Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening
by Matthew Engelhart, Terces Engelhart
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Book Summary Information
Author: Matthew Engelhart, Terces EngelhartForeword: Megan Marie Brown
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-06
ISBN: 1556437293
Number of pages: 136
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Book Reviews of Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening
Book Review: Uninspiring and uninformative
Summary: 1 Stars
"Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening" offers to share tools for building a spiritual community in the workplace, developed by the authors in running their own businesses. While the book does tantalize the reader with a few interesting ideas, it falls short of the mark with poor organization, inadequate introduction to concepts, lack of detail, and non-productive distractions.
The authors expect a great deal from the reader, perhaps writing to an audience of Buddhist capitalists who are already familiar with Sawaf and Gabrielle's "Sacred Commerce: The Rise of the Global Citizen," various popular self-help books, and stories written on Starbucks coffee cups. New terms are frequently used without definition and without strong enough contexts for the reader to be able to do more than guess at the meanings. Combined with these undefined terms is an abuse of the English language (intended to be cute or catchy) that makes the text often confusing and difficult to read, coming off as meaningless drivel at the best of times. Some of the ideas and terms border on offensive, such as the idea of the business manager as a "shaman," probably because the authors fail to sell the reader on the core concepts.
While the book does present one or two guidelines for implementing their methods, and a few exercises that suggest ways to put their ideas into practice, mostly the "tools" are scantily presented with insufficient explanation, few illustrative examples, or sufficient detail to make the techniques and ideas particularly useful or even understandable. In general, the book is poorly organized, almost appearing to be a random collection of chapters with no clear transitions from one topic to the next, and something that appears to be a glossary (but on close inspection, is not) inserted in the middle. Hopefully, when the finalized version hits the shelves, it contains the promised "Appendix" (not found in the advanced reading copy read by this reviewer).
The text is riddled with distractions that fail to lead the reader to the point and often detract from the flow. Spiritual quotes interrupt rather than inspire. The authors imply self-doubt or defensiveness in the form of negative statements, such as "Our Sacred Enterprise... is often accused of being a cult..." that add nothing to the reader's understanding and diminish the book's credibility. Other seemingly random or out-of-place statements and anecdotes simply leave the reader wondering what the original point was.
Priced similarly to best selling classics in the genre (for example, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" or Lencioni's business fables), this very thin book does not deliver the same bang for the buck. Short on content and failing to inspire, "Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening" comes off as a mildly interesting, sketchy outline of a book-in-progress, or worse, an advertisement for a trendy restaurant chain disguised as a professional improvement book.
Summary of Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening
In this timely book, authors Matthew and Terces Engelhart present the idea that love before appearances is the antidote to our spiritual, environmental, and social degradation. Exploring topics such as mission statements, manager as coach, human resources as a sacred culture, and inspirational meetings, they offer a manual for building a spiritual community at the workplace?a vital concept in an age when work consumes the bulk of most adults? time. Business, the authors explain, is all about providing a service, product, or experience the market wants, and no business can succeed by failing to understand this point. However, integrating the concept of ?Sacred Commerce? into business can provide both financial success and spiritual satisfaction. Stressing that every business is an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of both clients and employees, the Engelharts share the tools they?ve learned in their own enterprises to fulfill this vision. Sacred Commerce is the ideal mix of the personal and the practical?a guidebook written by people who have felt success, not just spent it. Dissatisfaction with work is at record levels, and the Engelharts show that you don?t have to suffer personally?or give up your humanity?to pay the mortgage.Success Books
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