My Business Mentor from Caesarea Cappadocia
Do you ever read business books? I'm talking about the kind that tell you how to be a better boss, how to advance your career, how to manage your business more efficiently - those sorts of books. I've read a lot of these. I especially like Peter Drucker's books.
How about biographies of prominent business leaders? I just started that recent biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It's a pretty long book, but it might be worth spending some time on it. Jobs was certainly prominent and, besides, I like Apple products.
But I've found that you can get some pretty great ideas from our Catholic tradition - from sources that weren't written specifically to give advice on business. If you've read this blog, you know that one of those sources I go back to has been the Rule of St Benedict. Now here's another example of someone who I think we can look to as a business mentor: St Basil.
When St Benedict wrote down his Rule for his monks, he specifically referred to his spiritual "father" St Basil. St Basil had written a well-known monastic rule several centuries before.
(If you've never thought about how a monastic rule applies to our work lives, here's one way.)
When I recently read a short biography of St Basil, I was struck by how he worked. He's known for his holiness, to be sure. (He's a saint after all!) And he's known for the monastic rule he wrote. But his whole life can be an inspiration to all us Catholic men at work.
Not only did he organize monasteries and provide a rule for the monks to follow in pursuing their days of prayer and work, but he stood firm against the Arian heresy that divided the Church at the time. I don't think we appreciate how awful this heresy was then. Not only did the Arian's deny Christ's divine nature, but their position had the backing (for a time) of a lot of the political leaders back then. And if you stood for the Truth and opposed the heresy, there were consequences.
(Think about how the government's trying to force Catholics to support abortion and contraception and you get some idea of how government power can try to threaten your faith.)
Not only did St Basil guide his monks and publicly oppose the Arians, he wrote theological works (his greatest being "On the Holy Spirit") and built many social and charitable institutions in Caesarea like schools, hospitals, hotels for travelers (traveling was quite a bit dicier then than it is today) and shelters for orphans, all run by religious staff that he recruited.
Just stop and think about all this and then think about your busiest, most challenging days at work. I have, and it's quite amazing to me what St Basil was able to accomplish. In fact, St Basil didn't even live 50 years, and he accomplished all this!
Can you see where St Basil might be good mentor for those of us whose work days are busy and challenging? (Personally, I derive more inspiration from the great St Basil than I suspect I'll derive from reading about Steve Jobs.)
Sure, we all have to juggle a lot during the work day. And we all have to balance our work lives and our family lives. And we all have to make time for God in the midst of all that.
But next time all this seems a bit overwhelming, turn to a great saint like St Basil. Nothing against Steve Jobs, of course. But, really, there's just no comparison between those "great" business leaders and our great saints, is there?
How about biographies of prominent business leaders? I just started that recent biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It's a pretty long book, but it might be worth spending some time on it. Jobs was certainly prominent and, besides, I like Apple products.
But I've found that you can get some pretty great ideas from our Catholic tradition - from sources that weren't written specifically to give advice on business. If you've read this blog, you know that one of those sources I go back to has been the Rule of St Benedict. Now here's another example of someone who I think we can look to as a business mentor: St Basil.
When St Benedict wrote down his Rule for his monks, he specifically referred to his spiritual "father" St Basil. St Basil had written a well-known monastic rule several centuries before.
(If you've never thought about how a monastic rule applies to our work lives, here's one way.)
When I recently read a short biography of St Basil, I was struck by how he worked. He's known for his holiness, to be sure. (He's a saint after all!) And he's known for the monastic rule he wrote. But his whole life can be an inspiration to all us Catholic men at work.
Not only did he organize monasteries and provide a rule for the monks to follow in pursuing their days of prayer and work, but he stood firm against the Arian heresy that divided the Church at the time. I don't think we appreciate how awful this heresy was then. Not only did the Arian's deny Christ's divine nature, but their position had the backing (for a time) of a lot of the political leaders back then. And if you stood for the Truth and opposed the heresy, there were consequences.
(Think about how the government's trying to force Catholics to support abortion and contraception and you get some idea of how government power can try to threaten your faith.)
Not only did St Basil guide his monks and publicly oppose the Arians, he wrote theological works (his greatest being "On the Holy Spirit") and built many social and charitable institutions in Caesarea like schools, hospitals, hotels for travelers (traveling was quite a bit dicier then than it is today) and shelters for orphans, all run by religious staff that he recruited.
Just stop and think about all this and then think about your busiest, most challenging days at work. I have, and it's quite amazing to me what St Basil was able to accomplish. In fact, St Basil didn't even live 50 years, and he accomplished all this!
Can you see where St Basil might be good mentor for those of us whose work days are busy and challenging? (Personally, I derive more inspiration from the great St Basil than I suspect I'll derive from reading about Steve Jobs.)
Sure, we all have to juggle a lot during the work day. And we all have to balance our work lives and our family lives. And we all have to make time for God in the midst of all that.
But next time all this seems a bit overwhelming, turn to a great saint like St Basil. Nothing against Steve Jobs, of course. But, really, there's just no comparison between those "great" business leaders and our great saints, is there?
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