How to be successful in business and career in today’s modern world

Andrei Sidlo: Hello! Our theme for this talk today is ‘business’. In order to shed some light on this subject, we invited Rami Bleckt – a successful and well-known business coach who conducts workshops around the world. Rami, first of all, what is business? For example, our family – is it a type of business?

Rami Bleckt: Hello! It depends on how we look at it. Business, roughly speaking, is a transaction where someone makes a profit. There are different levels of relationships. Yes, we can relate to our family as a business. In the material world everything happens in the three energies of ignorance, passion and goodness. If the energies of ignorance and passion dominate in a person then he or she will try to make a business out of everything and the only desire would be to gain and to profit. In the energy of goodness it is another way. This is the best relationship. Renowned business coaches such as Steven Covey also agree. In such a business, a relationship is developed when «you win – I win or we do not enter into a relationship at all.»

Andrei Sidlo: So in your words, business is a process in which someone makes a profit or a gain of some sort and it is desirable for both sides to make a profit, right? Would you say that the profit needs to be of equal proportions? Does it matter?

Rami Bleckt: You must have a communist past! Sometimes having an equal profit is difficult: we are all different people, we make different investments. If you have invested so much, you have one output, the other invested his amount – he has another output. Also investing is not necessarily financial, we can invest a relationship or an asset.

Andrei Sidlo: What is a successful business?

Rami Bleckt: A successful business, according to eastern psychology (and also now western business psychologists), is when a person develops harmoniously thanks to their business. The business person does not just make money or is able to financially support them selves and their family, but they also grow as a person physically, mentally, socially, and, most importantly, spiritually.

Andrei Sidlo: How would someone sell plumbing supplies while growing spiritually?

Rami Bleckt: Actually, I was hosting a retreat in Hungary last year and one of the participants was a leading manufacturer of plumbing supplies from Saint Petersburg. It was an occasion for humor, as I recall. But he is quickly progressing, developing and growing spiritually. It is not so important, what you are selling, as long as it does not bring harm to other living beings.
But…everything in the world IS important. First of all, it is our attitude that matters. If you develop harmoniously, treat your work as a service to others, give the best product, best quality, so that it helps people become healthier, happier and more successful, then it is okay for you to sell plumbing supplies or anything else.

Andrei Sidlo: Most often, in our reality, it seems that for us to gain and make a profit we have to sell something to the detriment of others…

Rami Blekt: It depends on the level of personal development. First of all, you need to know how to set goals and achieve them to be successful in this material world. Successful businessmen, as a rule, are those who set goals and achieve them. They can afford to refuse or say no to unnecessary projects for the sake of the necessary projects.

But in order to properly set goals, a person must develop (1) proper outlook on life and (2) proper values and priorities.

If a person is depressed, that means that he does not have clear goals. If a person has no goals or they are improperly formed, then, the problem is in the outlook on life.

We are also dependent on qualities such as the energy or “Prana”, (an eastern language term), life force, partially true charisma fits in here as well. This is also very important. And it also depends on many other components.

One of the most important components, according to the eastern psychology – is karma. We are all born in different countries and families. Someone might be born into a state of great resourcefulness, with abundance from childhood, in a good and successful family and this is due to our past lives.

Every individual has its own nature, their psychophysical condition (Guna-karma). And we need to know and use it properly. In other words, we already come into this world with different levels of development, different qualities of the psyche.

Coming back to your question…a business is still understood as a practice where you need to shove something to someone. This is the level of primitive people. We must understand that we are a soul, not the body, mind or ego. Understand that we live in abundance, there is enough of everything for everyone.

If you understand that you came into this world to be harmonious, to learn to serve others, you will not be selling drugs, vodka, cigarettes and other poison. Because you know that it kills others.

