Business and Salesmanship By JOEL GOLDSMITH S. Business and Salesmanship By JOEL GOLDSMITH S. Willing Publishing Company 251 So. San Gabriel Blvd. San Gabriel, California Copyright, 19'47 by Joel S. Goldsmith Seventh Printing, 1968 Printed in the United States of America "Unless the Lord build the bouse, they labor in vain that build it" Psalm 127 Illumination dissolves all material ties and binds men together with the golden chains of spiritual understanding; it acknowledges only the leadership of the Christ; it has no ritual or rule but the divine, impersonal universal Love; no other worship than the inner Flame that is ever lit at the shrine of Spirit. This union is the free state of spiritual brotherhood The only restraint is the discipline of Soul, there- fore we know liberty without license; we are a united universe without physical limits; a divine service ta God without—ceremony or creed. The illumined walk without fear by Grace. (From the book, "The Infinite Way.) Digitized bythe InternetArchive in 2011 http://www.archive.org/details/businesssalesmanOOgold BUSINESS .Business always seems to be dependent on certain conditions, circumstances and sea- sons, or on the good will of other persons. In the human picture business is effected by weather, finances, changing modes and fads, but turning from this picture we find that in reality business is the continuous activity of Principle; that this activity is infinite and harmonious, and that it is maintained and sustained by Principle itself. Christian metaphysics, revealing the spir- itual nature of business, aids us to lift our thoughts regarding all commercial activity to the place where the true idea of business is apprehended. Every idea, and your busi- ness is an idea of Mind, is supported by the animating Principle of the idea. "When an idea begins to work in thought, it furnishes all that is necessary for its equipment, estab- lishment and nourishment/' Adam Dickey. BUSINESS AND SALESMANSHIP Business is an infinite activity, is forever without limit, and is never dependent on person, place or thing. Right where you are, business is. It is a result of and resident in individual consciousness, because individual consciousness is the universal Consciousness individually expressed. If we go about our tasks doing those things that lie nearest at hand, with faith that there is an ever-pres- ent, invisible power which the Hebrews call Emmanuel, or "God with us," and which Christians call the Christ, our work will al- ways bear fruit. This omnipresent and omnipotent power is the Presence of God prospering all right endeavor. It is only in the degree which we believe that it is either some personal effort of our own or another's, or that it is thegood will of humans that prospers us, which causes apparent failure or lessening of fruit- ful activity. The prophet Isaiah clearly re- minds us to "cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted for." The point to remember is that at all times, and in all places, there is an invisible BUSINESS and omnipotent power acting to support every right human effort; and the way to demonstrate this is recognize and acknowl- edge the presence and power of God and rely on it. Business, spiritually understood, is the reverse of the usual conception in which every thought must be held to profit and loss and good policy and bad policy, or that which is or that which is not "good busi- ness." This business is never at the mercy of times and tides or circumstances and con- ditions, but is the free How of the activity of Mind universally expressed. Lack and limitation exist only in the belief that God and man have become separated from each other. The true understanding of man's relationship to God reveals the ever- presence of supply, the immediate availabil- ity ofgood in every form and in an unlimited quantity. Spiritual truths cannot be intellectually discerned, yet they may be unfolded to our consciousness as the result of understand- ing thoughts received from the intellect. Be- fore we can understand the meaning of at- BUSINESS AND SALESMANSHIP one-ment with God, we must learn of our real relationship to Life, and for this pur- pose we may use a material symbol, as, let us say, a diamond. Every cut diamond has numerous facets. Not only is it true that each facet is part of the diamond, but actually there can never be any separation between the facet and the diamond, because the diamond and the facet is one, one piece, one object, one whole. If you can visualize the relationship be- tween the facets and the diamond, you will, even though faintly, catch a glimpse of your inseparability from God. You will note that every facet expresses the life, fire, color and quality of the whole diamond; that each facet reflects the purity and the quality of the gem; and that the entire activity and all the beauty and durability of the stone is ex- pressed in each individual facet, and never is any single facet detached or detachable from the whole gem. Beauty, color, fire, character, quality and strength are inherent in the diamond and it expresses each and all of these attributes through every facet. The 8