Business is a key means through which individuals imagine opportunities to develop a higher sense of self that is special to them. For example, they may think of corporate work as a way to be productive and competent in their domain of expertise, as well as serve as mentors to others in their profession. They may also aspire to deeply engage with and serve their local communities through their work. This higher sense of self is not the same as the universal self (Ātman) but one that is closer to it than the material self. By forging these connections to others and to nature, we move forward on the journey to Being.

Especially in start-ups (and increasingly in many larger corporations), individuals pour more of their time and aspirations into business work than any other activity, including sleep. Their financial security and self-esteem are crucially dependent on what hap- pens to them in the workplace. Business leadership that fails to grasp this connection between corporations and the higher aspirations of individuals loses a special opportunity for motivating loyalty and engagement from employees. By recognising this potential, leadership has access to a powerful source of inspiration for organisational and personal success.

But you don’t have to form a start-up to acquire this deeper experience. There are simpler and less anxiety-laden ways to do so. One of the most common in business is through evaluation. When used for nature, evaluation gives you the economic costs of the dependencies and impacts of business on nature. The same logic can be extended to the dependencies and impacts of business on humanity, which is a really hard task because we are dealing with people. I think one of the biggest changes in business as usual will come when valuing the services provided to business by nature and humanity becomes an integral part of financial reports. This area, called integrated reporting, tries to value human, social, and natural capital in addition to material capital.

When integrated reporting becomes standard practice (which I think is at least a decade away), a centuries old accounting system that does not measure the full dependencies and impacts of business on humanity and nature will get transformed profoundly. When these connections get valued explicitly, they become valuable to business and therefore worth preserving.

Aspire to a Higher Sense of Self through Business