• Upstate New York
• Privately-held
• Revenues $1-15 million
• Corporate Divestitures: parent company public or privately-held

• Location local in Upstate NY or worldwide
• Public or private entity
• Corporate buyer
• Personal buyer with entrepreneurial experience

IBV Insights        

for the week of June 7, 2010

Somewhere early in my mid-life journey, I found myself calling it a time of soulful excavation. As a few years have passed, and having explored any number of converging paths toward wholeness, integrating mind, body and spirit, integrating spiritual and work life, a recurring theme has been the awareness that my body’s physical challenges are my teacher. I can’t really call any of them illnesses per se, but I have become more and more aware that my choices regarding what I think, feel, eat, and do, deeply affect my overall well being, and most important, the quality of life I am determining into my maturity.

Considering that I plan to live to be 110, it’s imperative that I live well today to ensure that I live well for years to come! I used to say, “I’ll take 78 good years,” but I have come to learn that I have a lot of work to do, and won’t be finished with my assignment by that time. I need a few more years, and fully intend to live them fully!

Along the line of this pattern of thought, I realized that just as our bodies are our teachers, so, too are our clients. Consciously or unconsciously, we choose to work with prospects and clients who bring powerful lessons into our lives – if we choose to acknowledge – and learn from – them. Usually the lessons we refer to are the mundane, practical lessons that enable us to grow into savvy business people. The lessons to which I am referring, however, are on a deeper psychological and spiritual level.

As in every other arena of our lives, in business, too, we choose people who are either our mirrors, our teachers, or both. The business relationship is never only about the transaction. The mundane results are what we focus on - the product(s), service(s), the sale, the follow-up, and of course, the relationship(s), relative to the business.

But how many of us really pay attention to what is happening beneath the surface? Thinking about what’s going on when we are miffed by a client’s attitude? Frustrated when a prospect strings us along closing the deal or signing the contract, and when we allow that to happen, making the process arduous, and fraught with hand wringing, as well as with anger as the time to closing the deal adds up, and our hourly rate dwindles to a fraction of our true value.

Have you ever stopped to think what patterns with prospects and clients you are repeating? And how many are mirrored in your personal lives? It’s uncanny – they’re all related!

Our lives are totally integrated, and the problems or inner work that we need to do in our personal lives, face us in our work life. And just as our emotional challenges manifest in physical ailments, the emotional challenges we have with clients can also result in physical challenges. Our work is to recognize the patterns behind the challenges, and to decide to change them. How???

Well first off, don’t expect to change newly acknowledged challenges with the same emotional toolbox you used to solve earlier, simpler challenges. Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity – “doing the same thing over and again, expecting the same results.” The Ithaca area is rich with healers, coaches, therapists, and others who have unique skills to assist individuals to reach their higher potential.

Investing in oneself requires a deep value in one’s highest potential. In working to conquer one’s challenges, the greatest opponent is one’s ego. While the ego deserves an important place in the affairs of humans, it needs to be reeled in, and kept in check, so our higher selves may emerge, and do their good work with mankind.

If you’re experiencing difficulties at work – with co-workers, employees, employers, customers, vendors…look inward and be open to exploring what it is in you that is screaming to learn. I guarantee the challenges you feel you’re leaving at the office, you’re actually encountering again at home. Look at your challenges as your teacher. Do a “post mortem” on business transactions, whether they are daily sales, or involve selling or purchasing office equipment. And be ready to change.

“Change is the essence of life. Be ready to surrender what you are for what you could become.” Anonymous

To read any of my past articles, visit our blog, or, go onto the Lansing Star Online, and read my articles in Business Notes, on the Business/Tech page!