospers only at the expense of another.
My partner Burt and I never had a written contract, although we were in business together for many years. He was the technical genius and I was marketing guru. We bid on jobs, and never discussed ahead of time how we’d split the fee. Sometimes he’d do more of the work and get a larger share, sometimes I would, and we never had a dispute. We instinctively knew the whole of our company was greater than the sum of the parts and acted accordingly.
It wasn’t him or me, it was Us.
The idea of competition comes from a sense of lack. Some people get the absurd idea that an infinite Universe can run out of the stuff that contributes to their success, so they have to attack anybody who does the same thing. How silly.
My book Spirit With A Smile (shameless self-promotion) is aimed at the same audience as Dennis Merritt Jones’ book The Art of Being (shameless other promotion), yet he wrote an endorsement for mine. We both lead workshops for the same target market, and I wrote an endorsement for him.
It wasn’t him or me, it was Us.
Our New Thought Center for Creative Living is a teaching with the same roots as Unity. We hold our services at Unity of Clearwater at the same time they hold theirs. There’s not a soupçon of competition, only enthusiastic mutual support.
It isn’t them or us, it’s all Us.
As for conscious business relations, my favorite example is Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. Over the 15 years they’ve used our software, Burt and I modified and customized it almost beyond recognition.
The extraordinary element of this relationship is that we rarely use formal specifications. I get an idea of what they want and we work together to hone it to a final product that works for everybody. I charge a fair price, they pay right away, and we work in a friendly, informal atmosphere of respect and trust.
Our business is not without its share of miscommunications, misunderstandings, and mishaps. All are solved easily because we know:
It isn’t them or us, it’s all Us.
Now that I’m also a famous author, I couldn’t discuss conscious business without a shout-out to Transformation Publishing, my intrepid publisher, with whom I first signed a contract months after the book was already out. Of course there’s mutual trust, and by now you know why.
That’s right. It isn’t them or me, it’s all Us.
Are we conscious yet?
Gregg Sanderson has a rare view of the metaphysical universe. He traveled the road from Christian Science through Judaism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Living Love, Psychic Development, Spiritualism, Teaching of the Inner Christ, all the way to the International Centers for Spiritual Living where he is a licensed practitioner. He is the author of What Ever Happened To Happily Ever After? and Split Happens – Easing the Pain of Divorce. Gregg’s latest venture is Spirit With A Smile — The Way It Is (Unless It’s Something Else). www.spiritwithasmile.com.