Eckhart Tolle: Old Ideas From a New Earth Guru
by Alexander Green, Chairman, Investment U
Investment Director, The Oxford Club
Friday, May 16, 2008: Issue #796
Unless you’ve been living on Mars lately, you’ve probably heard about the “New Earth” phenomenon.
“A New Earth” is the New York Times #1 Bestseller getting a serious push from media mogul Oprah Winfrey lately. The book has sold more than 3.5 million copies since she first mentioned it on her television show in late January. Barnes & Noble reports that it is flying off the shelves faster than all 61 other books Oprah’s Book Club has selected since 1996.
Written by contemporary spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, the book shows “how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world.”
A lofty goal, indeed.
I’ve read the book and can tell you that most of it is quite good. But parts of it are abysmal. Specifically, the brief passages about business and investing. Here are just a couple of examples…
Eckhart Tolle Sees Corporations as Egoic Entities
Tolle says huge corporations “are egoic entities that compete with each other for more. Their only blind aim is profit. They pursue that aim with absolute ruthlessness. Nature, animals, people, even their own employees, are nothing more than digits on a balance sheet, lifeless objects to be used, then discarded.”
How, in the middle of an otherwise admirable book, did I suddenly stumble into “The Portable Karl Marx”?
The surprising thing is, is how someone as bright as Eckhart Tolle can hold such hidebound notions about the nature of business and stock market investing.
- Show me a single Fortune 500 company that cares nothing for people. Businesses exist to fill our every need: food, clothing, medicine, banking, computers, telecommunications, transportation, power, you name it.
- Government can’t provide these things. And small businesses – which are more likely to be service oriented – have a difficult time doing it cost effectively.
- Every successful businessman knows that people aren’t expendable. The customer is king. And employees don’t rank far behind.
No business can prosper for long without attracting and retaining highly skilled workers. Recognize that there will always be tension between what employees believe they are worth and what management is willing or able to pay. But every manager worth his salt knows you can’t have a first-class company without a great team of qualified people.
Eckhart Tolle Sees The Business World A Bit Differently…
Yet Eckhart Tolle sees things quite differently. “Let’s say you are a businessperson and after two years of intense stress and strain you finally manage to come out with a product or service that sells well and makes money. Success? In conventional terms, yes. In reality, you spent two years polluting your body as well as the earth with negative energy, made yourself and those around you miserable, and affected many others you never even met.”
This is so off-the-wall I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Launching a successful business is hard work, yes. But it can be tremendously rewarding, and not just in the monetary sense.
Tolle’s description reminds me of an old Hollywood caricature. You know, scientists are evil geniuses out to destroy the world. Women are delicate creatures who stay home and bake cookies. And businessmen are just greedy crooks who haven’t been caught yet.
Anti-business views like these are nothing new of course. What’s new is that millions of Americans are out there devouring this claptrap right now.
And that’s unfortunate, especially for those who need to generate an attractive investment return. I can honestly say I’ve never met a successful stock market investor who believed that business is basically about greed, exploitation, and dishonesty.
Businesses exist to…
- Provide us with the essential goods and services we need.
- They provide jobs.
- They pay taxes.
- They support local and national charities.
- They mobilize for national security in times of war.
- And – as our readers well know – they provide almost limitless investment opportunities.
Does Eckhart Tolle Know America’s Primary Shareholders?
Bear in mind, America’s primary shareholders are not guys in ten-gallon hats who ride around in the back of limousines. According to Robert J. Shapiro, undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs under President Clinton, 55 million American households with a median income under $70,000 own equity mutual funds.
Common stocks are owned by everyday people – teachers, nurses, policemen, truck drivers, secretaries – who plunk their money into retirement or mutual fund accounts each month and collectively own a substantial piece of the biggest and most profitable businesses in the world.
By doing so, they are able to earn higher returns and pursue the serious goal of a secure retirement.
Is this really so awful? Millions think so, apparently.
Admittedly, businesses don’t always get things right. But neither do non-profit organizations – and certainly not government.
Let’s be thankful that through the “invisible hand” of enlightened self-interest, businesses exist to meet all our economic needs. And, in the process, create many thousands of worthwhile investment opportunities.
Good investing,
Alex
Today’s Investment U Crib Sheet
- While Eckhart Tolle would benefit from an undergraduate course in business, he is an otherwise insightful writer within his book “A New Earth.” For a different take of his views, feel free to read Tuesday’s issue of Spiritual Wealth. And sign up for the twice-weekly e-letter if you like. It’s free.
- Here are two books on The Oxford Club’s recommended book list that delve into the purposefulness of investing, and how enlightened self-interest can also lead to shared communal interest. Eat the Rich – The best investing book in the marketplace on how the world works. It’s so entertaining, that it’s usually found in the humor section – not the economics section – of the bookstore. Disguised in all the fun is a powerful dissertation on why freedom creates incredible wealth.Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip – Legendary investor Jim Rogers, dubbed “the Indiana Jones of finance” by Time magazine, proves that the best way to profit from the intricacies of the global economic picture is to see the world mile by mile.
- John D. Rockefeller is considered by many to be the richest man in history. His inflation-adjusted wealth would translate into $325 billion dollars today. Reviled for some of his business practices at Standard Oil, he retired with the intent to improve society, using his vast fortune for many philanthropic efforts. “I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience,” Rockefeller argued.Individuals will always have differing opinions on wealth and the use of it. The fact is, however, that we live in a world containing greed and altruism. And many of today’s top companies possess these traits.
- But knowing which companies are “responsible” and which ones profit from actions you don’t approve of can be difficult to discern. For this reason, a slew of socially responsible funds have hit the investment marketplace in recent years. Such funds have a careful screening process, making certain only the most upstanding companies make the cut. (Of course, funds that target companies that profit from vices like alcohol, gambling and smoking have surfaced, too.)But be warned, although many socially responsible funds may have the best of intentions, they also have a less-than-enviable track record. A quick look at a list of Social Funds – when sorted by performance – reveals that only one out of 58 has better than a double-digit 10-year return.
- So, just because you respect a company’s ideals does not mean you should throw out the tried-and-true rules of investing. Stick to the basics, which means investing in undervalued companies with strong revenue and earnings growth. Then you can decide what to do with the resulting gains.
- Mines Make Excellent Earth Day Investments
- Vistaprint Limited (Nasdaq: VPRT): Stock of the Day
- Investment Risk: How to Avoid the 4 Most Dangerous Pitfalls of Investing
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