Why has my client’s business slowed down? Is it true that he is not giving enough through charitable contributions or donating time to others and is that the reason things are not moving forward in his business?

The business has slowed down because he is not moving to expand his offering to distinguish him from others. That is indeed the answer here. Even if people do not wish to avail themselves of more intensive training, by seeing him as a true expert, because he can offer far more than the basic knowledge for certification, he will then rise to the top tier of trainers in their minds and he will get more business along the same lines as his current students. Either way, he wins. Whether they buy the whole loaf or half the loaf, the sales will increase, and this will serve him and his ambition. His business has not suffered because his actions have been selfish in any way. To become self-sustaining and to flourish is the purpose of life. It is not to come and dole out charity. The purpose of life is to experience and express the yearnings of the soul. No soul was created to be a beggar. No soul was created to be helpless and dependent on others for survival. Whenever there is a need for an act of charity, it is because something has become out of alignment and that is still the responsibility of the sufferer to rebalance in some way. An act of charity can be a bridge to the resolution of the difficulty by keeping a person going and will certainly minimize suffering in the meantime. That need not be a focus of everyone’s existence, given that the society in many parts of the world builds in a state-sponsored safety net, so to speak, by way of taxes, and that is a basal contribution extracted already. If that is not done wisely and well, it is for the further responsibility of the citizenry to reform the government policies and the government official roster to see to this through better legislation. So that is something to keep in mind because it is, as well, a karmic obligation of all. But given that basal level of contribution already, an entrepreneur has the extra burdens of having to create a business and is not in a routine mode with a “nine to five” workday where they can more readily carve out time for volunteering and other charitable work. To create something, and expand it in a meaningful way, will strain resources at every turn. And there is certainly a compelling argument to safeguard those resources and husband them carefully to give the greatest possible chance of success to the enterprise, because otherwise, all the investment may be lost. If the business goes under, then all the training, the experience, the hard-won knowledge, and skills, may be for naught and leave the person feeling like a failure. This should be avoided at all costs, including the need to plow the money back into the business in order to keep going and build up a war chest to weather tough times when there may be an economic slowdown, or a need to prime the pump further with additional marketing, or taking time away to do planning and creating new approaches. You cannot do everything at once and there will be times when sales may suffer, but that is the virtue of what you are planning, to have an Internet-based operation that can do much of the work as an automated process. This can work beautifully for what you are offering, but the pieces need to be in place and fully supported. And we did inspire your channel to point out to you—what you are selling is a gift to your students because of the high caliber of who you are and what you do, and what you will impart to them with your thoroughness and dedication to excellence, and your careful attention to things. In those ways, you are giving from the heart and that is a rare commodity itself. When you convey that in your outreach to your potential clients, you will win them over every time because you will be on their wavelength and will also have Creator’s backing. This is a value-added that cannot be given a price but is truly of great value. What that represents is a win-win, where you are gifting all you encounter who see your value, as well as gaining economically, and ensuring your future security and that of your family. You will have the latter because you are doing the former. That is called contributing to society and there need not be a separation of roles and benefits. The entire universe will be at its best when all are in that same mode, contributing to gain something for themselves. That which they contribute coming from the soul and the expression of its talents and interests may seem self-serving, but it is filling a need in someone else who has a void and that represents a true gift that will allow for their expansion. This has all the criteria meeting the agenda of life itself, the expansion and sharing of soul potential. That is all we ask of anyone and how they do it is truly up to them and need not be judged by another. When all you have to give is money, that is an appropriate act. To share your love in the form of money is divine, but when you have other things of value, giving and sharing those is also divine. They are truly no different. Both are acts of love when done in service to others, even when the self benefits in the exchange. This is no less true of one who volunteers their time or shares money they earn in a contribution to charity. They too will gain good karma, and in that way, it is not a selfless act at all, but one serving their soul and ensuring their good standing from a divine perspective through living on a divine path and benefitting accordingly. We see these two alternatives as being equally divine but representing simply different circumstances of the giver.