The Trust Factor
A daily lesson that focuses on achieving unparalleled success in life using ancient wisdom in modern times.
We will be discussing critical concepts as they are laid out in the book Sha'ar Habitachon - The Gate of Trust. Written 1000 years ago, the author reminds us of the values and wisdom that have allowed humanity to thrive throughout history.
The concept of trusting in a higher power that exists purely for our benefit, puts us in the drivers seat with absolute confidence to achieve greatness.
Eliminate: Fear, Hatred, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, Greed...forever!
* Note that some terminology will be in the original Hebrew or Aramaic which I will always follow with the English translation.
The Trust Factor
Episode 95 - Beyond the Paycheck: The Spiritual Framework of Making a Living
Have you ever wondered why some people achieve astronomical success while others in the same field struggle to make ends meet? The answer might surprise you, challenging everything you thought you knew about work, effort, and reward.
The story of work begins in the Garden of Eden. Contrary to popular belief, Adam and Eve weren't placed there to lounge around in paradise. From the very beginning, they were given a purpose: to work the garden. This divine directive came before sin entered the world, revealing that work isn't a punishment but an essential component of human existence. Fascinatingly, although vegetation was created during the six days of creation, it only sprouted after Adam and Eve worked the land AND prayed for sustenance. This powerful combination—effort plus acknowledgment of the divine source—established the template for all future human labor.
This ancient wisdom offers a revolutionary perspective on our careers and livelihoods. The Talmud observes that every trade includes both wealthy and poor practitioners. Look around and you'll see this truth everywhere: CEOs of chocolate companies living in palatial estates while others in the same industry struggle; highly educated professionals working outside their fields while those with minimal education build empires. These disparities can't be explained by effort, education, or industry choice alone. What we're "supposed" to earn transcends these factors.
What does this mean for your daily work? Stop chasing your tail looking for the "perfect opportunity." Instead, invest fully in legitimate work, give your genuine best effort, and recognize that the outcome is ultimately in divine hands. As the podcast metaphorically explains, "More spigots on the same barrel doesn't get you more money. It just depletes what you have allocated to you that much faster."
Ready to transform your relationship with work? Subscribe to The Trust Factor and discover more spiritual insights that will revolutionize how you approach success and fulfillment in all areas of life.
Good morning everybody and welcome to the Trust Factor. I hope you had an amazing Shabbat. It is Sunday, we're going into another week, my friends, there is still a Sunday left on the weekend, so enjoy it. We have so much content to cover off now that it kind of perturbs me a little bit that I really want to create a section of the podcast or the website that is a members-only, subscription-only, where we can spend more time flushing out these ideas, because there's so many points to be discussed, so many verses and proofs to be able to support a lot of these points that we're bringing up, and I think oftentimes just trying to keep them within the 10-minute mark makes that very difficult. Nonetheless, we try, we move forward.
Speaker 1:My friends, the correct attitude when working for a living. We've established what we're going to do for a living. We've got a job or we've opened up a business. How should we function from a mental perspective, from a mindset perspective? What is the thought process that we should have when we wake up and go to work every single day? Let's continue.
Speaker 1:Chavot HaLevavot teaches that the proper mindset toward hishtadlut, which is a word that means making an effort. Obviously, we have to make efforts at work, right. So he says what is the proper mindset towards making an effort? It is that this is the fulfillment of one's religious duty. The only reason you are going to work, my friends, is because you were decreed to go to work. The big boss who runs this world and knows what's good for us, determined very, very early on. In fact, he determined it with the creation of man, adam and Eve, and he determined and set forth the rule that we all have an obligation to work for a living. You'll remember in the story that, and it's actually quite interesting because it explains why we have to work for a living the story is that God creates Adam and Eve and he puts them in the Garden of Eden. And it says over there that he puts them in the garden to work and care for it. That was their job and that was before they sinned. In other words, he didn't put them in there with the intention that all they needed to do was exist like a chimpanzee, hang out on a tree, eat bananas all day long, have relations all day long, and everything else will work itself out. That's not what our purpose was. Even the first human being, who was supposed to initially intended to live forever. There was no such thing as death in the world. That individual or those individuals Adam and Eve were put specifically in the garden to work the garden.
Speaker 1:Now I want to ask you a question. It says early on in the Torah that God brought all of the vegetation. We know that during the six days of creation. It says on there that on one of the days he created all the herbage, all the vegetation was created. But it waits only until later on, when Adam and Eve are actually in the garden and working it, to mention that now the vegetation and the herbage had come forth. So I don't understand. Earlier on it says it's already there, it was in creation, right? Why does it say now that only after they're in the land, when they're in the garden, is this product coming forward?
Speaker 1:I thought it was already there and our sages tell us that the answer to this question is that yes, it was there. Yes, god had created it, but it was all below the surface. Nothing had come out yet. It was all waiting below the surface. What was it waiting for? It was waiting for Adam and Eve to work the land. Why? Because when they work the land, when they expend an effort to be able to work the land. The land will respond and bring forth that vegetation. But their work was not enough. Their work of working the fields, planting and sowing and harvesting, that wasn't enough. What needed to happen, they tell us.
Speaker 1:Our sages tell us that it did not come forth until Adam and Eve looked up to the heavens and prayed to God and said God, we're hungry, we want to eat. We've been working the fields. You said there's vegetation and herbage, here is for us, where is it? Only after they prayed for it did it come. Why?
