Conscious Business characteristics

[Actualising]

What makes a business conscious and how can we make conscious businesse? What defines a conscious Business. I want to be successful materialistocslly but in a conscious way please assist

[LordFall]

I think transparency and honesty are key factors. A lot of businesses have shady business models that their customers and employees don't understand. Modelling agencies operating as a pyramid scheme is a good example. 

[ryoko]

One thing which will help realising early on is, money is just a means of trade.

You might come across communities which portray money and it's existence as fundamentally wrong. There's truth to it, but also realise this is not a money problem. This is a human nature problem. If the world wanted they could have made the value of stuff elemental. But most trade had always been based off of scarcity and inequality. Money is something which amplified the atrocities and discriminations in the world. Simply because it's an efficient medium for doing whatever humans wanted to do. And it's closely tied to the hivemind. There's no inherent worth. It's not like you can save a dollar bill and expect the same values 1000 years later. Or even have the same quality of life with same money in different places.

One thing you can learn early on is, position yourself where you want to be. Never put yourself in a position where you're stuck in paradigms you don't wanna be part of. Think about Leo's reasons for quitting his Gamedev job, that's a great example. There's more than the eye meets. Contemplate on this.

Everyone deserves a good material life. Don't fall into the trap of demonizing the medium. Sure, human beings may be dumb, but the medium itself deserves no karma loading. Reminds me of the terms like blood-money, drug-money, slave-money, wage-money, free-money. No, there's just money and human nature. Poor money didn't do anything wrong. But that doesn't mean we don't need an upgrade of medium when humans have corrupted the ecosystem of money. So keep an open mind. 

The ecosystem created from money, aka economy, is punishing a lot of people around the world, never be blind to those realities. Know that money is just current expression of our unequal world, before money it was visible through other means. And I bet the future will have other means, more sophisticated. Reminds me of that movie where people trade in time because of genetic engineering advancements. Poor people die fast, rich people are basically immortal. 

It's not a conscious being's job to save all those suffering, trapped in the ecosystem. Life finds ways to equalize everything. You're free to make mistakes, iterate. 

 

Final verdict: there's no such thing as conscious business. All business is unconscious. If you want to be conscious, know the real cost of being part of this game. Accept it, but make the kill regardless. It's pain, but take it in. 

 

Edited September 2 by ryoko

[Bjorn K Holmstrom]

ryoko, this is a characteristically sharp and systems-level analysis. You've put your finger on the core issue: money is a neutral tool that amplifies existing human and systemic intentions, both good and bad.

I agree completely with your diagnosis of the current 'ecosystem.' It is indeed structured around scarcity and inequality, making truly clean participation nearly impossible. Your advice to be conscious of one's position and the real costs of participation is crucial.

However, I'd offer a slight refinement to your final verdict.

Your conclusion; 'there is no such thing as conscious business', is true if we define business only by its current, corrupted form within the extractive capitalist ecosystem. But what if we redefine the ecosystem itself?

As I think Leo said at the end of his last video, 'Why Truth is the Highest Value', evil is not about content; it's the structure of serving yourself at the expense of others. The problem isn't the act of organizing resources and labor to provide value (which is all business is at its core). The problem is the design of the system in which that activity takes place, a system that fails to account for true costs (ecological, social) and rewards short-term extraction over long-term regeneration.

The question then shifts from 'How do I be a conscious business within this broken game?' to 'How do we build a new game with selfless structures and new rules?'

This is where new models and mediums come in, not as utopian fantasies, but as practical experiments in changing the underlying incentives. Concepts like:

• Stewardship Models like B-Corps and Cooperatives, which legally and structurally subordinate profit to purpose and community.
• Regenerative and circular economies that design waste and exploitation out of the system from the start.
• Alternative exchange systems like time banks, community currencies (Ithaca HOURS), and local exchange networks that reward the very things the old system ignores: community care, mentorship, ecological stewardship, and relationship-building, rather than just financial capital accumulation.

These are all attempts to build systems that are structurally aligned with Truth rather than self-service. They are not yet perfect, but they prove that the activity of business can be conscious when the rules of the ecosystem are changed.

So, the final verdict might be less 'all business is unconscious' and more 'true conscious business is impossible within the dominant system, and therefore our primary focus should be on building and participating in new systems.'

