by Sasha Allenby
Over the past few years there’s been a ‘new kid on the block’ in the world of wisdom books. It’s a merging of two familiar genres ‘wisdom’ and ‘entrepreneurship’.
These books bring together the best of both the worlds that they represent. They show us how to bring wisdom to the world of business, and how to bring entrepreneurship to the world of wisdom.
In the old paradigm of spirituality, wisdom was kept separate from entrepreneurship. In fact, there used to be a pretty two-dimensional view in the world of spirituality that money was the root of all evil and that those on a spiritual path would do best to renounce it. This kind of mindset came out of more traditional Eastern paths where spiritual teachers were supported by their community so didn’t need to formally charge to earn their way.
The challenge with the old paradigm is that it wasn’t really viable for those living in the West. If you love what you do, and you do it as your full-time thing, then you kind of have to charge to make it work! So for the past decade or so, many businesses that have a predominant wisdom or spiritual center have been coming out of survival mode and moving towards thriving. This has created a new era of books that support those with a wisdom focus to thrive in business in a way that feels aligned to them.
But it’s not just the wisdom world that is benefiting from this makeover. It’s occurring within business books too. When we bring wisdom to the field of business, we help entrepreneurs to operate in a way that is ‘for the people’ and ‘for the planet’. We move away from the old grasping stereotypes of dog-eat-dog in business, and towards a more holistic model where our purpose and our values are aligned with those of the greater good.
Wisdom-entrepreneurs have also been defining their own identity outside of the world of books. The popular facebook group Wisdompreneurs has over 13,000 members, many of whom are actively engaged, and the group is growing by the day. Groups such as this show that wisdom-entrepreneurship isn’t just a fad, but is something that many conscious entrepreneurs are considering.
What Makes a Good Wisdom-Entrepreneurial Book?
If we look at what makes a good book in this field, it’s one that will take you to the intersection of where these two worlds meet, and it will do so with intentionality. It will help you to see the possibility of conscious, people-centred expansion, and share a new vision for the way you operate your business, whether you are a solopreneur or a corporate leader. Chade-Meng Tan’s Search Inside Yourself is now considered a classic in this field. In the book he shares the program that he introduced when he brought mindfulness practices to Google, and the tremendous impact this had on the company as a whole. There are also some newcomers to this sector that are set to take the business world by storm. Catherine Bell’s book, The Awakened Company, is teaching large and small-scale organizations how to operate with more consciousness and has already won the prestigious Women of Influence’s Award of the Top Five Books to Practice Mindfulness in Business.
What I love about books of this nature is that they give us permission to really shine in what we do. Many of us feel more fulfilled in our contribution to ourselves and the planet when we are aligned with our purpose and engaging with passion. Wisdom-entrepreneurial books give us permission to step into the arena in this way. They help us be solution focused and expansive in our thinking, and to engage in our work in a way that is for us, rather than against us.
The future is in wisdom-entrepreneurial books and although they still don’t currently have their own section at the bookstore, over the next few years we are going to see a sharp rise in a trend for them as we evolve ourselves, and our businesses, simultaneously.
Sasha Allenby is a ghostwriter and publishing consultant for thought leaders in the wisdom-entrepreneurial sector. She is author of Write an Evolutionary Self-Help Book: The Definitive Guide for Spiritual Entrepreneurs. She also co-authored a book that was published by industry giants Hay House and was released worldwide in ten languages.