The Future of Business - with Guest Ayman Sawaf, co-author of Sacred Commerce

Listen Now to Ayman Sawaf on Sacred Commerce

Sacred Commerce, The Rise of the Global Citizen Sacred Commerce is a groundbreaking book which explores the past and the future of commerce. It tells of the Merchant Priests of ancient Egypt who practiced it and the skill of emotional alchemy they mastered in their pursuit of beauty goodness and truth. This book completes Ayman’s work on the map of Emotional Intelligence and its four cornerstone models as explored in his international best seller “Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations”, co-authored with Dr. Robert Cooper. The central principle and ‘engine’ of culture is no longer religion, nor politics as was the case in the past. Like it or not, commerce has become the primary force propelling our species and human society forward. We are witnessing a commerce-centric (r)evolution, a whole new form of ‘conscious capitalism’, wherein business transactions the world over will become the main conduit of social and cultural evolution. Sacred Commerce reverses the common assumption that business and spirituality are mutually opposed, and instead looks at business as a path of destiny. The notion of capitalism infused with the sacred expands the notion of profit with the concept and the reality of the fourth bottom line: spirituality. Commerce, that intrinsic and basic function of exchanging goods and services, can ‘within this context’ raise human culture to a level of sacredness that otherwise might not be attained while placing those who practice it on a trajectory of accelerated growth. Sacred Commerce advances the idea that commerce can be a vehicle to raise consciousness as well as a path towards Self-realization: a spiritual current. Imagine a global economy that empowers local economies around the world—from the largest to the smallest—to prosper and flourish with dignity and equality. A global marketplace where the spirit of partnership and responsibility transforms emotions of anger, fear and jealousy into passion, compassion and empathy. Where the natural flow of information, ideas and resources between different segments of society and across cultures transcends the unconscious exchange of baseless commodities—uniting and exalting, rather than dividing, people around the world.