To the original poster, @Actualising : your desire to be successful in a conscious way is the right instinct. The answer doesn't have to be to give up and 'make the kill' within a broken system. Perhaps true, integrated success comes from putting your energy into building and supporting these new, more conscious systems. That might be the ultimate act of surrendering your personal success to the success of the whole, a path to a success that's actually worth having.

[Bjorn K Holmstrom]

Hello @Actualising,

Thank you for asking such a crucial and heartfelt question. My previous response to ryoko focused on the high-level "why"; why the current system makes conscious business so difficult. This post is a more direct and practical answer to your question: What defines a conscious business, and how can you start building one?

Based on our discussion, a conscious business is not defined by its marketing or its 'good intentions,' but by its very structure. An unconscious business is structurally designed for selfish extraction. A conscious business is structurally designed for selfless regeneration and alignment with Truth.

Here are four key structural characteristics that define a truly conscious business.

Four Structural Pillars of a Conscious Business

1. Governance: From Dictatorship to Dialogue. An unconscious business centralizes power with shareholders and executives. A conscious business distributes power. Its governance includes the voices of all who are impacted: workers, community members, and the ecosystems themselves.
2. Ownership: From Extraction to Stewardship. An unconscious business is treated as property to be bought and sold for maximum profit. A conscious business is treated as a living system to be stewarded for the long term. Its ownership is designed to lock in its mission forever.
3. Metrics: From Profit to Planetary Health. An unconscious business has one metric: profit. All other costs (social, ecological) are ignored or "externalized." A conscious business uses holistic metrics. It measures its success by its Return on Regeneration (RoR)—its integrated positive impact on financial, social, and ecological well-being.
4. Transparency: From Obfuscation to Radical Honesty. An unconscious business hides its true costs and often relies on manipulating information to survive. A conscious business practices radical transparency. It actively seeks out and reports on its negative impacts and uses Truth as a tool for learning and improvement.

Truth: The Ultimate Metric
While governance, ownership, and transparency are structural, and RoR (Return on Regeneration) is measurable, there is one deeper metric, a meta-metric, that a conscious business must commit to: Truth.
This isn’t just about honesty in the conventional sense. It’s a relentless commitment to seeing reality clearly, especially when it’s uncomfortable.

• Truth in Impact: Actively seeking out and acknowledging your negative externalities, even (especially) when no one is forcing you to.
• Truth in Self-Knowledge: Regularly asking: "What are the stories we tell ourselves about why we're successful? What are we avoiding looking at? Where is my ego, or the company's identity, distorting our perception?"
• Truth in Evolution: Using feedback, from failures, critics, system outcomes, not as a threat, but as the most valuable data for learning and adapting. A conscious business doesn't just report on metrics; it submits to what the metrics reveal.

A business aligned with Truth willingly sacrifices short-term narrative control for long-term resilience and alignment with reality. This is the ultimate competitive advantage in a complex world: the capacity to not be fooled by your own illusions.

Practical Starting Points for Your Journey

So, how do you start? You don't need to build the entire new system tomorrow. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

1. Start Where You Are: In whatever venture you're creating, relentlessly ask: 'Is this product/service creating genuine value, or am I just finding a clever way to extract it?' Focus on building relationships of trust with your customers and community. That is the seed of everything.

2. Cultivate Your Inner Foundation: A conscious business can only be built by a conscious founder. The structure of your company will inevitably reflect your own consciousness. Before you architect your business, spend time architecting your own awareness. Contemplate these questions not as a one-time exercise, but as an ongoing practice:

   - On Motivation: "Is my primary drive to serve a genuine need in the world, or is it to prove my own worth, achieve status, or escape financial fear?" Be ruthlessly honest. A mission built on insecurity will crumble under pressure.

   - On Attachment: "Can I hold my vision for this business with passionate dedication while simultaneously holding it lightly, without attachment to a specific outcome?" This balance prevents you from forcing your will and allows the business to evolve organically to serve the whole.

   - On Shadow: "What parts of myself, my greed, my desire for control, my insecurities, might hijack this venture? How can I create structures of governance and transparency that keep these shadows in check?" Your business can become a mirror for your own personal development.

   - On Interconnection: "When I make a decision, can I hold the perspective of everyone this affects? Can I feel the impact on my employees, my customers, the environment, and future generations as if it were happening to me?" This cultivates the empathy necessary for true regenerative leadership.