Speaker 1:The lesson is twofold. Number one the lesson is we need to occupy ourselves in order to receive that reward, our sustenance. It is a rule that was put into creation to understand that if you want to eat, you have have to cook. You make your bed, you sleep in it. If you prepare for things, then you are ready to receive them. That's how the world is designed to work. And number two the reason we were supposed to wait for the food, the vegetation, to sprout, was because we needed to pray to God, we needed to ask for it. We needed to pray to God, we needed to ask for it. We needed to. Number one know where it's coming from, to understand that it's coming from him. And until we ask for it and understand where the source of our sustenance comes from, it will not come forward. And more than that, it reminds us that we need to be grateful, that we need to say thank you, that we need to know where it's coming from. That, my friends, is in the very beginning of creation.
Speaker 1:It doesn't take long for God to explain to us what our purpose is in this world, why we have to work and what our mindset should be. Our mindset should be that we have to make an effort, but know where your income is coming from. I was talking to somebody about this over Shabbat and we were talking about tuition private school, religious day school tuition, which fees are astronomical, and at the end of the day, we can look at each other and say with confidence that we don't pay that tuition. It comes from the big boss. All we do is wake up in the morning and make an effort like every other person in the world. That's it. We do not control the outcomes. We have to do what we've said is called in Hebrew, which is make an effort, but make that effort knowing with complete clarity that God is the one in charge of outcomes. He determines whether or not we're going to be able to pay the tuition, and that is based on our actions, based on the way that we conduct ourselves in this world with the money that he gives us.
Speaker 1:Says over here in the book, very interesting Rabbi Meir says in the Gemara in the Talmud that there is no trade that does not have both poverty and wealth, ie, for example, the practitioners of every trade include both rich people and poor people. Reminds me of a story. There was a story of an individual. Two individuals were met and one invites the other over to his house for a meal and when he asks him what he does for a living, he says, oh, I make chocolate bars. You know, that's my job, I make chocolate bars. And this guy thinks okay, he's a worker, you know. And even if he owns the company, how much could this guy already make? He's making chocolate bars? What's the big deal? You know, I can't imagine how much somebody can already make from making chocolate bars. And when he comes to the guy's house, he sees that he's coming to a palace with gates and guards and servants. And who is it? It's the CEO of Mars Corporation, a giant you know the Mars bars A giant in the industry.
Speaker 1:And at the same time, I could show you many people in the same snack food industry, making chocolate bars who you've never heard of and you will never hear of, and they barely make a living. You can have people doing the exact same thing and they are spectacularly successful at it, making hundreds of millions and billions of dollars a year in sales, and you can have many more people doing the exact same job, the exact same industry, and they cannot make ends meet, my friends. Now you may want to explain that away as saying, well, one person works harder than the next. Not true at all. I will show you very hardworking individuals who cannot make ends meet. Well, you might say, well, one's more educated than the other, not true. I can show you people who barely know how to speak English, who barely know how to write their names in English, people who you do not comprehend and they don't comprehend you, and they are printing money. And then I could show you the opposite people who are so well educated and are are intellects and if and have phds or have masters in their field, and these people are maybe not even working in the same industry. They got their masters in a certain area and they're working in a completely unrelated field, never mind being successful in their field. They're not even working in their field. My friends, there is no connection between the amount of effort you expend, between the amount of education that you have, the so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, what you are supposed to earn, you will earn. It doesn't matter what your trade is. And it says over here also that certain industries, during certain times of the year, during cyclical periods, during recessions, whatever it is, they have ups and downs and a lot of us think, oh, we're brilliant, we could see ahead, we can anticipate what's coming down the pipe and because of that we can make modifications to what we're doing. We can get into an industry where we see it's successful and somehow, even when you get in there, you realize it's not successful. Why? But you saw everybody getting into it and making all kinds of money. You get into it and you stop making money.
Speaker 1:No, you're not supposed to make money at that point in time. You're not supposed to make the money that you're supposed to make. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. My friends, that's what you understand, the reason I'm going to work is because God tells me that I need to work. How much I need to make does not rely on my industry Absolutely not. I will show you people in the waste management business garbage men who own the largest waste management companies in the world, making billions of dollars. And I will show you the opposite.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter which industry you're in. If you're supposed to make money, my friends, you will make money. If you're not supposed to make money, you won't. So do not go into the job every day thinking I'm going to make more money, I'm going to be more successful. If only I do A, b and C today in my job. No, you give an effort, you give 100%, like everybody does and everybody's expected to do. You give 100% and the rest, my friends, is out of your hands.
Speaker 1:Don't run around chasing your tail. Don't run around chasing other opportunities. Somebody comes to you with a new investment opportunity, a new job. Whatever it is pays a little bit more. Maybe it seems a little bit more exciting to you, guys. Whatever it is pays a little bit more. Maybe it seems a little bit more exciting to you, guys. Don't make yourselves crazy. Do what you know how to do. Invest in the job or the business that you've started and recognize that if it's a legitimate business and it's a business that's in need it's in a legitimate industry as an industry that can be very profitable. Focus on it, expend your energy in it, put out the right amount of energy and effort and you will find out how much you are supposed to make. Remember we talked about the spigots on the barrel. More spigots on the same barrel doesn't get you more money. It just depletes what you have allocated to you that much faster. I hope you enjoyed today, my friends, and we will pick up tomorrow.
