What is Starting Right Livelihood — and why does it matter more than ever?
Starting Right Livelihood is a business path founded on awareness — where every decision, product, and relationship arises from right understanding and pure intention. More briefly: do not just start a business—start it in a way that does not create more karma for yourself, others, or the world.
Teacher Tạ Minh Tuấn (Saga) — honored in the list Forbes Vietnam 30 Under 30 (2015) and Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (2016), founder of many organizations and businesses—developed the concept of Right Livelihood Entrepreneurship through a journey combining business practice with the path of awareness.
The question guiding that journey: What am I building, and for whom?
That question has no immediate answer. But it opens a journey — and from that journey, the concept Starting a Business with Right Livelihood came into being.
Business is not a battlefield
Most of us are taught that business is competition, capturing market share, and “eat or be eaten.” Business language is full of war imagery: strategy, attack, defeat the competition.
Perhaps you have operated by that logic and paid not in money, but in inner exhaustion no balance sheet can record.
“The marketplace is not a battlefield, but a place filled with love.”
This is not naive philosophy. It is a practical realization: when you do business from fear — fear of losing, fear of loss, fear of not having enough — you create a force that sooner or later pulls back against you. That is the mechanism of karma in its simplest sense: cause and effect.
Starting Right Livelihood does not deny competition. It simply asks: Where are you competing from—fear or value?
The Noble Eightfold Path in business—not as remote as you think
The Noble Eightfold Path in Buddhism is the eightfold way leading out of suffering: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
When we view these eight branches through a business lens, we see they are not abstract at all:
- Right view — Do you really understand your customers' problems, or are you simply selling what you want to sell?
- Right intention — What intention drives your business decisions — service or exploitation?
- Right speech — Is your marketing honest, or does it exaggerate and play on fear?
- Right action — Do the daily actions in your business harm anyone?
- Right livelihood — Is your business model healthy — for you, your team, and society?
- Right effort — Are your efforts directed toward something, or are you running in circles because you are afraid to stop?
- Mindfulness — Are you truly present in those meetings and customer encounters?
- Right concentration — Is your mind steady enough to make clearheaded decisions under pressure?
If an entrepreneur truly sits down and answers these eight questions honestly, they will reveal more than any business plan.
80% vibration—20% action: the forgotten formula
There is a common myth in entrepreneurship: success is a function of action — doing more, faster, harder.
Practical experience supporting many founders points to a much more convincing ratio:
80% of success comes from inner vibration—the state of awareness, intention, and energy you bring to work. Only the remaining 20% is concrete action.
This does not mean you sit in meditation and money flows in by itself. It means that the same action, when taken from awareness, clarity, and pure intention, produces completely different results from when it is taken from panic, haste, or greed.
Have you ever met someone who, the moment they entered the room, made you feel trust—even before hearing them speak? That is not magic. That is vibration. That is something you can cultivate.
The story: From “creating karma” to “initiating right action”
Perhaps you have met — or have been — a founder who built a company from nothing to significant revenue, yet as it grew, increasingly felt they were creating something that did not truly help, merely filling customers' anxieties with products that “sound good.”
And then an awareness arose: “I am not bad. I am just not awake yet.”
That statement is worth staying with for a while. Not bad. Just not yet awake.
Most business chaos comes not from bad people, but from good people operating in ignorance: not clearly seeing their real intentions or the consequences of seemingly harmless decisions.
Starting Right Livelihood begins the moment someone pauses and asks: Why am I building this?
Means ≠ Ends: the most common mistake
Money is a means. The company is a means. The product is a means. Reputation is a means.
When means are mistaken for ends, people begin serving them instead — instead of using money to live better, they sacrifice living to earn more money. Instead of using a company to create value, they sacrifice value to keep the company alive.
Perhaps you once believed that achieving enough external things would naturally bring a feeling of “enough.” Many entrepreneurs learned this lesson the hardest way and discovered that the feeling of enough does not come from outside.
Awakening is not becoming someone else — it is returning to yourself. When entrepreneurs return to themselves, how they do business changes completely.
In the book Starting a Business with Right Livelihood, Teacher Tạ Minh Tuấn (Saga) has written in detail about this journey—not as a perfect manual, but as notes from someone who has traveled it and wants to leave an authentic trace.
Practice now: A 5-minute exercise for aware entrepreneurs
This exercise requires no meditation hall or meditation experience. Just 5 minutes and paper (or phone notes).
Before the workday or an important meeting, write three sentences by hand:
- Question 1 — Intention: “What value do I want to create today, and for whom?”
- Question 2 — State: “What emotion am I bringing into this day — fear, excitement, fatigue, or clarity?”
- Question 3 — Check: “If everyone knew my actual intention today, would I feel comfortable?”
You do not need to answer ‘correctly.’ Just answer honestly. Honesty with yourself is the first step of all right action.
This is one of the foundational practices the entrepreneurial community in the TMT Group ecosystem is applying — not as a ritual, but as a business discipline.
Starting Right Livelihood is not a destination — it is how you travel
Some will ask: “Can doing business so ethically really be competitive?”
The most enduring businesses—the names you truly trust and return to repeatedly—do not last because they are good at manipulation. They last because people sense something real within them.
Authenticity is not a marketing strategy. It is the natural consequence of doing business with pure intentions.
You do not need to be perfect to begin Right Livelihood Entrepreneurship. You only need to start with the right question: Why am I building this — and in what way?
When you are quiet enough, someone within you always knows the answer.
It is not easy. But it is possible.
Tạ Minh Tuấn (Saga)
Frequently asked questions
What is Right-Karma Entrepreneurship?
Starting a Business with Right Livelihood is a business path founded on awareness and pure intention — where every decision arises from right understanding, harming neither yourself, others, nor society. Developed by Teacher Tạ Minh Tuấn (Saga), this concept combines the spirit of the Noble Eightfold Path with modern business practice.
How is the Noble Eightfold Path related to business?
The eight branches of the Noble Eightfold Path—from Right View to Right Concentration—can be applied directly to business as a compass for intentions, marketing language, daily actions, and operating models. This does not turn business into religion; it brings clarity and honesty to every decision.
Can non-Buddhists apply Starting Right Livelihood?
Absolutely. Starting a Business with Right Livelihood does not require following any religion. It is a framework for thinking and practice, suitable for any entrepreneur who wants to build a career from real values rather than fear or manipulation.
Can mindful businesses still compete?
Mindfulness does not mean passivity or avoiding competition. It means competing from real strength—from value, trust, and genuine quality—instead of fear. Businesses that endure often have this foundation.
Where can I explore Starting a Business with Right Livelihood in greater depth?
Teacher Tạ Minh Tuấn (Saga) wrote “Starting a Business with Right Livelihood,” available at books.inti.foundation — sharing the journey and practical principles for entrepreneurs who want to unite the spiritual path and everyday life.