3. Study the Next-Generation Models: It's great to learn from Patagonia and cooperatives. But you should also study the next evolution. Explore frameworks like the Regenerative Enterprise Framework, which provides a complete playbook for transforming a company's DNA across governance, finance, and culture.
4. Craft Your 'Transition Thesis': You may need to start with a conventional structure, but you can plan your evolution from day one. Start drafting your own Regenerative Investment Thesis. Ask yourself: What is my 5-year plan to introduce community ownership? What is my 10-year plan to place this company into a Stewardship Trust?
5. Connect with others: You are not alone. Seek out the platforms and communities where these new models are being built and funded. Instead of generic business networks, look into:

• Study New Ownership Structures: Start with the B Corporation community to see how thousands of companies are legally balancing profit and purpose. For a deeper dive into next-generation models that remove extractive ownership entirely, explore the work of the Purpose Economy network.
• Learn from Regenerative Pioneers: Seek out think-tanks like The Capital Institute that are defining the principles of a truly regenerative economy, moving far beyond simple "sustainability."
• Organizations like Purpose Economy or Commonwealth that are developing next-generation ownership and governance models.
• Find Aligned Capital: Explore investor networks like Toniic or community hubs like Impact Hub, where capital is actively seeking to fund the kinds of systemic change we're discussing.

As ryoko pointed out, the current game often punishes conscious choices. The ultimate answer is to redefine success itself. The old model offers the hollow prize of individual success in a broken system. The new model offers the profound fulfillment of contributing to the success of the whole.

@Actualising, what’s the business you’re envisioning? If you share a bit about your idea, we can explore how to architect it consciously from day one.

Edited September 10 by Bjorn K Holmstrom
Adding Truth as a metric

[ryoko]

14 hours ago, Bjorn K Holmstrom said:

This is where new models and mediums come in, not as utopian fantasies, but as practical experiments in changing the underlying incentives

From what I see, these models are just gamified versions of tribal values. Gamification of any sort won't work long term. It's manipulation/social engineering etc. Even if it's good outwardly, they will develop unforseen pathologies. Changing ecosystem is no small feat. And even then, there's already room for unconsciousness, plenty. And infact it's a good thing, it's what allows for efficiency. 

Recently I explored TROM and their concepts. They demonize trade. Their POV might even sound childish at first, "what are they saying, stop all trade? trade was what flourished the global connection, the silk road". In truth, this dynamics of trade-free interactions points to a deeper reality, any interaction which leaves karmic residues will linger around, even if they are not asking anything in return(free trade not equals trade free). A truly complete interaction won't have any karma left, because the act itself is complete. Think about whoever invented electricity, first of all it's not one person's effort and even those who "invented" it were basically an influxion point. If you were to put a price on electricity, it would mean you have to invent it yourself, from scratch. 

Back to my paradigm: there's no such thing as conscious business. That's right, if your idea of a conscious business is doing only good, you're utterly self deluded. When you are making a kill, the best thing you can do is not look away from what it is. Yeah, you are doing a lot of damage just by being part of the system. And it's not like a human can maintain maximum awareness of what impacts they are causing. Being conscious means being conscious of everything. It doesn't necessarily means making a change. You won't change it unless the impact of doing it is killing you. Survival is more important than being "conscious". 

If you try to be "conscious", while what you're actually doing is being moralistic, it will back fire. The term conscious business is such a misnomer. 

[ryoko]

My approach is; keep doing whatever you wanna do. If you see enough, truly, you don't have to worry about change at all. That's one trap of spirituality, you end up uninterested in the world if you really see it, that's perfectly fine, and awesome. "Look at how I framed it 'trap?', it shows deep biases of normative society". If you value business enough. Focus on real skills you love, doesn't matter if the world values it or not. That's my only advice. Don't become a salesman. What would you do if the world is already perfect? What's your vision of a ideal world? does it even have business/money/trade in it? What would you do if you were completely alone in the world? Start from there and work your way backwards. If you interpolate it just right, you will find the stuff you can dedicate your life to. It will take a few iterations. 

There's plenty of room here for selfishness, inaction, intensity, indulgence. Everything is equal no matter what you do. It's hard to explain/pass on this knowledge, imagine you're dead, you'll understand what I mean.

Edited September 11 by ryoko

[Bjorn K Holmstrom]

@ryoko, thank you. Your critique is a necessary purge. It incinerates spiritual materialism and forces a brutal honesty that is the only valid starting point for any of this work.

You are absolutely right.

