Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lessons From the Torah and Other Ancient Texts 9780814412749, 0814412742, 2008010370

Table of contents :
Cover
Jacket
Title Page
Copyright
Dedications
Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Journey Forth!: Conquering Fear
The Four Faces of Fear
Self-Sabotage
TARGETED GENETICS: A COMPANY THAT CHOSE TO LIVE
Fight
Retreat
Learned Helplessness
Meditation
Chapter 2. Nothing Stands Before the Will: Harnessing Willpower to Succeed in Business
Two Divine Desires: An Inner Will and an Outer Will
Elon Musk: Becoming the Rocket Man
Two Desires in Creating a Business: An Inner Will and an Outer Will
Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Become Managers
Discovering Your Inner Will
Combining Passion and Pleasure to Succeed in Business
Follow Your Authentic Will and Overcome Procrastination
Andy Klein’s Crisis of Will
Nothing Stands in the Way of Your Authentic Will
Meditation
Chapter 3. The Humble Path: Taking Ego Out of the Entrepreneur
Pharaoh the Gas Ruach
Countrywide Financial: The Credit Crunch and a Gas Ruach Mortgage Company
Korah the Ba’al Ga’ava
Long-Term Capital Management: Reading: Your Own Press Clippings
Moses: The Most Successful Entrepreneur of All Time
Cisco Systems: Overcoming Ego Clashes in Silicon Valley
Meditation
Chapter 4. Patriarchal Business Models: Creating a Blueprint for Success
Smashing the Competition
Grassroots in the Desert: From the Bottom to the Top
Poor Follow-up Customer Care at Vonage
A New Paradigm Appears: From the Top to the Bottom
Jacob Gets It Just Right
Knowing the Business Better Than Your Competition
Jacob’s True Legacy
Meditation
Chapter 5. Making the Sale: Negotiation Techniques From the Torah
Abraham Negotiates with God
Southwestern Production Corporation: Negotiating over Terms and Conditions Rather Than Price
Jacob Negotiates with His Brother
Moses Understands God’s Position
Cerberus Capital: Solving the Other Side’s Problems
Using Questions and Creating Trust in Negotiations
Verifying the Terms of an Agreement
Meditation
Chapter 6. Dealing With Failure: Handling Failure to Ensure Future Success
Avoiding the Path to Massive Failure
Fixing Our Failures
Daily Failures Lead to Daily Success
MDC Holdings: Too Busy to Fail
Failure, Like Success, Is Deeply Personal
The Man Who Refused to See Failure
Shames-Makovsky Realty Corporation: The End of the Line Is Just the Start of the Journey
Seeing Failure as Freedom: The Second Set of Tablets
Stanley Prusiner: Finding Success in Failure
Meditation
Chapter 7. Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Finding the Holy in Your Work
Three Models of Entrepreneurship
Classic Entrepreneurship
Social Entrepreneurship
MUHAMMAD YUNIS: THE PROTOTYPE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
The Problem with Social Entrepreneurship
Spiritual Entrepreneurship
The Benefits of Spiritual Entrepreneurship
Turning Your Business into Your Own Personal Place of Worship
Meditation
Chapter 8. Think Good: Harnessing the Power of Positivity to Realize Your Goals
Success Begins with Optimism
The Power of Positive Language and How to Harness It
Success Doesn’t End with Positive Thinking
How Positive Thinking Attracts Positive Consequences
The Positive Power of Intention
The Positive Power of Gratitude
The Negative Power of Doubt
Beating the Negative Feelings
Is Your Inside in Sync with Your Outside?
The Hoffman Agency: Uncovering the Genuine
Meditation
Chapter 9. The Way of the Wise: Finding the Right Balance of Character Traits to Succeed in Business
Learning How to Balance by Emulating God
Victor Niederhoffer: Never Bet on Emotion
The Middle Path Between Extremes
Don’t Stop the Carnival—the Rest of the Story
The Quantum Leap
A Fashion Pioneer Loses All His Money in Phony Business Deal
Meditation
APPENDIX a Brief Guide to Jewish Meditation
Index
About the Authors