Copyright 2000, 2009 by Geshe Michael Roach Copyright 2011 by Diamond Wisdom Pte Ltd All rights reserved.

d. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form. The full version of the book, The Diamond Cutter, is published in the United States by Doubleday Religion, as imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. ISBN 978-0-385-52868-9

This FREE book is a summary extract from The Diamond Cutter book, Chapter Seven: The Correlations, or Common Business Problems and Their Real Solutions. You may share this book with anyone as long as there is no changes to the content or whatsoever.

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What Are Your Business Problems?

Are you facing any of these business and personal challenges Company finances are unstable Employees and management around you are fighting one another You find yourself second-guessing your own decisions Always have problems with your business partners You are unable to control your temper, and always angry! Projects you hand out to subordinates never get done You are not able to take a well-deserved rest, and really enjoy a vacation. Years in business world are taking an undesirable toll on your personal appearance. and these are just a few So, if you said Yes!

Its Time For A Change!

If youve tried many different methods and none of them has really worked, maybe its time to try a new way that ALWAYS works This method is taught by Geshe Michael Roach, the first American to have been awarded the degree of Geshe, or Master of Buddhism, after more than 20 years of study in Tibetan monasteries. Geshe Michael is also a prominent international teacher, businessman, philanthropist, best-selling author, educator, public speaker, textual scholar and musician. He graduated with honors from Princeton University and received the Presidential Scholar Medal from the President of the United States at the White House. In 1981, he helped found Andin International Diamond Corporation and brought it to annual sales of over $100 million, with over 10,000 employees in Page 3 of 13

management and production facilities worldwide. The company was one of the fastest-growing firms in the history of New York City and in 2009, Andin was sold to super-investor Warren Buffett, the second wealthiest individual in the United States, for US$250 million. In 2000, Geshe Michael wrote The Diamond Cutter, the Buddha on Managing your Business and your Life based on his experiences at Andin and how he helped it to become so successful. The book has become a best-seller, with million copies sold worldwide, in 20 languages.

So What Is This Method That ALWAYS Work?

Hidden in The Diamond Cutter Sutra, a written record of the teaching given by the Buddha over 2500 years ago, is the ancient wisdom that Geshe Michael used to propel Andin International to over $100 million per year. The title of the sutra itself contains a great degree of secret wisdom, about how anyone can be successful in their business and in personal life. The most important word here is diamond because in the ancient Tibetan way, diamonds represent the hidden potential in all things.

Emptiness A Hidden Potential in all things

Anyone who is fully aware of this potential has access to the very keys for attaining success, both in financial and personal terms. Below is a summary extract of the 46 common business problems and their solutions. According to The Diamond Cutter Sutra, these solutions always work.

No. Problem

Solution
Be willing to share your profits with those who helped you produce them, and be very strict about never making a single penny through any improper actions. Remember, the amount you share with those around you is not what determines the strength of the imprints; rather; it is your willingness to share whatever you have made, even if its not a lot.

1.

Company finances are unstable, in a state of constant flux.

2.

Capital investments like manufacturing equipment, computers, vehicles tend to become quickly outdated or unreliable

Stop being envious of other businesspeople and their businesses; concentrate on making your own company innovative, creative and fun, and dont be unhappy about the success of others.

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3.

Your position in the company is unstable; you seem to be losing your authority.

Be very careful never to treat others around you with arrogance; come down to their level, sit with the troops, listen to those who work with you.

4.

You find yourself unable to enjoy the money and things youve worked so hard for.

Stop comparing yourself to others, just enjoy what you have: Be happy with who you are and appreciate what you have yourself.

5.

No matter how big or interesting your business gets, you always have the feeling that its not enough; you feel driven by a sense of dissatisfaction.

Same as 4.

6.

The employees and the management around always seem to be fighting with one another.

Be really careful never to engage in the kind of talk that has, as either its expressed or implicit aim, splitting up other people. This talk, by the way, could be true or untrue, as long as your primary intent is to cause two other people to end up further from each other than they were before you opened your mouth. This is also known as divisive talk.

7.

You always tend to have problems with your business partners, you fall out with them over and over, no matter how often you change them.

Same as 6.

Comes from 2 disparate sources: 1. Failing to care for your employees and the other management around you.

8.

You find yourself second-guessing your own decisions; you are developing an inability to be decisive in business matters.

2. Representing yourself as something to your customers and suppliers that you are in truth not at all. Always represent yourself exactly as you are-in short, if youre able to maintain a high level of integrity-then your own mind and business decisions will be crisp, decisive, and effective.

9.

You want to make a purchase of another company; you see a business opportunity thats sure-fire but which is going to need some cash, and youre having trouble raising it.

