Dear Lurker,

Several others have answered your question quite well. My two cents, as both a practicing Buddhist and a business owner, are these:

1. Buddhism is not a religion; its laws are not laws but rather guide-posts to help you find your own path. When you begin to pressure yourself to live a certain way because Buddhist values say so, you lose sight of the true meaning of Buddhism: strike out on your own and find your own way of existing in perfect harmony with what is around you. If, for instance, we lived in an ideal world according to Buddhist values (instead of capitalist values), then you would of course be able to honour all those principles put forth by Buddhism. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. The answer then lies in finding a balance between who you are and what your surroundings are.

2. The way to accomplish #1 is to pursue a life of self-overcoming, to focus not on others but yourself, to address not external variables such as what other companies are doing but on internal variables such as what you can do best. This shift in mind-state, first, takes much unnecessary pressure off your shoulders and, second, allows you to excel at every facet of your life: personal, spiritual, financial, and so on. This is so because your only goal is to be slightly better today, in however trivial a way, than you were yesterday. Do not worry about the pace of modern day business or about others. Keep your focus within, not without. Be the best person you can be and the rest will take care of itself. This is a natural law of the universe.

May the One-Force be with you.

I am, sir,
Sincerely yours,

Dain Supero