It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that this isn’t personal, it’s just business. It’s as if we can somehow get out of our human bodies and become this other entity called a business. That seems ridiculous to even think about.

Leadership master, John C Maxwell published a little book in 2003 with a very interesting title. The title is There’s No Such Thing As Business Ethics. In the preface, he says, “There are no such things as business ethics–there’s only ethics. People try to use one set of ethics for their professional life, another for their spiritual life, and still another at home with their family. That gets them into trouble. Ethics is ethics. If you desire to be ethical, you live it by one standard across the board.”

In the second chapter, John Maxwell discusses one of the greatest guidance systems ever conceived: The Golden Rule. It is commonly stated as doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. I learned this rule at a very young age, and as I have remembered it and brought it freshly to my mind periodically, I see that it has served me as well as anything possibly could.

Following your heart and living by The Golden Rule? Isn’t that the same thing?