Someone once said that the business world would be vastly improved if we understood that competition is really futile, as there is no such thing as competition. Hashem decides on Rosh Hashanah how much we’re each going to make, and whatever we do will not affect what we or others will make during the year. If we understood this, our attitudes towards business would be much more positive. A man once wanted to get into a certain line of business. He went to his friends and relatives who were in the same line and said, “I’d like to get into your line of business. Can you give me some customers and leads?”
At every turn, the man was rebuffed. People were stunned and asked him in disbelief, “You want me to give you my customers? What’s going to be with my business?”
Finally, he approached Rav Moshe Mordechai Heschel, who was later to become the Kopichenitzer Rebbe, and asked him for the same help. Rav Moshe Mordechai happily said to him, “No problem! Here, take my customer list.”
Now the man was stunned. He said, “You’re giving me the whole list? What’s going to be with your business? Maybe you can just share a few customers with me.”
Rav Moshe Mordechai replied, “Don’t worry about it. Do you think Hashem doesn’t have enough Parnasah for both of us?”
Rav Frand said, “I once told this story to someone, and he advised me not to repeat it when I speak in public. He said only a future Rebbe could do something like that, but ordinary people would never relate to it.
But I didn’t take this advice, and I did repeat the story in public. One day, a simple Jew in Baltimore came over to me and told me that a similar thing had happened to him. He had an established electronics business, and someone had asked him for help in starting a similar business. The man said, ‘I gave over my entire list of customers and suppliers. It helped him get started and he’s quite successful now. And by the way, my own business didn’t suffer one iota!’
How’s that for ordinary Jewish people? Never underestimate what a Jew can do if he is properly educated!” Rav Frand also related that a business man once came to Rav Meir of Premishlan and said, “Rebbe, please help me. Someone is opening a business like mine right down the street from me! I’m going to lose all my business!”
Rav Meir told the man to calm down, and said, “Have you ever noticed that before a horse drinks from a pond or a river he always stamps on the ground first? Do you know why it does that? Because when the horse sees his reflection in the pond, he thinks there is another horse there and he tries to chase him away so he wouldn’t take his water. Don’t worry about this other business. There is no threat to you from it at all!”
A Jewish jeweler in Antwerp, Belgium, once came to Rav Chaim Kreiswirth, zt”l, the Rav of the city. He said to Rav Kreiswirth, “I don’t understand it. There is a store right across the street from mine, and the owner of that store is doing twice the business that I am. What am I doing wrong?”
Rav Kreiswirth asked, “Does the other man have a bigger store than you do?” The man shook his head and said, “No. I checked, and we both have the same size store.”
Rav Kreiswirth continued, “How about the lighting? Maybe he has better lighting in his store. Lighting is very important in the jewelry business.”
The man shook his head again and said, “We have the same type of lighting.”
Rav Kreiswirth suggested, “Perhaps he has better merchandise for sale than you do?”
But the man replied, “We both use the same supplier.”
Finally, Rav Kreiswirth asked, “How many customers come to his store each day?” The man answered, “All I know is that he has twice the number of customers I do.”
Rav Kreiswirth smiled and said, “I think I figured out what you’re doing wrong. Every day your friend across the street comes into his store and minds his business. But every day when you come into your store, you’re looking across the street! In reality, you are minding two stores at the same time. It’s no wonder that your business is not doing as well!”
Rav Kreiswirth told him, “Don’t worry about the other business so much. Just have trust in Hashem that He will take care of you, and you will see that Hashem can abundantly provide for both you and your friend across the street!”
Don’t be a Horse Drinking at a Pond
Rabbi Yissocher Frand
