Success Through Transformation

Dear Mr. Turak,

Thank you August for sharing your video (Business Secrets of the Trappists: How the Power of the Monastic Tradition Will Transform Your Business and Your Life.) with us. I am encouraged to see that our hearts and spirit are being talked about in the mainstream organizational world. I think that it is time and people are longing to hear it. But I am not clear what it is that you are offering to the customer with your work and would like to know.

Beth

Dear Beth,

Thanks so much. What I’m offering is more successful people and more successful organizations in the here and now and an optimistic vision of hope for the future. I have had a long career, both as a line executive and an entrepreneur and this background adds “teeth” to my arguments. Service and selflessness is not some pie in the sky concept I channeled between tree hugging sessions. It works. I’ve been in sales all my life as a salesman, sales manager, sales executive, and as the CEO of a sales driven organization. The key to sales success is putting the needs of the customer first. It is in the self interest of the salesman to forget his self interest. This is the hardest thing in the world to “train.”  It requires an epiphany. It is a “change of heart.” Take care of the customer and commissions take care of themselves. This is sales 101. The challenge you and I face in the business world is to use examples like sales to connect the dots between theory and practice. For example, I recently used my management philosophy of service and selflessness to boost revenue by 10% for a company in NYC. All of this revenue, by the way, went to the bottom line. While I am strategic I am not an “advice” guy. I get in there, roll up my sleeves, and after I’ve identified the problem/opportunity, I run the implementation hands on. My message of hope is that through the example of the monks we have an ancient yet emergent socio-economic model that does not dismantle the capitalist system but instead transcends it. I hope this helps. Thanks again for your encouragement. It helps me keep going.

August Turak

Dear Beth,

What I believe makes Mr. Turak’s vision for selfless leadership so inspiring is: 1) it is open to anyone and does not require a particular faith association, even while at the same time it is VERY supportive of a person’s faith, for example as a Christian and 2) it does not look at “profit” and “giving” as in ANY way opposed to each other. The irony of all of our postmodern intellectual “accomplishment” is that we have managed to “explain away” nearly everything of significance in our lives and are left with nothing but uninspired, cynical, “rationalism.” While it might allow us to feel smart, it doesn’t serve to get us out of bed in the morning. Mr. Turak is giving HOPE to a generation (at least mine) STARVED for something, ANYthing to believe in. I should also add that my most recent company, Yext, brought Mr. Turak in to help us organize and scale our sales organization. Not only was he able to infuse many of the values mentioned in Business Secrets of the Trappists, but he also literally brought a 10-15% increase in revenue (straight to the bottom line) within 2 months through sheer creativity and inspirational leadership. This is not an “ivory tower” concept, but one that can be applied directly and immediately to anyone’s life or business, and Mr. Turak has and continues to live that.

Ed Cheely