W12 - Do No Harm

What’s a business for?

Well, here we are in the last weeks of the term and I have a confession to make. I’d rather shave with a cheese grater than read the Harvard Business Review. I read the article, it was fine (they always are), but those articles always come across as trying to prove how smart they are, rather than instill valuable business knowledge.

There is a quote from the article that stuck to me though. The article says, “We should, as charitable organizations do, measure success in terms of outcomes for others as well as for ourselves.”

I agree with the article when it said that we need to associate with a cause in order to give purpose to our lives. I think that applies to both our business lives and our personal lives. Purpose is a powerful thing for anyone trying to be a change maker, or to simply make their way in this world. Purpose is not just for the entrepreneur or the business executive. All of us have a purpose. It’s the reason we’re alive on this earth at this time. Purpose helps drive and shape us into the people we will become, in this life and in the next.

Like the article says, for us to be viewed and a friend (and not an enemy) of progress, we must bind ourselves with an oath similar to that of Doctors upon receiving their medical licenses. The Hippocratic oath pledges that the oath taker will do no harm. Our purpose should likewise bind us to the intent to do no harm. This isn’t simply a business principle, it a human principle that has, unfortunately, been cast aside.

The good thing is that we each can decide to take this oath upon ourselves and pledge to have a positive and common purpose. Business should commit themselves, from executive leadership to the newest hire, to improving the lives of all the people it touches. Personally, we should have the same purpose.