Eternal Advancement

It’s easy to get distracted by nonsense at work, in your business, with friends and colleagues. To live to win the battle, get ahead, and always come out on top. To work under the golden rule that dictates that whomever has the gold makes the rules, and whoever has the most gold at the end wins. 

It's all a lie.  

Business is limited to two functions: To provide for you and your family’s physical needs, and to not be dependent on others.  

Too many hours at the office means we think about work when we are not there. It tears us away from the primary purpose of life, the grand purpose that we work for in the first place.  

Our mission in life is to accumulate wealth.  

But the wealth we slave over to acquire in this world stays in this world. The wealth we acquire in mitzvot accompanies us to the Next World. In Heaven, they don’t take dollars, Euros, Shekels, or gold bullion. The only currency they use is Divine Service.  

Praying 3 times in a day accumulates more wealth than anything accomplished at the office – unless you work in outreach, or in a Yeshiva or genuine charity. Having emuna in Hashem that if this job doesn't work out — G-d will give you something else — and acting on that emuna by always smiling, never speaking gossip or anything negative about others, valuing your trustworthiness above your abilities, etc. – generates wealth that covers you both this world and the Next. Not to mention the awesome reward of emuna in Hashem, and even more, thanking Hashem – a reward too fantastic to even conceive of in this world, because by thanking Hashem, you literally fulfill the purpose of creation and thereby enable all of creation to continue. All of it is now in your merit… 

George Soros is a Jewish billionaire who married three times, never to a Jewish woman. As the quintessential “Jewish self-hater,” he has nothing waiting for him in the Next world. He worked his entire life to amass a fortune of over $8 billion in money in this world, but he owns less than the average Israeli taxi driver (if you have ever heard any of the incredible stories about them) in the Real World.  

Because he toiled for physical wealth and not spiritual wealth, at any day he can find himself in the Next World serving as butler to any of the thousands of people who once served his coffee, cleaned his suits, or drove his limo. When he leaves This World, none of that fortune comes with him… and who guarantees it will even stay with him in the meantime?! 

Long Term Planning 

We can, at any time, accumulate more mitzvot, get raises, receive more responsibility, and keep advancing where it counts. Such guarantees are never made in commerce. 

You can put hours and hours into servicing a prospect only to see them go with the competitor. You can work years and years at a company only to be laid off or passed over for advancement. Whereas Hashem promises to reward just the effort even without results, in the office, it's only the results that get recorded. You can work for years to create the best product, only to see the company fall apart and nothing but dust top your resume.  

A team can play flawless baseball for 6 hours, going 19 innings letting up only one run. If the other team scores in the 20th inning, their efforts result in a total loss.  

Hashem promises reward for every good that you do, try to do, or even want to do. You will always be rewarded for your mitzvot. Even if you don’t memorize the Talmud, Hashem blesses you for all the time you put into trying.  

Why don’t we see this reward today? This world lacks the capacity to transfer the huge reward G-d wants to give us. He waits until we are in the reality that can give us the full reward we work for, the Next World.  

Emuna is the certainty that for every good we do, the rewards get bigger – even as it looks like nothing is happening. That’s the test of faith.  

In this world, the rich and powerful, those who climbed the ladder of success rule over us. It looks like they are on top but the truth is that this ladder only reaches the first floor.  

It feels that the chances of any of us breaking into the top 1% of the elite of this world are all but impossible. Any dedication to Hashem, His Torah, or His Mitzvot puts us on the cold side of those velvet ropes. It makes us feel like we can never rise to the top of anything.  

That’s only in a world turned upside down. In the Real World, where up is down and down is up, Hashem shines His Light of Truth upon all of us:  

Any of us can rise to the top of the Eternal World through Torah learning, improving our character traits, mitzvot, prayer and especially personal prayer, charity, acts of kindness, learning and strengthening our emuna, saying thank you especially for the difficulties in our lives, and acting according to G-d’s truth with our family, friends, and professional colleagues. 

Why let the Internet bamboozle you into thinking only the rich and famous make it? Keep your eyes on the prize and go for the eternal advancement. Recognize work or business as a means to the end, and service to Hashem as the ends itself. Make it worthy of all your physical and emotional attention to rise to the top and keep going.