Stop being cheapskate in your business dealings and your personal life. Give, give, give to others; make sure deals are win-win for both sides. Again, its not the amount of money involved, its maintaining-all day long-a truly generous, creative, flowing state of mind that wants to see everyone prosper.

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10.

External failures, what they call acts of God natural problems like bad weather or city infrastructure problems or power shortages are hurting your business.

Be very careful to keep your promises, especially commitments you have made to stick to certain principles in how you conduct your business dealings and your personal life.

Spend some time each day putting your mind, peacefully and in a concentrated way, on the larger questions of life. Would you be doing right now what you are doing right now if you knew you were going to die tonight?

11.

You find yourself unable to concentrate or keep your mind focused when faced with a challenging business situation or decision

Are your priorities in order? Are there bigger questions about the way you live life that you are perhaps hiding from, by throwing yourself in longer hours and bigger deals? Step back and look at your life, and at whats important.

12.

You find yourself unable to grasp broad business concepts, or market patterns, or dynamics like whole manufacturing processes or systems.

Understand that nothing is random and we are to take full responsibility for all that happens to us. Learn about The Diamond Cutter principles, and also; what is the real cause of all the problems thats happening around us? This will helps you to solve the problem.

13.

Rents are too high! Cant find a building to put that new branch location in.

Make sure that you help others find places to stay when you need them. Again it might seem an oversimplification to say that refusing a bed to Aunt Martha when she came into town over the holidays could have anything to do with the failure of your multimillion-dollar branch to find a home, but it fits the rules we have laid out here perfectly.

14.

Companies and individuals in your business world whom you consider especially reputable and capable seem hesitant to connect with you.

This particular imprint is planted by choosing associates poorly. Typically in business we tend to hook up with those who can be of greatest help to us financially-those who can provide serious backing or other needed assets, particular skills or contacts-and under the duress of our particular needs we might overlook some pretty evident problems in potential partners as far as their character, honesty, or other similar traits. One of the main causes for this particular phenomenon is speaking harshly to others. There are 2 types: 1) Those that are in themselves unpleasant words, and 2) Those that are pleasant but intended to be harsh.

15.

The competition is ruthless and always seems to get the upper hand when you go head to head with it.

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16.

Over and over, when you get deep into a deal with anybody, he or she seems to turn around and stab you in the back.

To prevent this problem, try to feel empathy with anyone whos having a problem, even a competitor. Stop taking pleasure, or even small, private feelings of satisfaction, in the misfortune of others.

17.

You think up a major project, design it down to the last detail, work hard to get it up and running, and then, it simply flops.

This again is due to not understanding the way that things really work. The key to success is rather a state of mind, a state of understanding the principles weve put forth here. Projects done with this knowledge, (Diamond Cutter Principles), in this state of knowing, work. Period!

18.

People around you dont step forward to help you out when you need it most.

This again is a result of taking some kind of unhealthy pleasure in other peoples problems. At best, try to step into every situation where you could help out whether its offering an aspirin to someone at the next desk whos having a headache, or pitching in on the last late night of preparing a presentation for a major customer.

19.

You find yourself unable to control your temper, you get angry at employees, customers, the weather, the phone, just about anything!

Anger of this type is an interesting problem in the world of potentials and imprints. It is a result, again, of wishing problems on others-or at least not being unhappy at all to see certain people have a problem. If we really want to success, on any level, on every level, we must seek to stamp out unhappiness in its every form, and within any mind-even in those of people who compete with us for the next promotion, or in the marketplace.

20.

The market and business atmosphere is chaotic; it seems to go up and down without any cause or logic.

Once more, this kind of chaos is a result of a chaotic intention, of wishing failure on others. Disorder on a global level, on a market level, on a business level (whether your own or your competitors), and on a personal level is just another form of unhappiness for whomever is in the mist of it-and we have to reach a point where we wish ill on no one.

21.

Corruption is a problem in your business; in its regulation by government, in the way companies interact, in the way individual employees behave

Consciously take joy in the success of everyone around you-little success, big successes, success by your firm or success by the competition. Admire a job well done, no matter who does it, and refuse to give in to the base emotion of jealousy over another persons happiness.

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22.

As your corporate career moves through the years, you notice small health problems cropping up and steadily starting to become serious.

Go through the company with a new eye: walk from corridor to corridor and peek in on each department. Try to locate any condition that might be impacting negatively on any employees health. Your concern for the welfare of those around you in your firm has to reach a point where its a natural part of your life-in order for your own health to be affected.

This is nothing more complicated than some form of deceit, some kind of dishonesty in the way you make your money. A small exaggeration to a potential customer in order to nail down the first order; a small white lie to an existing customer about why their order is late; a bit of an adjustment on the balance sheet to the blank that floated your last project. Avoid this kind of small-change ethics, avoid even the slightest stretch of your integrity, and youll find that your traditional business approach continues to work just fine.