In the beginning, it may be difficult to engage in marginally profitable business. But there is an interesting moment, if you do it from the heart, from the soul, according to your nature (guna karma), for the benefit of all living beings, you will have as much money as is necessary according to your fate, karma (or even more). People who earn a profit and sell something that harms others, sooner or later their mind collapses and fate worsens, they can lose the ability to have children, or have happy children, they can unexpectedly lose all their possessions and go into debt and most importantly there will be a lack of inner happiness. Therefore it is very important to know the laws of nature in order to even run a business.

One of the pillars of business is to be able to sell. To do this, we must understand that we want to bring some sort of benefit or value to others. We must love what we sell and value it.

Andrei Sidlo: Sometime, it seems that a person has a clear understanding of what he has to do and desires to bring value to people but there are no results. Why is that?

Rami Bleckt: There are a thousand reasons for failure. For example, it can be an improperly constructed system. Maybe the person is not going in the right direction. Maybe they are going in the right direction, but not in the right way, or are not able to build relationships.

It is very important for a successful businessman of the new era to be internally unattached to the outcome and to love what they are doing. I read recently a quote by a world leading business coach: «People who are engaged in business that they love, achieve 5 times larger and faster gains than those who do not love their work, who go to work or do business just for the money.»

Andrew Sidlo: Here, I have great difficulty believing that there is a man who has a calling to sell plumbing supplies. I personally do not believe in that, but there people doing it anyways…What then do you mean by «it is necessary to find one’s calling and engage in it.»

Rami Bleckt: On the one hand, I agree with you: we live in an artificial civilization, where most of the needs are fictitious.

What is marketing in western civilization? It is the engine of the western civilization; it is necessary to create more demand. Therefore, you rightly say, most of the people are engaged in the wrong business.

But, if we go back to our plumbing manufacturer that I told you about…he loves his job. And he knows his business, makes people gifts, seniors discounts, he puts his soul there. In just a few years his business doubled, if not more.

And then, if there were no toilets or they were very expensive, then your life would be very complicated in Moscow.

Andrei Sidlo: Is it necessary to find one’s calling first and then develop it? Or can you make your calling almost anything? For example, you are engaged in the processing of waste, in general it is a needed service. But if we say to a student: «You know, your calling is to recycle garbage…» it is unlikely he will be delighted.

Rami Bleckt: Everyone has his destiny. It’s just that our ego requires a more important mission. Let’s break it down technically.

Sometimes we have to work somewhere not according to our calling, not where we want to work. For example, when there is no money or we have a sick child.

I once went through it: emigrated to another country, we had nothing to eat, and my child was sick. I just went to work where I was offered. Maybe I did not want to, but I had to support and treat my sick child. It was a necessity, a need.

We sometimes have to do what we do not like or love. But a very important rule of successful people is — to love what you do here and now, to be maximally present and work consciously with love.

If we go through life’s lessons successfully, we are given a higher role. Like actors in the theater, if well-proven in the crowd, you are given a higher role.

One of the main rules is — to love what you’re doing here and now, then there is no need to constantly think about our universal mission.

What’s my calling now? To talk to you, to respect you, and to bring maximum benefit to you and to our viewers. Then my calling would be to walk to my car.

Our ego always wants something great to do, something big, and have a monument put up with our face and name on it. The thirst for prestige, glory and grandeur — this is the false ego desires that leads us nowhere.

Andrei Sidlo: Every businessman at some point or another has to negotiate. Everyone wants to win the negotiations. Is it right from the point of view of a spiritually developed person?

Rami Bleckt: The fact is that if we live in harmony, if we understand the laws of nature, we want to win for all…so that I win and my partner wins.

The book of the best-selling business author Stephen Covey «7 habits of successful management» – is the foundation of any, even just a harmonious person. It says: «If you want to be successful for a long time in business, you must also consider the interests of the partner.»

You can say that this is impossible. But I know a lot of multimillionaires, which I advised and led some as a coach – they live it, adhere to this principle for decades.