1. On Gamification: You are correct. Any new rule set, no matter how well-intentioned, can and will develop unforeseen pathologies. The desire to 'design a better system' is still an act of control within the dream of form.
2. On Karmic Residue: You are correct. There is no such thing as a perfectly conscious, karmic-free action or business. To claim otherwise is the self-delusion of a spiritual ego seeking a clean identity. Merely by participating in a complex, interconnected system, we cause harm. True consciousness is to see this without flinching, to feel the weight of that participation without turning away into moralistic preening.
3. On the Spiritual Trap: You are correct. The question 'What would you do if the world were already perfect?' is the only pure starting point. It bypasses the ego's desire to 'fix' and connects action to a deeper source than reaction.

My orientation differs not in disagreeing with your absolute perspective, but in seeing it not as an end point that leads to disinterest, but as the very foundation for a different quality of engagement.

From the mountaintop you speak from, one sees that all games are illusory. But one also sees the specific, intense suffering caused by the current game's rules. The impulse that arises from that seeing is not a moralistic 'I should fix it,' but a creative 'This particular illusion is causing unnecessary pain; what other forms might express interconnection more accurately?'

The work of designing new structures; the governance models, the ownership schemes, the metrics, is not an attempt to achieve a state of purity. That is impossible, as you rightly state. It is a humble, flawed, relative practice: the architectural expression of a deeper seeing.

It is not about building a 'conscious business' as a final, pure product. It is about building a container that allows for a slightly more conscious participation in the unavoidable game of commerce, while fully admitting it is still a game. It is a commitment to reducing measurable harm and distributing power, not as a moral victory, but as a practical acknowledgement of interconnectedness.

You pit survival against consciousness, and for the individual ego, this is true. But at the species level, our collective survival is now dependent on operating from a higher level of consciousness. The current game is becoming self-terminating. Therefore, this architectural work is not a moralistic side-project; it is a survival imperative born from clear seeing.

Your perspective is not a critique to be defeated; it is the essential foundation. It is the ruthless honesty that prevents this work from devolving into another egoic game. It is the sword that cuts away illusion, forcing the work to be more authentic, more humble, and more truly aligned with the Truth you point to.

Thank you for holding that ground.

Edited September 11 by Bjorn K Holmstrom

[Human Mint]

On 9/10/2025 at 8:32 PM, Bjorn K Holmstrom said:

Thank you for asking such a crucial and heartfelt question. My previous response to ryoko focused on the high-level "why"; why the current system makes conscious business so difficult. This post is a more direct and practical answer to your question: What defines a conscious business, and how can you start building one?

Based on our discussion, a conscious business is not defined by its marketing or its 'good intentions,' but by its very structure. An unconscious business is structurally designed for selfish extraction. A conscious business is structurally designed for selfless regeneration and alignment with Truth.

Here are four key structural characteristics that define a truly conscious business.

Four Structural Pillars of a Conscious Business

1. Governance: From Dictatorship to Dialogue. An unconscious business centralizes power with shareholders and executives. A conscious business distributes power. Its governance includes the voices of all who are impacted: workers, community members, and the ecosystems themselves.
2. Ownership: From Extraction to Stewardship. An unconscious business is treated as property to be bought and sold for maximum profit. A conscious business is treated as a living system to be stewarded for the long term. Its ownership is designed to lock in its mission forever.
3. Metrics: From Profit to Planetary Health. An unconscious business has one metric: profit. All other costs (social, ecological) are ignored or "externalized." A conscious business uses holistic metrics. It measures its success by its Return on Regeneration (RoR)—its integrated positive impact on financial, social, and ecological well-being.
4. Transparency: From Obfuscation to Radical Honesty. An unconscious business hides its true costs and often relies on manipulating information to survive. A conscious business practices radical transparency. It actively seeks out and reports on its negative impacts and uses Truth as a tool for learning and improvement.

Truth: The Ultimate Metric
While governance, ownership, and transparency are structural, and RoR (Return on Regeneration) is measurable, there is one deeper metric, a meta-metric, that a conscious business must commit to: Truth.
This isn’t just about honesty in the conventional sense. It’s a relentless commitment to seeing reality clearly, especially when it’s uncomfortable.

