Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lessons from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts

257 Pages·2008·0.8 MB·English

by  Levi Brackman

Jewish Wisdom for Business Success
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JEWISH WISDOM
for
BUSINESS SUCCESS
LESSONS FROM THE TORAH AND OTHER ANCIENT TEXTS
Rabbi Levi Brackman
AND
Sam Jaffe
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brackman, Levi.
Jewish wisdom for business success : lessons from the Torah and other
ancient texts / Rabbi Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1274-9
ISBN-10: 0-8144-1274-2
1. Success in business—Religious aspects. 2. Entrepreneurship—Religious aspects.
3. Economics—Religious aspects—Judaism. I. Jaffe, Sam. II. Title.
HF5386.B735 2008
296.3'83—dc22
2008010370
© 2008 Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of AMACOM, a division of American Management Association,
1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In honor of Torah scholars throughout the ages
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CONTENTS
Introduction xi
Acknowledgments xix
1. Journey Forth! Conquering Fear 1
The Four Faces of Fear 3
Journey Forth! 23
Meditation 24
2. Nothing Stands Before the Will: Harnessing
Willpower to Succeed in Business 27
Two Divine Desires: An Inner Will and an
Outer Will 28
Two Desires in Creating a Business: An Inner Will and an
Outer Will 33
Discovering Your Inner Will 36
Combining Passion and Pleasure to Succeed in
Business 39
Follow Your Authentic Will and Overcome
Procrastination 40
Nothing Stands in the Way of Your Authentic Will 46
Meditation 47
3. The Humble Path: Taking Ego Out of
the Entrepreneur 49
Pharaoh the Gas Ruach 51
Korah the Ba’al Ga’ava 57
viii Contents
Moses: The Most Successful Entrepreneur of
All Time 63
Meditation 70
4. PatriarchalBusiness Models: Creating a
Blueprint for Success 73
Smashing the Competition 74
Grassroots in the Desert: From the Bottom to the Top 78
A New Paradigm Appears: From the Top to
the Bottom 82
Jacob Gets It Just Right 86
Knowing the Business Better Than Your Competition 88
Jacob’s True Legacy 91
Meditation 93
5. Making the Sale: Negotiation Techniques from
the Torah 95
Abraham Negotiates with God 97
Jacob Negotiates with His Brother 102
Moses Understands God’s Position 104
Using Questions and Creating Trust in Negotiations 113
Verifying the Terms of an Agreement 115
Meditation 117
6. Dealing with Failure: Handling Failure to
Ensure Future Success 119
Avoiding the Path to Massive Failure 120
Fixing Our Failures 121
Daily Failures Lead to Daily Success 125
Failure, Like Success, Is Deeply Personal 129
The Man Who Refused to See Failure 131
Seeing Failure as Freedom: The Second Set of Tablets 136
Meditation 142
7. Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Finding the Holy
in Your Work 143
Three Models of Entrepreneurship 145
The Benefits of Spiritual Entrepreneurship 160
Contents ix
Turning Your Business into Your Own Personal Place
of Worship 163
Meditation 165
8. Think Good: Harnessing the Power of Positivity
to Realize Your Goals 167
Success Begins with Optimism 170
Success Doesn’t End with Positive Thinking 173
How Positive Thinking Attracts Positive
Consequences 174
The Negative Power of Doubt 182
Is Your Inside in Sync with Your Outside? 187
Meditation 192
9. The Way of the Wise: Finding the Right Balance of
Character Traits to Succeed in Business 193
Learning How to Balance by Emulating God 194
The Middle Path Between Extremes 202
Don’t Stop the Carnival—the Rest of the Story 204
The Quantum Leap 207
Meditation 211
Appendix: A Brief Guide to Jewish Meditation 213
Index 219
About the Authors 231