In nature everything is arranged so that everything serves each other. And with such a position a business thrives. If you have good karma, you can simply somewhere, by chance, hear a certain information and then make a deal using that information. Or you can cheat ten people «earn» a million, and then, again, on the same day the bank will be ruined and you will lose everything.

The law of karma cannot be deceived, nature cannot be fooled. It is said, everything that a person earned in unfair labor, in the next 10 years it will disappear from his life.

Andrew Sidlo: What is intuition and how to develop it? And how to separate the mind games from intuition?

Rami Bleckt: Very good question. Thank you. Harvard scientists about 10 years ago investigated the high-level businessmen. Their findings showed that their most important quality is intuition. One can become a middle manager without an intuition. To go higher intuition is required.

Then they worked on the question how to develop intuition. It turned out that for intuition to work, there must be an element of creativity, you need to spend more time in nature, relaxing. I have several training sessions on the topic-how to develop a strong intuition. In short, to develop intuition, we must have a calm mind, to be unattached to the outcome and be able to accept any circumstance in life.

The attachment to results and greed prevents us from showing our true nature. We no longer hear what intuition tells us. Therefore, whatever billion dollar transaction occurred, it should be understood that in the end everything depends on God: you can prepare well, make the most useful product, but somehow everything can be broken.

When you internally accept this, you become a player or actor in life. This regards any negotiations.

The two main qualities that lead people into poverty is fear and greed. The man who lives in fear, will lose. He can not make the right decision. In order to play in this life, intuitively feel life, we need to internally be unattached to this life and strive to give more than we get.

Giving is not only in terms of money — to give in terms of energy, care and so on.

Also some part of our profit to donate to charity. Thus, we develop non-attachment to money.

Andrei Sidlo : What is charity? Is it necessary? Could it be considered as a purchase of future gains?

Rami Bleckt: This is a very deep question actually. Many think in such a way: “I make money on vodka, on drugs, but I build a temple and I feed the elderly so nothing will happen to me.”According to the laws of karma, we will ‘pay’ for everything.

Eastern psychology says that donations come in three gunas (energies): passion, ignorance and goodness.

Donations in passion and ignorance destroys a man. Such donations do not bring good. For example, you give a beggar money on the street, and he bought the drugs and gave the money to those who are involved in the kidnapping. 99% of beggars on the street — are connected to mafia,that steal, beat up people and children. If you sponsor it, you too will suffer.

When you give money for the sake of glory — a charity in passion, which only increases the ego, nothing good comes out of it.

In goodness — this is the dissemination of knowledge and wisdom. And the best part — it’s not just to feed, provide food, it is to teach a person how to make money and make their living.

I can say, based on 25 years of experience – if I work with poor people, there is one level of consciousness. Rich, successful people have different energy level, other values. Therefore it is very important to change our values.

And true charity – when we raise the consciousness of others, help others to become harmonious, knowledgeable and loving.

Andrei Sidlo: Man sold several tons of vodka, and then went to the church stood there, bowed his knees and all. It would seem that he is making a donation in goodness, is there some kind of happiness from this act?

Rami Bleckt: It’s better than if he sold vodka and bought drugs for himself and his family. But the laws of karma are very thin.

For example, the man sold the vodka, another man bought and drank it, got frozen in the cold and died, he left the family — his wife and children. In the next life, the vodka seller will face the same situation. Such are the laws of karma.

I had a closed seminar in Hungary near the hot springs, in nature. One of the men who came there, with his wife, was a very rich businessman. And suddenly at the beginning of the seminar, he had to be taken to the hospital with a heart attack, he barely survived. Two days later, when he was brought from the hospital, I met him.

He has a good karma, he was not supposed to have such problems with the heart. I saw in his subtle body, that he strongly worsened his karma in recent years. I asked him what he was doing. He proudly replied, «I sell vodka. I’m the biggest trader of vodka in our region. » I began to explain to him: «You must understand, according to your chart, your energy and fate, you could make that amount of money otherwise. You destroy people’s lives. Thanks to you, Russia is full of alcoholics.”