• Truth in Impact: Actively seeking out and acknowledging your negative externalities, even (especially) when no one is forcing you to.
• Truth in Self-Knowledge: Regularly asking: "What are the stories we tell ourselves about why we're successful? What are we avoiding looking at? Where is my ego, or the company's identity, distorting our perception?"
• Truth in Evolution: Using feedback, from failures, critics, system outcomes, not as a threat, but as the most valuable data for learning and adapting. A conscious business doesn't just report on metrics; it submits to what the metrics reveal.

A business aligned with Truth willingly sacrifices short-term narrative control for long-term resilience and alignment with reality. This is the ultimate competitive advantage in a complex world: the capacity to not be fooled by your own illusions.

Practical Starting Points for Your Journey

So, how do you start? You don't need to build the entire new system tomorrow. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

1. Start Where You Are: In whatever venture you're creating, relentlessly ask: 'Is this product/service creating genuine value, or am I just finding a clever way to extract it?' Focus on building relationships of trust with your customers and community. That is the seed of everything.

2. Cultivate Your Inner Foundation: A conscious business can only be built by a conscious founder. The structure of your company will inevitably reflect your own consciousness. Before you architect your business, spend time architecting your own awareness. Contemplate these questions not as a one-time exercise, but as an ongoing practice:

   - On Motivation: "Is my primary drive to serve a genuine need in the world, or is it to prove my own worth, achieve status, or escape financial fear?" Be ruthlessly honest. A mission built on insecurity will crumble under pressure.

   - On Attachment: "Can I hold my vision for this business with passionate dedication while simultaneously holding it lightly, without attachment to a specific outcome?" This balance prevents you from forcing your will and allows the business to evolve organically to serve the whole.

   - On Shadow: "What parts of myself, my greed, my desire for control, my insecurities, might hijack this venture? How can I create structures of governance and transparency that keep these shadows in check?" Your business can become a mirror for your own personal development.

   - On Interconnection: "When I make a decision, can I hold the perspective of everyone this affects? Can I feel the impact on my employees, my customers, the environment, and future generations as if it were happening to me?" This cultivates the empathy necessary for true regenerative leadership.

3. Study the Next-Generation Models: It's great to learn from Patagonia and cooperatives. But you should also study the next evolution. Explore frameworks like the Regenerative Enterprise Framework, which provides a complete playbook for transforming a company's DNA across governance, finance, and culture.
4. Craft Your 'Transition Thesis': You may need to start with a conventional structure, but you can plan your evolution from day one. Start drafting your own Regenerative Investment Thesis. Ask yourself: What is my 5-year plan to introduce community ownership? What is my 10-year plan to place this company into a Stewardship Trust?
5. Connect with others: You are not alone. Seek out the platforms and communities where these new models are being built and funded. Instead of generic business networks, look into:

• Study New Ownership Structures: Start with the B Corporation community to see how thousands of companies are legally balancing profit and purpose. For a deeper dive into next-generation models that remove extractive ownership entirely, explore the work of the Purpose Economy network.
• Learn from Regenerative Pioneers: Seek out think-tanks like The Capital Institute that are defining the principles of a truly regenerative economy, moving far beyond simple "sustainability."
• Organizations like Purpose Economy or Commonwealth that are developing next-generation ownership and governance models.
• Find Aligned Capital: Explore investor networks like Toniic or community hubs like Impact Hub, where capital is actively seeking to fund the kinds of systemic change we're discussing.

As ryoko pointed out, the current game often punishes conscious choices. The ultimate answer is to redefine success itself. The old model offers the hollow prize of individual success in a broken system. The new model offers the profound fulfillment of contributing to the success of the whole.

@Actualising, what’s the business you’re envisioning? If you share a bit about your idea, we can explore how to architect it consciously from day one.

Hi, I wonder, are you using chatGPT? The structure is identical to the ones the IA spits. I am not judging but I would like transparency. If not, what is your field of study? Sorry for the interrogation.

[Bjorn K Holmstrom]

10 hours ago, Human Mint said:

Hi, I wonder, are you using chatGPT? The structure is identical to the ones the IA spits. I am not judging but I would like transparency. If not, what is your field of study? Sorry for the interrogation.

Good eye, I appreciate the directness. You're right to notice, I didn't use ChatGPT here directly, but I do use advanced AI models as collaborative thought partners to sharpen my language (I'm not a native English speaker) and stress-test ideas, through a method I've termed the SCI cycle. My background before Global Governance is work in Applied Mathematics and studies in Engineering Physics.

[Dauntment]

Read "Conscious Capitalism" by John Macky