For the past 15 years, 
Aleksandar Akrura is a Spiritual Life Coach, success teacher, lecturer, and seminar leader. He also performs traditional and modern spiritual music.
A lot of people want to achieve success in life and in their business and generally in the beginning they don’t know How? Somehow they start the business, they have certain success but they stuck somewhere. On the other hand they start having certain discipline, and become better people and start being in a better communication with their business partners because they see, this is needed.
And because they hear or they have a family custom, they practice some type of spirituality. But as I can see there is no connection between their business life and their spiritual life. So, now the main question is:
T.S.: Is there a connection between Business and Spirituality?
A.A.: Definitely there is a clear and strong connection between spirituality and business. There are a spiritual laws of success that some of the famous teachers today promote and teach. And there are basically many many principles that are very very spiritual and that are used in business education, business training, sales training and like that. And they are not always given credit as being spiritual.
So we have like, we have a phenomena of ethical business, we have spirituality in the work place. We have many many courses, that actually teach how to live and work in the mode of goodness, how to work in goodness. Although Tony Robbins says: “ Live with passion “ but he himself teaches many many principles of goodness.
So in this conversation we can speak about specific principles that are in their own nature spiritual...
T.S.: OK, As I understood there is a connection between business and spirituality. But now the question is Why there is connection between business and spirituality and why this connection is very close?
A.A.: Its very simple. Life is an indivisible whole.
We are not one sided or one dimensional beings. We have at least four dimensions and some people say there is more than that but I want to propose four human capacities or four human needs, that are part of life. Very clear distinct part of life. One of them is Spiritual side of life, one of them is Physical side of life, which refers to our body, our physical wellbeing, our health, one is Mental How our mind and intelligence work, how we use our creativity and the forth one is Emotional side of life: How we relate to other people, How we express love, how we receive love.
So, life is an indivisible whole as Gandhi said, and every area affects the other area. Like if you have a car with four wheels, if one wheel brakes,tire if one tire brakes, the car will go for some time but ultimately you have to stop and fix it. Similarly, if any of these four areas doesn’t work, other 3 areas are affected and one has to look at that area and try to fix it.
T.S.: OK, so does that mean that business cannot function without spirituality?
A.A.: Business can function without spirituality and spiritual principles but not for a long time. We see that people who neglect those principles of success, they run for some time but then after some time the business fails and business stops functioning.
There is many, many examples of this. For example there was a restaurant, who started neglecting their clients. In the beginning, they were very kind and very sensitive and considerate of their clients but then they became Big and they became Proud. They neglected the principle of customer care and they also the quality of the products. They started buying cheap food and material that was not of a such good quality and so slowly the quality of the preparations they made went down. And slowly, slowly..actually it happened when new management came and they wanted to be very efficient and they wanted to exploit the clients and slowly slowly this business actually was closed. Because they neglected the very principle, that brought them initial success.
T.S.: There is a… I have a friend of mine and I was trying to explain that a person has to be a better person every day, more and more, to be more successful in business. And this is spiritual principle as I know. And he told me this is not possible because I have so many friends that I know and they have money, so he said that, but they are acting and behaving so ugly that I cannot understand. They talk to people very ugly, they have not good communication with their family, they don’t communicate good with their employees, they do ugly things but still the business works. How is that possible? These people have money. This was his question. Now my question is the same?
A.A.: This is a very good, very practical question and the answer is very simple. They are spending their accumulated credits. So by the way they acted in the past they created some good karma or good credits and now it seems like they don’t have to follow this principles any more and they can do whatever they like. They can even act in such a bad way and still seem to be successful.
So whoever is successful and at the same time he seems to be breaking the laws of success, the spiritual laws of success, their success is temporary. If you want long-term success, which even can go beyond this lifetime than you have to follow this laws of success.
So an intelligent businessman wants long-term success. He wants clients who are lifetime clients, not one sale, one deal client. And these kinds of businesses actually become really, really huge and really big.
T.S.: Now the next thing that is like a result of this previous question is- Is there a possibility that without spirituality the business can be honest and in virtue?
A.A.: Actually virtue or goodness is spiritual, it comes from spirituality, so business cannot be successful without this.
And ultimately we see that even now days politicians are taking advice from high class leadership teachers. And we know that in politics there is a lot of corruption and a lot of cheating. And of course these teachers will not encourage that. They will not tell them: “ Continue with your, you know corruption strategy and your strategy of you know, being a very smart cheater!” They will teach them, but now these days they see,..There is one expert, who is an expert on trust. So as soon as you start speaking of trust, trust is a spiritual principle.
