The Global Financial Crisis - It Will Pass

We talk about entrepreneurship, starting a business yada yada but the reality is that most people just want a pay check every month. As we watch this financial crisis strike the world many people will very quickly drop any ideas and dreams of entrepreneurship and everything gets pushed to the back of the mind.

What ever the reasons for this financial crisis are, if you have been following the news on a daily basis one cannot ignore the amount of corporate executives that have been arrested for scamming and what not, this unbelievable mad obsession for money.

Judaism teaches that wealth is a challenge. It is not a bad thing and the one who creates wealth is not evil..but its a challenge. The Talmud teaches us that when a man has one - he wants two and when he has two...mmm why not some more. This is the problem of our society and the culture that we live in. So many people reach the highest levels of wealth and success and yet its still not enough and they feel the need to do what it takes even at the expense of spending years in prison just to satisfy themselves for a moment or two.

In my humble opinion this is the main cause of this global financial crisis.

What can we learn from this crisis? Well, I think the main issue here is that each and every person needs to ask themselves: What is my real reason for starting a business? Is it my obsession for money? Or am I trying to make this world a better place by bringing quality services and products to the marketplace? Obviously the money issue is a critical ingredient here but if your focus is only on the money - this actually may end up 'blinding' you from seeing the real purpose in your business.

Over the weekend I was reading the newspapers. Now if you really want something that will destroy your weekend - by all means read the paper. Its really depressing! In any case I was reading an interview with this former CEO who was running a multi- million dollar company and when the markets started to crash a few weeks ago....so did his company. This CEO was talking about how when times were good before the crash - "the money was flowing in from every direction" ...and what did they do? They partied! and oh boy did they party. The company leadership would take this money and pish it out on parties....but no fear cause "the money was flowing in from every directions". This uncontrolled behavior ripped the guts out of his company.

Is there hope? Of course there is. There is hope when people will begin to understand that its honesty, business ethics, integrity, truth and social responsibility - That builds a business and a strong economy.