The title of this post is extracted from section 17-18 of Haanel’s Master Key System.

This year is the third year in a row that I am studying the Master Key System, and it is only now that my attention is consciously attracted by this statement.

My intention for this post is just to share with you a simple idea that was sleeping in my mind since a while, and that has been waken up by my reading of  this week Master Key System.

This idea is this: engaging in any business or commercial activity is an efficient way to accelerate our personal development.

Let’s try to illustrate this idea.

One of the most exciting business activities I have ever done is network marketing.

For those who don’t know about it, it is a commercial activity that anyone can practice on top of a regular occupation, and which has the potential to bring an unlimited source of income after some years of regular practice.

There is a statement in network marketing which is known by all the practitioners: “Your business will grow at the same pace as you will grow as a person.”

This is true of course for all types of businesses and commercial activities, but it is particularly visible in network marketing because the basic activity is so simple – sharing something we like by word of mouth – that it easily reveals the differences between the people who get excellent, good or poor results.

And the most obvious difference is this: the different amount of successful personal development made by the different individuals.

So far, my own definition of “to grow as a person” was “to become a better person”, “to extend my consciousness”, “to master my thoughts”, or “to become the deliberate creator of my live”.

But now with this statement of Haanel, “All commercial relations are the externalisation of desire”, I also discover a direct correlation between the notion of desire and our capacity to grow, and I could say that “to grow as a person” is also “to improve the externalization of my desires”.

Indeed, as we are working on ourselves to become a better person, our commercial relations improve, and we become better also at externalizing, ie. materializing our desires (according to Haanel statement).

This means that one effect of becoming a better person is also a better capacity of transforming our desires into reality…providing we dedicate a part of our time to some commercial activities…(which incidently implies also that we consider these activities as an integral part of our personal development process).

This leaves us with two categories of people:

• those who have earnestly worked on their DMP since the beginning of the MKMMA training (which is a way to bring our desires to our awareness) AND who are engaged in some kind of commercial activities to make it happen…
• and those who haven’t worked out a DMP, OR who consider that business and commercial activity is not for them, whatever the reason…

In which category do you see yourself?