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How’s That Working for You? The Practice of Right Livelihood
My first company, Brush Dance, originated 30 years ago (that’s hard to fathom!) as an environmental products mail-order catalog. Our first product was wrapping paper made from recycled paper. We were one of the first companies in the United States to produce wrapping...
10 Benefits of Integrating Mindfulness Practices within Your Work
Company Time is a series of one-day and weekend retreats that I have been co-leading at Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farm* for the past 20 years. These retreats are for people interested in integrating mindfulness practice and work practice, for those looking for ways to...
Interview: Metta Hour With Sharon Salzberg
Marc Lesser speaks with Sharon Salzberg on the Metta Hour podcast about how he came to the path of meditation and how his personal practice has evolved to inform his career as a leadership coach. They discuss his book, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader, and some of...
Be Radical in your Work and your Life
When my son was a teenager he once said to me, “Dad, I just don’t get it. Why do people spend so much time doing what they don’t really enjoy, just to get ahead or to make money? Don’t they get it? Don’t they see that we are all going to die?” I thought this was a...
It’s What You Do: The Practice of Skillful Action
One of my most difficult business decisions was letting go of twelve people in one day. This was at a time when my former publishing company, Brush Dance was pursuing an internet strategy. In just a few months we had grown from ten to twenty-two employees. Then, six...
11 lessons from my time in a Zen Kitchen that helped me run my Business (and my Life)
My first week as head cook of Tassajara* was exciting and challenging. I had completely underestimated how much food it took to feed one hundred and forty people a day. By my fourth day on the job, we had almost completely run out of food. (Tassajara is two hours from...