Ines Lopez

Business: the activity of making, buying, selling or supplying goods or services for money

Oxford dictionary, accessed online 3 March 2024 https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/business

The Oxford dictionary connects money to business. What if that wasn’t the case?

For me a business means you are creating or doing something and you want to share it with the world. Others can benefit from what you are offering through the value you are providing. And you seek a compensation as exchange for it. Energy doesn’t die or end, it just gets transformed. So it is the same with your talent. It issuing circulated or exchanged in some way. That is all. I don’t believe the exchange should necessarily have to be money. It could be anything that you consider valuable as a compensation for your work, knowledge, effort and/or skills.

This constant identification with business and money has many consequences. Because money is extremely entangled in our subconscious and our life experiences. And much of our relationship with money comes from patterns and behaviours we lived through as kids and our parents learned from their parents. Some people are able to transcend them but it doesn’t happen without a huge amount of personal growth work.

If you read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, you will learn that actually money is a made up concept. It has value because we as a society decide every day that we want that piece of paper, or number in the bank to have value and to accept it and use it as a means of exchange. Or as Victoria Washington says, money is just an object. It is not truly associated with your abundance or your wealth. You can have millions in the bank and still feel poor.

Whatever feelings you have about money they are just that, your feelings. Everyone has different experiences and beliefs with money. if you think good people can’t have money then you will be conflicted when a person you consider good gets money. The truth is there are all types of people with money. Money doesn’t judge who you are, otherwise society would be very different.

Your beliefs are infusing money with that energy. If you think money is evil, you will constantly find examples of that. If you have that belief and then want to have better living conditions, for which very likely you will need money, how do you expect to have a peaceful relationship with money? It wouldn’t be coherent to hate something and expect that hate not to come back at you somehow. Everything is connected in one way or another.

I am not crazy enough to deny that most businesses are seeking money. Yes they are. In my own business I also use money as part of the exchange. But sometimes, depending on the circumstances, I accept and even propose a different means of exchange. And I don’t think for a second that changes the value or benefit of my work. Neither do I think it means that I am not doing a business deal or my business is not operating in that agreement. So for me business and money are not an exclusive relationship.

In the personal growth industry seems to me there are two very different approaches to business and money that actually are on opposites sides of a particular polarity: the meaning they give to money and to their own work.

Some people believe or feel very strongly that money is a bad thing. That is dirty and a “necessary evil”. And therefore struggle immensely with the concept of asking an economic exchange for their services. They believe they will taint themselves and their work if they do. Some even judge others when they seek that exchange. As if doing so would demote what they are doing. When for me, people sell good and bad stuff. There is high quality and low quality that is provided for free. The same for stuff that you buy at any price level. I realised long time ago more price doesn’t necessarily mean more quality. And whether you place a price tag on something doesn’t make it better or worse, unless you want to give it that meaning and energy. What often happens on high ticket items is that the buyer may feel more invested in the purchase because the work they had to carry out to have the resources that lead to the purchase makes them value the item they bought more. And therefore they use it with a different intention subconsciously that if it was something they got for free. But that is the personal motivation within the client, a total different energy and game from the business provider setting a price.

Yes people do all sorts of things for money, desperation and human survival sometimes play a role there. It is hell on earth being without means to get food, have a safe roof over your head or health. Sometimes is pure greed feed from a scarcity or lack mentality that makes people feel they need more because nothing feels enough. And some people can get very unpleasant when they have a lot of money. But I would argue that unpleasantness (being rude, snobby, stabbing others in the back, wanting to win at all costs) is is rooted in power, not in money.

It is just that in a capitalist system where money and power have become so closely linked everyone ends up thinking that money corrupts you. When perhaps the “corruption” comes from power that is not handled properly, and money just happens to be there because of the economic system we live in.

So all this hate towards money that is worn as a batch of honour by many people in the world has always saddened me. It also leaves me wishing for those people to have a different perspective about money. Why? Because I believe the world would be a much better place. Many of them are amazing beautiful talented and gifted souls that want to help humanity in very different ways. More money in their hands would be a huge improvement for the world as a whole. They could do amazing things with it that would benefit the whole planet. And I truly believe as long as they stayed rooted in their values and power they would remain true, on purpose and “untainted”.

I am not advocating high fees for the sake of high fees. I understand the fees and prices we set on things are hugely influenced in our perception and belief about our own value and the need to generate money for living. They are also influence by our perception of scarcity. Wanting more to fill up some sort of inner hole that we feel we can satisfy with money, things or economic status. But some people probably would benefit from building up their self-esteem so they can adjust their fees to the time that takes them to put things together and the benefit people receive. And stop seeing money as an enemy or a dirty word.

Money doesn’t judge, you are judging money. And in doing so you are preventing your light from getting where you are meant to go. If you are happy where you are economically then all is good. But if you pause and have a think about it, and you are not happy financially then do personal growth work on your perception of money and business.

Sometimes this hate towards money goes even deeper, some people believe that until money is being exchanged or requested they are actually not doing a business. Which is in alignment with Oxford’s dictionary.
I believe this is because in the energetic space there is a huge amount of people with very entailed emotions about money and mostly living on a feminine energy approach. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that. The world surely needs more people to explore and take advantage of the feminine energy side of things. Feeling on what they want to do, how they want to do it, etc.

But negating the fact that you have a business the moment you are sharing yourself in any way with the world I feel demotivates the worth and value you are placing on your own gifts and offerings. The concept of business is what gives your feminine energy some structure and a container of sorts. Your creativity lives in the space of your business, if you wish to share it with others.

You may be exchanging your services or creations for experience. You may be doing it to get confidence in yourself as a result, but you are already doing a business and you are getting something from it. Don’t hide it. Don’t deny it. Honour the fact that you are brave enough to put your dream forward and share it in the world. Not everyone gets to that point. Acknowledge it.

Like money, business is not a dirty word. It is part of human life. You infuse it with the energy and emotions you want to. If you want a business to help others you will be able to achieve that. You will find mechanisms and ways of doing things that serve rather than take. Because it is your business and your intention counts.

I have seen time and time again how that hate towards money and the concept of business has kept gifted people stuck when wanting to reach out to more clients and increase their quality of life. Seeing how someone extremely gifted and with a good heart ends up struggling to get to the end of the month. It happens way too often and I think it has been what has moved me to write this piece.

To try to reach those people and offer a different perspective. What if money wasn’t the enemy? what if all you had to do is work on yourself to change that perspective about money and to develop a strong connection with your power, your intention and your value. So no matter what happens outside you can remain true to yourself as you share your light with the world and help all those you are meant to.

What if you redefined the word business as the container for your creativity, sharing it with others through an exchange?. Knowing that you can create systems and take steps so that your business serves, people, your community and the planet.

The old paradigm of business just taking without control and without restrain is fading away. Be part of the new way of doing businesses that serve you and your surroundings. So together you can leave planet earth better than you found it.