In poring over Rabbi Wayne Dosick’s new book, “The Business Bible — 10 New Commandments for Bringing Spirtuality and Ethical Values into the Workplace,” one is tempted to ask why rabbis feel compelled to write business tomes.
Would one want to purchase a book by Bill Gates called “How Flaunting Anti-Trust Laws Saved my Soul — And How They Can Save Yours”?
From the reviewer’s perspective, the lessons doled out by the men and women of the pulpit tend to work better in a synagogue than in a start-up. And the “Business Bible,” unfortunately, is no exception.
Dosick’s well-intentioned advice is pretty standard. Most of it can be summed up thusly: Be nice, don’t cheat, lie or steal. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Try to avoid gossip. Now, those are all admirable qualities, but they are difficult ones to adhere to — especially in the business world.
One of the more problematic areas of the book is that it tends to contradict itself. Many of the new “commandments” (they tend to blur together) concern treating people with dignity and respect, and practicing the art of “listening.”
Dosick cites an example of an extremely irate person waiting in line for a flight. The person is swearing, stammering and stomping his feet. The airline agent listens calmly without losing his temper. After the fiasco, another person in line compliments the agent and asks how he managed to maintain his cool under such adverse circumstances.
The agent simply replies, “He’s going to Cleveland, and his bags are going to Singapore.”
The moral of this story, according to Dosick, is that lack of respect for other people could result in one’s underwear journeying several continents away. While that makes for a great anecdote, it seems to run contrary to one of the other tenets espoused in the book — “Listening breeds success.”
Perhaps the customer was irate at spending eight hours waiting for a business flight. Shouldn’t the airline have some culpability? That scenario underscores the major flaw with Dosick’s book. Most of the commandments are lessons first delivered by Sunday school teachers, now dressed up as New Age treacle.
There are a few Jewish references in the book, most of them having to do with shtetl sages and scholars. One of the book’s lessons does resonate, however. A mother takes her young son to visit Gandhi. The mother is concerned that the boy eats too much sugar. Gandhi looks at the boy carefully and advises him to come back in two weeks.
The boy does so. Gandhi asks him to quit eating sugar. When the mother asks why it took two weeks to impart the advice, Gandhi shrugs and comments that two weeks ago, he himself was eating sugar.
For this reviewer, that lesson is pretty salient. If one needs advice on how to mend a wounded soul, ask a rabbi. If one needs advice on how to mend an ailing business, consult a marketing expert.