While an important roadmap for established companies, The Awakened Company is vital reading for the entrepreneur and startup. Entrepreneurs often operate in “high-stress” and “high-impact” environments that can lead to myopic, ego attached states where personal vision becomes central and creativity, collaboration, and brainstorming get shut down. Mindfulness, compassion, and trust are generally not the benchmark virtues we attribute to capitalism and the corporate world. Yet, Catherine R. Bell, through extensive research and interviews with leading “awakened executives” practicing “conscious capitalism” proves that these three virtues, when practiced individually lead to high performing companies and employees that excel, are engaged, and satisfied. Catherine articulates how, “Becoming a self-aware human being is the foundation for success in any business.” That “Each team member’s growing ability to observe themselves makes the company as a whole better at learning, spotting trends, keeping abreast of what’s going on in their industry and community, and adapting to current situations.” Catherine explains how attention to the inner self and self observation unfolds in an intricate matrix which dissolves the mantra of “business is business” and brings awareness that business is actually “interwoven with the whole of life” and that companies are, at their core, “human communities.” An awakened entrepreneur, a wise entrepreneur (or wisdomentreprenuer), has the ability to instill these practices at ground zero and inoculating businesses with a higher purpose that aligns work and personal values. The result is an awakened company, awakened executives, awakened employees where profit is an offshoot of loving the work we do and doing the work we love.
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