For me it is an example of how a man earned his living on the suffering of others. Reasonable people do not accept donations from the sale of vodka and other drugs.

Andrei Sidlo: You touched a little bit upon the theme of generations. Is there some influence of parents? The parents of our parents in the way we are conducting business?

Rami Bleckt: Of course.

Andrei Sidlo: But our parents grew up in the Soviet Union. They did not even have the word “business”.

Rami Bleckt: That is why it was hard for us in the ’90s and 2000s. But now there are more good, harmonious, high-level businessmen. Also we see more business coaches in Russia. We are changing, it is a new reality. Our children, too, will be different.

Andrei Sidlo: In many cases, people’s parents were not successful in business. Nevertheless, people are making some progress. How does the relationship of generations work here?

Rami Bleckt: We were influenced not only by our parents, but also (sometimes to a greater extent), grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. We have been influenced by our destiny, our psychological type, our education, communication in this life.

Andrei Sidlo: If our parents could not give us any knowledge in these matters, then who can? We know that a person develops spiritually, provided that he has a spiritual teacher. Self-development is difficult. In business who can be a teacher to us?

Rami Bleckt: There is a very good example that answers your question, a book «Poor Dad — rich dad.»

We have been influenced by our teachers. And in the spiritual life, in fact, Adi Guru, God — the original guru, who is everywhere and in everything and not only and not necessarily the one who sits in the Himalayas. Same in business, we learn every second. We are teachers to one another. Every second the universe teaches us through some kind of mentor. We live in a time when business knowledge is open. A lot of business knowledge.

Andrei Sidlo: How to distinguish a false guru or true guru?

Rami Bleckt: If you mean business then there are the proven authors. The same Robert Kiyosaki, Stephen Covey, for example. In a business environment, it is possible to check. You can look at their lives, find out what principles they profess, what they achieved themselves and what their readers have achieved.

In my opinion, the Western business psychology now lags behind due to a lack of spiritual component or they use of it to achieve material prosperity.

And I noticed that the strong real coach-authors are successful in their family life.

If you are sincere: «When the student is ready, the Guru will appear.»

Andrei Sidlo : Do you think women can do business?

Rami Bleckt: What do they have left to do sometimes? We are now living in a time of war. Only the war is informational. The war aimed at destroying the psyche of people, their spiritual essence and family values.

Look at the media: all steeped in immorality, sexual abuse of children and the destruction of family values. And so today, many women are forced to be alone and do business. Sometimes even better than man.

Andrei Sidlo: So there are no contradictions?

Rami Bleckt: You know, there are contradictions, and there is — life. We say that a woman is perfect when she’s married, has children.

But, for example, a war took place, and no men returned to the village. This is reality. We have to live in this reality and take into account the time, place and circumstances. There are no clear laws for all occasions.

In this reality, a lonely woman — wants to get married, she tries. But, for example, due to the fact that in the past she committed some mistakes, she is now 30 and she is not married. She must somehow make her life, and realize her creative nature.

But it is extremely important for women to find the activity that they enjoy. Women can not work at a job that they do not like. To do business, which she does not like. In men, the nature created a coarser less impressionable mind, because sometimes it is necessary to unload the wagon and to feed the children. In women it is not like that. It is very important to find a good team and opportunities for realization of creative beginning.

Andrei Sidlo: Very often you write in your books that the world is filled with love. Love and business – do these concepts relate to each other?

Rami Bleckt: Directly. If you do not have love, you will not be successful in business. You can doubt this. But 15 minutes ago, I gave you a scientific fact about the relationship of love and success in business: «People who love the business they are engaged in, are 5 times more successful than those who do not like their job.» The man who cannot love unconditionally, as a rule, are greedy, selfish and jealous. Such people, in most cases, are poor most of their life and unhappy inside.

The more unconditional love is in your soul, the easier it is to manage large projects, because you have less attachment and dependency on this world.