So, what is trust? How can somebody be trusted? How they can be trust worthy ? There are two thing in order to trust someone, character and competence. Character and competence. So, if person has a good character, he is a well meaning, well wishing, he is a person who has good qualities, their communications is very friendly and kind and patient and polite, we can trust him. But its not enough to trust him completely. They have to show competence for example if you are competent consultant or expert in anything like dentist or a surgeon, then people can trust you, you can be a good guy but if you don’t know, if you always pull out the wrong tooth, we cannot trust you. On the other hand, you can be very expert in you know like doing some technical work or some manual work but then on the other side you always charge more, or there is hidden expenses and like that, again we cannot trust you, as a class business person. So, there has to be both character and competence in order for someone to trust.
And that’s a spiritual principle.
T.S.: Ok, now, when we started talking about this. What is the best way to use these principles of spirituality in business? And can you name some principles that can be used in business although as I understood all the spiritual principles can be used in business?
A.A.: Few examples of spiritual principles. First I already mentioned Trust, it is also related to Integrity, Honesty. So, very important thing in business and in life is to Make and keep promises. If you want to build trust, you make and keep promises. If you promised that your product, will help me and then it doesn’t help me, then you know you are not keeping your promise. Or we have to see why it doesn’t help him ? Maybe I’m not using it in a right way, maybe you need to train me and educate me how to use it properly, so that I get the results, I want to get.
Another very, very important principle, spiritual principle in business is WIN WIN. Looking for mutual benefit in all interactions. And WIN WIN approach actually ensures long term relationship. Long term mutual benefit. And we see that this also influences marketing. Your marketing investment and the expense will be much smaller if your approach to business is WIN WIN. Because your own clients will be your free marketing force. They will bring you other clients because they will recommend your services and products. And that is spiritual principle.
These are only few but there is many more.
T.S.: All these that we said mean that if spirituality is involved in the business, the results can be better. When there is synergy between spirituality and business. Do you have some experience where people were doing examination of one business and another similar business and when in one was only a business and in another there were all spiritual principles involved and this second one had better results ? Do you have this kind of example or experience?
A.A.: Well I will give you very, very famous example I believe any business person any business leader is aware of the work of Jim Collins. And he has written this book “Good to Great “ which is the study of how good companies became great and how they stayed great. And this is very pragmatic, nothing idealistic, its actually experiential. Proofs are there. There are very tangible measures and proofs How companies remained great for many, many years. His criteria was very rigid. One of the companies I remember, two of the companies I remember are World Greens, this is American company not so much present in Europe and Gillette. Gillette everybody knows. You know, they have shaving creams, shavers, different things.
He has named eleven companies, which actually fitted into the highly rigid criteria of being a great company. So what we see there is again, something that is related to being trustworthied. There are both character and competence, they had character and competence.
For example Jim Collins has developed the Concept of level five leader. And Level five leader is somebody, who has strong professional will and humility. This was the result of his study. These leaders were amazing leaders. They were helpers of thousand geniuses.
We have a Phenomena of Celebrity leader, who is basically a Genius with thousand Helpers. But great companies had leaders who are level 5 and they were helpers of thousand geniuses. So their teams, they had people who were amazing people in their teams and they were not putting themselves first, as celebrity leaders.
So, this study is very practical, you can read it. This is a tangible proof, how spiritual principles work in business and how they make companies great.
T.S.: Does this all mean that there is no result if there is no Spirituality in the Business?
A.A.: Well again as I said, results can be there. You asked about the bed guy, who is very successful, you ask me what I think of it. You can have results but very, very big criteria of measurements are for how long? So you can be successful for some time but you cannot be successful long term if you are breaking spiritual laws of success.
T.S.: Is it more important to educate people to become more spiritual, I mean people that work for the company or is more important when you have communication with your clients to respect spiritual principles or both?
A.A.: I think in order to be successful in this world, which has its spiritual side and its material side, we need both. We need the synergy of material and spiritual. And one principle which I will first describe in Sanskrit is very, very powerful principle is called “Yukta vairagya”. It comes from one very, very wonderful teacher from the 15th Century Rupa Goswami and he says that You can use anything from the material world but use it to benefit others. Use it well. Don’t use it to exploit others, don’t use it for anything bad. And in this way we can use unlimited resources that we can get, unlimited money, unlimited materials, things like that, equipment, if we use it for good purposes. You know and in this way we can benefit others, benefit ourselves and our usage of material things will be spiritually based. So we need both, we need this synergy of spiritual and material.
T.S.: Ok. And which is the best way to introduce spirituality in business to people? Is there a certain technique or coaching seminar or mixed method or everyday briefing with people. Which is the best way to introduce and the easiest one for them to understand on both levels?
A.A.: In order to do that, to introduce spiritual principles to people we need to educate them. We need to educate them regularly. Not only one seminar a year but at least one seminar a month with the follow up with coaching, personal consultation.
And for example this interview is already an introduction and what I am presenting here for our readers is the benefits of spirituality in business. What is the benefit? The benefit is that you get better results. Especially you get better long-term results. So I believe that most of the business people want long-term results and therefore they would be interested.
So spirituality in business is not some idealistic dream. It’s actually something very practical and practical means results. Everybody wants results and if there is a way to achieve long-term results they would definitely be interested.
