Harry Roberts, a teacher of mine, used to tell a story about how his teacher chose the students he would accept. Many more students wanted to work with him than he could accommodate. His teacher would say to the student, “Go find ten different kinds of plants.” If the student walked away and began looking for plants, she was not accepted. The person who did not leave but instead looked down, standing right where he was, was accepted as a student.

My former company, Brush Dance was founded as an environmental products mail-order catalog. We were one of the first companies in the United States to make wrapping paper and greeting cards from recycled paper. We began with two wrapping paper designs and a few greeting cards and did a test mailing of a one-page brochure to five thousand individuals. The response was encouraging. The next year we produced a sixteen-page catalog, with a variety of wrapping papers, greeting cards, and a few gifts, all made from recycled paper. Again, the response was encouraging.

A year later we began to be contacted by stores and by representatives who sold to stores. We started to see that perhaps we were not a mail-order company but a wholesale company. Two large mail-order catalogs contacted us and placed orders for our wrapping paper that were larger than all our individual orders combined. Though the tests we conducted as a mail-order company got positive results, it appeared that to grow as a mail-order business would require large amounts of capital. I concluded that growing as a wholesale company could be achieved by ramping up more slowly and would require much lower up-front costs. Most important, though most of our energy and resources were being aimed at selling to individuals through our catalog, most of our revenue was coming from selling to large catalog companies and stores.

With this understanding we began to transform the company. For example, as a mail-order business we wanted to offer cards in a variety of sizes. As a wholesale company selling to stores, we needed to offer cards in a standard size to fit into store displays. Instead of marketing to individuals we began to focus on stores and other mail-order catalogs.

Another surprising finding was that people were not drawn to our products because they were made from recycled paper. The feedback we were getting was that it was the spiritual nature of our words and the way we combined powerful words with beautiful designs that was unique. People appreciated that our products were environmentally friendly, but only after they made their purchase. People purchased our products because they were moved by the words and images.
For me, discovering that the company was a wholesale producer of products with meaningful words and not a mail-order environmental products company was like looking down at our feet to see who we really were.

The starting point for integrating Zen practice with your work life is to fully accept and take stock of where you are in your work life right now. You can’t begin where you want to be or hope to be. Regrets are not productive. You are where are you. You learn from what is right in front of you. There is no other starting point, no other truth.

What are the benefits and advantages to your situation, experiences, and talents?
What can you learn from where you are in your work life?
What do you like about your work? What do you want more of?
What do you dislike about your work? What do you want less of?