Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening [Paperback]

Matthew Engelhart (Author), Terces Engelhart (Author), Megan Marie Brown (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2008

In this timely book, authors Matthew and Terces Engelhart present the idea that love before appearances is the antidote to our spiritual, environmental, and social degradation. Exploring topics such as mission statements, manager as coach, human resources as a sacred culture, and inspirational meetings, they offer a manual for building a spiritual community at the workplace—a vital concept in an age when work consumes the bulk of most adults’ time. Business, the authors explain, is all about providing a service, product, or experience the market wants, and no business can succeed by failing to understand this point. However, integrating the concept of “Sacred Commerce” into business can provide both financial success and spiritual satisfaction. Stressing that every business is an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of both clients and employees, the Engelharts share the tools they’ve learned in their own enterprises to fulfill this vision. Sacred Commerce is the ideal mix of the personal and the practical—a guidebook written by people who have felt success, not just spent it. Dissatisfaction with work is at record levels, and the Engelharts show that you don’t have to suffer personally—or give up your humanity—to pay the mortgage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“We are avid fans of anyone who can truly make a difference in these challenging times. Café Gratitude is a model for a successful business, and Matthew and Terces have proven they understand the importance of bringing respect, reverence, and love into the workplace. We’re thrilled they have chosen to graciously share their wisdom and experience with this book. There’s hope for us all.”
—Woody Harrelson and Laura Louie, environmental activists and cofounders of Voice Yourself

“The Engelharts have an intriguing and preposterous notion: Companies can now serve as centers of self-realization and CEOs can nurture a business community’s spiritual transformation as well as a healthy bottom line. This is cutting-edge stuff and I’m cheering them on.”
—Chip Conley, Founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality

“Café Gratitude is in the humankind business. The Engleharts’ commitment to a sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling business presence is hopeful in an era of cynicism and indifference. I have benefited from and am inspired by their valiant stand for making love the bottom line.”
—Michel Franti, musician and filmmaker

“Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening blends quotations from famous religious and political figures (Rumi to St. Francis of Assisi to Gandhi) with the couple’s business philosophy and anecdotes from their experience to provide either an instruction manual or a manifesto—or both—for doing business that honors people’s lives.”
—Easier Being Green

“Reading [Sacred Commerce] has completely changed the way I look at business. Of course there is nothing wrong with paying the bills, but if we are not enjoying the process and offering something of value to the people who need it, what is the point of business?… Terces and Matthew Engelhart break down their thoughts on making commerce sacred, and it really struck home…”
—unCooking101

About the Author

Matthew and Terces Engelhart are the owners of Café Gratitude, a popular organic vegan restaurant chain in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Terces is also the author of I Am Grateful, a recipe and lifestyle book based on their restaurant. They live in San Francisco.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; First Printing edition (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556437293
• ISBN-13: 978-1556437298
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uninspiring and uninformative, May 16, 2008

By 

Deborah L. Soltesz "deborah lee" (Flagstaff, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening (Paperback)

"Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening" offers to share tools for building a spiritual community in the workplace, developed by the authors in running their own businesses. While the book does tantalize the reader with a few interesting ideas, it falls short of the mark with poor organization, inadequate introduction to concepts, lack of detail, and non-productive distractions.

The authors expect a great deal from the reader, perhaps writing to an audience of Buddhist capitalists who are already familiar with Sawaf and Gabrielle's "Sacred Commerce: The Rise of the Global Citizen," various popular self-help books, and stories written on Starbucks coffee cups. New terms are frequently used without definition and without strong enough contexts for the reader to be able to do more than guess at the meanings. Combined with these undefined terms is an abuse of the English language (intended to be cute or catchy) that makes the text often confusing and difficult to read, coming off as meaningless drivel at the best of times. Some of the ideas and terms border on offensive, such as the idea of the business manager as a "shaman," probably because the authors fail to sell the reader on the core concepts.

While the book does present one or two guidelines for implementing their methods, and a few exercises that suggest ways to put their ideas into practice, mostly the "tools" are scantily presented with insufficient explanation, few illustrative examples, or sufficient detail to make the techniques and ideas particularly useful or even understandable. In general, the book is poorly organized, almost appearing to be a random collection of chapters with no clear transitions from one topic to the next, and something that appears to be a glossary (but on close inspection, is not) inserted in the middle. Hopefully, when the finalized version hits the shelves, it contains the promised "Appendix" (not found in the advanced reading copy read by this reviewer).

The text is riddled with distractions that fail to lead the reader to the point and often detract from the flow. Spiritual quotes interrupt rather than inspire. The authors imply self-doubt or defensiveness in the form of negative statements, such as "Our Sacred Enterprise... is often accused of being a cult..." that add nothing to the reader's understanding and diminish the book's credibility. Other seemingly random or out-of-place statements and anecdotes simply leave the reader wondering what the original point was.

Priced similarly to best selling classics in the genre (for example, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" or Lencioni's business fables), this very thin book does not deliver the same bang for the buck. Short on content and failing to inspire, "Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening" comes off as a mildly interesting, sketchy outline of a book-in-progress, or worse, an advertisement for a trendy restaurant chain disguised as a professional improvement book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Business as it should be, May 11, 2008

By 

Billie Jo Kariher-dyer "India's Mom" (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening (Paperback)

In "Sacred Commerce, Business as a Path of Awakening" business is not a usual. Matthew and Terces Engelhart show how a profitable business does not have to follow the common pattern of business that measures success with dollar signs alone. Their new book discusses an approach to business that recognizes the importance of the employees well being and the experience of the guest first.
This book follows a step by step approach to implement a business practice that is also a spiritual practice. A place where profit, awakening, sustainability, and service can work together to make a work place that gives everyone who experiences it an opportunity to grow spiritually instead of a workplace that restricts the time you have to spend on your spiritual life.
While the book itself is not long in length it is filled with a series of very short chapters that explain each and every point made. I found that instead of making the same statement over and over in slightly different ways the writing style of this book was more about using an economy of words to make a point. Yet it was necessary to take your time and ponder over each and every sentence to be sure not to miss a single point. Most chapters ended with the opportunity to put into practice the point that was made in that chapter.
Having come from Years of work in the food service industry I would have loved to have worked in a workplace much like the one the Engelhart's have created. Now that I have my on business as a sole proprietor I hope to find ways to also incorporate some of their principles in the work I do. While I do not have any employees in my business I know that I can implement these practices with my clients and the way I approach business on a daily basis.
This book is a must read for anyone who struggles with the desire to maintain their spirituality while following their passion in the business of their choice. Being a spiritual business owner is the change that the world needs at this time while many other businesses have lost their ability to serve the communities that they are earning their living from.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book, September 11, 2010

By 

Dayna Lowe (San Juan Island, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening (Paperback)

We've been exploring socially conscious ways of operating businesses. This was one of several books we've read on the subject. They've used some really unusual techniques to change the energy of the business they are running. It was fascinating to read about.
I don't think I could work in the environment they've created but I can see where it could be very beneficial to a number of people. We've
pulled a number of ideas out of this book that we are working to incorporate in our business structure. It is worth the read, not only for the good ideas but as a way to stretch the limits of what we think might be possible as far as employee interaction goes.