How Business is Guided by Philosophy and Religion

The first overarching theme of life has to do with people and love. Though love has its manifestations in business — such as the importance of loving your customer, the immediate ramifications of a vague philosophical term such as love is not immediately easy to see. In this article, we will attempt to outline the hidden connections between philosophy and business through the lenses of multiple classic philosophers.

To understand our present day, we must first understand the past.

If we take a major step back and look at the history of the world, we see some astounding feats being accomplished by man. From the earliest laws of Hammurabi to the teachings of Socrates to the musings of Nietzsche, humanity has continued without a flaw to come up with rules and models of the world that show society what is right, just, and good. When considering the previously mentioned philosophers along with the countless other extraordinary teachers throughout history, it is tempting to believe that every great mind offers a potential explanation of the world. A reader and human then only has to choose the explanation that makes the most sense to him or her in the present. No one will ever understand everything. What makes sense to someone in the present is subjectively reasonably, “semi-objectively” true — since there’s no universal truth yet could be debunked by some brilliant philosopher in the future.

This sort of thinking is lazy but very understandable. Life is infinitely complex. Hopefully, you agree with this statement. Most people who study biology, medicine, or physics has likely realized that we will never fully understand every single intricacy and nuance of Mother Nature. We tend to then take this method of thinking and apply to every other field as well.

Forget chance, the world follows patterns and has principles

One of the easiest cop outs for any human being is the phrase “I had bad luck.” Carol Dweck the famous psychologist who pioneered the idea of a growth mindset, says that

We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.

This mentality makes the average person believe that crazy successful people, whether actors, artists, athletes, or business people, are where they are due to their superior genetics or fortunes. One can see this even in sports. One of the most detrimental traits of any high-achieving athlete is excuses. Excuses allow a person to blame the outcome of life on another factor, beyond themselves. In reality, we make millions of decisions over our lives and many of those decisions have the potential to really change our lives. We are in control of how we experience life. After all, that’s what matters right? Would you rather be infinitely happy or have a billion dollars and be miserable?

Now that we have established the presence of these patterns, let’s dig into what these patterns are.

The single most powerful force in the world is love

What is love? We all know what it is. Yet, who of us can describe it? One of the best definitions of love I’ve ever heard comes from 1 Corinthians 13:4–7:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is something that not a single person in this world can live without. There is love present in everything. The greeks categorized love into four types — agape (Godly love), eros (romantic love), philia (friendship), and storge (empathy).

Love is especially important in business. In fact, it is the single most important thing in business. Love is the most important thing in life. That’s how religion and philosophy tie into business. There is nothing better to understand love than religion and philosophy.

Businesses that embrace love will be the most successful

Business is all about people. Ask any veteran banker or CEO. How do you influence people? Through love. There’s no question about that. From a tech industry perspective, the products that address the needs of customers best win. Addressing the hidden or explicit need of people is 100% a form of loving them.

So study up on your Socrates and Augustine if you want to start a hedge fund or the next dating app!