23.

The market strategies that used to work for you dont succeed anymore.

24.

You find yourself feeling down more often, whether or not the business is doing well. You start to get little bouts of depression or selfdoubt.

Examine how you work with the people who work with you. Do you encourage them to fudge a bit? Indulge in dishonest behavior? All confidence and joy occur when you support honesty and integrity in every sector of your firm.

25.

The people around you, whether fellow employees or managers, customers or suppliers, never believe what you have to say, even when you are telling the truth.

The solution is to be strictly accurate in your words. Remember what lying really entails: giving someone else an impression of some object or event which does not strictly correspond to the impression that you yourself have of this same thing. So complete honesty is what you say is nothing less than assuring the impression which your words leave on someone else matches the very impression you have in your mind.

26.

Whenever you undertake any form of cooperative effort be it a group project, a partnership for some business goal, or the merger of your company with another it doesnt seem to work out.

Always try to see to it that the way you describe things to other people gives them an exact impression of how you yourself see the thing-this is, the result of your words should be that the other party always gets the exact same understanding that you have about the particular object or event.

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27.

You work in an industry where people cheat each other a lot.

Be completely straightforward in all your business dealings yourself, and gradually, you will meet fewer and fewer people who would ever want to cheat you.

28.

Your boss often speaks to you in an insulting way.

REFUSE to continue the cycle of violence. The idea here is that you back off from the violence, even if the other side hasnt yet agreed to do so when you do. You refuse-once, twice, or even a hundred times (Turn your face and show them your other cheek so they can hit that one too)-to respond to an insult with an insult, and in so doing you remove those problems in your life.

29.

You find that the years in the business world are taking an undesirable toll on your personal appearance.

You have to be extremely diligent in watching your own mind for the slightest trace of anger toward another person. If youre really going to be serious about this particular solution-you have to take one step back from the anger and be careful to avoid anger assiduously, even before the causes for an incident of anger have had a chance to convene.

30.

Regardless of how well you do in your work, the people around you are always criticizing you.

The solution for this problem is to be very sensitive about paying attention to how your actions and words affect those around you. That is, before you say or do anything, consider carefully how it might impact on others in the workplace.

31.

Projects you hand out to your subordinates never get done.

This particular problem can be stopped by taking special care to facilitate the work of other people around you in the company. For example, if another division needs a loan of several workers to get a project out that week, you give them up happily-and dont send the dead heads, by the way, give them your best.

32.

The business projects you undertake are smooth sailing at first, and then turn sour.

Take time and care to show your sincere thanks, on a constant basis to those that support you. The main thing is that you maintain, on a constant basic, thoughts of gratitude-that you really appreciate, as you look down at your bowl of cereal in the morning, that hundreds or thousands of people have sacrificed those very precious moments of a brief human life to bring this food to your table.

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33.

In the course of your work, you are often exposed to an unpleasant environment having to travel to and from work in countries where the streets are filthy; commuting through areas with really polluted air; working in a plant where the particular type of product you manufacture requires noxious chemicals; or anything of the like.

Go through your company or department and see if these are any kind of sexual harassment of lewdness going on at any level, and clean it out.

34.

People around you are unreliable. You give them a job, and you are never quite sure if theyre going to come through for you. You have to give 3 different people each single task to make sure it gets done; and you have to keep following up yourself on every little detail an exhausting and inefficient way to work.

Be constant and dependable in a very specific context: in your marriage or similar family commitments. If you want reliable employees, be someone that your spouse and children can count on.

35.

You have no financial independence; you cant be your own person cant make decisions about the things you have earned, especially without consulting others.

Respect the property and space of others very strictly. Draw no resources from others without permission. Also, be willing to share of your resources, for common goals.

36.

In your everyday business dealings, the people around you customers, suppliers and employees - tend to mislead you.

Two Solutions: 1) Be very sensitive to any feelings of pride that you may be a victim of. 2) Avoid the trap of living for the recognition of others; hoping for praise for yourself from others.

37.

No one in the company respects what you have to say; every suggestion you make is ignored or considered stupid, (and used later by the very person who called it stupid, as their idea)

Quit engaging in useless talk! Stop willingly and happily engaging in wasted conversations about sex, crimes, war and politics, and this problem will be solved.

38.

You find yourself afflicted by a lack of confidence; you used to feel very sure of yourself, and now you feel the opposite.

Avoid repeated, half-baked plans that dissipate resources and peoples attention. Talk only of things you really intend to pull.

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39.

You find yourself unable to take your welsdeserved rest; you have trouble relaxing, and never really enjoy a vacation real leisure is beyond you.

