C11 - Spiritual Income

Labour outsourcing from developing countries started long ago, when there was a big difference between the wages earned by a worker in the developed countries and by equally skilled worker in developing countries. There was another reason too. The employers hired people to do menial things as they could not find such workers in their own countries.

The outsourced worker had to go to the developed country. In many cases, he was paid less than the worker in the developed country. But, the outsourced worker was happy because the wages he earned were many times more than his old income.

The employer was happy because outsourcing reduced his expenses. Over time, due to government regulations and other market forces, the salary to the foreign worker has become more or less equal to that of the home worker.

A few decades ago, companies in developed countries began to hire overseas health care workers because of their skill, education and knowledge.

In the late 80's the companies began to hire tens of thousands of software developers from countries such as India as the personal computer revolution gained momentum. Their skills helped the companies to make millions. Naturally, they paid high wages to the overseas software professionals. The cost of labor became secondary for a while.

Then internet boom sent the demand for software professionals and their income through the roof. It lasted for a few years. When the boom began to mature, industry became stable and the growth rate settled to single digit, companies again started to think of reducing cost.

The growth in internet and the communication technology opened the eyes of the companies to a new opportunity to reduce their cost.

Instead of making the overseas worker come to the developed country and pay him high salary, the companies thought of making him work from his own country and pay the salary usually paid in the developing country. The figures of projected savings were attractive. So, many companies decided to take this route. They call it BPO, or Business Process Outsourcing.

Business Process Outsourcing
Every business has a set of processes. Some processes that are mechanical in nature could be automated with computers and software. Some processes can be done only by human beings.

These manual processes were of two types. First type could be executed only by well trained, highly paid, specialty workers on the premises of the company. The second type could be executed by any reasonably skilled worker from any part of the world.

The companies were shocked to learn that if they could get the work done from developing countries their labor cost would come down by more than 60%.

So, they started to identify the business processes that could be outsourced. Areas like legal transcription and medical transcription were identified initially. Later, areas like customer support and call centers were identified as areas that could be outsourced. Many software companies started to outsource development of significant portion of their code from countries like India using satellites.

Hundreds of big and small companies in developing countries invested heavily in infrastructure. As usual, a me-too national movement began. Everyone wanted his share in the fortune. But, except a few companies, most of the companies could not get business as expected. The main reasons were lack of language skills and lack of knowledge of community in the developed countries.

In developed countries, medical and legal fields are sensitive even to small errors. The outsourced workers find it difficult to transcribe the spoken words of the physician and lawyer and make many mistakes because of many intricacies in language like accent, pronunciation and intonation.

Similar difficulties are faced by most call centers. Customers calling the support centers are connected to Indian call centers. Many overseas customers are not happy. They don't have pleasant experience because of language problems. A big online computer seller opened a call center in India and closed it within a week. The company said it's foolish to make customers unhappy to save a few thousand dollars and lose millions of dollars in sales.

Some big companies like InfoSys keep growing in Business Process Outsourcing because they attract highly talented people, train them regularly and pay them well.

All other Business Process Outsourcing companies in India have begun to feel the heat. They have started to look for ways to employ their infrastructure in other revenue generation activities.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing
Now, the overseas companies are redesigning their strategy. They understand process outsourcing is a real concept. It can save millions of dollars year after year. After years of research, they have identified knowledge as the area that can be outsourced without much problem.

An officer needs concise report of essential information to make decisions. Though he doesn't look into the thousands of supporting documents he still needs them. His assistant arranges all the documents, goes through them, highlights important points and prepares a short note for the consideration of the officer.

The outsourced knowledge worker works exactly like the assistant. He searches online and offline resources, collects important documents, goes through them, prepares a report and submits the report and all the documents to the hiring company for a fee.

Some experts think this work will be attractive to professionals like doctors and lawyers. But, do you really think doctors and lawyers will spend countless hours in front of computers, searching web for information?

The opportunity is for average Indian graduates.

All businesses need information. Most of the information on the web is in English. Countries like India have work force that is comfortable with English. They have access to internet and computer. Knowledge Processing does not involve customer interaction and so does not create accent problems or local custom problems. All these factors make Knowledge Process Outsourcing opportunity attractive for Indian workers and homemakers.

If an Indian entrepreneur seriously does research on this topic, decides his niche and acquires the know how, he can be financially independent in a few months through Knowledge Process Outsourcing opportunities.

