Lubavitcher Rebbe: The Ultimate Entrepreneur
Writing for Forbes, successful startup businessman Zalmi Duchman paints a profile of his greatest entrepreneurial inspiration: the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
From Forbes.com by Zalmi Duchman:
In 2012 I was included on the South Florida Business Journals list of 20 under 40. As part of the process I was asked a bunch of questions, one being who my biggest mentor was. My answer was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Schneerson passed away when I was only fourteen, eleven years before I started my business, and he never directly mentored me in business, but his impact on my life has been constant since the day I was born. I’ve tried to apply the lessons I learned by watching him in my day-to-day life and as an entrepreneur.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, also known as the Rebbe, was born in the Ukraine in 1902 and came to America in 1941. In 1951, one year after the passing of his father in law, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson took leadership of the Lubavitch movement, becoming the seventh and final Rebbe. He passed away in 1994, leaving no successor, but his movement did not die. Today you can find thousands of his “Shluchim” (Emissaries) living in all corners of the world, spreading his message and keeping his legacy alive.
This weekend is the 32nd annual convention of Chabad Lubavitch emissaries. The convention is held in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Chabad capital of the world. There, thousands of the Rebbe’s emissaries gather each November to gain inspiration from one another and discuss how they can continue to change the world for the better. It is somewhat like a corporate retreat, where thousands of rabbis leave their families and communities for one weekend each year to flock to Brooklyn, where they attend breakout sessions given by experts in topics like social media, fundraising, leadership skills and more. Like any good corporate get-together, the weekend ends tonight with a grand gala dinner. I have attended this dinner many times over the past ten years, and tonight I will attend as a guest and supporter of Chabad institutions. Each year, I am more impressed and inspired by the way this movement continues to grow without a present day leader.
The Rebbe was not your traditional Rabbi. This short article can never do justice to the Rebbe’s brilliant mind, and to what he meant for the millions of people who came to visit him over his lifetime, but I will try to give my readers a taste of who the Rebbe was to me, and to share some of the leadership skills I learned from him—skills I believe any entrepreneur can benefit from.
Besides being a Rabbi and knowledgeable in all aspects of Judaism and Jewish law, the Rebbe had a brilliant business mind, and he advised thousands of people, Jews and non-Jews alike, in business matters they brought to him. Not only did the Rebbe advise businessmen and women, he advised government and political leaders as well. The Rebbe launched and scaled his own “business” and brand, known as Chabad, a brand that is growing in popularity 21 years after the passing of its leader.
