Doing Virtuous Business

Doing Virtuous Business was a good book.  It took me a bit long to read, but I finally got through it.  This was not a book that was written by someone who was bashing capitalism or making money, lots of money, however, Malloch he talks about the virtues needed in order to virtuously do business. 

The book talks about some historical things as well as philosophical things.  I think there is a good meld of contemporary philosophies with God's philosophy.  This helps one understand better why our systems are as such in a capitalistic society.  He also goes into talking about companies that do have good virtues, and that begins from the top down.  If the top is corrupt, that infiltrates to the lower forms.

At the end of the book, he cites examples of companies that he considers are virtuous, that overall follow Biblical principles and how God has blessed them.  Sometimes our society considers godly spiritualism synonimous with being financially poor and down trodden, that you cannot have wealth and be spiritually aligned with God, which is totally incorrect.

Malloch goes in depth about the virtues of faith, hope & charity.  And, something I never heard about until reading his book were hard and soft virtues, but they make sense.  The hard virtues are considered:  leadership, courage, patience, perseverance, and discipline.  I was set straight and had a number of false beliefs here.  Each individual person owes these in their lives. 

Then, there are soft virtues:  justice, forgiveness, compassion, humility, and gratitude.  These are virtues I practice regularly in my life, but I found that the hard virtues I used to practice (albeit, askewed), that now I need to incorporate those back into my life.  Malloch discusses at length each of the soft virtues in how they relate to business.  As a Christian, it's not hard to see the soft virtues as things we need in our lives, but I got to see a clearer picture of this in how it relates to business.  And, it isn't always easy to do this in business when in a capitalistic society, can be ruthless and displaying these virtues can seem to be a sign of weakness.

I will need to reread this book more carefully and not extend it out to weeks, rather just a few days so I can get the full impact of the message, pray as to how God can help me to create businesses and have them be Virtuous Businesses.  I'm inspire by the book, and getting back up on the horse again, after my failures. God bless Malloch.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”