Spiritual Process Outsourcing
Years ago Indian workers were hired to do physical work in middle east countries, Malaysia, Singapore and a few other countries. Then Indian labor was physically hired by countries like the United States to do many types work including medicine and software.

Business Process Outsourcing came into existence a few years ago. Now, they talk about Knowledge Process Outsourcing. It is amusing to note the way things evolved. First it was physical labor, then it was business process and now it is knowledge process. Naturally, the next step will be Spiritual Process Outsourcing.

The world knows that any process requires physical, vital and mental skill. Indians know every process requires Spiritual skills also. Once the euphoria about Knowledge Process Outsourcing is over, the world may start thinking about the existence of spiritual skills. Of course, they will give a fancy name like X factor skills.

Then, the world will look upon India for Spiritual Process Outsourcing. But, you don't have to wait until the world wakes up. You can start your spiritual business activity immediately and get clients even now.

Spiritual Income
The phrase spiritual business should not set off the alarm bells in your mind. The author is not talking about making money by selling your God and committing an unpardonable mistake.

We are talking about developing a profession or product based on spiritual knowledge and selling them to the world. It is again a mistake if you think flowers, incense, photos, holy books, articles with divine symbols and stickers are the spiritual products.

Some of the professions that can give the world the Indian spiritual skills are Consciousness Consulting, Growth Consulting and Life Response Consulting. Some of the products that can give the world the Indian spiritual skills are business creativity tools, decision support systems, debt reduction software and income generation workbooks.

How To Do It
Spiritualists and materialists have always maintained respectable distance between them for centuries. Even if you accept the idea that spirituality and money can be combined, using spiritual ideas to generate money in real life may appear to be impossible to you.

If you try to give the spiritual knowledge in its pure form to the world that is not spiritualized, you will be disappointed. If you can convert the pure knowledge into forms that are acceptable to the world, then you can sell the forms that contain the spiritual knowledge and make money.

Publishing great books that contain pure spiritual knowledge is the least profitable, if at all you make profit, way to make money from spiritual products.

In this present fast world, people don't have time to read spiritual books. Reading, understanding and using are difficult for most people. They want something they can immediately understand and use.

The best method to attract masses is to create products and services that are in harmony with the trend, fashion, movement and technology.

You must give people what they want in order to make them do what you want. It is a simple logic.

As an individual, you may like to know what methods are open to you. The first method is to create games using the spiritual knowledge as the concept. We will examine this in a moment. The second method is to create interactive software that includes presentation, slide shows, video and other multimedia wonders. The third way is to create stories, cartoons and comics. The fourth method is to create workbooks and manuals for businesses and professionals.

Making money with spiritual knowledge may seem like fairy tale. The book gives you a real life example to prove that abstract philosophical knowledge can be converted into a money spinner.

Heraclitus
Heraclitus was the first western philosopher to go beyond physical theory of matter in search of metaphysical foundations. His writings, like those of most pre-Socrates, have survived only in small fragments cited by other classical authors.

Like Sanskrit sages, Heraclitus neither reveals nor conceals but produces complex expressions that have encoded in them multiple messages for those who can interpret them. He uses literary and rhetorical devices to construct expressions that have meanings beyond the obvious.

Here are a few of the thoughts of Heraclitus:

(1) If you went in search of it, you would not find the boundaries of the soul, though you traveled every road. (2) If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is trackless and unexplored. (3) Combinations, wholes and not-wholes, conjunction and separation, harmony and discord - out of all things comes one and out of one all things.

Now, you have got some idea about the thoughts of Heraclitus. Do you still think you can make money out of this Greek philosophical knowledge? Most of us think it is impossible. Not Roger Von Oech.

Creative Whack Pack
Roger Von Oech produces tools for creative thinking based on thoughts of great men like Heraclitus.

First, he writes a workbook based on the above philosophy. It contains short statements on thoughts, brief explanations, humorous stories, real life examples and exercises. All of them are based on philosophy.

Then, Roger Von Oech creates a card pack. It is like a deck of tarot cards. Each card gives a thought and gives guidance on how to use. You can randomly draw a card from the pack and take it as a starting point.

Based on the book and card pack, he creates a software. He conducts seminars and workshops for businessmen. He makes money in seven digits.

