MEDITATION AND BUSINESS SUCCESS: CEOs discussing the benefits of their Transcendental Meditation practice at a Town Hall event in New York, March 2016. From left to right: Bloomberg TV’s Stephanie Ruhle; Barry Sommers, CEO of the Consumer Bank for JPMorgan Chase; Horizon Media CEO Bill Koenigsberg; Tupperware Brands CEO Rick Goings; and David Lynch Foundation Executive Director Bob Roth. Photo: Austin Ayers/The David Lynch FoundationThe days when meditation was seen as an ascetic withdrawal from the ‘marketplace of life’ are long gone. Many of today’s top CEOs are drawing on their own personal experience as they link sitting in silence with worldly success and a blossoming career.
Meditation, an investment that pays off big
GETTING YOUR TEAM TO DIVE WITHIN: Ray Dalio is an American businessman who has built many principles of Transcendental Meditation into the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. Dalio has been regularly included in Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people.“There are higher and higher stakes—by the age of 22 [in the startup world] if you haven’t founded your second company you can feel like a failure,” says Heather Hartnett, CEO of Human Ventures, a “startup studio” that comes up with ideas for businesses and finds entrepreneurs to develop them. “It’s more important than ever that young people have tools to manage stress.”
To anyone even slightly informed about the effects of meditation, the pointer is obvious. It has been shown by rigorous scientific research that techniques like Transcendental Meditation (TM) significantly reduce physical and emotional stress, sharpen creativity and increase the ability to make great decisions in complex situations.
At a workplace where the CEO meditates, both social relations and professional efficiency tend to flourish.
Firm foundations of success: Calm, clarity and wisdom
Barry Sommers, CEO of the Consumer Bank for JPMorgan Chase, says if he has to choose meditation versus sleep, it’s meditation all the way. “One of the things I’ve really noticed is how well I sleep. The quality of my sleep has improved, and I don’t need as much,” Sommers says.
“TM gives you time. And what I mean by that is it gives you energy,” Scott Miller, CEO of management consulting firm G100 Companies, agrees.
“I find at the end of the day when I’m reviewing lists—and not doing much about them, just reading them again and again—if I meditate for 20 minutes I will have that feeling from the morning. That first cup of coffee, just getting to the office feeling. TM resets me.”
KEEPING ONE’S COOL: When stock and bond markets took a dive into the maelstrom of the global financial crisis, hedge fund manager David Ford kept his cool. As prices dropped, he overcame the impulse to flee with the rest of the herd and, instead, bought more corporate bonds, Bloomberg Pursuits reports. After two decades as a trader, Mr Ford credits his serenity to experience – and to the 20 minutes he spends in his pyjamas each morning repeating a meaningless mantra bestowed on him by a teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM) two years ago. “I react to volatile markets much more calmly now,” says Mr Ford, 51. “I have more patience.”And as the mind settles and calms down, clarity and wisdom naturally emerge.
The benefits of this can be enjoyed by everyone. Not only by the person who meditates, but by all his / her colleagues, employees, business partners and clients too. It’s still business, but with its raw, self-damaging edge replaced with something far more wholesome and sustainable.
Read more about successful CEOs who regularly practice meditation:
Marnie Abramson, real estate
Ramani Ayer, insurance
Bruno Grollo, construction
Megan Larsen, beauty products
Rupert Murdoch, mass media
Nouriel Roubini, consultant and academic
Edward Saatchi, IT solutions