There are greedy people who live for the sake of money. They «do business», having thrown away their relationship with family and children. For a time, they can go towards the money but on the subtle plane, and then on the material plane, their family, relationships, and health will be taken away. People who are full of love, create such business projects, which are then supported by their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and bring benefit to others. But you need to be able to love unconditionally.

And then there will be a strong intuition: a selfish and envious person can not be intuitive.

Andrei Sidlo: We are still very often referring to a term such service. By itself, the term is not very clear, what does it mean – to serve? Does this term apply to business?

Rami Bleckt: Service – is the most important rule. There is a popular book in the West – «Karmic Management». In the West, it is becoming a popular one that works. People are beginning to follow the laws that are described in the book,and suddenly become happy.

One of the rules – you treat with respect and serve everyone who gets in your field. No matter, subordinate to you or a competitor — you see the teachers in each. Each person is a partner to you, you have something to give. Then you begin to invest in employees, the people around you, and to treat everyone as a part of God.

This is a practical philosophy. One of the principles: if you want to sell a product, help others first. From the outside it seems absurd. I know from my own life and from the lives of thousands of people, whom I consulted, how it works.

If a person helps another, he can suddenly gain, if he is not attached. You can help an individual to sell something in China, and you can suddenly receive a call and be offered a profitable deal.

Just a few days ago I advised a businessman: he is very kind, giving, and takes care of others. He says: «I have had assets that I never dreamed of selling, but I had to because of the financial crisis, and obviously during that time the demand is down, but suddenly I was called by a man to whom they are very necessary, and gave me twice as much money for them than they actually worth.»

There are other laws. One of the main components of the people who made quick and successful business —  is luck. They are suddenly lucky. And so to be lucky, we should try to make other people lucky. We can steal and become greedy, not think about the people — we can think this is happiness: so much money, a gold toilet, etc. But this leads us to destruction. Destruction of health and in the end — to an unhappy life.

Luck comes to those who are internally set to giving, who in the past contributed to the success of others.

The law of cause and effect is one of the major laws in the Universe.

Andrei Sidlo: What does a person need to know who has just finished school and wants to be a businessman? Where to start?

Rami Bleckt: First we need to understand that a businessman has one very important quality, if you do not have it, you should not go into business – it is the ability to withstand stress: to be ready to lose everything in one minute.

Who are entrepreneurs? They invest the money and at any moment can be ruined. Therefore, success depends on how much a person has of unconditional love. If you have a lot of love inside, you play, and not attached to anything in this material world. You have no stress.

It is known that during the fall of the stock exchanges in Tokyo, the United States, in one day about 20 suicides take place. Those people could not stand the pressure. They lost millions – they thought all life was over. Do not go there then, because you can destroy yourself.

There are 4 levels of business-personal growth, or more accurately 4 kinds of people trying to make money:

• First — a bad performer. You ask him to do something and it will be spoiled.
• The second — a good performer. You have given instructions, he has executed everything according to instructions and even used his creativity at times. You know that you can rely on him.
• The third — a good entrepreneur — does more than he is told, can operate as a sole proprietorship.
• The fourth — a highly effective leader. You do not explain anything to him. He makes plans and carries them out effectively.

The highest level — this is when a person is not tied to money. I have two friends like that, which in 2008 were oligarchs. The banks told them to return their credit. Banks have taken everything away from them, from multimillionaires they have become negative multimillionaires. Not one of them became a drunk and they paid all their debts. And a few years later they rose again.

One of them has received a new very large project for tens of millions of dollars, approved by the government.

Therefore, the quality of the character — is the most important quality. And one of the qualities that we must develop, especially men — authentic spirituality. It is selfless service, awareness, the ability to internally accept any external situation, while externally taking action to resolve the situation and most importantly a sense of unconditional love.

On the external level, it is important not to be lazy but to be active.

Andrei Sidlo: Thank you very much. Thank you for your knowledge, for the way you present it all to us.