Roger Von Oech uses the knowledge of Greek philosophers and he happily and openly admits it.

In fact, his advertisements highlight the philosophy of Heraclitus and, perhaps, he thinks this admission improves the acceptability and the perceived value of his products.

This is what a down-to-earth newspaper like USA Today says about the creative tools of Roger Von Oech who uses 2,500 years old Greek philosophy: 'The creative whack pack displays business brilliance.'

It's true that there are some management gurus who talk about Indian spirituality. But, most of the authors miss the essence or just accept only the ideas that validate the authors' core thinking. Anything that is contrary becomes untouchable. If you browse the websites on Roger Von Oech, you will be surprised to note how many businesspersons discuss Greek philosophy and how to use the knowledge in their businesses. If just 30 thoughts, fragmented by time, of a Greek philosopher can produce highly successful commercial products that are well received by the business world, how many tools can Indians create and sell with the infinite knowledge at their disposal?

Commercial products are the best route to carry Indian spirituality to the world. The author shares some of his wild thoughts, a few of his lonely dreams, about spiritual products and services with you.

Video Games
The author is writing in detail about Zeliard, a computer game, because that will give you a good idea about how many products you will be able to create using the Indian epics and spiritual knowledge.

Zeliard
The game was developed based on an old story. One day, Jashiin, the Emperor of Chaos and a descendant of the demon, attacked the land of Zeliard and converted it into a desert. He turned the beautiful Princess Felicia la Felishika, the only daughter of King Felishika, into a lifeless stone. The tears of the King soon awakened another power and an apparition appeared before him to tell, "There is but one way to stop this demon. A brave warrior must venture into the labyrinths and recover the Holy Crystals buried deep in the earth. If he recovers the hidden treasure, you can give life to the stone. Jashiin's terrible minions dwell within the labyrinths."

The player is the knight. He must descend into secret cavern, overcome obstacles, recover the hidden treasure, restore the beauty of the world and give life to the stone, Princess Felicia la Felishika. It's a DOS game released fifteen years ago by Sierra. The old graphics and music are bad on the latest monitors. Yet, millions of players, adults and children, love to play the game even now.

A young primary school girl played the game a few months ago and enjoyed it beyond measure. Even though her father bought her latest games, she loves to play only Zeliard. She sacrifices PokeMon to play Zeliard. Perhaps, the human aspiration to recover hidden treasure from the secret caverns in the heart, makes one play the game again and again.

Think about Satyavan and Savitri. How engaging and thrilling a game will be if it is based on the story of Savitri! Millions of players from all the continents of the world will play Savitri video game day in and day out. The entire Indian spiritual knowledge can be given through the game. Each spiritual concept can be tied to the events of the game. To win the game, the players will work hard to understand all the concepts and ideas. As it is a game, spiritual ideas can be freely explained without any reservation. The players, adults and children, will actually memorize the concepts.

Let us illustrate a simple game on inner worlds. The player has to travel through caverns like mental world, vital world and other worlds to unearth a great treasure. When the player enters the mental world, little demons, called thoughtmons, attack him and the scene is full of noise. The player must keep on rejecting them or use a shield of meditation until there is reasonable silence. Sometimes snakes, called pastnakes, try to swallow him. He must use a sword of light, called Past Consecration, to eliminate the snakes. As he makes progress towards the vital world, bigger monsters, called Attitudevils, appear. The only way for the player to eliminate the monsters is to reverse them upside down as soon as they attack. In this way, all the principles, can be given to the player easily. You don't have to take efforts to teach anything to the player. He will love to learn all the tricks, the other name for spiritual principles, and will enjoy to learn how and where to use them.

The video game can be made into a computer game, PlayStation game, XBoX game and other console games. You can distribute them as a trial version through thousands of download websites to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide in a short time. It is very difficult to reach so many people through any other medium.

Board Games
Whether you like it or not, people will continue to play board games like Snakes and Ladders. Board games have been in existence for centuries and will continue to survive for years to come.

You can introduce spiritual concepts into such board games and create fast moving products. Substitute involution for snakes and evolution for ladders. Then, modify the game, its objectives and the rules without compromising the entertainment element.

Business is a popular board game. Variations of the original game have created many business games that use different strategies. Can you create a similar board game that uses spiritual principles? You can easily create many new board games using the ideas behind other popular board games.

