On Collaboration

In August 2024, traveling, I managed to read a few books on HR and Geshe Michael Roach’s The Diamond Cutter — where he shows how the values of Tibetan monks can be put to work building a thoroughly modern, thoroughly successful business.

A lot of the ideas stuck with me — ideas about how we think and how we choose to deal with the outside world, with competitors, even with the people we count as enemies. For instance:

— Stop envying other entrepreneurs and what they’ve achieved; put your attention on your own business.

— Don’t try to win at the expense of your counterparts or competitors. Instead, grow the market together, so that in the end everyone earns more.

— Have compassion for those who fall on hard times, even if it’s your competitor.

— “Be good to people on the way up — you may meet them again on the way down.”

— Dream up and imagine how to create new, inexhaustible wealth, instead of pouring all your energy into carving up the existing “pie.”

— Be glad for other people’s success.

— Don’t pass up the smallest chance to help someone, even in a trifle.

— Believe that on any market and in any business, decency, honesty and integrity can lead to success — even when, right now, it looks like the shady schemes and the scammers are winning.

— Remember that our own actions shape the possibilities the world opens up toward us. The way we treat others becomes possible toward us, too. And the other way around.

The simple takeaway is this: the moment we step into a fight meaning to beat someone, we automatically create the conditions for that same contest — one where others are aiming to beat us (and there may be more of them, and they may be stronger, than we first assume). But when we look for allies everywhere, even in the small things, together we create new markets, new possibilities and new wealth — wealth that runs past our notions of scarce resources and limited cash flows.

As the saying goes: “Don’t divide the pie — make it bigger.”

The personal computer and the internet are a fine example of creating a new source of wealth. Few of the internet companies ever set about mercilessly destroying each other in the fight for market share. They created an entirely new market — one that stays rich and abundant to this day, for the big players and the startups alike.

Here’s to expanding our markets through collaboration! 😎