What Does “Business is Business” Mean?

How often have we heard that statement?  What does it mean?

The way I have heard it and read it seems to pretty much be summed up in “All’s fair in love, war and business.”  Really?

Success is great.  Profit and a positive balance sheet are wonderful.  You cannot be in business and stay in business unless you cover expenses and hopefully make a healthy profit and perhaps development/expansion money.  I know from being a small entrepreneur in the construction business for years.  I know how difficult and sometimes depressing it was to work hard and scramble to pay bills and support my family.  I also know how very nice it was to finally make some pretty good money and feel like my efforts were being rewarded by more than just an excellent reputation.

I worked hard for the reputation from day one.  For several years I had a partner and we shared a commitment to do a top level job.  I took that commitment even further when I continued on alone in the business after we ended our partnership.  It is kind of simple.  I want to do excellent work and take really good care of my customers.  It is also good and fair to be paid well.

The “Greed is good” mantra that ran wild on Wall Street and appears to still be quite healthy today reflects “All’s fair in love, war and business” taken to the nth degree.

To quote an often-used but excellent question, “So how is that working for you?’

Winning all the time against everyone may work very well for Donald Trump, but that is not how I want to keep score.  We are hearing different inner voices.  I want to give generously in the quality service and product, and get paid well to do it.  And if I choose to give away some of what I do, that is my choice, and sometimes it is important and right for me to do that.  I am blessed to know that I am not just on this earth to make money.

I once heard a very spiritual young man I knew say, “Well, God is God, and business is business.” My reply was basically, “What the hell are you talking about? Do you just put your spiritual self on a shelf when you are doing business?”

For me it is highly important and inseparable to bring the deepest and best of me along whatever I may be doing.  I am not promoting any particular religion but rather the notion of showing up with the fullest, brightest version of ourselves, which includes ethics, morality and generosity of self.  Too often I think that business is sorely lacking in this guiding light, and people pay the price in one way or another.

The New York Times recently ran a major expose on life at Amazon, and it is not a pretty picture, unless you think that as an employee you essentially owe all your waking hours to the company.  There is some backlash to the article from defenders of Amazon and its culture, but the existence of its culture of expecting a continually higher commitment and level of contribution from employees does not seem to be in question.  Employees are encouraged to challenge and even disparage ideas, work and number of hours being put in by others.  People have been let go for the time they took to deal with their own or family members’ serious health issues.

While even burnt-out former employees might acknowledge that they found new levels of work and output  they did not know they had in them, they commonly said they were expected to sacrifice everything to the company.

Amazon is not alone, either, in its expectation that employees embrace the business as their “raison d’etre” without a second. 

And so, “Business is business,” and “All’s fair in love, war and business” at what cost?  Is it worth stress-related illness, mental breakdown, breakup of families and relationships, poor self-care and the malaise of a very unbalanced life?

I don’t think so.