Kid Stories
Children are always fascinated by animals. Pancha Tantra Stories and Aesop tales have conquered time by giving knowledge through powerful animal stories.

The children are the future world. The parents spend lots of money to improve the skills and knowledge of their children. The market for kid products are highly competitive but the market is a huge and expanding one. If you can create useful books for children with stories that illustrate great spiritual truths, you can make money.

All parents will buy them.

Outer events reflect the inner status is a great spiritual truth that everyone finds difficult to accept. A father read out to his daughter the following story from a great story book and asked her, "What do you understand from the story?" She replied, "If I want to have good things in life, I must be a good girl. If others trouble me, it means I'm troublesome." The seed has been sown. If you can create such stories with colorful illustrations, the book can even be sold worldwide through websites like Amazon.com.

One Thousand Mirrors
Long ago in a small village, there was a place known as the House of One Thousand Mirrors. A happy little dog decided to visit it. When he arrived, he looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at one thousand other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with one thousand great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

He spoke about this house to his friend, another dog in the same village. This dog was not as happy as the first one. The naughty and ferocious dog visited the mirror house. When he saw the one thousand unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see one thousand little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "This is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

Decision Making Tools
Every business and individual needs to make decisions about small things and big things. Hundreds of tools and books are available in the market. Decision support systems are available in various forms from lucky chart to sophisticated software.

All these tools follow a common method. They have an algorithm built into the tool. They ask the decision maker some questions about the problem. Based on the input data, the formula provides a solution. If the tool is highly sophisticated, it asks cross-check questions to validate all the responses of the user.

However, almost all the tools employ forecasting models based on various statistical methods. Naturally, sometimes the solution works and sometimes it does not.

Instead, if decision making tools are created with the spiritual knowledge as the algorithm, it can be marketed worldwide successfully. Creating a decision making tool based on spiritual knowledge is a complex process. It may take time to build an all-purpose general tool because of the number of variables that influence the outcome of any decision. However, you can find any number of situations that involve a limited number of major variables. Creating a paper checklist with explanation or software that solves just the task on hand is possible.

If that one tool can be put to use by many, you will know where you must improve. Over time, you will have a successful and perfect tool. Then, you can create tools for other situations too. When you have a large number of tools, you will know the general components. Then, it will be easy to create an all purpose tool.

Decision making can be as complex as building a spaceship or as simple as buying a chocolate bar. Depending on the complexities of the problems, the solution can be built as a simple paper-based tool or a workbook or a sophisticated software. Irrespective of the issues, the decision making tools based on spiritual knowledge will give infallible solutions.

Token Act Consulting
Token Act is a complete act that contains all the elements of an exactly similar but bigger act. Generally, you carry out a Token Act experiment to see the outcome of the intervention of the spiritual force.

Think of this Token Act experiment in business situations. We have heard about test marketing or trial marketing. Before a product is actually created, the companies market the product in areas that are identified as representatives of the entire market. The companies spend millions to test market a new product. By integrating the Token Act concept into their test marketing activity, you can provide a great service to the company and also make money.

Students spend lakhs to go abroad and take up examinations. You can guide them to use the Token Act concept in a mock examination.

Life Response Consulting
Life Response Consulting is a lucrative income opportunity based on spiritual knowledge. By changing things like thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions, it is possible to make life respond quickly to solve a problem or create an opportunity.

You can do it either online or offline. For a beginner, the online route will be more comfortable.

You must build a website with a lot of real life examples that illustrate the power of Life Response. Initially, you must offer the consulting service on pay-for-results basis. When a client approaches you with a problem, you will ask him many questions about his problem through email.

When you get his response, you will send him your advice by email. You will follow up with him to ensure that he practises the Life Response principles. You can use chat clients or instant messengers to have closer interactive relationship.

If the client is happy with the result or the outcome of your advice, he will send you the fees. Once you establish yourself, you can take fees in advance.

What will happen if the client does not keep his word or forgets to send the fees? Well, the author believes as a Life Response consultant one already knows the answer. Life is after all a mirror that reflects one's inner status. Can't one create a life response and get the fees due to one?

The sum total of all knowledge from all the fields known to man is just a fraction of the spiritual knowledge. Using the spiritual knowledge, you can create hundreds of spiritual products, spiritual services and prosperity products.