T.S.: And now one question came up to my mind. Is it possible that the main founder and the director and the main board of the company is not in virtue and doesn’t practice the principle of spirituality but besides that, they want to introduce this to the people that work and are incorporated into the process?
Is it possible that the leader of the company, the founder, directors are not spiritually educated and they still want to educate the people that work in the company about spiritual principles. Is it possible?
A.A.: This is a very good question and I believe that this is often a case. I have heard in one seminar, in my seminars also I ask that question – “How many of you think that people who need to hear this are not here?”
In my work with people around the world I actually come to companies, to institutions and teach and then the main guys, you know, the top guys are not there. They encourage the people to go to the seminar, they like their people to hear about this but they are not there. And of course most of the people think that they are the ones who should hear it most. So what to do in this situation?
You see, you can start transformation, you can start turnaround, you can start change from any part of the company, from any individual in the company. This principle is called trim tab. Trim tab is a small radar on the boat. A small radar can slowly turn completely the direction of the boat although it goes slower than the big radar. Let’s say that this small radar is a person who has small influence. But if they start to do the right thing, if they start to apply these powerful principles slowly their positive influence will spread and then somehow they will contribute to creating a culture that is based on those principles.
And of course there is a great advantage if top management is supportive. But even if they are not the culture will spread and these man will just either have to.... the culture, assimilate and start to be supportive with their own example or they will have to leave and go somewhere else. So to me change can come from any part of the company and the results can happen and they can be visible.
T.S.: After all these questions, is there something that we didn’t mention and you think that it is very good to be mentioned?
A.A.: Yes, thank you for this question. One of the principles… you see what I’m telling you, you have probably heard from many teachers. There are teachers who are more clearly pointing out the spiritual side of life and the spiritual side of business. Some teachers are doing it in a more hidden way, some teachers even mention religiosity. Like, for example, Ken Blanchard, the author of “One Minute Manager”. He is working with one minister or priest on a project called Lead Like Jesus. So, you know, he is clearly expressing his faith in God and the importance of that connection. But most of the teachers are quite shy about mentioning something that is to me, actually, Key to success.
And why call it connection? The word yoga means connection. The word religion means reconnect, religare, and we are not the only doer. We can do everything right but we are not the one who ultimately controls the results of our efforts and our actions.
So what we can do and what we can benefit from by listening and following different teachers is- we can increase the probability of our success by aligning ourselves, by following these principles of success, the spiritual laws of success. But still, even this doesn’t guarantee a hundred percent success.
There has to be a higher connection. And there has to be a link to universal, I would say, management, and universal connection and laws and we have to see what actually life and universe and God is allowing us to have as results. So the distinction of the Bhagavad Gita as ultimate success guide is that it describes five factors of action and of results. And one of them is the Super soul or the Over soul some teachers say, like mentioned the Over soul. This is the factor of success that is neglected and often success teachers do not even mention it. And they give us impression that we are almighty and that with our efforts and the right alignment with the laws of success we are going to be successful. Another big question that we can explore in another interview is- Who is the lawmaker and where all these laws came from? That would be interesting to know.
T.S.: Ok, one more question. How can this connection between us and God be introduced to ignorant people or people, ok we can not say ignorant but people that are hundred percent involved into mater and don’t see more than that?
A.A.: We can help people see more clearly the spiritual side of life and because actually everybody is a spiritual being they already have a sense of spirituality in them. It is not something that we have to impose on them. They already have that sense.
How the spiritual side of life and this kind of connection already manifests in the lives of everyone, in the lives of the general mass of people. For example, one is intuition. People can have that sense, you know, from inside about certain things. Then there is paranormal occurrences. Things that are completely against known laws but are happening. There is so-called accidents, or there is synchronicity, there is serendipity. There is all this phenomena that is out of ordinary, that is even sometimes out of the laws that we know. And people can start thinking, they start thinking, like, there is some separate reality.
There is something higher and, you know, many people nowadays with so many books on success, happiness and spirituality more and more people are thinking about something else, that there must be something else. They are thinking deeper or higher and I think many people are ready to learn more about all these spiritual principles and all these dimensions of life.
T.S.: So, what can be our message to the people that will listen this and they want to connect because there is a very close connection between spirituality and business. What can be our message to the people that hear this?
A.A.: Our short message could be that if you understand that you are a spiritual being then the number of possibilities for you increases and your potential that you have will be much more used. You will realize that you have much more potential than you are using right now and that you can achieve much more, you can be more happy, you can make other people more happy if you become open to learn about other dimensions of life and other sources of knowledge, strength and skill.
T.S.: Ok, now I have to thank you for these straight answers because I’ve been in business for ten years and I always felt that there is a connection. I felt it but I didn’t know how to explain it, how to explain the principles. So I have to thank you for these vey, very clear explanations about this strong connection that definitely exists/
A.A.: It is my pleasure.
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