Comments on: Two Ways of Thinking about Business

By: Letters From Shanghai (And Guangzhou) « Letters From The Porch

Letters From Shanghai (And Guangzhou) « Letters From The Porch — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:47:48 +0000

[...] as a creative outlet, a force for cultural and social change. As Josh Kaufman mentioned, there are two ways to see business: Simply a path to riches, or a path to making change in people’s [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:43:18 +0000

Hi Josh,

I would extend this question to a career/personnal life: what do you want to achieve?

1) Are you ready to sell anything and forget friends/family/colleagues just to make money?
2) Or do you want to change something, and focus your career on this goal?

Living in an economic world, there is a mix of both choices. Money is one of the reward. If it’s the only one you’re looking after, I would say great! But for why? What the next step? What will you do with it?

As you said, we need a little more of #2. We need money to live, and achieve new goals: as long as we leverage it everything is fine. When money becomes the goal I do believe there is something wrong…

By: Caleb W

Caleb W — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:14:56 +0000

Looking at work or business philosophically, I believe work is a resource for humans, not humans a resource for work. We, as humans, have an innate need to work. No matter what work is being done, work is the essential resource for self confidence and self worth. Hard work, easy work, it doesn’t matter, the fact that we are working for something and putting our gifts and talents into something is an essential need of the human spirit.

By: KG Satheesh Kumar

KG Satheesh Kumar — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:59:26 +0000

The author has not provided any evidence to support his conclusion that most businesses operate in Option #1 and that option #2 is less common.

This is not credible. In a competitive market, option 2 is likely to be more sustainable than option 1, but in an oligopoly companies may find option 1 also sustainable and be tempted to resort to it in pursuit of larger financial rewards.

By: funnelthru

funnelthru — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:21:52 +0000

Josh – great post. We’re working on #2.

By: Jonathan Buchanan

Jonathan Buchanan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:30:07 +0000

“The world would be a better place if more people thought this through for themselves and made their decisions accordingly.”

I think I now see where you’re coming from. If I understand you correctly, ultimately what you’re saying is that people ought to be conscious of the process of business, including all the implications of the way they are carrying it out. If I have gotten the general grasp of your point, then I agree – considering how much time is spent in work earning money, it would be foolish for a man not to consider the motivations for him being at work.

However, I think it is limiting to say that business can either be carried out in x way or y way – though such simplifications are great for people who like to think they know a lot about business. It strikes me that such a simplification might only lead to people thinking that they have thought about how they conduct business simply by virtue of having considered which camp they sit in; x or y.

I think it fantastic that so many people are interested enough in this topic to write a comment in response, but I can’t help but feel that those who are writing comments here are searching not for the truth, but for tidbits of misinformation they can use as evidence that they understand what business is. I notice myself doing it from time to time. I sit and read the FT and mutter under my breath about the idiocy of businessmen, and eventually realise that all I really want in that moment is to feel superior to a man who I have never met and never will.

It is for this reason that I am slightly wary of such short and condensed posts.

By: Dmitriy Pavlov

Dmitriy Pavlov — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:13:15 +0000

Wow, I’ve just had an epiphany. #2 way of doing business is so much better. I bet #2 businesses constantly make Best Places to Work at list. Since, Josh also had me hooked on Teaching Company lectures and particularly, Game Theory. It all now makes sense. #2 business implements winning game strategy: tit for tat.
Everybody cooperates and everybody scores big.

By: taiyo

taiyo — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:00:50 +0000

I was just listening to Michael Gerber’s Emyth Enterprise and he brought up a similar line of thought.
It is stupid to say that people were created to serve business but that is how so many businesses are run.

By: Elwyn

Elwyn — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:05:33 +0000

Very interesting post. I work in sales for a Fortune 500 company. My company seems to exist for end of the quarter. Sometimes I find myself reading Dilbert because it seems that is where our fearless leaders get their marching orders for the week. As you can tell my company falls into the #1 category and I am getting close to burnout. For me there should be balance between 1 and 2 but I can’t seem to find it. Someone above stated there is always jobs available. Probably but then you have to weigh your personal values like am I willing to relocate or stay close to family. I believe that there will always be a personal battle between 1 and 2. I just have to keep reminding myself that I can only change me and my circle of influence.

By: Evelyn Mpagi

Evelyn Mpagi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:08:18 +0000

Thanks Josh. The primary i created business is to have a meaning for living. This comes with so many things ranging from self satisfaction and people satsfaction. So the two reasons move hand in hand and you cannot do without the other.