Business people who have already begun to live these teachings have discovered that they have enormous value not only for their work but for their personal lives as well. This has never been more crucial. Facing the enormous pressures of business today, many people try to balance their lives and work by allocating certain amounts of time for each. Time is important, but it is far more necessary that you — rather than your time — be balanced. This means being grounded and consistent, manifesting the same values wherever you are, at home or at work, with friends or children, with colleagues, employees, or customers.

Even if you are not facing adversity in your business, all of us in business increasingly face the great unknown. Change is hitting us between the eyes every day. Social change, marketplace change, legislative change, financial change, and the most intrusive of them all, technological change. The overarching truth of all this change is that we don’t know what is going to happen, we’re not sure we’ll know what to do, and we can’t even be confident that our businesses or our jobs will be relevant five years from now.

The Tao Te Ching teaches that true understanding is realizing that you have nowhere to stand. I can’t think of a more compelling time to seek the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching and to become comfortable with the reality that the acceptance of non-control is the only way to manage things. Read about, think about, and embrace the concept of not-knowing. Then you’ll be able to face, as you never have before, this insane pace of change.
There is no special technique and no special knowledge required for getting what you need from this book. Start anywhere. Dip in. Read the same chapter several times to see how many different lessons you can learn. Keep it in your desk. Carry it in your briefcase.

In commenting on the text, I have tried to adapt Lao-tzu’s examples of governance and military strategy to business leadership situations. You’ll find commentary on downsizing, compensation, appraisals, training, acquisitions, competition, and many other contemporary business topics. I hope this interpretation will serve as a bridge for business people while remaining true to the meaning of the original text. My objective is simple: to give business people and leaders a powerful tool for tapping into the most important resource they have — their own wisdom.