Avoid talk which has no sense or point, whether it be gossip or silly ideas or plans that you never intend to act on anyway. The idea is to speak when there is a reason to speak, where there is purpose or action to be fulfilled.

40.

You have a noticeable problem with timing. You get into the market big just before it drops; you get out of a market in the middle of a boom that keeps going long after you pulled out your money. Your new product always seems to come out head to head with a competitors release of a slightly better product. Your commitment to an order from a major supplier reaches him several days after his prices went up.

Again, the problem here is that kind of useless talk where you divert resources and people and minds to plans that-if you think about for a minuteyou never really intend to carry through on. Make very sure then you do what you say youre going to do, and speak no of something you have no real intention of accomplishing.

41.

No one listens when you ask him or her to do something.

Same as 37 Consistently talking about things that have no real importance.

42.

People in your company seem to fight each other a lot.

Stop saying things, in either a malicious or a gossipy way, which will draw other people farther apart from one another. To counter this, go out of your way to bring other people together, wherever and whenever you can, and even in a very minor ways-all day long.

43.

You live in a business and social climate where integrity is simply not respected; where only fools are strictly ethical every hour of their business day where Nice guys finish last.

Dont look outside your industry to try to find another thats more honest; train yourself strictly in integrity itself, in the forceful logic behind integrity, and then just sit back and enjoy the change in your own industry as it happens.

44.

You find yourself losing your touch for business; nuts seem harder to crack now, you have trouble keeping up with the changes around you, you seem slower than you used to be when you grapple with complex business challenges.

The best solution to solve this problem, is understanding how imprints work to create the world around us, and then acting on this understanding by following the path of personal integrity.

45.

The principles of justice dont seem to apply to your life. Whenever you are wronged, be it by a fellow employee or by a competitor, the authorities (meaning your boss or the courts) never seem to give you the help and protection that you were hoping for.

It is essential to understand that, in terms of content, a positive result (business and personal success) cannot come from a negative cause (such as hurting or cheating someone else). Take the time and the trouble to acquaint yourself with the new ideas presented here, with the entire concept that your world is a creation of your integrity, or lack of it.

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46.

You are slowly coming to the realization that, over the length of your career in the business world, the level of your own integrity has noticeably and disturbingly dropped.

The final solution to the final problem, in a book about business integrity itself, is nothing you might ever expect-for the loss of your integrity is a perception forced upon you by your lack of respect for integrity in the past. To put it simply, you have for so long held the unspoken opinion that integrity has no relevance in business that you must now face the loss of your own integrity.

Whats Next?
So, congratulations. You have all the 46 common business problems and their solutions right here for you ! Youre ready to bring your business and personal life to the next level. This Diamond Cutter principles though, are a bit like your new cell phone. Youve figured out how to call your friends on it by now but you know your phone can do about fifty other things that would probably really be helpful at times. Its a question of whether youll have the determination to learn these other functions or just get by with the basic calls. Diamond Cutter principles are the same! We really encourage you not to stop here in developing your knowledge of all the different ways you can use these ideas - all the ways you can make it work deeper and faster for you. So we offer you some options for making yourself a real expert at this because that can only bring you more and more success. Here are five suggestions on where to go from here. 1. Get a copy of the book that started it all- The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life. Read it and use it! A special, expanded edition has just been created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the books publication, all over the world. 2. Get a copy of the book, Karmic Management: What Goes Around Comes Around In Your Business and Your Life. This book is the practical version, where the wisdom of the Diamond Cutter is is simplified into practical 8 steps for you to apply right away into your business and personal life. 3. Contact Diamond Wisdom Pte Ltd. info@DiamondWisdom.sg Just send us an email with whatever question or advice you need, and we will be more than happy to assist you in whatever way we can. Page 12 of 13

4. Meet Geshe Michael personally at his introductory talk. Geshe Michael Roach travels around the world to teach about the Diamond Cutter principles. He will be in this part of the world, specifically Singapore, at least once or twice a year. The talk are usually in the evening, starting from 7:30pm till 9:30pm, over 2 weekday nights. You are now in our mailing list and we will inform you of upcoming talks, if not, you can visit our website: http://www.DiamondWisdom.sg 5. Join us for a 3D2N Diamond Cutter Executive Retreat. We are also organizing a series of 3 Day, 2 Night Diamond Cutter Executive Retreats, taught personally by Geshe Michael Roach and his team of associate teachers. These will usually be held on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and groups are much smaller, giving you a chance to go deeper into the Diamond Cutter principles with a certified associate teacher during the discussion groups. This is a great opportunity to ask detailed questions about your project, business, or career, and have them answered face-to-face. In short, these retreats have so much more impact and power than anything else. We really hope you enjoyed this book, and we look forward to meeting you personally at one our events. Success Always, Diamond Wisdom Pte Ltd

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