Enterprise Is . . .

12 Apr Enterprise Is . . .

Brothers and sisters, tonight’ Bapak is going to continue to explain to you about enterprises. The word “enterprise” is an English word and therefore it shouldn’t be hard for you to understand it, but Bapak knows that for many of you the concept of enterprise, if you translate it into Indonesian, is Usaha. Usaha means effort, and it also means work. So actually, it means the awakening of the human being. When a human being awakens, he works. This working is actually his duty and his responsibility for as long as he lives in this world. So the meaning of the word enterprise is actually an awakening. This can take many forms and there are many varieties which this effort or this work can take.

Enterprise is something that we cannot put aside because it is part and parcel of living in this world, since it is directed towards fulfilling our worldly needs. Most of you are familiar with a form of enterprise known as employment. Employment is where you work in an organization – it could be a big organization or a small organization – where you have a responsibility or duty and you do that and you are called an employee. Some of you are also familiar with a different kind of enterprise where you stand on your own feet. That is an enterprise where you give the orders and you are the one who receives the orders. In other words, you stand on your own feet. That is another kind of enterprise. But whatever the kind of enterprise, it is a duty or a responsibility that you cannot put aside in this world. [83 LON 3]

And now Bapak would like to come back and give to you again a clearer idea of the meaning of what Bapak means by enterprise. The idea of enterprise is not something that you do just for your own good or for your own benefit. But it is something we do for everybody, for the common good, for the good of our country, for the good of society. Someone who works, no matter what he is doing, is doing an enterprise, providing what he is doing is in accordance with his true talent and his true nature. If he is working for the government, he is doing an enterprise. If he is working privately for himself, he is an enterprise . . .

So when we do an enterprise, we can do it in many different ways; because any form of work is actually an enterprise if it is using what we have been given. To do an enterprise is to make use of that which we have been given by Almighty God, the talent which we have been given by Almighty God. [81 SAO 3]

Every effort, every human activity for ensuring a living is an enterprise, provided that everything you do aims at what is good, aims at what is worthy, aims at wellbeing. [76 CDK 1]

Actually ‘enterprise’ is anything, anything you do, any effort that you make whose purpose is to meet the needs of your life in this world. In other words, it can be a film star, a musician, a lawyer, a doctor, a civil servant. It can be in any field at all provided that in your work you are able to receive, you are able to do your work with a content, with remembering the guidance of the power of God, as Bapak has just described.  [Melbourne, 5 Feb 1978]

And what is an enterprise? An enterprise is work. It is work that you do in order to earn your living. But supposing you are working in an office as an employee? It means you are paid every month a salary, and what that means is that the one who owns the office has bought you. He has bought your effort, has bought your work. So, whether you like it or not, you have to do what he tells you, and he is not going to pay you at the end of the month if you sit in your office doing zikkir like this (laughter). But it is quite different if you are doing your own enterprise. If you are working, if you are buying and selling, if you are making something or working in agriculture – standing on your own feet, you can do whatever you like. It is not so much that you can do whatever you like, but in that position you will begin to know many, many things – everything that you need to know for your life, because you are free to follow the guidance which is within you. Bapak isn’t saying this to you because Bapak wants you immediately to quit your jobs – but it’s like that, it’s true what Bapak is saying (laughter). [77 LAX 3]

Enterprise is an effort that you do in your life in order to find your living, to satisfy the needs of your life. The reason why Bapak talks about enterprise is because God will not give you anything unless you move. If you just sit still you will never receive anything from God. It is only if you move that God will give you something. This is already something you should understand.  This effort, this movement is what Bapak means by enterprises. [81 LAX 5]

As to the enterprises that Bapak proposes, these are not enterprises to be run on your own, so that, for instance, A runs an enterprise on his own, B runs an enterprise on his own….. You should not do it that way. You need to run enterprises jointly and to build up substantial concerns. [72 WAS 1]

Bapak wants to explain to you another thing: When you do enterprises, Bapak doesn’t intend or doesn’t have the idea that each of you separately do your own enterprises. Because everything that we do will become easy, will become light, will become possible, if we cooperate.  [81 SAO 3]